FAQ - Evaluate your business

Is your business stalling out at $10,000 to $20,000 per year and you think you have tried everything? Maybe it is time to sit back and evaluate or let someone else evaluate your business. Consider this...

1) A lot of failures are due to your business dynamics. To make a decent living you really need a minimum population base of 100,000+ within a 30 minute mile radius

2) You might be over or under priced considering the competition and your skills

3) You might need to improve your range of photos, increase (or decrease) the number of faces you paint per hour

4) You might need to upgrade your professionalism. Do you have a professional looking kit, attire? How is your presentation? Are you messy when you paint and turn people off?

5) You might need to allow your peers to critique everything from your painting to your business card

6) You might need to diversify more to see what works best. Festivals, birthday parties, restaurants, malls, sports etc. etc.

7) Check out your rates with the competition. Are you too high for your skills versus theirs? Make sure it is apples to apples.

8) Have you given it time? It takes 3 or 4 years to make more than $30,000 a year. Tenacity, Tenacity, Tenacity.

9) Offer SOME free face painting at high exposure spots but you choose the work you do. In other words do school or church carnivals but do not get tricked into fast rainbows and hearts. They will not impress anyone. Do your great 5 or 6 minute faces and send those billboards walking around with your card. If it is a low profit or free event YOU DECIDE what you will or will not paint. Again, little hearts will NOT earn you business.

10) Look for public festivals in your area from Art Festivals to Ethnic Events (like an Irish Festival). Think of them as exposure rather than profit centers. Make sure you are sending out great faces (5 to 6 minutes each, not 30 or 1). If the line starts to form them charge more and more and go from there.

11) To make it financially you probably can not earn much more than $25,000 to $30,000 as a solo face painter. The real money is with the McDonald's principle. Do not sell burgers at one location but at a thousand locations and make all the burgers the same and make a little off each burger sold. Build a team of your own. Corporate accounts generally want multiple workers.

12) Diversify. If you face paint consider adding ballooning, henna, temp-tattoos etc. To upside your work.

13) Read ALL OF THE Frequently Asked Questions at www.rubyredpaint.com/faq.htm You will learn so much from experts from all over the world.

14) Get on the discussion list for face painters at the bottom of www.Ruby Red Paints.us and ask a lot of questions and use the expertise of 1600 fellow painters from around the world

15) Get a professional business card and pass them out like candy. Post them everywhere from the schools to the donut shop.

16) Get a website that looks great. More and more people are using the internet.

17) Get a $10 listing at www.rubyredpaint.com/hold/painter.htm and consider locations like PartyPop.com

18) If you are brave, let your peers critique your business from top to bottom.

19) Go to some classes or face painting conventions in order to upgrade your skills.

20) Use a business analysis. The challenge is to find someone that understands your niche business. You might be able to find someone in your area that can do this. Have a written business plan with financial cash flow to present. Have all of your marketing in hand. Be prepared to have them watch you paint somewhere. I do this specifically for face painters and entertainers but it gets expensive. You fill out a bunch of forms so I can properly analyze your business and see history. I then come to your location and literally review everything you do from your skills, to your marketing to review the potential in your area. I start with a $ 600.00 charge for a 5 hour session ($100 for each additional hour) PLUS you pay airfare, one night in a hotel, rental car and food during my visit. It could be well over $1000 but you will look at your business in a totally different light. It could be the best investment you ever make to boost your business. It would be a huge jumpstart to your business. Most people have successful friends. The same business practices apply to face painting. You also could ask several of your friends to analyze your business and then take their suggestions to heart. It is not time to be defensive. Listen, learn and apply the suggestions (IF YOU THINK THEY ARE VALID) It is just real nice if someone understands this industry and would know what you are doing wrong. If the analyst knows what they are doing, they will give you a long list of suggested changes. Only use someone that can look you in the eye and tell you what you need to do to improve. In other words do not use your mom who thinks you are wonderful or thinks you need to use the 4 year accounting degree she paid for instead of face painting. If you pay for this review get exact costs in writing up front.

That should be a good start.