My first paid birthday party

I just did my first paid birthday party. It was about an hour drive there and I had to discount the price to get the gig. I mean, I still made money and it was fun but it was 2 hours of driving. The good part about that is that on my way back I stopped at an outlet center, found a "Kitchen Collection" store, and they had the ice tube tray thingy. SCORE! It was $5. I also stopped at their Dollar Tree and found a pack of about 12 little containers that I am going to try to use for making split cakes. The birthday boy was only 2 and didn't even want his face painted. There was a real mix of age ranges there, so I painted everyone from under 2 to 14 and a couple of adults. I can't believe I forgot the example photos I had printed out that morning! I didn't have any examples so I had to wing it the whole time. You know how once one gets something, several want it after that? Well, it was kitty cats. I wasn't really happy about the job I did with the cats but it wasn't BAD. They did give me a little more money than I was discounting, so that was good. The bad parts: one little girl kept dry coughing in my face, one little sh*t kept throwing plastic balls at me. Ugh. Well, it was good experience anyway. I definitely need to work out some sort of example board for parties.

Yeay! for you getting your first gig under your belt. I've only volunteered so far and I am so new to FP I haven't gotten myself out there yet. I am still learning and absorbing like a big ole' sponge. Even though you forgot your sample pictures, it sounds like you made the best of it. Being able to wing it, good for you, I am sure no one noticed anything you might have had a problem with. Did u take pics so we can see them?

there will always be a "darling" that will drive you bananas... it's a party. There will also be coughs, sneezes, boogers, and as one of the forum members can attest to, there is even sometimes vomit. Such is dealing with large numbers of children. Be washable and take your vitamin C.

Sounds like they were happy or you wouldn't have gotten the extra cash, so good for you for getting your feet wet! Keep it up buttercup!

Congrats on your 1st paid party!!!
Sounds good, but I'm curious... Why'd you discount yourself for a 2 hour drive? Did they ask? If someone asks me for a discount I explain that I'm very reasonable to the market here & that I only discount for not-for-profits. I just don't want you to sell yourself short as your paint, gas, etc. all cost & you don't want to work for 2 hours straight & end up only making $10 after it's all said & done.

As far as the ball throwing darling.. If I have a disruptive child that is threatening my kit I call in the parents to deal with it... explaining nicely that I can't paint(do my job) while the child is doing that(You know the parent wouldn't have put up with that, so why should you?).

Hey, congratulations on the party...hopefully it will be your foot in the door to many many more!

Psalmbook wrote:Congrats on your 1st paid party!!!
Sounds good, but I'm curious... Why'd you discount yourself for a 2 hour drive?

Since it was a stranger who called off of the website, I originally quoted $175 for the party plus $30 travel (not enough but honestly I thought she was talking about a different town that is about 30 minutes away.) She said that their car had just broken down and she had to check with her husband to see if it was ok to hire me. She had originally ordered a bounce house that fell through. She emailed me later and said she was very sorry but that her husband said it was just a bit too much for them to afford right now. I figured, I'd rather make something that day than nothing, so I told her I'd give her the SLOCountyMommies discount of $100 and I'd still charge $30 travel. That would make it $130 total. They paid me $160 cash before I even started. I guess part of the reason is that I'm still trying to figure out how much to charge. I'm not very fast, so I think I should charge a little less per hour because it will be less faces painted. There is ONE other face painter in the area and they charge $85/hour for FP and balloon twisting. All in all, it took me 2 hours at the party and 2 hours driving, I had fun, practiced, and made a little $ so I would call it good. Plus, I got to go do something that wasn't watching my kids. LOL!

Cool, understood! At 1st it sounded like you got paid a lot less for a long travel
I'm glad that my working area is not as big as many of ya'll. I have a pretty large city, but am pretty central, so I go almost the same distance no matter the direction.

Hey, I think you set an okay rate for your first party! I think my first one was $65 an hour, and that seemed very fair! I was a little slower and not quite as sharp (though I think a lot of customers wouldn't even notice that) thank I am now.

Congrats on your first one!
Barbie