WHAT A WASTE OF MAJOR TIME!

[Party Picassos Facepainting]

I had a gig yesterday for an art and craft show that was a bit over an hour's drive.
My husband didn't want me venturing out alone, so we got a great friendship to sit the kids,
and left the house at 7 am.

We arrive around 8 am, the door open around 9 am. It's their first A & C event run by their PTA.
Didn't know that. There are only 20 vendors at best and it's a rainy yucky day. It was to be open
until 4 pm. We left around 2 pm. 6 hours of sitting there - I painted, maybe 8 kids
(4 were kids belonged to PTA officers). I made around $40.

Approx 3 people took bus. cards, one woman wants me to do a vendor fair (for a $25 table)
(1 1/2 hrs from home) and the PTA wants me back for the Christmas Shopping with Santa
on a Sat. in Dec - $25 fee for the table. Got one lead from a Chiropractor who wants something
for their Kids Day event; so I would get an hourly rate! But it too is FAR from home.

What made it really suck is that it's my bday weekend. I would have preferred staying in bed
until 9 or 10 and maybe have the hubby and kids spoil me rotten.

I have a Lady's Wine Testing and Vendor Fair at a great Restaurant/lounge on Tuesday for 4 hours.
I hope that goes better. If nothing else, it's close to home and I can pass out
lots of cards and maybe paint a few intoxicated moms! Sorry for whining, but I needed to vent!

[reginanewsum]

Honey it's ok to vent to us! I have to also do it to! We are all close wonderful friends, we understand! Yes I understand your long day, I have been there and done that! 30 miles from my home, a gal called me and asked me to do there home tour! It was (she said) a very very large event for there town. About one hundred vendors, and nothing for the kids! The cost for being in it was $200.00 for the weekend! I bartered a cost with her of 10% of my total sales, as I do that with alote of events! Well I got there at 7am in the morning cold and rainy! The show was from 9am to 6pm. I sat all day on Saturday and not painted even one face. The gal told me there was tons of kids! Hmmmm WHERE! So I went back on Sunday, and it was not raining but again never painted one face! I did do one glitter tatto for $5.00! So I owed the gal ahhhhhhhh fifty cents!  She waved the fee for me!!!!!!!! ?  So now I have taken "THE HOME TOUR" off my list of gigs!  As I have removed CRAFT SHOWS from my list of events! Family fun events are great for me, but ask to not be placed with the craft vendors! You are not a craft vendor, you are an artists!  You have nothing on a table to sell and put in a bag, you must sell your self and your art. The great place to be placed I think is by the food vendors! Every one eats! And you will be seen. Happy painting

[Sherry]

We win some and lose some, but at least you know what event you WON'T be doing next time.  Ha!

 I remember starting out a did a lot more events where I bombed, but I can see things improving each year.  Mostly paid events now and great gigs with repeat bookings.  Persistence is a wonderful thing!

 I still seem to get sucked into these low pay events though.  I know that I don't do well at Farmer's Markets, yet, I had the lady request I come out for 2 weekends in October.  Since she waived the booth fee, I went ahead and did it... thinking, "why not?"  I seem to have a hard time saying no.  If I'd taken my time and really thought it through, I would have realized that spending 3 - 4 hours at the Farmer's Market and making $25 - $40 wasn't worth passing up paying gigs in the busiest month of the year!

I'm a bit leary of taking on new far away events too because, like you showed, far away events lead to more "far away" events.  I don't mind a long travel time personally, if I'm being paid to be there, but when I have to pay a booth fee, I don't like the risk.

[Sherry]

Forgot to add... sorry you wasted your birthday weekend.  Hugs!  Sending good vibes your way for your next event.  Sounds fun. 

[littleprecious]

sorry to hear that it was an unsuccessful weekend for you. Hopefully you won't get many more of those! I had a low taking weekend too

[Party Picassos Facepainting]

On Tuesday, I had the Women's Wine Tasting and Vendor Fair
at a great restaurant and lounge not far from home. I enjoyed the
night away from my kids' homework, spoke to a few of the vendors, ate yummy
samples of their catering items(!), painted ONE face and handed out some bus. cards.

I won't say it was a waste of five hours. You never know where your next job is coming from.
It was enjoyable and the table was free. Just had to pay for kid sitting after school.
In this business, it ebbs and flows. Sometimes massive success and other times,

Looking forward to the next PAID event!

[FairyDust_Faces]

ugh, yup. right there with ya. Ive (like all of us) have had some events that flopped. but then there are the ones you *never* thought would do any good that rock...so there is a trade off. I also try and look at it that there is *some* reason I did this event. either i made money, or i made a great connection or something. AND just to make it more difficult sometimes its not obvious at the time what the reason was -- but there always is one!