How much to charge question

Wow... How did I not jump in on this one way back when?

My rates for a party and what-not are $85/hour if I am in Clown and $60/hour if I am just wearing street clothes. I offer Balloons and Face Painting but it is up the the parents to decide what they would like me to do.

I have my set up in such a way I can paint and do balloons pretty much at the same time rather than doing one the first 30 minutes and the other the last 30 minutes. I tell them I can handle no more than 10 kids in one hour doing both balloons and face painting. But if I'm doing one or the other, I can easily handle 20 kids in an hour with just balloons and no more than 15 if I'm just doing face painting as my designs are detailed and take more time than a typical balloon (and I'm really quick at making balloons, I'm just about as good at those as I am face painting).

If I do a show in clown, the price jumps to $100/hour and I usually need at least an hour and a half to do the show along with the balloons and face paint. If they want Live animal magic, there is an additional flat $30 charge.

If I'm doing PPF at a festival, my prices range from $1-$7 for design as simple as quick cheek art to full blown detailed full faces. I could easily get twice those rates in other markets but not in my town, trust me, I've tried.

I have found this thread to be so helpful! I know it is alittle old but I am looking at raising my pricing for PPF. I used to just charfe $5 for everything, but some of those faces are just to detailed to do that.

I am going $5,$8 & $10 for the larger festivals later this year. This weekend is a small event that will be PPF, I am doing simple cheek $3 then $5 and for the more extreme or difficult $10.

I have a friend who is just starting out going with me. It is her first time. She can paint very nicely, the people will like her, and she came up with a really cool dragonfly crown on her own the other day. Lookin forward to the weekend already! Oh her name is Stephanie by the way, I'm trying to get her hooked on the forum also, she will be introducing soon I'm sure!

was wondering how much 15 dollars is when translated into pounds it sounds quite a lot compared to what people are prepared to pay in the uk

Today, 15 US dollars is 9 GB pounds

I reckon i would be pushing it asking for 3 pounds per head at an event

In the Netherlands the prices aren't that high.
I wouldn't pay more than 3 euro myself, and then it has to be really good!

Bec wrote: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.

I totally agree!!! That is why I am painting... and have been since I was 13. But I know that the area I am in are not able to pay what I am worth, and what I would like to get. For me its not about the money even though I LOVE getting paid for what I do, its about making the kids happy!!!! Smiling so big that it will take alot to make it go away!!

jnjkoz wrote:I decide my prices at a fair or festival on what they are charging for beer and water. If the beer and water are inflated, I know the income bracket of client they are expecting are willing to pay on the higher end, if they are charging low, I'll adjust my pricing lower. If my line is longgggggggg I'll readjust. this is why I use the magnet system for my sign, I am able to change anything anytime I need to, including photo's and things....

Hope everyone is having a FANTASTIC weekend!

WONDERFUL IDEA!!!!!

now this is an interesting thread - and I'll be happy to resurrect it! I always have trouble pricing myself (and then sticking to my prices!!!) doing henna - I keep three copies of the same binder circulating with the prices right in there so I can't change my mind. I was once told "If you don't value your own art enough, how can you expect anyone else to value it either?" and I try like heck to remember that when the $5-off goblin starts whispering in my ear. After I RAISED my prices, I got half again as much business, because somehow now I was "worth" spending beaucoup bucks on. Go figure. I don't dare take any money from anyone for faces yet, but of course that's the plan. It'll be interesting to see the dynamic compared to doing henna. . .

We often joke here about doing a pattern "for the henna fairy," the first one of the day to shake the cobwebs out, the lady in the booth next door, the kid with no cash and a big pair of eyes, wherever karma seems to say "oh, this one can be a freebie." Freebies happen, not constantly, but they happen, and I never apologize for charging, like you guys have all said.

I live in a college town in the middle of nowhere, and I don't think we have any other painters around here, except for somebody in Gallipolis. . . I'm wondering what my painting market will bear. . . and I am SO stealing the magnaboard and beer/water ideas!

(I knew joining this site was gonna be a good idea!)

I have had someone get on my promoting site and say We were good but expensive.
I also had someone tell me that the reason we didn't get asked to do a Cultural Event was because our prices are to high. We charge $3. to $15. depending on the design. I don't think that is to much, he was upset because his child picked out a design for $10. That I think is up to the parent somewhat, tell the child you can have a design for $6. and no more. Then at least everyone is happy sort of.
I think his issue with the Cultural Event was that someone used craft paints and there was a reaction problem. So we didn't get the gig even after I explained what we use etc. but my son was asked to do balloon animals so we will be there in some aspect at least.

