Adding Other Services

The birthday party business has its busy periods and not so busy periods through the year.  It seems odd because kids are born year round, but winter parties seem to be less in demand (at least in my area of the world).  It may be a different time of year in your area, but the fact remains that there are slower periods and you may want to fill in those gaps by adding other services to your business.  Here are examples of a couple of things that I've added and comments on making these things worthwhile for your pocketbook.

Costumed Singing Telegrams - I usually do this as a chicken, but I also offer a clown as an option too.  I make a large balloon sculpture (like the birthday cake in the video below or a bouquet of balloon flowers) and show up to sing/cluck Happy Birthday to them in front of all their friends (usually at work).  The whole thing takes about 5 to 10 minutes with pictures and stuff.

Holiday Elf - yes, I know a lot of clowns like to dress as an elf for the holidays.  It's fun for holiday events to be sure, but I've also added another service.  I get a copy of kids' letters to Santa and write them a customized letter back.  I try to make it as personal as possible, commenting on the letter, on what they are asking for and try to find out something about their family/home life to comment on as well (like "be extra nice to your little brother, Jack" or "don't forget to feed your cat, Fluffy").  This can be for individual kids at home or a whole classroom of kids all at once.  I'll sing some carols and read Santa stories as well on these visits.

Monetizing this kind of thing - Yes, these visits are a lot shorter than your average party.  As a result, you can't use your regular hourly rates as a comparison for the amount to charge or you'll put yourself out of business in gas and wear yourself out running all over creation.  These are not the kind of services that you will market towards cheapskates.... these are premium services for people with money for extras or corporate situations.  I've had workplaces hire me directly to do a chicken-o-gram for a manager.  Private schools and daycares may have the extra funds for special things to do with their class for elf deliveries where an individual family might not spend that kind of money.  These are also services that can be hired during the week while we, as clowns, are usually only hired on weekends.  You'll notice if you look at my prices for these services though, that I have to charge almost as much as my hourly rate for one of these visits... while the visit itself is maybe 5 or 10 minutes, when you add in my driving there, costume costs (wear and tear, makeup, etc), and material costs, the expenses are almost the same as one hour of regular work anyway.

Have fun and be creative!!

Perry Noia the Scaredy Clown :D