how do you price birthday parties?

Do you price them by the hour have a minimum hourly rate or do you price them per face? ie if the mom says she expects 8 kids to show and only 5 show then you only charge her for 5? or do you still charge her for 8? But then if 10 kids come you charge her for 10?
I have a mom that is dickering with me.

Flat hourly rate...

From what I've read and understand, it seems yes - flat hourly rate. (Your fee/time will be based on attendance and how much time it will take you to paint that amount of children or your minimum 1 hour fee.)
I think if more children show up beyond what you've agreed to then you can negotiate more per face or per half hour increment.
That way, you can say 'the contract states I would be here to paint x amount of time, which includes x amount of children, for x fee. My time is up. Since x number of extra children showed up, you are welcome to hire me for an additional x amount of money, which will include those children above and beyond the original contract'.

When I started, I did it per face, because I was slow. Now, per hour.

Per hour. I REFUSE to do it per face. I'm a fairly fast painter. I state in my contract that I can do between 10-15 designs per hour and that the number varies depending on the design (complexity, full/half/cheek, more or less detailed).

Last November I had a memorable party where there were only 8 kids in the end. They were all under 3, and only 4 of them were willing to get even tiny designs. I had been contracted for two hours. When I reminded the mom that my contract said per hour, she encouraged all of the parents that didn't want to be painted to get in line. Had it been per face, the mom would have handed me a twenty and tried to say 'bye-bye now'.

And I've had the flip side. At my last party, the mom told me 20 kids in 2 hours. Great! Deposit is on time, everything is great, arrive at the party, start painting..and an hour and a half in - only 10 kids were there. They were having a blast- painted in multiple places, some of the adults had arm designs when in the last half hour, 6 kids showed up. Had I left 'early' after painting the 10 kids one time, I might have missed out!

I have a birthday party rate which covers UP TO 15 faces. Set rate no matter how few, but it is limited to a maximum of 2 hours if the kids are slow to participate, etc.

If they are expecting more than 15 then it goes to full hourly rate.

If I am booked for two-hours which is my minimum I will stay unless they tell me to leave - but they still pay.

Okay, so I need to pull up my big girl panties and tell the mom my minimum and that's it.

(Talking myself into it here.)

I have no problem telling off providers at work it's just I actually like to fp to that's harder to do. And these days I really hate my dayjob.

I price parties with rates for 1-12 kids or 13-20 kids and I'll usually give a little bit of leeway if they booked it for 12 and 13 show up or something, but the difference in pricing accounts for the extra time needed. It's not really per face, but it makes it easier for parents to understand the pricing than trying to figure out how many hours they need to book or trying to get me to do something "smaller" or "faster." If they are expecting more than 20 kids, then I can't do my regular party packages and we need to work out hourly rates for face painting and/or balloons and possible stage shows/playtime as well at my full rates.

My latest is: small party: $75 for up to 10 kids (add travel if it's too far); $125.00 for up to 20 kids and after that its a large party and $200 for 3 hours (no promised amount of designs...just quick painting for 3 hours.) I'm going to have to add a $5.00 per bracelet if you go over because I've already had a couple of parties that under-booked. So hubby insists that I now bring paper bracelets and if they need more, have them buy more. That way they have a built in excuse when extras show up...or they pay me.

I figure it's like the plumber. I have to get paid a minimum to just show up...and don't forget to get a deposit or I shall whip you with my hair tinsel.

D.

How do you collect the deposit? Perhaps it sounds like a silly question Denise but how do you collect deposit. Newbie speaking =-)

Paypal!

We all wanna grow up to be you Denise!
This mom dickered around with me and decided my meager fee was too much so poopy on her. GAW!

PAYD credit card reader on my iphone

I've decided I don't need people like that. I had three people in a row price shopping and didn't call back. It does get discouraging but like we've talked about, those price shoppers make the worst clients. If you charge hourly they are there tapping at their watches, if you do pay-per-child they'd probably say your painting wasn't good or big enough...or someone washed theirs off. If you charge by the party they think it's too much and call the $25 an hour painter who takes 3 hours to paint everyone...with craft paint. You don't want her.

