Holiday Pricing help???

Okay, I know that we have discussed face paint prices on here before. But, I am finding that my regular prices seem harder to sell at Christmas. I know it is the time of Good will and charity, but I seem to have a run of people wanting freebies for everything. They do not want to pay regular prices for my per face designs either. I have some people that never blink an eye and others that are practically fainting! I think my prices are pretty good but I don't know. Do you guys charge the same at the Holidays or what do you do?

At one of my regular venues I usually get $5 for half $8 for eye work and $10 for full faces. One day I will do a ton of eye designs and it is great, the other day I did $5 designs only cause everyone thought the prices were high. Is it a fluke thing? Should I change all of my designs to $5 since people are pinching money for gifts? I have to decide by this weekend. My husband thinks no to just leave it but, I do have to pay rent when I set up. We are selling a ton of balloons though.

My parties are the same way. I have had more people ask me to come for free than ever. I usually just don't do free much at all for anything. I paint windows too, and guess what...the same thing??? Seriously what is going on?

Oh and just to add this. I actually had a girl ask me if she could just use my paints and brushes to paint herself cause she "knew how" to face paint. I almost died... she said that she just wanted to paint a little heart and did not want to pay for it. Really?!?!?!?

For PPF, what if you try offering people a discount if you see them looking but not wanting to pay the prices? I've found that if I have someone in my chair, more will line up. The more that line up, the fewer comments I hear about the pricing. Sometimes we just have to get the line started (with a freebie or discount) and it takes off from there.

You can always negotiate a lower price than advertised when it's slow, but you can never raise the price if your line forms and gets long. So I try to stick with my set prices unless it's obvious that too many people are turning away due to the cost.

I don't know about pay per face this time of year... there aren't any outdoor events now and I've been crazy booked with xmas parties and stuff. This could sound completely crazy, but there was one time when I was forced due to circumstances to cut my ppf rates in HALF because of another painter and I had never heard so many complaints about prices and haggling in my life.... so as dumb as this may sound, maybe your prices are too low for this time of year? LOL

Fortunately for me it is inside and warm The weird thing is that it is on the Ritzy side of town where all the money is. This is the first time that I have worked at this same place and not had a huge line. The only time I have ever not had a line yet at all is the festival that I did near Halloween where no one hardly showed up.

I did notice that the crowd last weekend was not the typical crowd. So maybe this weekend will be better. I will try both things. I will have some cheapies to get started and then I think I will add some designs that are really expensive and see what happens.

I will say that is not for lack of the kids wanting it done. It was just that parents were not that into paying for it. Now grandparents on the other hand paid for the $10 designs.So...maybe I need to offer a grandma discount

I just did a PPF event for the holidays next to Santa and my prices are the same as yours - and people balked about them also...

So I painted one of the helpers - a tween girl - for free in exchange for her walking around and helping me build business. She was ON IT all day sending me customers and soon I had a line going! This is an exception, but still, I was very impressed that such a little thing could go a long way in helping to build business.

I gave away 30 plus business cards that day!

PPF events are so dependant on the mood of the event, and I find at events with music people are more likely to spend for some reason. Maybe they are more relaxed and having a good time?

Anyway, yes, there are many "scrimpers" out there now that the holidays are here - but there are ways to get around it if you can just get your foot in the door!

Lori good idea! Need to paint some of the helpers if they will let me. Awesome idea!!! I paint myself but I am sort of stuck there. So, I need to see what I can do about getting the hook up with helpers cause Santa is going to be there this weekend right beside of us.

I agree with a few free/cheap to get the ball rolling.

My rates are the same year-round; I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary lately - maybe it's because I'm used to getting "I'll call you back"s who never do already?! I stick with my set prices for the same reason as Angie, and I will negotiate with one or two groups just to try get the line started but I'm generally pretty firm with pricing.

I understand the holiday pinch, and if it was a choice between $XX for photos with Santa or getting painted - well, they're there for the photos anyway...hope this weekend goes better!

My rates are the same, no chnge here. I am getting a lot of people that want a discount, but if they're a corp. or private pay, it's a no-go. I will discount for NPO's, but at my descretion. Free, not often... only my church & it's outreaches & again, I choose & not on weekends. If I worked for free, I'd be out gas, supplies & of a job

Good luck this weekend. Whatever we can do to get around this crazy time of year - now were in competition with Santa of all things!

I hope it is a lucrative one for you. I am going to do the same thing - paint some freebies- this weekend at the St. Nick festival.

Let us know how you do there!

I just recently did a ppf event and painted a few of the other vendors kids to get the ball rolling. I left my prices the same but when I was slow, was open for negotiation or threw in a lil extra! Good Luck!!

Well this weekend was much better. I did not have anyone to balk at the prices. We take cash only so, in that type of setting there are so many people that just do not have cash. Fortunately we are right beside of an ATM.

