Birthday or private party question

i know most charge by the hour for parties but I was curious how you handle it. I did a party this weekend for a close friend and just did it for 1/2 off my regular hourly rate but there ended up being quite a few more people then I was originally told and so it took me 3 1/2 hours. I had told her when she booked me that based on the number of kids it would take me a minimum of 2 hours but could take more. When I left I realized she only paid me for 2 hours (at half price to boot), I did email her and she said she misunderstood and thought that the 2 hours was what I wanted to be paid for. I think I've learned my lesson about working for friends but curious how you decide how long to charge for or do you have them book you for x amount of time and just work in that time frame? Also do you usually get tipped by the host? I have always tipped entertainers when we have hired for parties but she didn't and I started to wonder if most people don't.

I charge by the hour, but I also specify the approximate number of children I can paint in that time.

So

2 hour party, $200, up to 20 children (or 24 or however many you are comfortable doing)

That way if you turn up and they have 35 children, you have an opportunity to say, "Do you want to hire me for the extra time to paint all the children, or do you not mind if not all the children get painted?"
Or if you have a super fast faces board, you could switch to that to get through the numbers, I've done that before too.

We don't tip in NZ, so I can't help you there.

My one birthday party...I was tipped by the host...

I don't give discounts to friends and family. And they don't ask.

I have provided my services as part of my gift to a friend's daughter for her birthday party. She was willing to hire me but I made it part of my gift.

I am earning money to support myself so I do not feel it necessary to provide discounts simply because people may be connected to me in a personal way.

I agree with Shannon. I just had a client who is a family member asking me to customize her banners, create 8 stencil designs and work a 2 hour event at her work. When I told her my price she acted as if it was too much since I'm family. (She's rich BTW, so she can afford my design time, and professional services).

I told her I give 100% of myself in all I do, whether I'm at my salon, doing graphic design or booking events. If she wants 100% of me, she will pay me 100% of my price. If she wants, she can pay someone else their full price to do half as good of a job. I'm sorry but I've dealt with people and their "what's in it for me!" Ways of doing business. I will only offer discounts to those who are loyal and refer business my way. Scratch my back, Ill scratch yours. We are professionals and will be treated as such. Anyone who wants their hair done or want me at their office party doing my personalized glitter tattoos will pay me my asking price. If not, there is plenty of home hair color and DIY glitter tattoo kits that They can do on their own if that's what it takes to know why Its good to have a professional. I can share my friendly fb post calling out those who forget what a professional is. Because unfortunately, it happens with family and friends who have the nerve to assume they deserve our work from us 100%--- only to want to pay us as if we half-a** our work. If you blower your price for them, you lower your image as a professional to them. Stick to your guns and if they don't want to pay you for what you are worth, there are plenty of people who will. Trust me on this. Lowering your prices not only makes your business seem desperate, they will continue to advertise you as that. I would tell them "sorry I only give discounts to those who send me referrals. Would you like to hear about my referral program?"

At the 2 hour point, Id tell the host that id be more than happy to stay to finish "x" people that are still waiting for "x" dollars. By that time they have surely seen the awesome work you do. That puts the ball in their court since they know other people want your service at their party. I'm sorry but if they find the means to feed and provide beverages for 35 people, they know that if 35 people attend, that's possibly 35 people waiting for your service. It was their choice to have a party vs. a simple pizza and snack party. I'm hot on this subject because I just dealt with my aunt asking me to block my Salon books to do her work event on a busy day only to offer t pay me half... weeks after we met for lunch and I told Her my price without her flinching. There's no way she is going to have the banners I made, custom stencils, t-shirts design and 3 hours of my time for only half. I told Her that's not what we discussed and I will have to back out because there's more money to make at my real job. But guess who would look bad if I don't show up at her work event? Her. And she is now going to pay me what she said she would originally. There's no way my own family or friends are going to use me to make THEIR party look good like They spent an arm and a leg when they chose to do so in the first place. Please don't do that to yourselves. Learn from my experiences!

I'm a little peeved with myself because I a friend of mine is hiring me for her nephew's birthday party and I offered to charge for supplies only...

They don't know how many kids will be there, so I haven't given her a quote. Thing is she would always hook me up free stuff from her old job (not that she was allowed ) and I do not feel right charging her $80/hr!

However, I'm carpooling with them and they're letting me bring my baby. Soo... we'll just have to see how it goes I guess...

Good Luck!

Well, I have done 3 parties for friends, mind you not super close friends, but friends all the same....

My experience was not so bad, I offered discounted rate to the first friend, at a play centre, I simply gave her my full rate, and how much I wanted her to pay it was discounted to simply pay for my supplies, - via email (we work together in our other job), and on the day she paid me my full price. It wasn't until I left I knew how much she paid me, and when I said wow thankyou she was super supportive and happy to have paid full price.

The second I charged full price for as it was a friend of a friend who was also at the party. I simply offered to be more flexible, instead of asking for 2 hours I offered them one (they took 2 anyway) and they accepted that and no discount was even offered in this one.

The most recent was my 'best friend' from high school, it was absolutley awkward because my daughter and I were INVITED to the party, as well as painted, so price was negotiated, she was actually amazing and wanted to pay me full price regardless so I told her no, I went from my lowest and we worked out a middle fee. BUT IT WAS SIMPLY AWKWARD! I don't know if any of you guys have had the experience, but I felt very out of place, being a guest AND the face painter, I was offered food, and we brought a present to be unwrapped, of course...

The birthday girl and her brother ended up too scared to be painted so I essentially only painted a couple guests, did a couple glitter tattoos, and then I felt guilty for charging...

