Meet the Clients????

I've gotten a couple of gigs from the fair and ads I've placed. I was excited and went and met with the clients and got the deposit and show them my kit and did a little face paint. It took me about 1/2 hr to meet with them and about 20 mins travel.

I'm thinking I won't be able to do this with every client....right? It is nice to go over the contract with them and get the money but I don't think I want to do this with everyone, especially those in the 15 - 20 mile range.

What do you guys do to get the gig? Do you do it all over the phone/internet? Do you use Paypal/mail to get the deposit? What if they don't have the internet?

Just wondering about your care and feeding of potential clients.

D.

Oh dear goodness, no!

I book over the phone and via email, and give them every opportunity to think about it, ask questions, etc. Once they decide they want to book, I ask them event questions and put the contract together.

I email them the contract and tell them to let me know if they have any questions, and they can see my work on my website. They have the choice of mailing a cheque (or did, before our postal strike), PayPal, or dropping it off in person - but they come to me. I have, on occasion met them in the middle if I'm in the area, but it's their responsibility to get the deposit to me.

I did pick the deposit up once, and I never want to do it again. It was in my city and not particularly hard to get to, but took up time I could use for something else, and I don't want to run around picking up deposits. If they don't want to drop it off to me, they have other options.

Why would you paint them before their booking? I have given them a balloon before - if we happened to have a training session and had balloons lying around, but I wouldn't pull my stuff out to paint them...

If they don't have the internet/access (doubtful) then they probably wouldn't have found out about me. If they saw me at a gig, they would have seen my work/kit already.

Yeah, that.... they mail it, drop it off or paypal. I'm not working for them twice.. and getting paid once. If you wanna see me before your event, check out my public appearances calendar. Once or twice I've had someone hand me their deposit at the Farmers' Market, but that's because that's where I met them and booked them to begin with.

I couldn't imagine meeting all of them ahead of time! I would never have time for that since I'm painting on the weekends, and at my regular job during the week. Plus, if they got in touch with you, then they must have seen something you've done and liked it so I wouldn't want to waste my paint, unless you just wanted more practice - sometimes it's good to have an extra face around

Good god?!! You really did that? Wow...

The only time I have advance contact in person is when we have production meetings for theatrical productions and I have to do character charts for the director's approval.

For wedding bookings the brides come to me for a pre-test before the wedding and they pay for it!

For face painting they contact me via phone or email, I respond with specifics, they say "yes I want to book," I mail or email the contract, they return with deposit. I call to confirm the week prior, I show up, they pay, I paint (or vice versa) and leave.

If there is no time to mail the deposit I have had clients either swing by the house with cash or once, a body painting client dropped off a cash deposit at my dayjob.

Unless there is a potential for a VERY VERY profitable gig - say multiple dates, full rate pay, high exposure, and FUN - there is no way I'd use up my own unpaid time to meet with the potential client. That is simply adding overhead costs to my operation that is not necessary.

Oh, my goodness! LOL!

I guess there is no gray area on this one. The times in my life where I've had "clients" were real estate and graphic design/web design and meeting with the clients is part of the job...but I must say I WASTED a lot of time driving around clients who never came through as a Realtor. Real estate masochist.

This was my thinking with the bringing the case/painting. The first one was a business and I wanted to show that I had professional materials and what my setup would sortof look like...she's the one that called from the internet ad (yes, about 15 pictures posted).

The next one was two days later and she took my card at the fair but they didn't buy a painting, they just wanted to know about a party. I figured they might have kids at home who wouldn't be painted at the party so I could give them something (I want them to like me, really, really like me!) and get an idea of quick designs. She didn't have the internet so didn't have any specific ideas. I did take about 1/2 of my own time to sketch out design ideas for her theme.

I guess I just want things to go well, I'm used to explaining contracts in layman terms and I'm a kiss up and I wanted the deposit in hand!

Yeah, I figure that wasn't how it was done when I was walking out of the second clients home. I was saying...I better ask the forum because I don't think this is making sense....it can't work this way.

I've got to get paypal set up soon.

D.

If it was a business and a possibly regular or super-repeat job I might meet with them to show them what I could do. Otherwise it's just a phone call or email, a deposit either mailed, paypal or credit card, and then I show up on the date and paint. I don't even do contracts for private parties, only large corporations. It's just not worth the trouble at this point.

AngieAnders wrote:If it was a business and a possibly regular or super-repeat job I might meet with them to show them what I could do. Otherwise it's just a phone call or email, a deposit either mailed, paypal or credit card, and then I show up on the date and paint. I don't even do contracts for private parties, only large corporations. It's just not worth the trouble at this point.

That's something to think about Angie because we decided that we wouldn't charge any more than the deposit for cancellations...don't want bad karma and it costs $100 to file small claims anyway and not worth the effort to collect. I could just have a rules & suggestions type sheet that wasn't really a contract. Hmmm.

You've all got me thinking. Thanks so much for your input, it's invaluable.

Denise

No, I very rarely Pre-meet the clients. It would be way to time consuming. I would only do it for a big corporate gig(if the wanted it) & if it was going to be a continuing gig.
I do all my communication over the phone/email.
I either have them mail me the deposit or Paypal it. I have occasionally met them at a close location & picked up the deposit, but only if it's convenient. I NEVER let them come to my home(I'm a little paranoid about potential clients knowing where I live... what if they're psychotic...).

Linda, I am a little paranoid about giving out my address for mailing too...we do have a PO Box for our renters (they could find us on county records if they tried...but at least we're not HANDING them our address.)

I guess I need to put our PO Box on our painting stuff and just check it when were expecting a client check.

It should only take a day or two in our county. It's only about 40 miles long.

D.