Face Painting $35 an hour????

I came across an ad on Craigslist of a Face Painter/Clown who is charging $35 an hour. Down here, most if not all the face painters are up in the $75 - $100 a hour range. And the thing about it is, she isn't half bad! She's actually good! I really did like her work! I don't dare post myself on Craigslist, I don't think I have the courage. I sell myself in other ways and I get great gigs. But geez, $35 an hour??? I just don't know.

Is it actually her work being shown?

$35 an hour, based on my calculations (using the spreadsheet on my resources page) is in reality only paying minimum wage, after expenses and overhead.

I kinda prefer getting MORE than minumum wage.

I completely agree Shannon! I'm not sure if it's her work, but it kinda looks like they may be hers. I'd love to call her and tell her "hey, open your eyes! You can make so much more! Let's talk." BUT... I don't want to over step my boundaries. Over here in Miami, the market is pretty hot, and I think she could make so much more. Not to mention the fact that she is making us other South Florida Face Painters seem "expensive"!

ha! Check this ad out from my area....

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/evs/2560318445.html

jA, jA, jA, Jennie, Suzie's is even cheaper than yours!!! she is charging $20.oo dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!, you can hire her to do your gigs!!!!!!, she must be charging extra for transportation, other way I don't urdestand how they make it.

In Pittsburgh they start at 75-100 an hour....

I tried to charge 50 and nothing. I been booking gigs at $25 an hour but cringing. I am trying to get $40 but havent managed it yet. I think $30- maybe 35 may be my magic area number. -sigh No insurance for me. I couldnt cut it. Ive made $400 in 6 months. including tips and charity events. I spent most of that at the store getting my kit! =0) I know I would love to see my calendar booked for OCT soon, if I was still in Bethesda MD Id be booked solid alreadly! =0) bonus for living in a big busy city!!

LOL! Suzie!!! That's it! I am putting an ad that will read:

"EXPERIENCED FACE PAINTER AVAILABLE FOR ALL OCCASSIONS. I WILL PAY YOU TO PAINT AT YOUR EVENT!! NO COMPENSTION NEEDED AS MY MATERIALS GROW ON TREES, MY FUEL COMES FROM MY KITCHEN FAUCET, AND MY TIME IS MY GIFT TO YOU!!!"

I'm just being silly, no offense at all intended for her or anyone. I just wish she could make the money that I know is out there for her/us!
It was slow for me at the start, but I refused to undercut myself in fear of hurting the market and myself as well. Thank God it picked up!

I'm asking 30 euro (45 $) per hour for a children's party and I guess that people even think that is expensive...I haven't had a party in a year now..some other things luckily..but not one children's party...

jendez04 wrote:LOL! Suzie!!! That's it! I am putting an ad that will read:

"EXPERIENCED FACE PAINTER AVAILABLE FOR ALL OCCASSIONS. I WILL PAY YOU TO PAINT AT YOUR EVENT!! NO COMPENSTION NEEDED AS MY MATERIALS GROW ON TREES, MY FUEL COMES FROM MY KITCHEN FAUCET, AND MY TIME IS MY GIFT TO YOU!!!"

I'm just being silly, no offense at all intended for her or anyone. I just wish she could make the money that I know is out there for her/us!
It was slow for me at the start, but I refused to undercut myself in fear of hurting the market and myself as well. Thank God it picked up!

-sigh- I didnt want to cut it from $50, i thought that was cheap. I was getting that easily in MD. I just get/got so disgruntled because trying to prove to J that I can do this and I wasnt getting anywhere, even after buying business cards, creating the website and getting the nice paints. Im so happy it picked up, maybe I can get back to where I want to be after a year or so.

We have $25 & $35 an hour face painters here on craigslist. Really they can't afford to be that cheap & will either raise their prices or go out of business.

I live in a closed community and I charge $4.oo for everything, full face, half face and tattoos, I heard the parents all the times "oh no that is so much money for a face painting" but I started to feel so discouraged those days that I work from 10 to 5, paint 40 kids and end up with only $100 dollars in my pocket. I am thinking very serious about rising the price, or have 3 prices $4 - 5 and then $6 for bling mask, I think I will make the same money but work less.

