Pricing on your hourly rate

[Sherry]

Since I started face painting professionally a little over a year ago, I've really been unsure of what to charge and afraid to charge too much.  I think I did my first party at a ridiculously low price of $40 an hour.  Then I changed it to $50 an hour for a long time.  You soon realize that there's a lot more that goes into it... more than the hour or hours they actually have you painting. 

At the start of my second year, I upped it to $60 an hour.  It was right after this that I met a clown and she told me I was REALLY underpriced and that she charges $95 an hour for just straight face painting and that's not in clown.  I felt unsure, but went ahead and raised it to $70 an hour.

Now it's the start of my third year and I decided to raise it to $75 an hour.  I'm wondering what others are charging and your thoughts on it?  It seems like the more I raise it, the less complaints I get on the rate. 

[Glitterfly Faces]

I am in my first year of charging and I am at $50 an hour.  I am comfortable at this rate mostly for the experience. 

[MandiIlene]

I pretty much did the same as you Sherry, the first party was like $35, the the mom said that was ridiculous and gave me $50. Then I charged $45 for a little bit, then went to $55 (which is still my non-profit discount with 2+ hours) After the conventions and buying all wolfe, not snaz, I figured I had invested enough to do $75 an hour and thats what I am at now. Yes there are clowns around here that don't leave the house for less than $100, but I am trying to cater to more smaller birthday parties, not corporate gigs as I see that is my bread and butter around here. I mean I am in redneck-ville how many of these people have an extra 200 bucks laying around?!?!

~*~Mandi~*~

[sparklingfaces]

I would gauge it by your demand and area of operation.

I was booked every weekend and turned down an additional 5-6 jobs per saturday for about 2 months when I first started... I dont think I was well known or good - just cheap. I charged $45 per hour.

I raised my rates to $60 for the first hour then $50 each additional hour, and still had to turn down lots jobs. The only difference was that they wanted me to do detailed full face designs on 30-40 kids in an hour. Lots of angry parents when I said time was up and I had to leave due to another booking or when I said I could stay but they had to pay the $50 for the additional hour.

Now I charge $75 for the first hour and $50 each additional hour with a two hour minimum.
The minimum can be waived, but it just depends - I hate making someone with 10 kids pay for two hours, but dispise someone with 40 kids only booking me for 1 hour.

with my new rate my phone doesn't ring off the hook, but I stay pretty busy. Since raising my rates, I do alot more company sponsered events... those range from 2 - 4 hours events.

another way to think about it is if I hit a slump - I could always give a discount.  Which sounds great to parents who want to save money.  I usually get ALL the information before giving a quote. If they want one hour I say I can offer then $15 off my standard rates, if they want two hours, they can have $25 off their total service fee.
I call it an ~INTERNET DISCOUNT~ 

* on another note, there are alot of face painters where I am at and their rates START at $125 an hour.... so yeah

[Sherry]

Yes, I agree that your location really factors into it.  I was in the middle of nowhere up in Georgia and rarely got booked for parties.  It was more corporate bookings that were 45 minutes to an hour away at the nearest big city.  Or local festivals and fairs that I signed up for myself.

Now that I'm in Jacksonville, it's much easier to get booked.

[Alison]

This is too low.  $100 per hour - with a 2-3 hour minimum depending on how far you have to travel is more in line with the LOW prices that customers can get if they don't have to go through an Agent (who charges even more). 

Me - I also charge a $50 travel fee to go out of my county. 



HAVE YOU BEEN TO THE SUPERMARKET LATELY?
HAVE YOU BOUGHT A DINNER IN A DINER LATELY?  HOW ABOUT FOR YOUR WHOLE FAMILY?  WHAT ABOUT IF YOU ACTUALLY WANTED TO GO TO A NICE RESTAURANT?

[Kristal]

Sparkling - that's why I tell them how many I can do per hour, and if they're thinking there will be too many for the time they want - I warn them that I will do my best, but with that many kids, I can't guarantee that everyone will get something.

My first freelance gig I charged $45/h for 4 hours - and I thought I was ROLLING in it, because the co I worked for was paying me $11/h, haha! When I "really" started, I quoted $90/h, minimum times applying depending on location. (Some discounts at my discretion, but not many nor often.) I'm about a year and a half in, now, and taking into consideration the jump in my work from then until now, and that I'm going to the Vegas convention, I'm on a whole new level. I'm planning on upping my prices for after, but I'm not sure to what, yet. I also am keeping in mind that I do balloons too, and there are good painters here who don't twist/aren't good (most average $100/h), and there are excellent twisters who don't paint/aren't good (avg $140/h), but my niche here is that I do both things well. There are also the painters who are hurting us at $20 or $35/h. Ugh.

(That's for private parties. For corporate bookings, I just upped my prices in the fall, and I do $125 for the first hour, and $95 for each additional - and no one even blinks. Yay corporations!)

As of right now I'm averaging at least one event per weekend up until I come back from Vegas - at which point I have a 3 day gig. I'm a little nervy about upping my rate (It won't be a lot, I don't think - $100/h?), but I know I'm as good or better than the people charging $120/h, and I need to trust that I'm worth it, and I've got a pretty good niche cornered. (That, and the fact that A-if they like you, they'll want to keep you, B-they've got to keep up with the Jones's! C-many know that you get what you pay for, and it's worth it to pay more to have a better end result.)

