Question for those who 'hire' for birthday parties

[Lorna in the boonies]

(Not sure that title makes any sense, but I will hope that people click on it, anyway.);)

 

My 12 year old has really gotten quite good at balloon twisting. He can make pretty much anything. His only experience thus far has been making balloons for people in restaurants and stores (ones which are receptive to the idea). He does this on a volunteer basis, because he loves it, but he has been given tips on occasion. He has been asked by several people if he does birthday parties, and what his rates are.

 

Tonight, he is working at a church harvest party. They have a large turnout every year, and he was told to bring no less than 1,000 balloons. He has spent the morning blowing them up in preparation.

 

If past experience proves true, he will be asked many times tonight if he does parties. He does have business cards made up, and they will be available to those who ask.

 

I have no idea what an acceptable rate would be for a 12 year old boy. We pay in the neighborhood of $8 for a package of 100 balloons, and of course I would have to drive him to and from, so there is a gas factor (we live about 10 miles out of town).

 

He would like to make enough money to cover expenses and to give himself some spending money.

 

If you have hired someone for a party before and if you have some idea of what is realistic, would you please chime in and give us a clue?

 

Any ideas you have would be appreciated! He doesn't want to charge too much, but he doesn't want to charge too little, either. I am thinking it might be wise to do an 'X amount for the first hour, Y amount for each additional hour' type of thing -- but I don't have a clue what the X and the Y should be!

 

Thanks for any help you can give us!!!:bigear:

[plansrme]

I'm in the Atlanta metro area, where kids' parties are a huge business, and I would expect to pay at least $50 for an hour's worth of balloon-making, and quite possibly more. We were at an outdoor art festival recently where a professional was making balloon animals for $1 or $2 each, depending on complexity. She always had a line of 4 or 5 kids waiting. I think she would easily have cleared $50 an hour. I would not expect to pay a 12 yo less than an adult for this type of service.

 

If he's looking to expand beyond parties, I've been in restaurants that hired a balloon maker to go around and make balloon animals for the customers. It was great fun for the kids.

 

Terri

[Annie G]

How many can he make in an hour? You have to consider both extremes - someone wants him to come to their party and they have ten kids coming. How long would he be needed at such an event? And yet the harvest party...1000 balloons in what I imagine to be just a few hours is a LOT to expect of a kid. And he's spent $80 on those balloons?

 

I would think for a family party, $20 for the first hour ( which covers balloon costs and your gas in addition to his pay) and then about $10 an hour after that. For a large event, like the harvest party...wow...he's going to have to quote those separately because if he's spending time blowing balloons up in advance, he has to be paid for that. And his balloon expenses will be higher.

 

Has he thought about doing fall festivals or renaissance fairs? They are usually quite reasonably priced for vendors and making things like swords or hats is a huge hit- and a way to get his name out there for private events.

 

My prices may sound too low but he's quite young still, and with little overhead, he'd make a decent wage for a teenager.

[bettyandbob]

I'll throw something out here. You need to cover the cost of the balloons and transportation. If you were to use one package of balloons for a party, that's $8 plus $3 for transit. Now, you need to figure total hours involved. He has to spend time preparing ahead. At the party he won't just sit by himself, he will likely be a major source of entertainment (I like watching people do that). Based on his age and depending on your geographic location, I'd start between $30 and $40 and event (At a minimum, I think your son should have at least $20 after expenses following a typical birthday party). More if it's a larger event --more materials more pre-party prep.

 

You might want to look up what "professionals" in your area charge. Local parent magazines have ads for this sort of thing. Your son should charge a lot less, because he's young and just getting started, but if works out he can certainly up his rates.

[lynn]

I agree with the poster that because he is a child he should not get paid less than adults. Most entertainers like that get $30-50 first hour then $10-20 each additional hour. Do you have time to print some business cards or flyers to hand out tonight? Good for him for making money for something he loves to do.

[Lorna in the boonies]

Thanks, everyone! I really appreciate your input.

 

Some more information:

 

The church is reimbursing his cost for the party tonight, so it's no expense for him. He is looking at it primarily as a means of exposure. He is capable of doing multi-balloon sculptures and does several of them very well, but due to the high traffic tonight, he's going to have kids choose from a list -- and everything on the list will be a one-balloon item.

 

He has business cards, a personalized baseball cap, and a magnet on the side of our van (courtesy of vistaprint.com). He has a name and an e-mail address which is solely for his balloon business.

 

We are outside of a smallish town (100,000), and the cost of living is on the low side (as is pay). (For example, we paid $60,000 for our 1900 square foot house on 2/3 of an acre in 2005.)

 

Thanks for the ideas, ladies! I'd love to hear more opinions!

[Jann in TX]

Just because your son is 12 does not mean that he will not need a business license/tax ID number. Make sure you check your county/state regulations.

 

Once he starts advertising--and it sounds like he has--he is liable even as a minor. Fines can add up quickly. It definitely is worth a call to make sure your son is creating his business legally. In many states you can earn $600 before you are liable for taxes...

