Hi, just a quick post to let you know how my first job went....... Before Thursday the most I had twisted was a basic sausage dog a few years ago. Following my session with Graham on Thursday I felt confident enough to do my sons school fair today (Saturday).

I was the main attraction and had a queue of children for the full two hours I was there, I told the school in the morning that I would just charge 50p per balloon and give everything to the school fund.

I made £30.00, so I sold a total of 60 models! I used about 80 balloons in total, which includes the swords that children popped and I replaced for free and the few flowers that went bang. So I was doing £14.00ish / hour! Not bad ehh?

I got three potential bookings for a wedding and two parties in the summer and I am now the schools official children's entertainer/balloon man! This is great because the schools tend to share and I should get some good referrals from it!

Anyway, I just thought I would let you know how it went and, once again, recommend Grahams tuition and DVD!

Will post some pictures soon too!

Great work - sounds like you did a good job and I look forward to seeing the photos!

Glad it went Ok, how were the nerves?

Graham Lee

Congrats!!..Happy for u..!! I remembered the 1st time i busked...I made $52.80 for 2 hours

Nice one. Sounds like you did a very good job. Did you enjoy yourself or were you too busy to do that ?

This gives me some encourigment (oo my spelling) as I'm going to start doing that now. Just branching ou. So thanks for the post.

I did this charity fete last year, I had one young urching asked for a sword, I did it, then she ran off laughing. :x  I was anoyed for the charity. So I've been wondering, do you ask for the money before or after you make the model/hat?

It is difficult and you will always get the odd 'bilker'

On the few I've done I have the bucket or whatever right by me and as I hand the model over I move behind the bucket so it is between me and the punter I hold the model next to the bucket as a big hint that they are expected to contribute - I also keep mentioning in my patter that we're fund raising and are grateful for their contributions

If someone asks for something a little complicated I joke "Oh you want a Fifty Quid balloon then? Tell you what - because you're special you can have this for a pound!"

I'll be able to test this fully on Sunday as I'm twisting whilst walking in the local carnival parade then twisting for donations to our hospital radio station on the event field afterwards - wish me luck I'm hoping to be able to hand out lots of cards whilst doing this and generate some business from it.

Good question!

I've done a few more balloon modelling jobs since the school and everything is going well. However, the weekend before last I did a church event and I did have a group of 4/5 children (brothers and sisters) who obviously weren't accompanied and didn't appear to have been washed for several weeks.

I feel sorry for the children because they are lacking the adult guidance and obviously don't come from families that can afford to spend a couple of quid on balloons. At the end of the day they just want to join in with the fun and without adults there to tell them it's wrong they're going to pinch stuff.

Within 5 minutes of them turning up all my display balloons were gone   and there wasn't much I could do about it! The best thing to do is shrug your shoulders :roll:  and get on with it, after all it only cost you 4p to make the balloon! You will find that the majority of people are honest and that makes up for the few who are not – The last thing you want to do is chase after them drawing attention to yourself as the grumpy angry balloon man!

Take the rough with the smooth and just enjoy the good customers .

I'd also make sure that they hand you the money to put into the bucket, a few years ago I was in a supermarket taking donations for red nose day & the amount of people that only put coppers in was plenty. After 30 mins the money went into my hand before the bucket, then once I saw what they were donating I then decided what to make them.
How about having a price guide on display for the models.

Graham Lee

Something face painters tend to do in situations like this (which I think will transfer to balloons nicely) is have a suggested donation clearly displayed along with the charity the donations will be going to.  This way most will put in at least the amount on your sign and some will donate more.  I too did a job once for donations for a pre-school and I think myself and another lady painted about 30 kids between us and raised about £5 from the parents  :evil: