When to consider bringing in an assistant

At what point would you consider bringing another painter to work a festival?
I don't do many anymore due to some health issues, but I have one coming up that I did last year.
The attendance last year was around 3000, and while I was busy in spurts, I had a few moments where it was slow and I could relax. Especially in the morning.
This year, they have doubled the number of vendors and are expecting double the attendance.

I was considering bringing in another painter to help. If I do, I wasn't sure if it would be wise to have them do glitter tattoos only, or have them paint from my board and do tats as well.
Also not sure if I would want them representing my company, or have them free to represent themselves. The booth and all advertising for the event is in my company name.

Any input you can give would be great. Normally I would have my son helping, but he recently joined the Army and left home. I don't quite feel my daughter can handle glitter tattoos for this kind of crowd (she is 13).

My daughter was 13 when she began soon glitter tattoos and she is better at it than me. Don't sell her short.

Plus, she will likely work for less than an assistant. ;-)

It's not that she can't do them, but rather she gets overwhelmed and anxious around crowds.
When she gets anxious she gets snappy, and I don't think that presents a good face for the business. I should have elaborated, sorry.

She does fine for birthday parties though.

I just faced this same dilemma myself. My husband works every other saturday, my daughter now works every saturday, and I have two weekends a month I am not available. So, I asked around and found out the mother of one of my daughter's oldest friends was interested in learning. for the first several events, she did glitter tattoos and also watched me paint when she wasn't busy (also took up money) and she kept what she made from the glitter tattoos. after several events and much practice, she went to birthday parties with me and painted faces for a percentage of my fee. now, she is able to go to birthday parties and festivals I can't attend. I apply for the festivals in my name (and her name added as well) and she keeps what she makes. I have no problem with that. My business info is what is seen and my telephone number is on the fliers. when we do festivals together, we split the vendor fee, and we each keep what we earn. so far, she has been happy with it.

In this situation, festival coming up in a few weeks, would it be uncool to ask a fellow face painter to paint under my company name?

I had to do something similar a few years back, but it wasn't a festival it was an event I was hired to be at and I contracted another painter who had her own established business. We worked under my name, I paid her a full rate.

With a festival, I guess I am concerned that you never know how much you will make. There are so many variables.

Liz, I agree. you never know what you'll make at a festival. What ever my assistant makes, she keeps. She pays me half of the vendor fee, or a portion depending on the amount, out of what she makes that day. I don't pay her anything above that. She's not taking clients away from me. They are in one line and we take the next person in line. if it ever gets slow, I appreciate it and take a much needed break. when a parent calls to book a party, I usually ask if they want me, her, or both of us to paint at the party or event.

Liz
I think if you bring in another painter, you definitely should have them under your company name. This is your festival, AND your vendor fee. I think there's a related discussion under a thread about using an agent.

I do one festival a year that I pay to be at. I have a dear friend that i share it with. We do it under my company name , split the vendor fee, but she keeps whatever she earns. It works well for us, and we have so much fun at this particular event!

I hire additional painters myself. As I don't do PPF I quote a rate for the additional painters which is a lot less than my hourly rate as they are usually NOT professionals themselves. So it is all under my name, my info, etc.

If I were going to hire a professional to work with me I would quote enough to pay them their full rate - as long as I know 1) that I am hiring a pro in advance and 2) I know their rate!

Thanks everyone.

You are right Shannon, if it were a hired event I get them their full rate, but they have to carry their own insurance and be professional.

It's just difficult to foresee how a PPF event could turn out.
I need to make a decision fairly quickly, the festival is a month out.

Would you work off of one board? That is how I have done in the past, but I recently read a post somewhere of two painters sharing a booth, but each having their own board of designs. I am thinking that could get confusing.

Dear Caswell Designs:
Last week, we had four painters working off the same board. We each had our own style, and we were at the same level of expertise. We all painted on little ovals of Fun Foam and met to choose the simplest versions of each design. We velcroed them to a FoamCore board that I put grommets in to hang the sign. Our beautiful sign was destroyed by people taking the heads off the board, pulling the jewels off and then smearing the paint with their hands.

Now, where did I put my Taser?

xoxo

People truly suck sometimes. Would be nice to be able to tazer the naughty ones, wouldn't it? Sorry you had that experience.

Other than that, I like the idea of meeting to decide the working board.

The Fun Foam is so easy to paint on. We used all the colors to paint on... Yellow, Orange, Red, Purple, Blue, Green, White, Brown, so we were inclusive of all races that are green or blue.

This was inspired by Face Painting by Jessica's display board.

xoxox
Happy Tazering!

Zaaaaapppppp....dont taze me bro.

I work with another face paitner at festivals, and we usually use my biz name because I am local, and she is from the boonies, so it is great for her to come to my neck of the woods as there is little business where she is. We split the booth rent, we each keep what we make. Sometimes my company does the tats, sometimes hers, it depends on which of our kids is open to working. Both our husbands bounce and line manage. We do a few festivals down her direction, and there we work under her business name. When I have overflow on parties, I book her. It works well for us. Between the two of us, there are two painters, 5 glitter tattoo artists, 4 airbrush artists, 3 henna artists, 2 balloon twisters, and a couple of princesses...so we are able to cover all kinds of gigs with multiple artists. It is a blessing to be able to network like this. Tomorrow, I have parties and a grand opening, but she took one party where she is taking her balloon artist my princess and her princess.

When we work together, we share boards. We started each with our own, but we painted off one anothers boards if that is what the next person in line wanted. Now, we have adapted it so that there are the standards that we know are big sellers from both our boards, and we are adding some new stuff to make it more fun. We will probably just work of the same board this year.

We really just treat each other like we would want to be treated. She likes that she gets gigs here in my neck of the woods, and I am glad to have the help, so it is fine that she is promoting my business here. I do the same for her up in her neck of the woods. We find that just asking the other person what they want is the best path.

I hope you find as good a painty friend as I have. A true joy to have. I would not hessitate to look for that, not for a second. I am sure that other people have not has as rosey a story as I have, but it is worth looking for, for sure.