My rates are low, but I'm planning on going up in October.

I charge $5 a face so it's about $50 a hr. Most of my Birthday parties are $75-100 for 2- 2 1/2 hrs that's for 20 kids or less. I almost never walk away with less then $100 though

I live in an area of coal miners and low income homes. People rarely spend money on entertainers like us. I've actually been surprised that some small parties of 10 kids or less have actually paid me $100.

I think it's the area you live in that makes the difference in rates.

I charge $60 an hour-$100/hr depending on the area and then lower the price by 20% for longer than 3 hours bookings. Sometimes I will lower for those with a really tight budget but I dont like to travel too far or do smaller parties that dont let me walk away without at least $60 hour it usually interrupts my whole day and I dont think my day is only worth $60 but I guess it depends where when and for who right. I have been told I am too cheap for my area I also work with abother girl sometimes and we charge $100/hr for two of us we just uped it from $90/hr starting range. We still have a hard time booking as a lot of people will ask but then dont respond after price is given. I advertise on craigslist as I try to create a buzz without having to pay for it and why not? I look on craigslist for things all the time I just think people would look there first personally. I think anyone charging less is just trying to get started and hand out more cards once they start working I am sure they will up their rates too. I dont think it costs a whole lot in supplies to paint it costs more in time and gas money on my end anyways.

I was offered a birthday party, a friend of mine. The msg read - hey I normal hire a face painter for my daughter birthday and she charges me $15 p/her - 2 hr $30, if you want the practice and are availaible you can do it instead if you like. WELL It was nice of her to offer. Now either the person that does her parties is really bad or stupid. not sure which one yet. But I though, heck I do need to practice on real kids!! So may be I offer to come but for free... that way I get exposure and if others are interested they can then ask my price rather that asking the host - and being told I work for fairy bread and soft drink! The cheapest I have heard of is $50 per hr in australia, but nornally $75p/hr minimum of 2 hrs.. crap we all enjoy it but $$$$ is my most important thing at the end of the week when I need to pay my bills! What do you think?

Kye we have the $20 per hour painter too - except we have GST so it's $25... hahahaha - they are on Gumtree and craigslist and I get constat google alerts to tell me they want to hire face painter at $40 per hour - entertainment companies that is.
It doesn't help when so many in Australia do workshops to supplement their income..... sure it's great to do workshops and make some extra cash but you are flooding the market with cheap painters who see it as a hobby and work another job during the week.... they bring the standard down badly.
Do the job for free - wait for her to freak out about how good you are compared to the other lady and then say - "yeah well that's why this would normaly coast $160 - not $30.... but then you get what you pay for!"

** Jennie - I would contact the other painter and say you think her work is great and she is worth more then that and ask if she was aware of what Shannon said - that after overheads she is earning min. wage if that! Ask he if she would like to meet up and Jam or if she insured and looking for more work as you may be able to pass some to her.
When I do this - they either are very glad I contacted them or run away from me as fast as possible and disappear into the woodwork when they see they have someone so near to them running a professional business..... kind of like - get onboard or get outta my way....lol

Tash, you have a point... I'm gonna give it a go! Let's hope she jumps on the band wagon instead of running the other way!!!

I was thinking that charging $50 per hour was expensive and feeling a little guilty until that birthday party where she ended up giving me $80 and I was wondering about giving some back...it hit me (with some help from you all...)

If SHE came to the fair and had all those girls painted it would have been exactly $80.00...it would have been 10 $8.00 faces. Duh. And here I am showing up at their home with all my stuff. Here I am in the middle of screaming kids in a cramped corner of home delivering nice painted faces...she doesn't have to travel and wait in line in the hot sun to have me. I showed up when she wanted and painted where she wanted.

Tara...I'm going to chew you out a little...just a little because I'm starting out low too ; but, have you considered that they may not be hiring you precisely because you are lower than market? Maybe they are afraid that you aren't a pro because you are lower than everyone else.