D.

exactly! Hubs and I had a disagreement about it because he think I do and I sooo don't. Yes I hate my day job...so hate my day job, but not enough to deal with people like that. I don't want to hate this job.

Sorry to hear that angela...you will get the next one...keep pushing along, you seam to have a great start...

yeah those kind of parents I don't want to deal with either...

I require deposits by cheque to be mailed to me more than a week prior. If less than a week they need to get cash to me. Haven't had any issues with this. People have dropped off cash at my dayjob or my house.

My mailing address is on my contract so having them come to my house to drop it off isn't worrying me.

I collect a 30% deposit via paypal, and I will never work for less than an hour. it isn't worth my time to pack up all my stuff.; blah blah. Up to 12 kids.. you are paying for an hour.

I also charge based on how many kids - up to 10 is 75$ and it goes up accordingly...I haven't asked for deposits yet and havent had cancellations to date so , if it starts to happen, I will consider the deposit option too.

Don't forget when giving your price, you are also spending time to prep and travel to the party. Here lately I have been saying as much to clients. "My fee includes travel, set up and clean up."
Hourly rate, and if only five kids show up I will paint them to their hearts content!

I charge by hour too, you may never know for sure how many kids will attend at the party, and sometimes I have 2 in one day, so I won't have time to arrange a new fee with mum if some more kids or parents ( always I have 2 or 4) want to be painted, so I do it by hour, and a $40 dollar deposit fee, if supposed to be 10 kids and only shows 5 then I can paint the parents too, but anyway they pay my complete hour as the contract said.

Yes iPhone how did it not occur to me that such a method existed! Thanks Perry next thing on the list is an iPhone because being a mother of a 3 yr old I only carry a flip phone. :-)

I do by the hour, 2 hour minimum. My rates are plainly laid out on my website , so most people know before they call. If they want more faces painted they can add another painter for 50, if available. I take 20% deposit upon booking with signed contract. Either check or PayPal (need to get a square). Fully refundable if cancelled two weeks prior, I may be changing that too, not sure yet. You have to accept that while our rates may be a lot of money for even us, there is a ton of people who aren't going to bat a lash at the price. Don't get me wrong, I equally appreciate the customers who do budget, I just find that what is a lot to me, is nothing to someone else.

Bumping up a thread. Let's say you don't paint very fast. I am charging 50. Per hr. I'm thinking 6-8 kids at the most in that time frame. I'm thinking if I agree to max 8 kids in an hour and I don't finish I would stay to finish, but if it's more than 8 the price would in to an extra 1/2 hr price or 1 hr depending on the amt of extra kids. What about if kids show up late? Thanks.. I hope this makes sense.

I had a lot of angst about charging hourly and I'm getting better about knowing my limits and how long things take me but I have having serious ulcer time when I was charging hourly.

Now, when I say "my rates start at $75 for a small party of up to 10 children" it feels d*mn good. It weeds out the cheap parents who are used to price shopping because it sounds too expensive (even though it really isn't) and for other people its nice because it's spelled right out. I don't have to distinguish between quick designs or full faces or how many I can do in an hour...it's 10 kids.

I will confess that there have been times where I'm having way too much fun and not making my hourly rate. I'll be at a $75 party for two hours but the relief I feel at being able to complete designs or let the kid do the pinata or fix everyone's lips...It's really nice. I just got my second corporate job from the party where I did animal faces on all the girls. It helps me make a big impression and mom doesn't have to clock watch.

Another change I've made to my previous post is I was getting a lot of corporate 2 hour requests so I do have an hourly rate for that and large parties now. So, I still have a 3 hour quote of $200 for quick design line movers but I have a $70 per hour if you just want two hours...quick designs. I'm basically taking $10 off for booking that third hour. (On a side note, I ended up staying another 2.5 hours at a gig and told the accounting department I would just charge the $60 per hour...she said I could charge my regular hourly rate. Can I just tell you how nice that was? Of course she was out of California. )

So basically, regular birthday parties where it's laid back and full faces I promise UP TO a certain number of kids and have bracelets. Corporate and large parties pay more but I'm using my superior abilities , endurance and more paint so they get charged a little more and I work on a time basis.

D.