I completely agree with you Bec. Some people say you should never change your prices, but I don't think a Farmer's Market is somewhere that a parent expects to spend a lot of money. Fairs and carnivals are different. People know they have to pay there, and you can get away with charging more. I work the entire month of October at a boutique village in Salt Lake. People come to browse and look through stores. They aren't expecting to spend a lot of money, if any at all. It's refreshing for them to find they can do something for their kids that is actually affordable. I charge $3 for cheek, $5 for half, $7 for a "mask"(butterfly... batman... mardi gras mask).. and $10 for full complicated designs. This will be seasonal pricing because at halloween time I do Frankensteins and vampires and other things that I wouldn't normally do. Otherwise I would just charge $7 or $8 for "full faces" and that would include butterflies and "mask" designs

at my market i do cheeks for 2-3 and masks for 5. i didnt do any full face but if i did it would be 7-8. bremerton most weeks i made more with my face painting then i did with my glass art..

Great thread, would anyone be so kind as to post an example of each price point? I'd love to see!

I had my first ppf at a children's book festival at the art center in my town on last Saturday. I also had a friend helping with glitter tattoos. I charged $6/ face painting and offered 20 designs ranging from butter fly masks, flower wreaths, tierras and rainbows with unicorns to pirates, partial side spidey, dragons and puppy's. No designs covered more than half face but they all had some wow effect and a nice set price. I love it when half the kids pick from my two easiest designs! I offered glitter tattoos for $5 or 2/$8 and let my helper keep half of what she sold. Offering the glitter tattoos was a nice, slightly cheaper, alternative and offered something else if there was a long line to be painted- I'm still kind of slow- and it was pure profit for me. A lot of kids got both face painting and glitter tattoos. I digress, pick a moderate price and stick with it, $6 worked well for me and parents and kids could choose from the board and see what they were getting. if they didn't like 6$ for a certain design they could pick something else for the price, and there was no calculating different prices in my mind. Every one was happy, especially the painter!

On a side note, during some down time I had a mom stopped by with twins but no cash. The girls were really interested, mom was asking if I knew where an ATM was (across the street). I offered to paint the girls while it was slow at the moment and then mom and kids could go to ATM and bring back money...it was taking a chance and not something I would try for everyone, but I figured the likely hood of her bringing money back if they were painted already was just as likely as her getting distracted and not coming back at all. $12 in my pocket with less than 6 min to paint both girls and maybe 20 cents worth of paint when I had no one in line at the moment any way. Worth the risk on that one and it worked out in my favor.

jnjkoz wrote:I decide my prices at a fair or festival on what they are charging for beer and water. If the beer and water are inflated, I know the income bracket of client they are expecting are willing to pay on the higher end, if they are charging low, I'll adjust my pricing lower. If my line is longgggggggg I'll readjust. this is why I use the magnet system for my sign, I am able to change anything anytime I need to, including photo's and things....

Hope everyone is having a FANTASTIC weekend!

Do you have pictures of your sign? I would love to see how you display your art and how you can change them around! Anyone else that has pictures of their PPF displays please PM me or post on here!!!

I'd love to see a photo of that sign, too!

I'm you posted this. I'm an absolute amateur right now and have just begun to look into face painting as a way to possibly earn some extra cash. I got started painting faces because my daughter always wanted her face painted at every fair, festival, amusement park, etc that we went to in past years. And being an artsy person myself I was kind of taken aback that someone could charge $7 for something that could just be washed away, so I having been trying to figure out what I could charge. I live in a depressed area so I want to kind of make sure any kid who wants his or her face painted could get something even if it's just a small piece of cheek art.

I like the one price system, pick a mid range price appropriate for your event, based on the traffic and the beer and water prices, and then any face is that price. For us last year, that was usually $8. Kids pick the easy ones as often as they pick the harder ones. We offer glitter and airbrush tattoos for less and some balloons for even less, so there is a price point for everyone. It makes it so much easier and kids actually get what they want, instead of being limited to the $5 faces. Saves time with the mother child negotiation in your line too.

Thanks for the advice, ladies!