OMG! Aggravated! Please tell me if I'm wrong or the client's wrong

Thank you to all of you for your postings. I have only done Glitter Tattoo gigs, and I'm trying to get Face painting gigs now too. All your venting of your grief has only given me strength! At a Church event I did, I charged $95 because there were 3 of us (+ my husband as line manager) I think I'm really cheap. She said "oh, I'm only budgeted $80 an hour". (inside my head I was thinking don't do it, don't do it..) She said she'd call me back. Right away she called and said okay. I need to charge more still, but I feel like when we start getting a lot of gigs, I will. Now I'm trying to get our name out there, not many calls coming in

$95 total for 4 people or $95/hr?! Either is way to cheap & you're putting yourself in the hole. There's no way to make $ at those rates. Under pricing yourself kills the industry as people will always expect that. Under pricing also will put you out of business before you can even get started.

I agree with Linda. While, nobody can tell anyone what to charge, but we here at Face Paint Forum do like to educate about very real consequences of different pricing strategies. The big picture isn't often easily seen and the insight from eyes that have been there done that can be valuable.

It depends what the market will bare in your area. We're lucky to get $50 a hour per painter here and many events spend all their money on a bouncy house or hayride or whatever is the big draw for that holiday. A lot of those it's either ppf or tips. For Halloween our tip jar is made out like a skeleton coming out of his grave with money in his hand and the sign say It's never too late for tipping. I have a button that says Tipping not just for cow!

In my few months that I have being painted, I already got quite a bit crazy people with so many request for 1 or 2 hrs party. The last one that I got I decide that even if I am just starting and building my reputation I won't allow people spend hours of my time (that they don't pay me) to get a discounted price with a full service including teaching them how to e-transfer or fill forms or event some one even ask me to go their place to pick up the deposit (just nuts!).
After all you can not make everybody happy and I am sure we all have good testimonies that can make us and make our customers happy to hire us.
What I do now, I try to be as nice and polite as I can and I say I am already book.
Good luck with those kind of customers and just believe in you!

I had a small haggle going on the other day. She is an admin of a really popular local page so i wanted it to go well.

I quoted $75 / h 2 hour min
She asked if there was any wiggle room b/c she was offered it for $5 per face.

My end quote was still $75 / hour , kids are restricted to eye designs and if it went a little bit over the hour, i would finish the kids without any overtime charges (mostly b/c i am hella slow and i need the practice )

Thanks for everyone's advice! Another update....after doing the festival, at least I got a birthday party this week -same affluent area, but this time, at FULL price, of course, WITH all the travel charges, plus I talked her into $1. extra per face for added bling, so at least I got something out of it, lol

This was a great thread to read. I hope everyone learns something - I know I did.
I am know in my boutique to give discounts for repeat customers. I have yet to do a face gig - being new and so confused about pricing.
Tina, Congrats on the new customer - I'm glad the crazy lady came to her senses and layed off trying to get all the "extras" out of you.