How Long is Too Long?

Miss Ronnie wrote:Dear Santa,

If you can, could it be possible to bring me a Lady Jayde, too.... and a Shannon Fennel (the newer model, if you please) in my stocking...

Still trying to be good,
Miss Ronnie

You want the standard or the automatic?

I had a dad a few years back when i first started painting..he thanked me and said his daughter waited in line over an hour to get her face painted..and it saved him a ton of money that he could of been spending on all the games and other things going on in the park..that really made my day...I have not had to many parents get upset about waiting ,,my husband really seams to have the problem lol..he always tells me..your line is getting longer ..leave out some details....I don't want to leave out the good details, I want people to know what I can do..and most of the festivals i do are ones that I have done the past 4 years..and the kids seam to be waiting for me when I get there...like at the 2 restraunts i do..the kids are always waiting for me...makes me feel good about what I do. I raised my ppf rates last year and made more money and didn't work quite as hard....I did 5.oo 7.oo and 9.oo but I think this year I may just do 5.00 and 10.00 this year...I did 5.00 fast faces at a school carnival thanks to Denise Colds Idea..worked like a charm..and just used a word list...it gave me the freedom to paint the design any way I wanted to..

The appointment times work well, as long as you have a line manager that does exactly what their supposed to. I've had quite a few compliments from parents about the new system . Only worth doing if you have a very large crowd.

I base the number of appointment times on the potential number of faces each painter can accomplish within an hour.

example;
4 min per face=15 faces per hour
15 faces per hr x 4 painters = 60 faces

So 60 appointments given out, per hour.

Clients are given a stamp or armband that is specific to their hour. Say red armband is for 3pm to 4pm only. They show up at 3 and wait no longer than an hr in line.

Oh and the plus to the appointments, you fill your appointment times for the gig right away and you can close your line down, without issue, an hour before your done

Because I normally work with another painter and we use the same table and both right handed, I normally work with my back to the line so it doesnt bother me to much.
At festivals and the like, I charge $6 per face or 2 for $10 (thats my bit for the large families)
I have a display board with 16 designs on it, 75% of which are eye designs or half face designs and just 4 full face designs like tiger, zombie, cat & puppy, very basic, no bling or extras (these become optional if you have the time)
I dont put spiderman, batman or similar on there because people ask for it anyhow and then depending on how busy you are you can alter the design accordingly from a full face to a one eye spidie if you're flat out
I dont know how many designs you have on your board, but i say take the time consuming ones off, if someone asks for it ok do it, but dont have it on display
If your hubby has a problem with how long your line is, I say give him a brush

I am loving the inspiration I am getting from this thread to maximise profit and cut down on some of the work,, bring on summer time,,Thanks JJJJJ, your right! I think I may do a family deal as well.. I do feel for the bigger families.

My lines are always about 10-15 deep at my festivals, but since I'm not ppf, I have a board of 36 designs that I'm very comfortable with. They pick from those and I'm able to get them done in 2 minutes each or less. Keeps my wait down to 10-15 minutes.. even though it's a long line.

If it's ppf, then I would recommend possibly charging more on faces that take longer.. you could have a split cake butterfly cheek art design on your board that only takes 30 seconds to do, but if you're doing a ton of them, then those $3 add up fast! I would rather do a bunch of faces(cheap or not) then 4 $10 faces in an hour.