How much to charge question

When I facepaint at the mall, its in conjunction with my sister's and my other crafts, so its really just extra cash. I charge $3 for cheeks and $5 for full faces.

I'm doing a Farmer's Market on saturday mornings for the summer and the first one is this saturday. It's the first time it'll be just my face painting (except for when i do parties, but then i charge by the hour/#of people attending). So what do i charge per face?

Pay Per Face (PPF) is very subjective to what your market can handle. What you can do is charge $5/$8/$10. If you're getting a lot of business, great if not, drop your prices to $3/$5/$8. Another great thing to do is paint the kids in the booths nearby for free. This helps you make friends if you need someone to booth sit for a restroom break & gets you free advertising.

I think linda said it all, I agree with her!! good advice

ok so cheeks are 3 masks 5 faces 8? i think the area im going to be in $10 is way too much. I was thinking $3 and $7

Honestly, I would not charge LESS than $5 at a PPF event, no matter where it was located. My bare minimum would be $5.
People WILL pay what you are worth.
I sold more $10 and $15 faces at this year's street festival than $5 faces, and had a non-stop line the entire event.
I had several people come by when I was packing up to tell me what a hit my booth was and that they thought is was the most popular booth at the event.

modernmagik wrote:Honestly, I would not charge LESS than $5 at a PPF event, no matter where it was located. My bare minimum would be $5.
People WILL pay what you are worth.
I sold more $10 and $15 faces at this year's street festival than $5 faces, and had a non-stop line the entire event.
I had several people come by when I was packing up to tell me what a hit my booth was and that they thought is was the most popular booth at the event.

So, what were $5?
What were $10?
What were $15?

That would be awesome.

I don't know. Part of my "pitch" is that I'm affordable. I'm not disney land. I'm a decent painter who is also a stay at home mom and "Gets" that kids want fun things and deserve to have them, and that its hard to afford many of those fun things.

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Bec I have found if I only charge $5 I have a long line and people complaining about the wait, If I charge $10 the line is smaller and the experience is more enjoyable for everyone concerned. I'm a mum and as much as I would have to think about it longer if it was $10 I would still pay it and just have a higher expectation of the result then if I were to pay $5.
I agree to start at $10 and if you get some bad reactions drop your price, if you start low and have a massive line you can't all of a sudden up the price.
Also consider how many kids you can paint in an hour - if it's 10-12 comfortably ( lets just say) then you are only looking at making $50-60 an hour if it's $5 faces - if you are happy with earning that then just do that, but you will work harder for it if you have a nonstop queue. At $10 a face you would earn $100- $120 an hour and not have lots of people getting impatient. Guess it depends how busy you expect it to be.
Don't feel bad about charging more, most of the time I did a five dollar face the parent was amazed at the skill v price because most of them have had the craptacular craft face paint experience with their kids and paid them same price.
Hope that helps.

It definitly helps. Great advice to consider. I am doing a 4 day festival in Sept and was worried about being busy alone. So, if the price is higher, the line is shorter but the income is the same or more. I totally get it.
Thanks.

For PPF events, I charge $5 for designs that cover no more than 1/4 of the face, $10 for designs that cover no more than 1/2 of the face, and $15 for designs that are considered full face designs.

At PPF events, you really need to take into consideration how many faces you can paint per hour and base your pricing on how much you really need to make per hour to make a long hard festival worth your time and effort. Not to mention you are probably already out a booth fee that needs to be covered. And if you have a line manager, you need to be able to pay them as well.

Look at how much food costs at those events. Heck, most bouncy house vendors have begun charging anywhere from $3-$7 per ticket just to jump on the moon bounce for 5 minutes or to go down the inflatable slide once or twice. Rock wall booths charge $5-$10 per climb, as do those gravi-tron rides or those super jump contraptions.

People who attend festivals and fairs expect that things will be pricey.

Your advertised affordability can come into play by selectively offering discounts to families with multiple children. It can also come in by advertising your party services at these events. Maybe you have special "party only" rates where the cost per face works out to be less than your festival pricing.

Do any of you have farmers markets popping up all over your towns/cities? I've thought about trying to get into one, but it seems like they aren't getting much traffic & might be a waste of time. I have one that's offering me free space on Sundays, but I'm already booked out for the next few weeks & can't do it. I told them I'd come out on a Sunday I'm not working & give it a go.

I know you are right guys. I just hate when someone wants to get painted but realizes its$10 and doesn't do it. I feel like then i could have charged $5 and made the money...ya know? Since its my first time there I think I'll do $3 $5 and $8. and see what happens.

Psalm,

There are a BUNCH of farmer's markets in St. Louis. ITs like the new "thing" The one im going to be at the next few weekends is $25 per saturday and they provide you with a tent thing. It gets pretty big. I'm excited and nervous.

I can't wai8t to hear how it turned out!

I did the farmer's market here last year and will be doing it again this year. I generally charge $5 and $8 (particularly since it's a weekly thing... $5 and $10 at a fair as a treat, but if it's every week, you want to keep it affordable). I can't say I made a fortune last year, but it was the first year for the market... so word is still getting out that it's there. I figure I've got my foot in the door this way and if it starts to take off, I"M the one that is established there.

