BALLOON PRICING

After my best customer turned me down because I don't do balloons, I decided to learn how to twist, so far I bought a balloon started kit of Qualatex and I have popped them all and the only thing I can do is a puppy, flowers seem impossible to do, well if I conquer the 10 designs and start offering them how do I charge them?

1. Do you offer face painting and balloons for the same price and time?
2. Are you able to paint 10-15 full faces in an hour and do 15 balloons as well? if you do how much the price will increase?

Thank you for your responses.

If im doing both at a birthday party..i do 1 hour of face painting and 1 hour of balloons...for 10 to 15 kids.. and charge for 2 hours

When I am doing a per object function, I have two simple face painting prices... Cheek art design on hand, $1 cheek art design on face, $2.

And I am usually also doing balloons at these functions as well.

I charge $1 for a plain dog, the ninja sword, hero sword, and the bug antenna hat. Those are quick, simple, one ballooned for the most part. The hat is a two balloon design, but it is great advertisement at a fair if folks see the balloon hats wandering around.


For $2, I do the majority of my animal repertoire with googly eyes added. I use to do any of the balloon animals for 1 dollar, as they were one balloon. I wanted to find a way to make a more interesting product, and more money, so I started adding the google eyes. These take very little time to add, they really enhance the creature, and the cost to include them is very well overshadowed by the extra dollar these animals cost. At the most recent fair, the animals for $2 were really popular, and no one had a problem paying that much. For those who were only allowed 1 dollar, they still could get a balloon, or a hand paint.

Finally, I have a $3 category. This has the 3 balloon jester's hat, the 2 Balloon flower, and the 2 balloon monkey on a tree with google eyes.

I can do the flower... but I hate it. It is hard. I mess up a lot. So I charge more.


Sooo, with exceptions, my model currently is $1 per balloon used, and $1 if i put google eyes, and I set it as all animals (but plain dog) have google eyes. If a kid came to me said, "I really want a giraffe, but I only have 1 dollar" I would make him a giraffe w/o the google eyes per request/discretion.

Now, as for private gigs... I charge $30 an hour. This is for balloons or facepainting or both. But as a new facepainter, I can't do much in 1 hour... so if they want both, I have been suggesting a 2 hour gig. So far no bite. But I charge the same per hour for my services. As i get more private gigs, I may alter this... but I am still pretty new.

Question, you say your loons are all popping... Did you buy them online at a quality store? (temp controlled, kept the latex un stressed)

Are you in a location with prickles? I know grass and concrete pop them bad...

Are you in a warm place? Bad for the latex...

do you have any lotions or products on your skin? again, latex degradation.

And finally, are you over filling the balloon and not leaving any un-inflated tail? When teaching my sis some balloons, she is really bad about not leaving enough tail for twists. I myself, when learning, followed the guide of the instructions (4 in, 1 in, whatever) and then I re-sized them to about how many of my fingers across it is and took note. Now, I know that a bear needs about 5 fingers of uninflated if I want to be able to complete his body and not pop his legs.

during the learning period, it is actually useful to spend some time just fiddling with balloons. Do some inflating and just seeing what one can do. Because, in my experience, twisting becomes a matter of visual cues and tactile cues. I am using my hands to move this object around, I have started to learn that if it feels a certain way, or looks a certain way, what it likely means and can adjust or prepare. I know what my loons feel like usually right before they pop from over-inflate.


Good luck and welcome to the 'Loons world!

Thank you girls, Rayebs, the balloons were ok, I believe the big problem is that I fill them too much, I leave a tail but now I know I have to distribute the air often, so it doesn't feel too tight.

I am happy to know you don't like the flowers, it seems too easy to do on the videos.

Yeah. I had a baby shower gig, and all the little girls wanted the flower... after popping 2 times on the petals, trying to twist them... I dropped the flower option right then and there.

Another trick could be to burp your balloons. When you fill them, before tying, let some air out to soften them a bit. Also, for a lot of designs off hand, having too much tail at the end isn't too bad. Often one can squeeze some air back down and just have a soft puppy!

AND I still have uninflated issues with my bear and specifically poodle. Practice, notes and practice!

if you are wanting the 6 petal flower you have to inflate the balloon to the end and then let the air out till its kinda soft...or you could just do a 4 petal flower its so fast and the kids don't know the difference if you picture only have the 4 petals...if your doing a 5 petal flower..inflate the balloon but leave about 6 inches of tail on the end and do the petals one at a time

here is a video of the 4 petal balloon flower...be sure to burp the balloon befor you tie the end...I hope this helps with a more simple flower...as you get good at this one go to the 5 petal flower then to the 6 petal flower...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vim_H-zkfWA

You could use geo blossoms if you're really not up for twisting flowers.

Check this

http://www.balloonsfast.com/qualatexgeo.html

This site is just to show you what they look like. I've never ordered from this company.

HAPPY TWISTING

you could use the geo blossom if you wanted...there would not be much twisting involved. but they still look cute...the 4 petal flower is really easy to do. I have just started twisting balloons in oct 2012 and find the 6 petal one to be a challenge...but I can do it...you have to practice that one...