[sparklingfaces]

Oh yes - I ALWAYS tell them how many faces I can do per hour, but some people don't care!

** was starting to rant but realized it was TMI ***

[Kristal]

Haha in which case do what you can do, and you've warned them 40 full faces in an hour? We're not superheroes...

[mrsito]

i have a realistic conversation with the host, or whoever is paying about the number of faces i can accomplish in an hour, i explain to then that it depends on the design, also how cooperative the child is..i charge 50/hr with a 2 hr minimum, something i'm comfortable with as i am barely a year into doing this.  i was told (quite rudely i thought) by one face painter in the area that i was ruining business for them because i charge lower rates per hour.  however, it's not like my phone is ringing off the hook.  i'm very green at this and i don't think i can charge as much as the more experienced people around.

8-10 faces an hour seems to be the approximate number for me, cheek designs to full on faces...however, because of the rainbow cakes i have, it has gone faster, specially is i have a row of girls who want crowns and butterflies...

i have done a gig at a party where i painted nonstop for 4 hours, and the host had to tell the guests that she was only paying for those hours, so everyone still standing in line either had to leave or pay per face...quite odd i thought, since they were guests at her party and i personally would never ask a guest to pay for a face painting at my party, but it's not my call...

[Sherry]

Did anyone stay and pay?  I'm thinking that probably cleared out your line pretty quickly.  And then what would you charge if someone did take her up on the offer?  I think I would have had a loss of words.  I don't do well when I'm put on the spot with pricing.  Sounds pretty awkward.

I really need to think these things through with pricing, for example, when people make me an offer, ask for a discount, want a quote for events out of my area, etc.  I usually take their name, number and email and let them know I'll get back with them.  But if I were put on the spot at an event, I don't know.

It's good to hear how others are pricing.  If not, I might have been less confident in raising my prices.  In fact, I gave a referal my old rate right before I read Kristal and Alison's post.  After reading it was common for many face painters to charge $100 an hour or more I'm not as worried to charge higher rates.

[Party Picassos Facepainting]

I don't charge for travel, so my rates fluctuate with the distance. For church/school friends - $75 and others depends on distance. I started at a much lower rate many years ago. I remember being delighted making $60 an hour for hospital events (4-5 hour gigs). I never understood how other artists where charging so much for their time ($100+), but then I started using all the "right" products and seeing insurance prices and now I understand perfectly. When someone offers to "help" me if there is a LOOOOONG line, I inform them that my products are too costly to have kids touching them. They are only for me.

I too wish that my phone was ringing off the hook. Gotta get off my backside and get the website up and running.

Question:
Those who post videos on youtube. Does that increase your bookings and calls? Curious.

[sparklingfaces]

I have not gotten anything from youtube videos, however, they are posted on my site and I think that makes viewers to my site more comfortable with me.

soooo... yes and no.

I have had customers who call and said they saw the video on my site and was amazed that I could paint myself. But strait from youtube, no.

[Kristal]

i have done a gig at a party where i painted nonstop for 4 hours, and the host had to tell the guests that she was only paying for those hours, so everyone still standing in line either had to leave or pay per face...quite odd i thought, since they were guests at her party and i personally would never ask a guest to pay for a face painting at my party, but it's not my call...

Oh dear! I too want to know what the outcome was...

I've pretty much decided on $100/h for birthdays, 2 h min. (This way I don't feel the need to charge a travel fee, whereas I would want to if they wanted an hour in a city a half hour away, say. There's a twister here who charges a base of $170/h for our city, then adds travel fees, plus extra if it's downtown - parking, plus downtown is a pain in the rear - plus extra if it's after 7:00pm. I can't do that! Once I can paint/twist anything that gets thrown to me, that's another story, but right now, I still can't figure out how to twist a weasel.) I'm going to email all of my past clients, and tell them that my rate is going up because of material costs and skill level/training, but they'll also have access to printable invitations and I will bring my own chair - and for 2010, I'll offer any parties they have for $95 - up from $90, but still better than $100. Minor incentive, but it's not much more than I charged before.

I'm also thinking of (attempting) to put a written cap on the number of kids - max of 15 kids per 2 hour party (remember, balloons too!). I know some say that every extra child is $5 or something, but I think that would be far too finicky and confusing. I'm pretty good with gaging which balloons to offer with how much time I have left, but having 22 kids show up when you're expecting 14 is the start of being frazzled...

I'm in a bit of a debate with myself over 1 hourly rate for a min time vs a rate I'm ok with if I was to just do 1 h. OR if they want 1 h only, then I have a list of travel prices that are waived for 2+ hours.

Thoughts?

[Sherry]

I like the idea of a cap on the number of kids.  There's so much to think about when pricing.  I charge a $20 travel fee if they are just outside the city, but I sometimes forget to ask them where they're located while I have them on the phone.  If I quote them one price and don't mention the travel fee at the initial contact, I worry the extra fee won't go over well.  So this has me thinking more about the possibility of raising the rate, making it a 2 hour minimum, or just making the initial hour high and a lower rate for each additional hour. 

Back to the number of kids idea.  Even though I always tell them how many children I can do in an hour, I still get customers booking for one hour, but expecting many more faces than are possible.