First birthday party, need advice

Hello folks,

Maybe, maybe I will be doing my first birthday party soon.
It will be a small group of about 6 - 8 kids.

I have never done that before, and being paid for it as well.

But....

I am not so sure what to charge. Do I charge per child or per hour?

I promised the client to sending her an email with an offer/estimate.
What exactly should I put in it?

Any advice would be helpfull.

There seems to be a lot of different ways to charge. I started off with a flat rate and then charged per face, so far it has worked, but I think I am going to change it soon.

$50 for a birthday party with up to 10 guests, $5 per additional guest.

If I have to travel far I add money accordingly.

Hope that helps you, congrats on the gig!! :Dand good luck!

Danny

It depends on your market. In my market the active painters are all trying to stay at least $75 per hour for hourly because we share jobs that need multiple painters. For parties we're all a little different.

I have a base price (deposit) of $25.00 and then charge $5.00 per child but my minimum is $75.00 for up to 10 children. I like doing it this way because I like to have the opportunity to do full designs at birthdays and found that I was frustrated by mom's that were trying to squeeze an extra 5 or so kids in (that I didn't get paid for) and then when I had fun and did really nice faces I would feel badly if I went overtime. This way we both know, up front, how much it is going to be and I can let the kids choose what they want. It's usually a bargain for them time wise because I end up going 50% over time (in other words, 10 kids with interruptions and lots of full faces might take me 1.5 hours)

This was just my way of coping and trying not to get frustrated by clock watching or clients fibbing about the head count.

My deposit is 40. For birthday party, I like to buy fresh sponges.

In the richy rich part of the state, the parents are on my kit like a hawk. Even though I know everything is sanitized, they are paying top dollar-the least I can do is get them a new sponge.

When they nickel and dime me about my rate, that is when I reuse my cleaned sponges.






As for what I do- i am strictly a full face painter. Very very rarely do I do something small on the arm or face.
If I get an incorrect count, oh well! I will paint full faces til the time I was paid. If they ask me to stay later, it is $20 for a last call face painting, and I will blast through that line within 20 minutes-and that's when I'll do partial designs-one stroke tigers, delicate butterflies, simple masks...cute, efficient, but absolutely quick.


I always get a picture of the very last faces, because I'm rushing and it helps me know I didn't paint their faces too too fast.lol,I chant in my head "don't rush the lines, don't rush the lines"







basically I charge per hour. At parties, the kids usually all want exactly what birthday girl gets....so since I give her gems and glitter, it's a good chance the others will request it too. I can do up to 20 faces an hour, but for birthdays, I limit it to 12 with the works.


How much do you charge for a face with glitter and gems? $5?$10? Multiply that by the expected guests. Add on fuel charge.

If I get there and there's more kids, I either charge extra 20, or I lose the gems and glitter.

I charge 60 an hour, 1.5 hour minimum. I add on 25 if I have to travel over 30 miles one way.

Lately, I have given the birthday child (always first painted) the option of "retiring" their chosen design from being chosen by the rest of the kids. "only" the birthday girl can have the blinged-out princess mask , or only the birthday boy can be wolverine with the arm spikes. I have a small sticker that says "sorry, this design is for the birthday child only, please pick another design" and I place it over that photo. I ask the birthday child first if they want to be the only one with that design or if their friends can have it too. I have special bling that only the birthday girl gets, the others get the smaller/less bling. it's been running about 50/50 so far. Some kids don't mind, some want to be the only one.

Well, I have no experience, besides the free facepainting I did at work (child daycare center/afterschool care center). The only paid gig I have done so far, was at a fair.
At that fair I charged 3 euro's per face, no matter what the child wanted.

So I don't have much to go on.
I have seen prices of other facepainters in Holland on the internet. But still doubting what to charge myself.

And do you let the clients pay in advance, or afterwards?
Or a part in advance and the ret afterwards?

And what if they cancel?

So Multiply 3 euros Times however many kids at the party,plus the cost of fuel to get there and back.

I haven't been charging a deposit.  They pay me at the party.  If paid upfront, I usually don't get a tip.  If I wait until the end, I do.  

