Soccer League Opening Day

Ok, dilemma... I have a soccer coach who wants me to paint for their opening day in 2 weeks. There will be thousands of people there and he wants me to do PPF for $5 per face and donate $1 per face to the organization.

Here's the funny part. He wants volunteers to help me with their own supplies. He wants me to train them ahead of time, and he wants them to only charge $2 because "they aren't as good.". I explained that although my work may be better, many parents will hand their kid a toonie and send them to the volunteer line without a thought.

He wants to offer a free bag of popcorn to those who purchase a $5 face, but I'm just so skeptical. At first we were going to have the volunteers charge the same amount and I was fine with that because then most people would want to come to me, but then he decided he wants to offer a deal for volunteer faces.

Thoughts?

Five bucks period. One line. $5 for face painting is a fair deal.

His reasoning is that the volunteers should charge less because their designs won't be as good.

I'm telling him the same thing you are and I might end up walking away.

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I just did Soccer Day last weekend. They wanted me to do $5/PPF and to donate $1.
I offered to donate 20% of my net profits for them, NOT 20% of my gross profits.
I worked with another face painter. If we had had a volunteer, it would have cost them money in supplies, and it would have cost them to train them. (I would charge to train other face painters for their organization.)
Why do they need to give away popcorn to apologize for having to pay for an amazing, professional face painter? They should give the popcorn to the parents who are paying the lesser amount, as an incentive to get face painted!!!!
I would NOT work with volunteers. The organization would make LESS money with volunteers and popcorn, than if they had you doing PPF and donating a portion of your profits to their organization. Those volunteers would NOT be covered under my insurance unless they pay the apprentice fee, which would cost more money for the soccer group.

When my oldest daughter was 3 years old.... face painting cost $5.
My oldest daughter is 20 years old.... and face painting still costs $5.
The world has changed in 17 years.
Face paint is high quality, and costs a heck of a lot more.

They should let the professionals earn some money for them, and take the care and worries surrounding face painting. I would offer two levels... $5 & $10. Put out a tip jar. That will raise your gross profit level, and, also raise the net profit level.

I would work as a team with some one who is as good as you are. Our line ups were 15-20 minutes long all day. We started at 8am, and went non-stop until 5:30pm. (The event closed at 4pm, we were being paid per face, so we kept painting, as we were getting our full rate.)

xoxo

Would you like to do this event with me on May 25, Lisa lol????

I am available
and I would be absolutely thrilled to be painting with you, Face Painting by Jessica!!!!!
I will PM you.

xoxo
P.S. I was not just fishing for a job, although I am so happy you asked.

I just called the coach and he appeared hesitant for some reason????? I guess he just forwarded all of our emails to the volunteer mothers involved so he wants to hear what they have to say.

If I cannot work with Lisa and i have to watch all the kids get $2 crap... Not happening. We will jam instead lol

Did you give him her website? Maybe he needs to see to believe.

OMG!!!

You would not believe what has happened here..

I told the organization that Lisa and I could paint $5/$10 faces and donate 20%. Well, once he started going over the numbers that we could do, I guess he got dollar signs in his eyes and questioned how it was fair for us to walk away with potentially over $800 and they would only get around $200.

He then said he was going to ask for 50% but would settle for 35%.

Just wait until you see what else he said:


Hi Jessica

I have been thinking of the figures that you are offering and the figures that I am thinking.
If we were to do it on our own popcorn and face paint, we would be looking to make about $300-$500 profit and some team bonding at the same time.

20% would be fair if you did all this on your own, advertise, find a location, set everything up etc.
Remember this is an idea brought to you and handed to you and offered to you. It's like found money.

Not only is there extra business for you it is also a great opportunity to have your card available to get more business which will be 100% yours. I have dibs on the face painting opening soccer day. And can be a gig for you for years to come.

I was thinking of a 50/50 split at first.
I will settle with 35%us 65%you
let me know

Great face painting is part of the entertainment to an event.

If I understand the issues at hand, there are two ways to go:
Five Volunteers charging $2 each:
Each volunteer needs, at the very least:
$85-$100 (5 x $15-$20 each) Snazzaroo starter face painting kit
$35 (5 x $7 each) cosmetic glitter, never use craft glitter, metal pieces can scratch corneas, and negate all event insurance if used.
$20-$40 in brushes
$40 Face Painting Sponges (we use one on each child, and it is not reused until it is sanitized. Snazzaroo Sponges are about $1 each, and they can be cut in half).
$3 Isopropyl Alcohol for sanitizing brushes in between each child.
$15 Baby Wipes for sensitive skin
$8 Hand Sanitizers for each volunteer for the whole day
This is an investment of over $200 for this event.
If a new face painter is charging $2/face, it can take 5-10 minutes, or more, per face when first beginning to face paint, which means a new face painter can bring in about $12-$24 gross profit for your event each per hour. Most new face painters cannot paint that fast.

Ahem, logo work.
This gentleman wants logo work.
Logos are the domain of trained artists.
They can be done by inexperienced artists.
They take a long time, and there is no guarantee that they will be done well by inexperienced artists.

We we approached by this gentleman to work for him. We would normally be already booked at this time, and we are both rearranging our schedules and giving away bookings to accommodate this event.

We bring great artistry to this event. This is OUR business, and we are willing to bring it to him, should he decide he would like:
Professional art work
Ability to to logo work
Proper hygiene and sanitizing of brushes
Our own tent, tables and chairs
An amazing ability to work with the public

I already donate my time and supplies to SickKids Hospital. That is the charity of my choice. Other charities are offered the 20% of my net profit at their event. I quote their Registered Charity number when doing my taxes. This is NOT a charity. We are part of the entertainment. We are professionals who take all the detail work out of hiring us.