Try actually raising your rates and see what happens. I'm getting most of my bookings from gigsalad.com and it's free. It's a very nice website, pretty high in the rankings and you can get phone alerts. I'm on a local TV station website that lets me upload tons of pictures (two bookings from that) and I'm working the farmers market (although I don't like setting up my tent each week!) and I got asked for my business card about 10 times tonight and had two of them tell me their theme and what they wanted me to paint.

Now I need to figure out when to raise mine! I saw someone in my area price by $125 per party for 15 faces...and $3 per face after that. I thought it sounded really high until I did the "fair face" count again and guess what...15 faces x $8 is $120...pretty dang close to it! She doesn't put a time on it...just a face count. I might have to do that because honestly, people keep trying to fit 25 kids in an hour. Maybe it's because Utah is full of large families but literally, every booking but two have been "cram a lot of faces into your hourly rate."

Tonight I played it better. I told a family I could do 15 in an hour for a family reunion...precisely because I've AGAIN been trying to bust a gut to fit a 2 hour party into an hour to SAVE THEM MONEY! Not that I don't want to be a fast face painter but WHY DO I ALWAYS DO THIS...even as a graphic artist I would literally work my entire shift at full speed and yet there were no bonuses attached...and expectations got raised, to my detriment, because then I became the go-to girl who could get anything done in any time frame and I was under appreciated.

Dang...I'm rambling. I need to figure out a better pricing system. Period.

D.

Wow, denise.. I was under the impression that you should do 10 face an hr at a birthday party.. 20 kids 2hrs..thanks for coming. 25 an hr omg agh

Birthday parties are my slow down mode(it's hard to rewind sometimes). I prefer to go slower and take my time at parties. It's not just paint faces leave, it's more of an entertaining experience. Each kid gets talked to and time to pick their colors out. My rates start at 10 kids in two hours. If they want more kids, they pay more and if it is over the two hours, the rate goes up. The reason, I do 10 kids in 2 hours is because of the birthday cake cutting, pony rides,and games mixed in There should be time for everything, plus I'm not rushing around like a mad woman!

I think I'm going to start offering package deals in October. I'm just trying to figure out where to stop. I'd like to offer an unlimited price. I've never went over 2 1/2 hrs with out everyone getting painted that wanted to be painted.

I think it was Shannon, and a few others on threads when I first started out, but I got the message loud and clear to figure out your value, then stick with that. At first, I had some people who said it was too much. I charge 75 an hour, tell them I can do between 8 and 12 faces an hour, and that the number is generally 10, and that is the magic number that they should use to decide how many hours they need. It bummed me out when they said it was too much at first, and I did reduce my two hour minimum to no minimum, which helped, but now I am not having trouble getting bookings. I get most of my bookings from birthday parties, at the party, so if I go to a festival and book a couple of parties, I know that that will multiply into more. I love Gig Salad too!

I do offer discounts to get the ball rolling, but don't lower my rate. I have a big sign at my festivals that offers a discount to anyone who books a party at the festival and pays the deposit that day...people like getting a deal! So I knock off 10 dollars off their first hour, and they seem happy.

Also, the whole charity idea, I pass on the ones who want a feebee to the girl scouts...my standard answer to "we have no budget, and that sends the right message that you don't get professionals if you have no budget, not for catering, not for event venues, and not for face painting! But first, if it is a charity I like, and I have nothing booked already, I offer them my charity (read, 501c3) deal of 45% of my regular rate. I was skeptical at first that this would work, but to my delighted surprise, the first charity I offered this to was so, so grateful to pay me...and that ended up being $33.75 per hour, which may be minimum wage, but...I got bookings! One party from that gig, turns into two...turns into three...You CAN collect deposts at charity evnts! Just have a good line wrangler with contratcts, your scheduel, and a Visa machine is helpful too.

Anyway, just sending a "Thank You" to everyone who has said not to undervalue yourself, mostly Shannon for her dierct and simple message about that!

@Tara, Your stuff is GREAT! I think that you could get more, if you were confident in that, even where you are. Have you tried the festival circut? There are festivals with low booth rentals, and if you can get your foot in the door with just one or two booking fro the festival with a "discount" off your higher price, you will soon be getting full price at a higher rate.