We did have another balloon twister at the food court to compete with but honestly, we were so busy that it did not seem to effect us. Plus we had Christmas designs and they didn't until later in the day. Then we started to see more designs like ours. So I guess this weekend we will be in the balloon wars. I need to find out about what everyone does to battle the static issues. We had several to pop right in a row yesterday. It is FREEZING and snowing here.

I took a big gamble to go to the mall anyway. It was quite costly and the forum was split 50/50 on whether to chance it or not. We decided that it would be good advertising. So, we took the chance. it is different being there at Christmas rather than a regular time. But, we find that a lot of times people are including it in the entire experience...Go see Santa, get a balloon, get a face paint, and then ride the choo choo train. But, hands down a $2 candy cane balloon wins out over $5 cheek art if they can only get one thing. But I did get a request job to do an entire store of employees for Christmas. So, I think it is working out well. Thanks guys!

good to hear
Are you doing antler hat balloons? Those always go over well

I had (kind of) the same dilemma. We have a local indoor flea market here on weekends and I have had a passing thought or two about trying it out just to see if I would get any business. They are having a big "thing" on Saturday with Santa and the first 30 kids in the door get a free stocking, etc. I saw the ad for that and called to see if I could get a booth and how much. They were very excited and thought it would add to the festive atmosphere they are trying to create. Unfortunately, there were no more booths...but...if I was willing to share booth space with another vendor (non-face painting, they haven't had a face painter there before), then I could come for $5 but since it was such a cheap space, they wanted me to cut my prices really cheap. I told them I could but I think I will just put out a tip jar and I think I will do much better than charging. By cheap, I mean they want me to do cheek art for $1 and $2 so that every kid could get it. I am not a very accomplished painter and do not charge as much as most of you do but never that low. I want to do it, it is great PR. My husband says some may not even tip after getting painted, but I know most will and it would make up for it. I feel like if I charge $1 or $2 that is what they will pay and no more.

Good luck.... be sure to seed your tip jar with a couple fives.... get quarters and stuff out of there whenever possible.

Perry, do you have an easy antler hat for me to learn fast? I do know how to make regular Rudolph antlers. I am spending this week in deep balloon learning mode. I thought I was ordering a balloon book from Larocks that had the antler hat in it but, I must have gotten the numbers wrong cause I ended up with the magazine that had this cute Bambi deer in it, but it takes a little while.

Flutters-by, I have never worked for tips. So, I may not be the best to answer this, but, from what I have heard with tips is that you don't get tipped enough. Maybe you could put out a tip jar that says Face paint only a $2 tip if that is what you are wanting to charge. Or maybe it could read
Holiday face paint $2 suggested gratuity please...I think that may work out well. I think PR is important when building your business, the only problem I foresee is that people may think it is free and that someone else is paying you to provide the service, and that their tip is your icing instead of your cake : ) Even at the mall regular days and Christmas I have people ask if it is free. Why?I guess cause so many places offer it now as a freebie to draw other business in. I had to put out a sign with my prices. So, for what it is worth I just thought I would put that out there for you to think about. Good luck on your event I hope that you get tons of exposure.

this is what I do... it's a basic hat with two antlers which are basically filled all the way, soft, 3 petal twists.



it's not amazing, it's not spectacular, but it is popular once one or two start with them because they are big.

Thanks Perry! You are spectacular! I love it and I think I can actually make it myself since I am a newbie at the balloons. I did come up with a snowman and it sold so well that I got to brag for a whole week. But it was the premade snowman face a bow and the body. simple is perfect for me.This is great I appreciate you taking the time out to snap a photo for me!

BTW I think LINDA would be so proud of me as that I was able to negotiate Christmas week for way less than what we were paying for the weekend. I did it because the other balloon people were not charging tax and were sat up in the food court at CHik fil a. Apparently, that is run through the restaurant and not really the mall so, I explained how we had to pay such a high rate and then we had a tax ID so legally I had to charge tax or eat it an pay it myself. So, I wanted the rate that they had. Viola...An entire week of Christmas for 1/4 of my "discounted" other rate.

Terina!!! That's awesome!!!
Perry, thank you for the antler hat! I love it & will be using that this weekend!

Another reindeer hat, similar to Perry's but with a couple extras that I think are hilarious. I do the same helmet base, do the antlers with 1 260, and have 2 5" round eyeballs, and a 5" round red and you've got Rudolph!

2cute reindeers!

That is cute! Are those stickers for the eyes or did you draw them?

The balloons are printed with eyes on them! They are pricier ($15/100 instead of $5 for 100 plain white rounds) but they look better than drawing huge eyes on, and are faster than colouring on aforementioned huge eyes I don't buy a lot of printed balloons (ie no alien heads), so I don't mind the splurge on eyeballs.

Terina wrote:Oh and just to add this. I actually had a girl ask me if she could just use my paints and brushes to paint herself cause she "knew how" to face paint. I almost died... she said that she just wanted to paint a little heart and did not want to pay for it. Really?!?!?!?

Where do people get such GALL??? Glad your second weekend went better.