If he would like, I offer a rate of $75/hour for each painter for over four hours, and they can sell tickets to recoup some of their expenses. If it is less than four hours, $150 for the first hour, and $80/hour for each subsequent hour. There will be an extra $45 for the tent surcharge.

I do not want to work this person. I would work with you in a heartbeat, Jessica!
xoxo

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"It's like found money."

Is he freakin' kidding?!

.

Well I sent him this in response:

I am sorry but that is not feasible.. We need to compensate for our time, our supplies, our insurance, and our art, and we will not compromise on the 20%. Fundraisers approach us almost daily and we offer the same compensation packages as I have offered to you. Often they ask for a vendor fee, then tell me I can walk away with my entire earnings. I then offer to raise money for them in exchange for a waived vendor fee, give them the numbers, and they accept the proposition.

Lisa and I can paint 30 faces per hour at $5 or $10, bringing in $300-$600 in an hour between the 2 of us ($60-$120 for you). When I first started face painting 3 years ago, it took me at least 10 minutes to paint a $5 face, if not more. This means I could only accommodate 6 faces in an hour, which is what I anticipate for the volunteers. This brings your volunteers in at $30-$60 per hour each, the same as if we were to paint, less supplies purchased for each painter. Each painter will need a Snazaroo kit ($16-$20), sponges, brushes, glitter... They are not insured should anything go wrong such as an injury or reaction, they will be put under great stress (a never-ending line can cause even the most experienced painters to break down) and the designs will more than likely be sub-par...

If Lisa and I were to paint for 5.5 hours (Lisa can stay the whole time), we can bring in $330-$660 for your organization, you would not have to put in any money, the designs will be top quality, and should anything go wrong, we are both fully insured with $2,000,000 liability.

I completely understand that it is the organization's job to raise as much money as they can, and if you truly believe that it is beneficial for the volunteers to paint, then I absolutely respect that.

To be fair, I would like to say that I have built my business from the ground up. I have advertised, trained, practiced, and put a lot of money and hard work into my career. I have built a strong client base and am now known as Georgetown's Finest Face and Body Artist.. I receive referrals time and time again, and whether the client has found me themselves or through a personal contact, I never consider a job found money. I once had to go looking for bookings, and now that they come to me, I know my hard work has paid off.

Please let me know

Extremely well written. If he can't understand the value of what you're offering after that he never will. Some people can't see the difference between a Monet and a finger painting.

Well done.

He has accepted my offer of 20%. I would have walked away in a heartbeat and he knows it.

He'd have been an idiot not to accept. And to be fair I think outsiders just don't understand the expenses face painters incur. You laid it out in very simple, easy to understand terms.

He comes from a background in stocks so negotiating is what he thrives on I suppose.

Probably a silly question, but how do you work out net profits for a job?
And yay you two working together, have you done it before?

To work out net profits:
I estimate how much it costs per hour to paint:
Between paint, glitter, insurance, brushes, travel, classes, furniture (chairs, tent, camp kitchen, signage) I have come up with my own estimate of $25/hour to paint. If I add on minimum wage of $10, I come up with an estimate of $35/hour are my costs.
For a five hour job, my costs are $175.
If I bring in $500 gross profit for those five hours, my net profit would be $325.
If I donate 20% of my net profit for this imaginary job, I would donate $65.

On the above job, we are doing logos for $5, which will bring down our profit as they eat up our billable time.

I have only jammed with Jessica. We have never worked together.
I have worked with other teams before.
We are working as a team, and I feel we are equals in speed and quality.
We are pooling all our income, because if one or the other gets stuck creating a bunch of logos, the other will be able to pick up the speed.

If I am working with an unequal team, for example....
The Line Manager sells tickets:
$5= one red ticket
$8= one blue ticket
$10=two red tickets
At the end of the event, we add up the amount of money brought in by each painter. I pay the Line Manger, and pay for the event vendor fees. The dollar amount is translated into a percentage amount. For example, If painter A brings in 50% of the sales; painter B brings in 30% of the sales, and painter C brings in 20% of the sales, then each painter gets their own percentage of the profits from the job.
I have worked with a large team before, and there were two out of eight painters who could only paint 4-6 children per hour. I was painting almost 20 per hour. Our profits were split evenly, INCLUDING OUR TIPS, of which the new painters brought in NONE. I did not like that.

It is important to work with painters who are peers, with similar speed and quality, to avoid doing all that math at the end.

Jessica has to leave early at the above job.
At that point, she has to count all of the money taken in to the point before she leaves. I stay and paint.
At the end of the day:
I count the money into two groups:
W/Jessica =$A
W/O Jessica = $B

$A is divided by the amount of hours we both worked 5.5 hours
minus hard cost reserved for us of $70/hour x 5.5 = $385
(to be divided between the two of us.)
20% of what is left over is donated to the event
and the 80% is split evenly between us.
(I will drop off the money on my way home, Jessica)

$B is divided by the amount of hours I work on my own (estimating 3 hours)
minus hard cost of $35/hour x 3 = $105
20% of what is over and above the $105 is donated to the event.

I write out all these formulas before an event, so I do not have to think about math, I just fill in the blanks and use a calculator.

Does this help?

Excellent math work-up. I may actually use this sometime.

You guys handled this brilliantly, and your self-respect remains intact. It really is the only way to go about this. Professionals behave professionally, which includes treating themselves professionally and respectfully. BRAVO.

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