Craigs list creeps me out. I know that there are legitimate offers on there, but I have a bad feeling about it. The way that offer was worded from the 18 year old, it just seemed to me like a person with a dirty mind looking to read between the lines, might interpret that as something other than painting. Why would you even need to tell someone that you are just barely legal? It just makes me uncomfortable. I would not want my 19 yo daughter to offer anything on Craigs list...like...I am 19 years old, and I will clean your house for practically nothing! Call me! yuck. But maybe I am just old.

Martha

My birthday package is 2-hours and 15 kids max. They pay additional for additional kids... Birthday parties are not rush jobs.

Well, I charge $60 for 2 hrs at kids bday parties for now...I was trying to develop skill and speed. Gotta do it cheaper to get noticed...now I feel I can charge more because I'm better at it. Its not that i LIKE doing it cheap...but if I dont...i wont get calls. Single mom's got it rough I TELL YA!! haha. Now that I have enuf photos to show and advertise, I'm getting offers.......but i'm also being asked to do charity events like crazy....geez...i wish i had a BILLION DOLLARS IN SUPPLIES PEOPLE!!! haha. how much is too much and how much is too little. SERIOUSLY...what do i charge if i want to get work?

You need to find your medium, silvercord. I know many a painter who has confessed to getting MORE gigs when they raised their rates. It's often all about perception of value. I get my rate or I don't paint. I start at $100/hr and sometimes offer a discount on subsequent hours if I don't have to travel or if the booking is for more than 4 hours. I don't give any sort of discount on that first hour because when you say $100/hr and then say $75 for a two hour booking, what is stuck in the customer's mind is that you're a $75/hr painter. I tell my customers my first hours rate (if I'm offering a discount on subsequent hours) and my rate for the remainig hours...the first hour never changes in my spiel, and I let them know on my countract that they received a discount.

I decided long ago that I want to work for a certain type of customer...the one who can perceive the value of my skill and artwork (thank you Shannon) and the ones who want to lowball me are looking for a type of painter that I am not...desperate. Am I booked solid for the whole summer? Nope. Do I want to be? Nope. But I like the fact that I can make enough to make it worthwhile without having to always be gone and I get to spend time with my kids and laundry room. There are painters here who paint for $50/hr and they are busy, but they are also rapidly approaching burnout. This fun for me and that's exactly what I wanted to be. I'm more focused on raising the perception of body art in my area than making a quick buck and I've surrounded myself with like minded painters. Hopefully, in a year or two our area will come to expect that quality comes with a price tag. I know it's already happening because I've had callers ask me why I'm twice as expensive as some other painter they called and when I take them to my website, I've booked 80% of those clients.

If YOU don't believe you're worth your rate and let that belief be reflected in every aspect of your business, you're going to have a hard time selling it to the customer. Nothing will challenge your customer's belief in your value quicker than a willingness to quickly drop your prices when faced with the prospect of losing the sale or a booking rate that is noteably lower than the market majority. Charge what YOU feel you're worth, but be careful about low balling because it is harder than you think to raise those rates once you establish yourself as the "low man" on the pole unless your artwork drastically improves. The act of offering low rates to "break into" the industry can sometimes be seen as a bait and switch technique that often comes back to bite you on the arse.

take a look at my site, how am i doing so far?
...I ordered in a large amount of Kryolan, the most professional looking cakes i could find, (i like the containers), I've lined up a really wicked photographer who's willing to trade off my work for his...and 2 gorgeous models. .......gotta start somewhere right? expanding to include ALL body art...not just kiddies. .....hard to charge people that amount with a small amount of product and hardly any work to show. ...now that i have that building up...i think i can do it! I think i'm worth it $100/hr...maybe more....cuz of the variety of supplies i now use. appreciate the feedback! http://silvercordcreations.webs.com

maybe the pro photos and raising the rates WILL get me the high paying gigs i actually want to do...! I love this forum...everyone RULES! So helpful.