I'm glad you said you charge $8 top at the farmer's market. I still can't fathom charging more than that

Well, a Farmer's Market is different from an Arts & Crafts Festival or a Fair.
$5 and $8 sounds plenty fair. What you do in situations where you feel you need to charge less is to offer designs that are slightly less detailed than your higher priced fair faces, and designs you can do very quickly.
As long as you were doing fast faces, you could even charge $5 for all designs and still be fine in that setting.
I, personally, would not go lower than $5 though......not even for cheek art (especially not for cheek art, since it often takes longer than other designs).

I charge between $5 and $10. Makes me really feel bad going higher than that.

$15 for full faces? I mean, it's great if people are fine paying that...Personally, I feel like I want to make my service attainable for pretty much everyone, especially those with multiple children. I am a professional artist, I have a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and a certificate in makeup artistry. I'm not bragging, it was hard work and I'm still paying for it. The point is, I have dedicated my life to art (I do freelance graphic design and illustration as well when I'm not in our busy season)and I feel like what I am doing is art. Most kids don't get to experience art anymore; programs aren't funded. Face painting is magical and a way that children can have a very personal experience with art and are able to see it at a level they understand. Don't get me wrong, I like and need money as much as anyone. I have debts and dreams too! But, I feel uneasy over charging. I rather just add additional optional stuff...Add bling for $1 (stick on gems), buy a crown accessory $3 (show this in your pictures, you'll sell them..get at the dollar store or online for like $1 or less) have glitter or airbrush tattoos (my fiance does them for me!), or even Have hair thingies for sale for kids who have hair down or bangs.
I don't do cheek art, I feel like that makes my offerings different than what the nonprofits sometimes have. My prices are usually $5 (simpler designs- ie: puppy, kitten, shark) $7 popular designs that don't take up the whole face (swirly eye designs, 1/2 skull, etc) $8 full faces (tiger, leopard, etc). I work quickly enough that even $5 per face I can make money if the line is full, and I don't feel like I'm over charging for the experience.

My 1st event was a Relay for Life. The local college painted cheek art for $1.00. They had 20 plus art students painting. Not sure how much they made. I had a donation jar because the money went to the organization as a donation. Some children paid with change and some parents paid more. some children had no money. All went away painted and happy.

The 15-17 of July I will be at the Porter Peach Festival. The booth fee is $40. I will be painting for donations. The event brings in thousands of visitors. I am going to donate the money to my church for the youth to go to church camp.

The end of July I will be painting the local girl scout troop from my town. I will be painting 10 little girls and sending them away with a smile and a business card. I am just stating out and feel this will give me lots of practice and exposure. For me this is fun and relaxing. I have a stressful job mon.-fri. and face painting and connecting with people esp. children brings me so much joy and peace. Maybe I am just weird

Pricing is generally what the market will bear. If you can charge $15 or even $25 for a full face and your line is steady then why not?

This is a business and some of us are trying to make a living at it (or hope to do so eventually by being able to quit the dayjob) - so if you can make more money that is a good thing.

It is all about how serious you are about operating as a business. Some market areas will support $15+ for a face, others won't. Some areas max out around $8 for a full face. You have to adjust your pricing to suit your market.

While I enjoy painting and it is a kick to see the smile in the mirror I am in this as a business operation, not to spread sunshine and flowers. I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it, but also, I'm not doing it to make OTHER people happy, I am doing it to make me happy and pay the bills.

I have chosen to not work on a pay per face basis and have never done so. I charge by the hour - I still get hired for festivals and public events.

I discovered my market will not bare more than $5/face. I did my 1st PPF festival this weekend.... or it could have been that they put me 3 booths down from free crappy face painting
Very disappointed, but I saw many kids come by after getting the free stuff & were very unhappy once they saw ours. One child cried

Psalmbook wrote:I discovered my market will not bare more than $5/face. I did my 1st PPF festival this weekend.... or it could have been that they put me 3 booths down from free crappy face painting
Very disappointed, but I saw many kids come by after getting the free stuff & were very unhappy once they saw ours. One child cried

Oh yeah... I've had that happen! They they ask me to remove the other painting and paint them again which I have to refuse to do. I won't touch something someone else painted. They may react to it, and if I paint over it who is to know what product caused the reaction?

I had one person ask for a re-do & I told them they need to 1st clean their face because I didn't know if they kept a "clean" kit. They didn't come back. I do know they were using Snaz, so at least it wasn't craft paint.

I can get away with $8 for a full face in some parts of town. Others, $5 is the max. I have found this out the hard way this year.

I'm definitely in this for the money. I will do our local crisis nursery for free for practice, and its great to make kids happy!! I think that ANY buisness should be donating time or money to some charity. Not only does it give you good PR, but its just the right thing to do.

I apologize if I offended anyone. That was NOT my intention. I understand this is for many is a business. I was simply responding to the post.