How To Price Yourself Competitively Within a Sea of Other Mobile Makeup Artists (Blog Series)

You’ve worked on your portfolio, created your website and are actively posting on social media.  But the question remains…

How can you get bookings when the competition out there for mobile makeup artists is so fierce?

The answer is simple.  Price yourself accordingly and you will get bookings.

Many new and even some well established makeup artists make fatal mistakes when pricing their services.  They usually undercut and undercharge because they feel:

• desperate to make money
• do not understand their worth
• haven’t marketed themselves within the right niche

Do you recall my original post in this series when I mentioned that you need to start thinking differently in order to be successful in your mobile makeup business?  I  said “Stop thinking of yourself as merely a makeup artist and start seeing yourself as a highly driven motivated business owner.”  Highly driven business owners never take a back seat to anyone and they certainly don’t enter into a business without understanding their own worth!

You want to price yourself competitively you need to take emotion out of the equation.

It’s not personal, it’s business.  You’ve heard this before right?  Well, it’s very true.  First things first.

• Be realistic about your skill level. You may have talent galore but you may still need to hone some of your skills.
• Find out what other makeup artists are charging.  You need not be sneaky about this as most makeup artists who have been in the industry awhile will happily help you out.  They won’t (in most cases) mind giving you their rates and if you ask nicely you’ll probably get sound advice on the rate you should be charging for your geographic area.

Once you’ve determined your skill level and what others are charging in your area, ask yourself these questions.

1. Have I put the work into creating gorgeous images that are specific to my niche market?  Do they compare to my competition or are they better?
2. Do I have a website up and running that demonstrates my skill level?  Is it professional and user friendly?
3. Am I actively gathering a fan base on social media using my marketing skills in order to draw my niche market to me?
4. Where are my target clients living?  (For example, New York City clients will pay differently than city of Toronto clients will)

You’ll notice in the graph at the bottom of this post that the pricing structure for freelance mobile makeup artists is basically divided into 4 categories.

1. Entry level (budget artists)
2. Lower mid range (those who offer a modest but respectable mobile beauty service)
3. Upper mid price range (those who offer a more luxury style service)
4. High End price range

Remember people will pay what they feel you and your business are worth.

You’ll notice it’s a very small percentage of makeup artists that charge a high end rate.  These are the makeup artists that are not only talented and have put years into building their business and reputation but they have found their niche market.  Whether they are the best at what they do is debateable but one thing isn’t debateable.  They have found a niche market that believes they are better and that market is willing to pay them a premium rate.  Successful high end price makeup artists are pretty smart cookies.  They work less and make more $$.  Win, win!

Aha Moment!

You’ll also notice that no matter which category you price yourself into you will have competition.  Yet the higher your rates are, the less competition you’ll have.  The goal is to build a rewarding business to a point where you are working the hours you want, living the lifestyle you deserve…not working the hours you are forced to work just to make ends meet.

Vicki’s coaching advice:  When you’re new to the industry it’s important to price yourself properly.  The absolute worst thing you can do is to undercharge your services or to be known as a “budget makeup artist.”  Thinking like that will stunt your business growth.  Ideally you want to price yourself above a budget makeup artist and build your business slowly but surely onwards and upwards.

In this 4 part blog series we covered portfolio building, finding your niche market, website planning, social media, Google’s influence on your business and competitive pricing.

Are you interested to learn more about how to build a successful mobile makeup business?  Is there a topic I haven’t covered in this blog series that you would like covered in a future post?  Let me know in the comment section below and I’ll be happy to help!

If you would like to discuss setting up a coaching session together get in touch and let me know how I can help you take your business to the next level.