contracting my face painting service

[kicorb]

 Hi There ,
I have been contracting my face painting service out to a local entertainment company .He gives me quite a few  corporate jobs. I am having a hard time understanding the ins and outs of what I should be charging him.  The first few years that I worked with him he paid me $50/hr and I charged my other clients $75. I have had people tell me that I am giving him too good of a deal considering my costs. Lately I have decided to raise my prices a bit to my clients and to him. My prices to my regular clients for corporate are $95/hour and I give him a 25% discount. I know that he charges $125/hr for corporate. He says that he can't pay me these new prices. I know for a fact that his clients rave about our face painting and he doesn't have many professional , creative face painters to choose from.
 He keeps suggesting to me that I up my prices to corporations because he obviously doesn't want to compete with me.  I do not want to do this..and am happy with my prices the way they are. Can someone give me a sense of what I should do here? I still would like to work for his company but I want to make sure I am getting paid a fair hourly wage.
Thank-you for any advice!

[Sherry]

I wouldn't let him pressure you into raising your prices if you're comfortable with the rates you're charging.  It's your business and I believe you have a right to run it the way you see fit.

If he's charging customers $125 an hour and paying you $50 an hour, then I would think you'd be safe in raising your prices, but that is your call and what you feel comfortable with.

Hope this helps.

[Glitterfly Faces]

I agree with Sherry. 
Why is he using you as the middle man?  He pays you a fraction to do all the work?

Sorry just not understanding how that works.

[Alison]

I agree with Sherry. 
If one client doesn't want to pay us our regular rate, another one will.
And it's the same way with Agents.

What many Agents do is
to ask the Artist what she charges clients to work directly with her.
She can charge whatever she wants.
Then the Agent tacks his fee onto the Artist's regular price.
Yes - It is more expensive for a client to buy from an Agent than to buy directly from the Artist -
that's why they consider themselves lucky If They Can Find Us Directly.
The Agent supposedly gets paid for the superior job he does marketing us.