NEED ANSWER FAST! What would you charge for this?

Someone is calling me back today. They want to book me ON Easter, with a good 100 kids or slightly more, for 4 hrs.

First, I'll have to paint my grandchildren to make a special board for him to get through this many kids per hr, with Easter themes

Second, it's EASTER!!! Even though I normally don't do anything or go anywhere, it's still a MAJOR Holiday

I normally charge $80 hr with a 2 hr minimum and $60. an hr for anything over 2. So normally a 4 hr would be priced at $280. But also, that's usually about 15 kids an hr. with boards/faces I already have pics of, not 100+ kids in the 4 hrs (which I can do with the right faces but I have to make a special board and it's STILL nuts doing that many!).

Pinkundies turned it down, but I might take it is the price is right. Lynne says at least double price, which sounds about right to me, but would love more opinions. Thanks!

any time you work a holiday you add more to your fee. my basic rule is 25% per hour. I will give them a break for any hours over 3 as I will be generating enough profit after the first 3 hours to make it worth my time in not booking more venues. the hours after 3 are just gravy for me as there is no travel or extra set up.

the thing to keep in mind here is that your not basing your price as a per face gig so the amount of faces is irreverent. what you are basing your fee is on a set time. once that time is up you cut the line and pack up....unless they want to pay you for a little extra.

I think my post above for how i set my price is misleading a bit so I will explain a bit more here. I ALWAYS charge more then the other artists in my area because I want to position my self as a top of the line expert in what I do.

example.
if im working close to you and i know you charge 80 per hour ill charge 130 per hour. so I do not need to double my fees when holidays com up just a 25% mark up as I am already getting premium fees for my time.

I'm sorry, but I just don't understand that logic. I get it if you are actually BETTER than other artists, but just the perception, based on price is bull.
People are willing to pay more when they are getting more, but in my neck of the woods, they don't care about having the most expensive, just for the sake of it.
If you consider yourself to be 25% better than your closest competition, please don't feel this is a personal attack.
I just don't see charging a specific percent higher than my competition, because I think I am that percent better than her. And how would I quantify that, anyway?
Meanwhile, Tina, if you think working on a holiday is worth doing, take the job. I don't charge a premium rate for holidays. I charge my rate to everyone on any given occasion, and decide if the gig is going to be worth it to me based on how I value that time.
Does that make sense?
I wouldn't do a gig on Christmas, because no amount would be worth it to be away from my family that day.
I'd feel the same on Easter, too.
I'm all OVER Halloween, however! Haha!

i'd be asking $360.

I didn't say how do I BE better. I said how do I QUANTIFY how much better I am.
Obviously I AM better, or maybe just available when asked, or more personable on the phone, or better spoken in email, or have prettier hair, lol.
How do I decide that I am a certain percent better, and therefore should charge that percent more than my competition?
And if I'm NOT any better than my competition, why would I think I should charge 25% (or whatever number pops into my head) than her?

Good luck with this one. I would ask yourself, what would it take to make you happy you took the work. If it is $300, do that, if it is $500, charge that. They are asking for your holiday. And that is a lot of faces- you will work for it. Make sure you have a good holiday, you deserve it.

Nikki, where did your post go, I was trying to answer you

rthling wrote:I didn't say how do I BE better. I said how do I QUANTIFY how much better I am.
Obviously I AM better, or maybe just available when asked, or more personable on the phone, or better spoken in email, or have prettier hair, lol.
How do I decide that I am a certain percent better, and therefore should charge that percent more than my competition?
And if I'm NOT any better than my competition, why would I think I should charge 25% (or whatever number pops into my head) than her?

i took it down as it was off topic figured it's best to just answer the question.

anywho, i would think you are MUCH better than your local competition....

here's how i figure things related to that:
i certainly am not as good as you but I also am certainly offering more value to my clients than the local competition and I can definitely put a percentage on that.
if people are willing to pay for a slow artist with no insurance or legal permits/licensing with a limited pallette-why on earth can't they pay more for a quicker insured legitimate artist who can paint ON REQUEST and creatively?



