Have Entertaining Balloon Modellers working on instore promotions Fees gone down 50% and I missed it?

Pam
xx

And why do you ask that? Difficult times and difficult decisions?

Booking fees being offered at present by some getting multiple bookings in this area are half what they where a few months ago!!

And the reason being given is - Will suit new person to the field as only a few BASIC (dont start me!!) models needed... ( seems all this particular world of entertainment I talk about wants is 3 legged animals that can be whatever you say they are - even to create a days entertainment for public you have to be adept at what you create, regardless how basic the skill level) but it seems working for a fee is more important than ability to entertain or have knowledge

So OK I understand new people come into the industry and need work and need to build up confidence and knowledge of working with the public.. this I understand.. BUT if these are the jobs that are on offer, where does the experienced entertaining balloon modeller get their work from??

We cannot do the jobs as they don't want us to do them, but this is the work we used to do and get rewarded for our knowledge and expertise for... you had to have experience of working with the public and knowledge of your craft to do this work.. what happened??
I have some knowledge but dont think I should say it on an open forum!!

Professionalism, Knowledge, Experience, CRB checks and Public liability Insurance - no longer required, just the willingness to work for a small fee and the ability to do a few models..

I think hard times are being created by those doing this and it will destroy our very small unique niche market industry if we are not careful..

I am off now.. if my rant/anger continues I will ask you to  move it to members only area

Thanks Graham
Pam
xx

If someone is offering £150 for a 6 hour shift then with expenses taken off, travel, balloons etc then the fee is around the £100/120 which is still £20 an hour which is good in the real world when you can work 8 hours a day 5 days a week but in the entertaining world there are fewer hours that can be worked so that is poor pay.

I can see why some would take it, times are hard and the £120 would buy you food and pay some bills etc, my question would be when £150 is offered what is the promotions company making, if 10/15% then that is fine but I suspect this is not the case nowadays.
There are not many true agents around now, life is a changing.

I agree totally with you Graham..

A good Bricklayer/tiler/plasterer can earn £150 a day but its 8 hours a day and they can earn it 7 days a week... and they earn their money doing the work they are paid for... and all the product is supplied for them. they just supply their tools of the trade..

An Entertainer can only earn over 2-21/2 days a week, so the hourly rate paid should be higher.. and  we are expected to provide the product too...

No one pays us for the hours spent doing the paperwork, marketing, even practising, developing and rehearsing etc etc..

Its not just affecting us the Entertainers, its also affecting genuine Agents who have to compete with the cheap companies.. I have always found this industry the friendliest one to work in and we all share so much information and knowledge with each other freely.. but I feel at the moment some are taking advantage of us all for their own personal gain.. and that is not right for any industry..
 
Think its time for professional entertainers to hit back - just got to find a way...

Pam
xx

We live in a world where some think everyone should be grateful to earn minimum wage, while they reap the benefits at the moment...

This thread reminds me of a time in my past career when someone asked me how much it would cost them for me to train their new "bookkeeper" who knew nothing about bookkeeping.  I totalled the hours of education I had taken, the costs of more education, the costs of the equipment I had to keep upgrading and then added some costs for the 30 some odd years of experience and came up with a cost of over $165,000 (Canadian) that I would charge them.  They decided to hire a real bookkeeper who was already trained.

If you run as a business... Earning money, paying expenses to do the work, buying product etc the breakdown of the fee works out at only about 1/3 is yours and on that you have to pay tax, Nhi etc...

£150 fee = £50 for you - divided by 6 hours = £8.33 per hour for hours worked on site... On a bank Holiday weekend you will find the staff filling shelves and working the tills earning more per hour than that

You then have to ask the question Do you want to take on the responsibility of self employment for about £2 per hour above basic pay? - because that's all this rate is offering..

I know times are hard, but I believe some are using that to their own advantage and trying to destroy our little niche market in the process..

What usually follows in this is someone else comes along and undercuts them - using the same reasoning and the spiral continues..

And everyone thinks those that do this full time are earning a fortune

Pam
xx