You are losing a lot of easy money by not having and using a Book of Business. If you are a face painter and don't know what a Book of Business (BoB) is and how to use it then I’m about to help you make more money this year. And I bet it’ll be some of the easiest money you make because you have already done most of the work already. I will cover what a BoB is, how to use it, and how you can make one for yourself or improve the one you already have.
Firstly, a BoB, sometimes called a “Rolodex” or “Contact List”, is a tool that you use to track important information about past and potential gigs, clients, events, and much more. It can be used by all types of face painters. It doesn't matter if you only do pay-per-face events, hourly gigs or a combination of both. The BoB, if used right will save you a lot of time, effort, and most importantly, earn you more money to buy all the pretty paints you want!
But in all seriousness, this tool has the potential to change your face painting business forever. I know it works because years ago I was (still am) a face painter in my family face painting business. We had been grinding away for a few years and some of us were spending huge amounts of time trying to keep our schedule full of bookings. It can be hard constantly trying to find new clients and after a particularly demanding season one of our family members made what would become the start of our company's BoB. This thing was awesome and over the next 2.5 years it helped make our lives much easier and grow our face painting earnings from under $100,000 to over $300,000. Here is how you can start now.
Get organized.
Start by gathering any and all information you have about your past gigs into one place. If you use something like a hard drive or paper notebook you risk losing it so I recommend something like a Google Spreadsheet or other cloud based program. Here are some things to consider recording and why they are important:
-
Contact info such as name, phone, address, email, etc.
-
Why? Because you can see who you have already talked to before and what areas in town you are consistently being booked at. That can help you establish the areas you actually service.
-
What kind of gig it was, such as a holiday party, birthday, corporate, pay per face, etc.
-
Why? Because you can see what your biggest money makers are. You may notice that your corporate gigs make way more, and you can then target more of them.
-
How you found the gig.
-
You may find that you get a lot of your gigs by word of mouth. If you know that, then double down and ask everyone that hires you for referrals, and you will get even more.
-
How much you charged for the gig.
-
Why? Lots of reasons! Things cost more every year, and you need to make sure your hard work and growing experience aren't becoming less valuable over time. Or maybe it’s been a few years since you last compared your pricing with others in your area, and you find that everyone around you is charging $150/hr, and you're still at $90/hr. And no, being the cheapest option in your area isn't the advantage some of you think it is. But that's a topic for another time.
-
How many faces you painted.
-
Why? This helps you know if you need to improve your speed/efficiency. You can also give your clients better ideas on how many people you can paint in an hour and if they need you for additional time. So goodbye to those awkward moments where your time is up but not everyone is painted.
-
How much time you spent preparing for the gig.
-
Why? Because if you find that you are spending 5 hours of total time for a 1 hr gig, you know you need to figure out where you need to make improvements.
-
What the most popular designs were.
-
Why? If you offer a menu board with 20 designs and after some time see that some hardly get picked, then you know it's time to change it or remove it altogether. This is particularly valuable for artists who do a lot of Pay Per Face events.
-
How you felt about the gig afterwards.
-
Why? You can learn what kind of gigs you want to do the most. Maybe you are always hating life after a Pay Per Face event or that you felt like you didn't charge enough for an event. That helps you make better choices later when booking a similar event in the future.
-
If it was a company party, do they do others throughout the year?
-
Why? You are the obvious choice for their upcoming Christmas party when you were a hit at the summer party last weekend.
-
If it was a kid's birthday, were there other kids' birthdays coming up soon?
-
Why? Because everyone in attendance at that party has a birthday and is a potential lead for your next gig. Be tasteful about this, as you don't want to distract from why you are there in the first place. I have seen some great strategies where you ask to give out stickers, cards, or mini flyers in the party bags that go home with the guests. Since you don't have to spend time finding anyone who takes you up on this offer, it can make sense to incentivize them with a discount.
These are just a few of the many things you can track in your BoB and why they are important. But unless you use your BoB then nothing is going to change for you.
Why you can't afford to not make and use a BoB.
Unless you are completely maxed out for bookings and turning away gig requests, you're not focusing on the most important part of being a face painter, bookings! Yes, creating and practicing designs, posting on social media, engaging with other face painters online, and subscribing to our YouTube channel HERE are all really important. But they are secondary to filling your schedule with bookings. And your BoB is the easiest, fastest and most effective way to get those bookings.
How to use you BoB.
Follow-Up to stay top of mind
-
After-Service follow-Up: Send thank-you messages or follow up to ensure your client is happy. This is the best time to ask for a testimonial.
-
Seasonal and anniversary check-ins: Reach out to clients before the anniversary of the last time they hired you and upcoming holidays to remind them of your services.
Ask for Referrals
-
Asking for Referrals is so important to your business. Referrals from happy clients are so much more effective because wherever is hearing them has more influence than anyone else.
Track Trends
-
Monitor Preferences: Note the most popular designs or services you offer so you know what to keep offering or when it's time to make a change.
-
Seasonal Patterns: Use past data to predict busy seasons or popular requests. You might find you are getting a lot of requests for certain designs and decide you need to do something about it. Or you might see that you are getting more requests than you can handle during certain times of the year so you decide to raise your pricing during those specific months.
-
Identify your best clients: You can see who your repeat clients are and make sure you are doing everything you can to keep them coming back. Having repeat clients is one of the best things you can have as a face painter because you don't have to work to replace them after each gig.
Now what?
Now you go out and start getting your BoB organized. And I don't mean next week; I mean now. The faster you start using your BoB, the faster you will stop losing all that easy money for your face painting business. My guess is you will get a new booking within the first week of doing some of the things I mentioned in this article. I suggest you start by reaching out to all the gigs you did around this time last year, as they are the most likely to need your services and will be the easiest booking you can get right now.
Face Paint Forum Shop and I are always here to support you as a face painter. You can reach out to us at Face Paint Forum Shop day or night through our shop contact form found HERE. Happy face painting.