Several years ago, someone gave a presentation on software development. He presented a triangle and said that at each point of the triangle represents one variable: quality, speed, and price. When a client decides they need custom software developed, they need to decide which of the three is most important because changing impacts the other two. If you want something fast, you will either need to pay more money or sacrifice quality. If you want quality, you will either need to pay more or wait longer. If you wanted something cheaper, you will either need to wait longer or sacrifice quality.
An example of a large, multiple balloon flower made from 3 orange, 260 balloons, one green 350 balloon and 1 lime green 260 balloon
How does this relate to face painting and balloons? I have been to many events where kids had to wait in line for an hour to get a balloon or to get their face painted. I was at an event yesterday where one mother said my work was much better than the guy they had at her company’s holiday party. I told her that I wasn’t concerned about speed (length of the line). I was making bigger and better (more expensive and higher quality) balloons. If I was hired for a party and needed to make enough balloons for all of the kids in a limited amount of time, I would make simpler balloons.
As a balloon twister, I can choose to make simple, single balloon creations, or larger, multiple balloon creations. My choice impacts the number of balloons I can create in an hour. If the client wants only the larger, multiple balloon creations, they either need to give me more time, hire additional balloon twisters, or invite fewer kids to the party.
A simple, two balloon flower made with a pink 260 and green 260 balloon
Unfortunately, it is not quite as easy for face painters. Their only option for speed is usually to cut down on the level of detail or not adding glitter at the end. Some people think that offering cheek art is faster because it is smaller, but the truth is that it is more detailed work and as a result can take just as long… Yes, there are stencils and rainbow paints that help speed up the work for some of the cheek art designs, but in general it isn’t much faster.
When I talk to the mother planning a birthday party or the person in charge of a large festival, I try to get an idea of how many kids they expect and explain how long it takes to do something for each child. Sometimes, it costs me the job as they realize they can’t afford to pay additional people and other times they are able to hire my friends to help. Either way, I see it as a win because I am not put into a position where I need to deal with a very long line of customers. I can do events where I can do my best work and wow the customer and their guests.
