I've experimented a lot over the years and here's my best secret Tips for making Tips. Please feel free to add yours to the end of this post! I expect about 10% to 15% in tips at gigs or at my retail location. If you make more than that, you're doing great! If not, try some of these ideas below:
1. Give Better Service. (see previous post). I've gotten as much as $200 in tips for a three-hour gig because of my SERVICE skills set, which, I'm sad to say, is much higher than my art skills set. Service skills includes your salesmanship, professionalism, and ability to entertain. Your service skills are JUST as important as your artistic skills at gigs, retail locations, and to a degree, with illustration work.
2. Put out a clear cup with a while sticker label that says "Tips are Very Appreciated" on the side. You can also write something funny such as "Starving Artist Fund", though I've found the former to be more effective. "Seed" the cup with money. Higher bills tend to get customers to tip more. The last gig I worked was a "rich" crowd (entrepreneurs) so I put out a twenty. I received three twenty-dollar-bills in tips and many more tens and fives. My drawing partner was aghast. Why? It WORKS.
3. Draw faster. More drawings = more tips.
4.On the back of your drawing board, which customers are staring at anyway, is the perfect place for writing advertising for yourself. In thick black marker, write " Tips Are Very Appreciated." Or pre-print a sign on your computer and tape it to the back of your drawing board. Be careful you don't do this at gigs where tipping is frowned upon - you can always tape a piece of paper over it if necessary.
5. Everyplace you have "Tips are Appreciated", draw a SMILEY FACE AFTERWARDS. It might turn your stomach, but it has actually been proven among marketers to put people in a better mood, and if they're in a better mood, they're more likely to tip. Believe it or not, This actually works.
6. At gigs where youre allowed to take tips but asking for them is frowned upon: Near your tip sign on the back of your easel, place a line of double-sided tape down the back of your easel. Place a twenty on the tape and watch the seed grow!
7. At festivals or small retail locations: Set your pricing so that people are more likely to say "Keep the Change" (example: Charge $17.00 and people will likely give you the extra three in change).
8. Show some Cleavage.
Just kidding. Actually, the point of that was to make you smile. And if you can make people laugh, so much the better. LAUGHTER = TIPS. So use your drawings, your patter, and your OWN laughter to make people laugh. Isn't that the best part of what we do? People will love you for it and you will DEFINITELY see returns in your tips.
A word of caution: Some agents frown on the practice of taking tips. If you're working for an agent, make sure you find out their policy on tips before you take any.
Good Luck! And remember... TIPS ARE VERY APPRECIATED :)
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