 

I use T. Meyers for my ballooning supplies. Great prices and fast service--and best of all FRESH balloons. Qualatex 260Q is my balloon of choice.

[Lorna in the boonies]

Jann,

 

Thanks for your help. I actually tried to check out the T. Meyers website before we ordered, but the site was down. We ended up going with Ziggos balloons (in too much of a rush to bother with linking at the moment, as I am the official balloon-blowing-up-assistant and we are rather busy right now).;)

 

We ordered Qualatex 260, as well -- the total for the balloons was actually only $50-something, but because we had to rush the shipping, that was an additional $30. He usually buys from Hobby Lobby at $7/package, but those are not Qualatex and Hobby Lobby informed him this past Saturday that they're not going to carry them any longer (which is why we had to pay the rush fee on the shipping from Ziggos).

 

May I ask, since you appear to be in my general neck of the woods (I'm in West Central TX), what you think an appropriate fee would be?

 

We will run the whole issue by our tax man (who will actually be at the party tonight, though I'm not sure he'll want to talk shop right then and there).;)

 

Thanks so much for your thoughts! It's nice to hear from someone who is on the performing side, as well as all those who are contributing on the client side.:)

[myfunnybunch]

My dd (15) paints faces at birthday parties. She's very good. She charges $20/hour.

 

She got started by doing something similar to what your son is doing. She went to the park, painted faces for free, and passed out her business card.

 

Cat

[Jann in TX]

Well--I 'twist' for charity events only--but my suggested fee (donation) is around $50 for 2 hours--and I've been doing this for a LONG time. I have a clown costume (extra pockets for balloons) and the whole set up...

 

I find I can usually make it 2 hours easily if I am by myself--and that will cover about 100 kids--but no more than 150.

 

** Keep a lotion (I like Burts Bees Almond butter) on hand to help with the dry fingers.

 

I suggest that tonight you have someone to 'assist' your son who can make simple swords--this will service the most children in a short amount of time. It is good that he has made a 'list' for the children to choose from--line work--especially in large crowds when you are 'alone' can be very hectic.

 

For a beginner I think that $20-$25 an hour is reasonable (balloons and travel included).

 

Some people (even 'tax people') may tell you not to worry about reporting a child's income--but be aware that this is NOT sound legal advice. If you think that there is any way your son will make over $500 a year with this new venture--then you will need to make sure his business is set up legally--a great way to teach your son economics (plus he would be able to purchase supplies wholesale...).

 

__

 

One more thing about balloons. The 'freshness' really does matter. Purchasing from a retail store (Hobby Lobby...) will only guarantee that you have INFERIOR balloons. The fresh/professional ones are cheaper and will twist so much easier with less popping. Store any unused balloons in a cool/dark place or even in the refrigerator. If twisting outside keep an ice pack in cooler with the balloons and only take out what is needed every few minutes. Warm balloons BREAK (this is experience talking).

 

TMeyers is located in Austin. I try to get up there and pick my balloons up in person to save postage... Since you live in Texas the balloons should arrive the next day if you order in the am.

 

 

Have FUN!

[Harriet Vane]

I can't help you on the cost question, but I do recommend you purchase a hand-pump for your son. My dh also does balloon animals, and he is downright sore after doing a big party. A pump really helps.

[st_claire]

I'd say $50 for 2 hours would be a good birthday party rate. It's great that he is trying to start his own business. Kudos to him.

[Lorna in the boonies]

UPDATE:

 

We had to leave before I read the last few responses, so I didn't factor them in.

 

We blew up 400 balloons at home (using dh's compressor) and carried the remaining 600 with us in their packages, since we had been asked to take 1,000. He twisted and passed out 300 of them. At that point, there was still about an hour left in the party (it was from 5:00-9:00), but he was exhausted. A short time later, there was a break in the action, and we took that opportunity to close up shop.

 

I held a couple of garbage bags with balloons and stood next to the list of available items -- I let each child choose their balloon and select what they wanted from the list, and they handed it to ds and told him what they wanted. It ran pretty smoothly that way.

 

He handed out quite a few business cards and has booked his first party for Thursday, November 20. After reading the varied responses here, we decided to test the waters by splitting things down the middle, and decided that he would initially set his rates at $35 for the first hour and $15 for each hour after that (it would have been lower if I had seen Jann's latest post before we left, since he is a beginner and this equals her experienced rate). We decided that we would start there, and if people appeared to balk, then we would lower them the next time he was asked.

 

He had two different types of reaction to those rates. The first one was, "Oh, that's a really great price!" The other one we heard was, "That's a very reasonable rate. We can afford that." Nobody seemed to think he was asking too much at all. I guess that means we were pretty close to the mark.

 

So, thanks to you ladies, in a couple of weeks my son will be spending one hour with 10 four-year-old girls, making butterflies and other girlie stuff, and he will get $35 for his trouble.

 

Thanks for all your help -- we both really appreciate it!