Preventing the "I worked extra time didnt get paid" Blues

We've all been there. I was there today, in fact. I'll tell you what I did at the end of my post, but in the meantime, read on to see what you can do to prevent this syndrome:

1. Know how fast you draw. This is imperative when booking your own gigs. The first question you should ask your prospective client is "How many guests do you expect?" then you can give them an intelligent estimate for how long they will need you, and if you perhaps might need to recommend another artist.

2. When booking your own gigs, explain beforehand that the above is an estimate, and if they want everyone drawn at their event you might go over, especially if more guests show up than expected (or if adults demand drawings when it's supposed to be kids only). Tell them nicely you'll be glad to pro-rate to the nearest quarter hour, and that they are paying for your time. Then put it in your contract (you do have a contract, right?). More often than not, as long as you explain this beforehand, your client will be happy to pay you for your time if you go over.

3. For agented gigs where you're slated to work for a certain amount of time: Again, knowing how fast you draw is imperative. I know that at most gigs where I'm drawing the public for "free" that I need to cut off the line about a half an hour before I'm scheduled to stop drawing (this happened today). Sometimes it's more if I have a huge line, it's a good idea to keep an eye on your queue for this reason.(It's also a good idea to take a headcount). Whenever I'm ready to cut my line off, I like to enlist the help of a big strong-looking guy at the end of my line. The more tattoos, the better. Briefly explain the situation and ask him to hold a sign that says "I AM LAST IN LINE." If you can get him sympathetic with you, he'll act as your bouncer. Again, I did this today.

But today, I STILL wound up drawing because people were cutting in line AHEAD of my "bouncer".  If you see this happening, you can always take a piece of paper and number it from, say, 1-10. Give the remaining people in line a "ticket" and you won't have a problem refusing people who don't have one.

I didn't see this happening because I was too busy drawing today.

So instead, I got shafted.

Which happens.

And when it does, the professional thing to do is keep drawing til you reach the "end of the line" sign. Which I did. And boy, was I glad I did, because the last customer was one of the shop owners for the grand opening I was working. She was happy with my work (even though I was going faster than the speed of light at that point), but more importantly, she was happy with my PROFESSIONALISM. And she said she'd pass on a good word to my agent for me.

You never know when this might be the case. I find a lot of times organizers for an event go last because they were busy during the event. And although it might be a pain, it's still good business. Good word of mouth is priceless, especially in a specialized field like ours where people judge what we do by the one or two artists they stumble upon.

So do yourself (and the rest of us) a favor,  be professional, smile, do those last few drawings as fast as you can, and leave with a smile.

Then go home and bitch about it on Facebook :)