But again, know your product and if you go there and they’ve got five booths set up selling cookies, you’re gonna waste your money and your time. So, know your product. Try to make sure that there’s not going to be a whole bunch of people selling the same item.
All right, number four. When you go to a farmers market you are responsible for every aspect of your setup, your breakdown, your setting of the table. If you’ve got a tablecloth that your going to be putting down, setting up samples, setting up product to sell. You gotta bring samples to sell.
You gotta keep in mind the amount of money that your going to put out for samples because there are people who are gonna want to try your products and then you gotta have product there. You also want to make sure that you’ve got a sign, put up a sign. You can get signs made for nothing.
You can go online and you can get a sign made, set it up in front of your booth. Explaining who you are in the sign, what your product is. You don’t necessarily have to do a set price, you can change your pricing as you go. I would recommend that you do a sign just explaining the name of your company, your website if you have one, a contact phone number, and of course, the type of products that you sell.
So, if you’re Suzie’s Great Cookies, put Suzie’s Great Cookies and SuziesGreatCookies.com. A phone number, because what that will do is you need to also hand out business cards, by the way. I would highly recommend you do that. That sign makes a big impact on people as they come up to your booth.
You look more professional, you don’t look like your just doing this on the weekends to make enough money so you can go out and party or whatever you may do. So, make it look professional, make yourself look professional. Also with that having a system, I guess you want to say, of setting up, make sure that you understand the guidelines for that specific farmers market.
They all are different. They may require that you be there an hour before to set up your booth, maybe two hours. If they close at, let’s say seven, they say, “Look, by eight o’clock you gotta be outta here “so wrap up your stuff.” Get a system set up so you know how long it takes you. And how long is it gonna take to get everything put together.
Get yourself setup, time it out understand the best way for you to set up. Are you gonna bring help? Are you doing it by yourself? Are you gonna have family members? I don’t recommend you bring your kids. It’s unprofessional, plus your gonna be taking them to the bathroom every two hours. Do it yourself, either with your husband or wife, your cousins, somebody else that can help you.
Some of the booths that you set up, you’re gonna have a lot of stuff between samples, signs, tablecloths, chairs to sit on. You’re gonna bring your cooler so you have some food to eat while your there. Most farmers markets are hours on end. So keep that in mind. So have a setup of how your going to do everything.
And again, I’m not gonna deter you or scare you with all these things you need to think about if you wanna do a local farmers market. The best way to learn is just by doing it. Take these notes down, write them down, but don’t stress over it. Don’t kill yourself trying to figure out everything and every little aspect. Do it once, learn from it.
Do it twice, learn from it. And so on. Remember, if you can do it properly and you can execute it, great! Setting yourself up, getting your signs and sampling, you can make a lot of money at farmers markets. Because a lot of people go to farmers markets with money to burn. They are willing to pay a premium, I guess you wanna say almost, for product that’s locally made because they like to support small business.
They like to hear
your story. But the great thing is, think how much cash. And cash is phenomenal. When you start selling stuff with cash it’s just great. And I can do a whole separate video on that. So lastly, start small. Start small. Don’t go into this with the mentality that your going to make ten thousand dollars or a couple thousand dollars on the weekend.
You can think that if you want, but to be honest with you, when you start out from scratch, a few hundred dollars or a couple hundred dollars is great. If you can do over a grand, that’s fantastic. But start just little by little. Start small, start incrementally. If you wanna think big and start small, that’s always a good way.
That’s my philosophy. When I started out my business, I always saw myself as something much bigger than I was when I started. But realistically start small. You don’t know what your doing at first, that’s fine. You gotta keep practicing and keep trying it.
And then from there, as I’ve always said before, if it becomes a success locally, get yourself into a commercial place and get yourself with a bigger system, bigger facility, bigger equipment, more people and then you can grow from there. So start small, but think big. Remember, these five things are the best things to remember when you’re going into a farmers markets or a festival, even.
Those types of settings. Keep in mind the fees, keep in mind how big is your booth, when your supposed to be there, how many people is it gonna take for you to setup, breakdown, ask all these questions. And if you don’t know, just simply ask.
I hope that video helps you out. Definitely go out there and try farmers markets. If you’re selling locally, it is a big thumbs up from me. Great place to network also, you never know who is actually at farmers markets.
You could even run into a local buyer for a food chain, and say, “Hey, look I’d love to take this to another level. “I know some people you can get in touch with.” You just never know. All right, so if you like my videos, as always, give me a thumbs up, if you–