I have a "friends and family" rate, $15-$20 less per hour than usual. If it's just an acquaintance and not someone I'd consider a friend, I would probably charge more than the friends and family rate. But since they're my friend I also expect food! Haha.

For parties I book per hour, I am a fast painter and I don't do many full faces so I can paint about 17 kids an hour usually. I tell the hosts this, and we decide how long they can book based on the estimate. If I don't have to leave for another party afterward and all the kids didn't get painted, I tell them their booked time is up and ask if they would like to book more time. Communication is pretty key because if you don't say, "Would you like to book another __ minutes for __ dollars?" and they end up paying you the wrong amount, no one is happy!

My husband and I decided to charge differently for birthday parties vs. other events. We don't charge per hour. Instead, we charge based on how many children are expected at the party, and if more children show up, the price increases a certain amount per child. We now don't feel rushed to get in and get out by a certain time. It is more about the kids. We try to make sure each child gets painted and/or a balloon sculpture before we leave. We changed our method of charging for birthday parties because we had too many people severely underestimate how many kids were expected but still expect us to serve each child in attendance in the originally agreed-upon time frame. We didn't like dealing with it, so this method works better for us. One party I recently did ws really organized with it. I had made it clear that I was painting up to 20 children, and the hostess put an "x" on each child's hand with a sharpie marker, so we could easily keep track of how many children were getting painted.

I have a flat rate for birthday parties and/or groups of up to 15. It is an additional $10 per person over the total of 15.

Otherwise I charge my hourly rate.

Bump out of curiosity... I just did a birthday party ( some may have seen this on a FB group) I bid the gig lower than the going rate because I need to build up my speed. The going rate from what I was told in Las Vegas is about 100-`125. per hour, some do glitter tattoos, some just paint. These are the ones charging th "big bucks" but they can do 15-20 faces an hour. I never did ask what kind. 1/2 full etc. Heres my question?? From the time the child sits in the chair, how long should it take you to do 3/4 face spiderman, tiger, skulls w/ red and scars, Butterflies with teardrops and " a little bit extra". And what the definition of mask, 1/2 face, 3/4 face ? Just curious. PS I felt so unorganized with all my paints. Can you have too many out?

I have two speeds for jobs. I offer regular designs that can take up to 7 minutes, or Fast Faces which are all under 4 minutes (most are 2 or less).

I can do a butterfly in 90 seconds... nice, pretty, but not necessarily a "wow". I can do a Wow in 3 minutes.

Skulls I can do in 2 to 2.5 minutes.. again, nice, effective but not really a "wow" In five minutes it is a Wow.

Regular speed is 12-15 faces; Fast Faces is 15-20.

I ditto Lori but I'm using paper bracelets to define the guests that will be painted and then charge $5.00 for each over. It's been hit and miss but mostly because of my lack of enforcement because of price shopping in my area so I've agreed to use quick designs to try and fit 15 kids into a 10 kid party package, etc.

Vegas Mom...I've stopped taking my detailed photo full faces because of the whole 10 kids turn into 15 thing...I've taken my "quick" boards to the last 5 events and I'll adjust up for smaller birthday parties and use then as-is for larger parties or corporate events. So that is my suggestion. Do a board with designs that you KNOW you can execute in 3 minutes (painting time) and then you can use them in quick design situations or upgrade when you get better at them or have the actual number of kids expected (what a concept!)

I think it's much better to under-promise and over deliver than to tell someone I can do 20 kids in an hour and two hours later, after fighting the cake and games, finally get them done and I'm only getting paid for an hour because that's what I promised. At a birthday party I can do 20 kids in about 2 hours. That's a reasonable 6 minutes each and I don't freak when they pull out the pinata.

I got an inquiry for a 3 hour booking with 50 kids. I can do it, but I'd rather they added an extra half hour just in case. My party faces include glitter, glitter gel, and jewel accents, so doing that to 17 kids an hour may be very, very tight. Especially if the kids are ruthless.

I do tell people that I can only do 6-8 kids in an hour. They always say oh Im sure some wont want to be painted..( I am learning this is a standard comment by most now). Another big problem I have coming up is I have another party on Sunday the 14th. My event planner knows that I can only do so many faces, so when I asked her about the amount of children she says 30. ( then the oh Im sure some wont want to be painted comment comes out) It took my just under 3 hours to do 20 kids and 3 glitter tattoos. 5 zombies, 3 tigers, 2 spidermen, 3 butterflies, etc. I know my limitations and am very up front and honest with the potential customer. I guess I will be making a new board with an attempt at these quick faces.

Hey Denise wanna come to Vegas and give me some lessons in one stroke?

Jessica, I'm impressed. I can only do quick designs with that many kids. I wouldn't even attempt anything glitter except maybe the usual poof type and maybe a unicorn horn. I could do a jewel if it was a one-stroke princess crown but then EVERYONE will want a jewel. That's why I'm moving away from actual jewels....don't like them.

Vegas mom, I'm actually coming to Vegas in December but it's our anniversary so I probably won't be doing anything else. I would like to watch you so I can see what's taking your time up....and you have Starblends correct? They have helped me a lot with the full faces. Have you actually timed the actual painting time for those designs like I did? Get out some waxed paper and a timer and go through the faces and see how long they actually take you. Maybe we could Skype or something.....hmmm.

Denise that is soo sweet to offer. With the one stroke its how I am holding my brush and sometimes wondering how come the designs look so big. Ie the roses.. with the delays on painting, well I havent seen any pics from the bday party.. but I know I need more practice on real faces to get the speed up.. I glittered, I outlined, I detailed, I concentrated on symmetry. I felt I did a good job and the faces looked good to me.. and the kids. I am a bit upset that she did actually say that I paint really slow... I have made a new board for my next party knowing there will be even more kids.. ugh..