I don't necessarily look at what makes the local competition WORSE, i just look at what I OFFER that makes me BETTER. and in my book, it's alot.


now, suppose you were my local competition-well then, you certainly have the prettier hair definitely worth the 25% raise.

I love you, Nikki!
You have such well-thought answers.

rthling I will gladly keep this topic going with you and any others that wish to take part but not here as I do not want to derail the thread.

edit

Would you have to spend the time making a new photo board?  A word list might be better in that situation anyway- more freedom to simplify designs on the spot if you need to.

who says you can't deliver your best quality!

bet you could quickly bang out a bunch of fancy Easter eggs with a Rainer and rainbow cake and tween it out with line work that makes the parents say "wow, so elaborate, wasn't expecting so much detail, you are so artistic, I could never!".


granted my only major holiday so far was Halloween, but I've been steadily booked just because my quickie pumpkin, spider and cat were tweaked out with my line work that took it from basic to WOW "you should do this for a living" , "wow, I never want to wash my face again".



get together 3 or 4 basic designs, make them fancy, practice on foam sheets til you can do the design in under 2 minutes, and then tweak it til you only need one sponge application, and 3 brushes-line work, shadow and highlight.

as for the board-skip it.
kid hops up, request something you don't know, tell them "maybe at your birthday party!today I'm only doing Easter.do you love the color yellow?"
if they say yes, bang out a design in yellow. if they say no, pick for them any other color.and make sure you give them your card for their parents.


this Halloween, I would paint by request until a large group appeared, at which point I take control and paint great designs that I had control over and I only chose what was impressive and super fast for ME but not what another parent could've easily accomplished.

just because there is 100 kids doesn't mean they will all get painted...but I find that once my painted kids start wondering, every single kid jumps in for something.

use a word list, control your line by pacing what designs you will offer....I even sped the process at some points by keeping my paints closed! I would open just long enough to load my brush or sponge, and then shut it.don't let them know what you're working with, and just make sure your basic quick stuff is still fancier than beginner stuff.

I turned the job down because I have 3 kids and we do the church thing, egg hunt, etc...mi think he's going to be hard pressed to find a painter for the job being Easter and all. My normal price would have been $320 for the 4 hours, but I would charge $500 for Easter...

Tina, give him your quote. 100 kids in 4 hours is 25 per hour... You'll be working hard. On Easter. Think you could spend it with your grand kids and daughter. He doesn't have to know that...

If he doesn't bite, then so be it.

By the way did he call back?

edit

Funhouse,
Tina and I regularly do high volume events together. We design the highest impact, quick designs. 25 per hour is not bad. I once painted 600 kids over 2 days with one stroke designs...

It's about 2 minutes per face with chair time. Tina and I could bust out an impressive face in those 2 minutes. Matter of fact about 75% of the faces on my website are done in about 2 minutes.

So I really don't think quality is an issue here, just pricing based on the holiday in my opinion.

pinkundies wrote:Funhouse,
Tina and I regularly do high volume events together. We design the highest impact, quick designs. 25 per hour is not bad. I once painted 600 kids over 2 days with one stroke designs...

It's about 2 minutes per face with chair time. Tina and I could bust out an impressive face in those 2 minutes. Matter of fact about 75% of the faces on my website are done in about 2 minutes.

So I really don't think quality is an issue here, just pricing based on the holiday in my opinion.

I don't know why this is a matter of debate. I gave MY answer, not anyone else's.

Why my goodness I don't think it's a debate either. I am merely explaining that this is a pricing issue Tina is having trouble with, not the fact that she couldn't provide the quality of designs that warrant the price.  But thank you for clarifying.
Happy painting

I haven't read the replies yet, but I'd say ask yourself what it would be worth to you to work on Easter.