Charging per face a birthday parties......???

I had my rates at $80 for 15 kids for a while. I got really confusing. I recently changed (with help from the ladies here) to an hourly rate with being really up front about how many faces I can do in an hour.

So do you guys charge the next level group rate even if they miss the lower level by only one child or do you have a rate to add on just one additional child?

I say up to 12 kids, with $5 each additional child (this compensates me for the extra time if needed), but I USUALLY won't charge the additional child fee until they get over 15 or so. I can usually handle painting 12 to 15 kids in the 30 to 45 minutes that I allow for face painting in my party packages.... as long as they don't all want to be jaguars or something, but there's usually a couple of spiderman faces, a few butterflies or puppies and those are just so fast I can catch up from the more detailed ones then.

Perry Noia wrote:I say up to 12 kids, with $5 each additional child (this compensates me for the extra time if needed), but I USUALLY won't charge the additional child fee until they get over 15 or so. I can usually handle painting 12 to 15 kids in the 30 to 45 minutes that I allow for face painting in my party packages.... as long as they don't all want to be jaguars or something, but there's usually a couple of spiderman faces, a few butterflies or puppies and those are just so fast I can catch up from the more detailed ones then.

Up to 12 kids in how long? 30 or 45 minutes? I'm really slow I take up to 10 mins on each face. I don't know what I'm doing wrong..

Don't panic. 10 minutes is okay. For years I did not worry about speed... and I still don't, but with experience I have developed my speed and skills and can "dumb down" many more involved designs to increase my speed when I have to.

My regular full faces I advertise as 4-7 minutes, "fast faces" are 2-4 minutes.

When I am painting for photographs or designs I'm playing with it can take 20-30 minutes!!

Speed is important, sure, if you are having to paint hundreds of people in a never-ending line, but, small birthdays or private parties are not usually concerned with how fast you are but how good you are.

Shannon Fennell wrote:Don't panic. 10 minutes is okay. For years I did not worry about speed... and I still don't, but with experience I have developed my speed and skills and can "dumb down" many more involved designs to increase my speed when I have to.

My regular full faces I advertise as 4-7 minutes, "fast faces" are 2-4 minutes.

When I am painting for photographs or designs I'm playing with it can take 20-30 minutes!!

Speed is important, sure, if you are having to paint hundreds of people in a never-ending line, but, small birthdays or private parties are not usually concerned with how fast you are but how good you are.

Speaking of speed...I have a client who wants me to paint at his family reunion..he is bringing 15 grandchildrens and the other family is bringing 15 more. total of 30. He said not all of them will be willing to get paint, but ill be painting approx. 20 to 25 in 2 hours..on my web site says that I can only paint from 12 to 15 in a 2 hrs period..I like to add details and spend some time on the design. the truth I rarely get more than 12... He said is ok for me to stay xtra 30 mins there , he is fine with it but I'm not..I have another gig after that with less childrens and I dont want to be rush and stress out for the amount of money I will get paid....what should i tell him? How should I back up. He called me while I was sitting on traffic I told him I was gonna call him back , I havent yet.

I paint REALLY fast... to be honest, I have trouble slowing myself down. I am by no means a perfectionist. Don't worry about being THAT fast.

As far as 20 kids in 2 hours, that's 6 minutes per child. If you can do 10 minutes per child, then you can probably find a few ways to make it work... pick your 5 fastest designs and only offer those designs for that party, in whatever colours, but only those designs. Also, let them know that they have to know which design they want BEFORE they sit in your chair or you are going to the next child. Be totally up front that you have another gig immediately afterward and cannot stay extra time. That it will be very hard to paint that many children in that time and leave it up to him whether he wants to take the chance of not all the children getting painted or not do it.

While you don't want to paint badly because it reflects badly on your business, there are ways of speeding up designs to make them faster. Limit the number of colours in the design, leave out the extra swirls and dots (this time), use lots of glitter

I hope that helps... I'm fast, but I"m certainly not the best painter out there or on this site. I've just always done my creative works very quickly, it's how my brain works creatively. If I started to fuss with it, I'd probably wash off the whole thing and start over again, painting just as quickly as the first time.

Mirandas wrote:He said is ok for me to stay xtra 30 mins there , he is fine with it but I'm not..I have another gig after that with less childrens and I dont want to be rush and stress out for the amount of money I will get paid....what should i tell him? How should I back up. He called me while I was sitting on traffic I told him I was gonna call him back , I havent yet.

You just have to reiterate that you can paint X# per hour and that you, unfortunately, do have another booking after his so that you are not available to stay extra time. Offer to do something else such as glitter tattoos if you have them. Or choose a few designs that you KNOW you can paint fast and tell him that you would have to limit the choice of designs in order to accommodate HIS increase in numbers. You were clear about how many you can paint when he booked you.

Thanks to all!!! I spoke to him already..and told him that he should consider adding an extra artist so we both can paint the 25 kids in 2 hours..I said i will have to charge him extra..He said he couldnt pay..I was like Ok..Thanks .lol. Later on I booked another gig for the same day only 10 mins away from the other event..Small party but want me to stay 2 hrs..YAY! didn't loose anything.

P.S: I love this forum, And I love the fact that you guys here are so helpful,and willing to share your knowledge and experience with people like me...Thanks all!!!!