Cost for first gig?

[Mermaid Sirenia]

Hi guys! So Mermaid Kariel just hooked me up with my first birthday gig! It's a little girl turning 6, and she has a big fear of the water, and apparently her love of mermaids has been helping her face her fear:) anyways I was wondering what I should put for the price? I don't want to be too high in price since it's my first gig, but I have no idea! Help!


~Mermaid Sirenia~

[Raayvhen]

Do some research on other people in your area and see what they charge for kid parties. Princesses, clowns, etc. And try to make yourself comparable to what they charge. Just because it's your first gig don't undersell yourself.

[Cordelia]

That is a great suggestion Raayvhen! Especially since pricing can vary greatly according to the area. Hopefully, Savannah, you'll be able to do a quick google search and find pricing information on companies' websites. Also, check the yellow pages online. Sometimes there is a link to a website, but at the very least you should be able to find business names. Good luck!

[Chrissy]

I was going to say the something. I have been keeping up with party princess clowns magicians and kid entertainers and try to be reasonable on the price!!! Keep us updated o. How the party goes and if you were able to get her to swim with you. Any tips and tricks to pass along is appreciated

[Odette]

Perfect advice already given. =) compare with other entertainers and match your price to that. Do you want them to put down a deposit fee? Do you want to charge a certain price to just show up then add a certain amount for every hour after that? How about you get paid per hour and also add on cost of travel which may be as small as $10 to drive there and back. I usually first ask where the cross streets are and determine how much gas it will take. Do you want to charge extra for having over maybe 10 kids at the party? Stuff like that will need to be determined. and deposit fee price can be a flat amount of let's say $25 or what I do is make it 25% of the whole price. Will the deposit be refundable for the first 48 hours or never? Figure what works for you and the clients that usually come to you. What does Kariel charge? Might be good to base it off of that. Also, how and when do you want to get paid and always make sure you can make receipts. You can get these little receipt papers at Walmart in the office section. Hope I helped some. :pearl:

[Mermaid Sirenia]

Ok guys so I was looking up kids entertainment in my area (no princess or other mermaid ones, only a few clowns and magicians) and these people are quite expensive. 100+ PER HOUR! Of course I understand since this is some peoples full time jobs, but I don't want to be THAT pricey! Especially since this is my first gig!


~Mermaid Sirenia~

[Raayvhen]

That sounds comparable to my area. If you don't feel comfortable with that maybe start at $75 for say... 8 kids per hour and tack on an extra $5 per extra kid/hr? So example, if there's 10 kids for 2 hours you'd be looking at $160 you're still $40 cheaper than others but you're making it worth your time.

[Mizuko]

$100 is actually rather cheep for an hour ;)
When you take in to account tail repairs, costume (shell bra, accessories, etc), travel costs, gifts (if you give any), games/stories/etc, it adds up!

[shimmygoddess]

I agree with Mizuko. For birthday parties I charge over $200/ hr. Pricing varies depending if it is just a basic swim, or kids party. When I do appearances I charge less. I have been a performer doing bellydance for years and pretty much stick w/ that basic pricing. Always have a contract, I require a 50% non refundable deposit to book any event. When you are first starting out, you might feel weird charging so much, but what will happen is, they will tell people the price and when you start getting more gigs, people will say " oh but so and so said you did it for $100?" why cant I get that same rate. LOL. So just be careful. I did an appearance at a public pool and charged $100 for about 1 1/2 hrs. and it was so not worth it. I am doing another similar one with the same business/ different location and pool though and went up to $200/ hr and they were perfectly fine with that.


$100 is actually rather cheep for an hour ;)
When you take in to account tail repairs, costume (shell bra, accessories, etc), travel costs, gifts (if you give any), games/stories/etc, it adds up!

[SIF]

I put up my flyers with 55 an hour, plus another 30 to the total if they want a fabric tail gifted to the child in question and that seemed to do alright in terms of ramping up a good gig every few weeks/weekly. It's a good idea to charge a small fee extra if they are going to have a party over a certain amount of kids, especially if it's on land, because there are only so many you can control on land, whilst in a tail.

[Slee]

Thank you guys. I just got asked by a friend of a friend about doing a birthday party, and immediately thought "hey, if I'm going to consider doing parties, I better check the forum for business advice, because some mermaid won't make a habit out of doing this for free."

[AniaR]

100$ per hour is below market price. We charge 160$ for a 1 hour swim party because we live in a poorer place and even that is low. Packages work great as opposed to hourly rates.

[Sherielle]

I do regular events as other characters and the going rate for that is $120.00/hour.
Don't undersell yourself. You would do yourself and the other performers a disfavor. If someone starts to charge less, then the other acts have to charge less to keep up and then everyone is losing money.

[AniaR]

packages work best because parties arent typically booked "by the hour" meaning someone isnt going to see your rate and go hey 3 hour party. We have a package that includes an hour , and a package that includes 2 hours but one hour is swimming and one hour is party room. We dont usually take parties beyond that because quite honestly, kids lose interest and mermaids lose stamina. Now rates for public events are different, but parties are just a party they can only be so long.

[Sherielle]

packages work best because parties arent typically booked "by the hour" meaning someone isnt going to see your rate and go hey 3 hour party. We have a package that includes an hour , and a package that includes 2 hours but one hour is swimming and one hour is party room. We dont usually take parties beyond that because quite honestly, kids lose interest and mermaids lose stamina. Now rates for public events are different, but parties are just a party they can only be so long.

I absolutely agree with this.