Character in Costume Side Hustle Run Down:
Children (and even adults!) can light up at the sight of their favourite character seemingly in real life in front of them! Which is why a character in costume side hustle is a great one if you enjoy working with children and families. Personally being an assistant to both the Easter bunny, Queen Elsa and Santa Claus, it’s a delight seeing people smile and chat with a character. The going rate for a hire makes it very worthwhile, and the cost of a Working With Children’s Card (Vic) / Blue Card (QLD) / Working with Vulnerable People Registration (ACT) (or equivalent in your state or territory) and quality costume are quickly paid off! Picking a costume that is always popular, such as Santa, is always a great idea or one that is a popular theme among age groups like mermaids or pirates!.
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PROS AND CONS OF A ChARACTER IN COSTUME SIDE HUSTLE
PROS
- Always in demand at peak times of year
- New characters coming out frequently to capitalize on (Elsa for example!)
- Can pair with other hustles such as face painting to boost earning potential
- Quality costumes are readily available and not unaffordable – can make cost back within a few jobs
- Can offer more than one character in costume choice (ie. Fairy, mermaid, princess etc)
CONS
- Working in costumes can get very hot in summer!
- Upkeep and cleaning of costumes
- Not as flexible as other hustles as you are booked in for ‘jobs’
Effort Required To Start a Character In Costume Side Hustle
To get started: Low-Moderate
To get started, you really just need to buy a great quality costume and market your services! Make sure you do already have a WWC (working with children’s check) as you will be required to have one to work with children in Australia.
Once you have a costume, you need to market your services. Create a Facebook page, Instagram page and a website if you wish. Add a listing onto marketplace to help get initial bookings and visibility while you work on getting your website live. If you are feeling confident with TokTok you may even want to use this as a medium to market your services!
Ongoing: moderate-high
Depending on how frequently you wish to be working will depend on how much you will need to push your services to get ongoing work. You will need to maintain and clean your costumes after use. Also, for this type of work you need to be physically present so we’ve put this as moderate-high as if you book three jobs on a weekend, that’s a lot of effort but also great earning potential!
CHARACTER IN COSTUME Business / Side Hustle Earning Potential
Earning potential is high, many characters in costume charge a minimum $100 an hour, with some characters like Santa going for over $300+ an hour. You may also have the ability to charge extra for additional services you might want to include – e.g. add $100 an hour for face painting – and include fees for things such as travel.
Cost Required To Start A CHARACTER IN COSTUME SIDE HUSTLE
To get started you will need to choose a character and invest in a high quality costume! From here, the only additional costs are cleaning post-event and marketing costs to promote your business more!!
How Do I Start My Own CHARACTER IN COSTUME Business?
– Buy high quality costumes – a great AU site is costumebox or Amazon.com.au has a great range at great prices.
-Start up a Facebook page to promote your business, this is great for collecting reviews and allowing you to post in local community group pages and promote yourself on marketplace.
-Build yourself a website – this always makes you look more ‘legit’ and trustworthy which can be helpful to get more bookings
-You may wish to register an ABN under your name
-Start taking bookings and locking some jobs in! Don’t forget to collect and take photos from the jobs you do and encourage reviews on your Facebook page!
Ideas To Boost Your CHARACTER IN COSTUME Side Hustle
- Offer a variety of different characters to help broaden your audience (Be Queen Elsa / Mermaid / Princess OR Spiderman /Batman/Santa)
- Offer an additional service to help you to charge more, things such as craft activities, face painting, balloon twisting and more can set you apart from others.
