pricing question

so i've gotten really good at flowers and swords and one or two smaller animal things. (wowza.....i know its not much)

I was thinking of doing these at my next event. Probably just offering 2 balloon flowers/butterflies for the girls and 1 balloon swords for boys.

What do you charge for this. I have no clue.

when I'm at a party or event hourly, it's the same hourly rate as face painting. When I do pay per face events with balloons, my balloons are $1 per balloon in the sculpture (so a puppy or sword or teddy bear are $1, a flower or spiderman or butterfly or unicorn are $2, larger designs are $3)... I don't usually go any higher than $3, but I don't do anything more complicated than a 3 balloon penguin or princess crown either. I CAN do some slightly more elaborate things at home, but those take way too long to do them with a lineup of kids. And as Glitterfly could tell you from this weekend, they DO line up for them... around the corner this past weekend.

The balloons tend to be for the mom's who won't pay $5 for a small design face painting... I can twist out balloons twice as fast as most face painting designs (and I already paint pretty fast), so I do VOLUME on balloons.

hmmm...good info perry. thanks.

It's my time, so whether birthdays want face painting or balloons or both, it's my hourly rate. I'm pretty equal with both things. Events I do one or the other, but I still charge the same.

For PPB I usually have a 2 or 3 level pricing tier - and it's usually around the $1-$1.50 per balloon mark, depending on complexity/time, as well as number of balloons. Usually something like $3/6/10. $3 for flowers, hippos, bees, crowns etc. $6 for princess wands, sitting fairies, flower bracelets with rings inside. $10 for giant monkeys/dragon hats/red puppets (aka Elmo )

I know what you mean. I do the "simple" stuff like sword, dog (well once you learn that you can do all sorts of stuff), flowers, etc.. so I offer it as an added perk not a solo thing yet. I usually charge $30-40 more depending on the number of kids...1 bag of qualatex 260 that came with 250(?) balloons cost me like $7 or something like that so, yeah, it's an income boost

If we're charging per balloon, we charge by the size/complexity of the piece. "standard" balloons we usually charge $2-3 for. "Specialty" balloons go for $4-$5, while "sculptures" usually go for $8-$10 (think Scooby Doo). Larger sculptures (i.e. Wall-E) are never done at an event due to the length of time the liine would be tied up.

Where do you get 260's for $7 a bag! I get them for $25 a bag and thats almost wholesale in Oz, I should be shipping from the US.

For PPB we charge $1 a balloon, so a 3 balloon design would be $3. This makes it easier for making change, etc.
I charge $25 more an hour for balloon twisting. My daughter gets $20 of that & the $5 goes into the balloon budget to replenish supplies. I've wondered if I'm under pricing in this area, but since it's an add on....

We charge $1 a balloon for most things. But if we are at a high traffic area,like sometimes we go to the mall then we start at $2. So a sword is $2 and animal single balloon is $2. But if I am at a flea market then we just charge $1 for a dog or what have you. We get $5 for hats. Anything larger we do on order so that it doesn't mess with the line. I just started helping and I was amazed at how fun it was and yeas PERRY the profit margin is great. a nickel a balloon for $2 is awesome. I am so really wanting to learn cool new designs.

Anyway, we charge an hourly rate for birthdays at then we only offer simple one to two balloon designs that are easy and give the birthday kid something really neat.