Establishing and Promoting a Face Painting Business: Part 2

Okay, if you haven’t read part 1, then go to: Establishing and Promoting a Face Painting Business: Part 1 and read that first.

So once you have all the things listed in Part 1 you can seriously start promoting yourself. Remember that this will take time and money so be prepared to give these up. And remember to have a positive attitude about your work, it will make a huge difference and you’ll have more fun.

Here we go…

Volunteer Your Services
An inexpensive way to promote yourself and your business is to volunteer your services for free or close to it, at a charity event or maybe your child’s school fete.

Then while you’re there, besides having a chance to showcase your talents you can give out business cards and flyers which will bring in more business for you in the future.

And remember to have business cards and flyers to give to people when you’re doing any sought of face painting gig free or paid. It will be the best promotion for your business because people can see you work your talents and skills right in front of them!!

Advertising Online and Offline
There are many ways to advertise, I’d start out on the internet and pay for a listing in a local online classifieds or face painting related website. To find a good site to post to, just go to google and type in something like ‘face painter + (city you’re in)’ see what comes up in the top ten and then try to get yourself listed on those websites.

Also try putting an advertisement in you local paper, classifieds, parenting magazines and directories like the yellow pages is a must.

If you have children, try putting an ad in their school newsletters. It’s usually not that expensive, it’s a newsletter that a lot of parents read and parents are a big chunk of your market.

Your Own Website
Also put up your own website if you can. There are lots of free ones available like myspace for example. This gives you a chance to showcase more of your work and a presence on the net that is available 24/7 for your future clients.

Agents
Find an agent, party planner or entertainment agency in your area that can find you work at all sorts of events – fairs, festivals, birthday parties, expos etc. Arrange an appointment with them, show them your portfolio (examples of your work) tell them of all your services and that you are of course available for a booking. They’ll take a commission when you get a gig but it’s totally worth it.

And when you do start getting bookings make sure you ask the person who’s hiring you, where they found you. That way you can work out which forms of advertising are working better, invest more money in them and less or nothing in the advertising forms that aren’t working.

Your face painting business might be slow to build at first, but keep at it. Once it picks up, you’ll be happy you put in all this hard work in the beginning.

Happy Face Painting,

Philadelphia Tivoli
Learn how to face paint so you can start making money and having fun!

P.S. Here’s a great tip and message from Janet Chenhall a ‘How to Face Paint’ Blog reader:

Thanks for the great tips on starting your own business. Another great way to get practise and get your name out there is to do friends kids parties for free and put your business card in the ‘lolly bag’ so other parents know who you are. I’ve got two girls and they love to have their faces done whenever there is a face painter around and not once has any of these painters had business cards out for parents to take with them! I figure that they are either too busy to want any more promotion or they haven’t got any!

Thanks Janet!

Related posts:

1. Establishing and Promoting a Face Painting Business: Part 1.
2. Are You Advertising Your Face Painting Business Online?
3. Put Up a Free Webpage for Your Face Painting Business
4. Promote Your Face Painting Business with MySpace!
5. 10 Reasons NOT to Take Business Classes at FABAIC!