I charge by the hour, not by the child.  Since I only charge $60 an hour, the overtime is easy to figure:  $1 per minute I stay later than requested time.   that's just birthday parties.   business events I charge $75 an hour (so many kids and having to work faster).   my menu is basically the same for both.  I have done these designs so many times I can almost do them in my sleep. Through trial and error I have weeded out the designs that slow me down and now stick to the tried and true, around 50 I offer consistently, but you should adjust your menu to what you are comfortable doing.  I don't do "special requests" unless I feel I can do it quickly.  A busy event is not the time to try out something new... you'll waste time.  ("sorry, I haven't learned how to paint that design yet, pick another.")   oh, and they need to know what they want WHEN they sit down, not try and decide once they get to me.

at business events where I'm paid to paint: I choose the colors of the paint and gems. I only use 1 color glitter (mama clown's irridescent white in a poofer bottle and also a jar if it's a young child and I'm only adding just a tiny bit."

I had a difficult time picking a price as well, face painting isn't very big here and people aren't really willing to pay big bucks for it. I have had a few people ask about my rate and then not return, later to find out they found a cheaper face painter and they were unhappy with the result, so I have decided to stand firm with my rate, if they want what I have to offer they will pay for it.

I charge a little bit less then a bigger company here, this is because they offer better work then I do, they have been in the business for quite a few years and they are faster then I am...

Just charge what you are comfortable with for this gig, you don't need to commit to this rate for everyone

Thanks for the advice everybody, it is very helpfull!

there is no big market in the south of the Netherlands...I have experience. and I ask 40 euro per hour, 30 for the next and I haven't had a party in quit some time. Everybody is keeping their money in their pockets these days. 6 to 8 kids is very doable in an hour, maybe one and a half if you don't feel at ease with just one hour. You can't watch in someone's head, you never know what they are willing to pay...

I don't ask deposits (yet) and if they cancel it's just bad luck...I never had to cancel myself luckily...

michellesfantasyfaces wrote:there is no big market in the south of the Netherlands...I have experience. and I ask 40 euro per hour, 30 for the next and I haven't had a party in quit some time. Everybody is keeping their money in their pockets these days. 6 to 8 kids is very doable in an hour, maybe one and a half if you don't feel at ease with just one hour. You can't watch in someone's head, you never know what they are willing to pay...

That is true. I know this Family, and they have seen me paint before, but when being paid.

One way or another, it will be a valuable lesson, I suppose.
At this point I have learned I can manage about 6 Kids per hour.

Do you advertise a lot Michelle, to get gigs?

Don't be afraid to ask what their budget is....sometimes, they are expecting to pay anywhere from $100-300!!!

In that case, I'm happy to tell them my price is less!

Other times, their budget is no more than $50...in which case, I'll work something out....after hearing the horror stories of craft paints, I'd rather take a small pay cut than stick to my guns while they settle for shady quality......

Hi guys 'n' dolls

I have taken every advice under consideration, and I decided to go with a price per child and a fee for travel expence.
And I just got an email from them, they want to book me!

So I am happy. Thank you all, for your wisdom!

Congrats! woohoo!

that is great! and no, i don't do a lot of advertising..mostly I get gigs by people telling other people how nice my painting was

Yay! Just two more days to go! The party is themed with fairy's. So this week I have been practising my double dipping flowers.
But I don't really have a fairy design yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I am thinking of some sort of mask with flowers and lost of swirls, is that a bit fairy-like????

Hey creabella, congrats on your party and good luck, I'm sure they will love you. It's a little late but here's a couple of girls designs i put on my board, most of the girls picked the fairy and fantasy, they are super quick but look so pretty.

Thank you anyway...

And yes, they loved it, although I wasn't that happy about the design.... But all the girls wanted the same, only in different colors.



This is the birthday girl.

The only thing that didn't go well, were taling the pictures.
I had arranged that the client would get a picture of each child and one of all the kids together.
I took my husbands Canon Eos slr camera, because I thought it would look more professional than my own coolpix camera.
But the camera wouldn't focus, I don't know why not, so I ended up making pictures with my iPhone. I felt so embarressed.

But they gave me a tip anyway

well a tip is always a good sign that they liked what you did. so glad it went well for you, and of course you werent happy with the design, but you were looking for mistakes! the girls were happy and that is what counts. I am not good with cameras, my expensive camera always seems to go back to some strange setting as soon as it is turned off and wont focus either, so i have to remember to go in and change it before i take a photo.

congrats on the successful gig!

on the EOS, if your husband had it set to manual, then it would not auto focus, SLRs are a little annoying sometimes, and some of them won't auto focus worth a darn in select situations.