Selling at a Farmer's Market, part 2: The Sell

"White Tees. One for three, two for five." - Bubbles

courtesy SweetHomeOrganics.com

In our first part of my year of lessons learned selling at a farmers market we went over the basics of getting a table, who to contact, and figuring out what we could sell as non farmers. Now we're going to talk about the most important aspect of putting together an eye catching booth and how to track our expenses and, if any, profit.


First, Where Are We? Doing well. We're covering all of our costs and on a weekly pay out of profit. The rest is going in the market coffer and building slowly.


The Booth The most important part of a successful booth is the bleary eyed suffering from the sleep habits of a 3 month old or hungover salesman behind the counter. I see a lot of sellers just hanging out in chairs, waiting for some schmo to happen by who may think it's too much of a bother to rouse you from your comfy spot in the shade. I say be engaging, say good morning, bring them to you, shake a hand, exchange names, etc... But most important is to remember them. Many market buyers are weekly visitors, if you can remember a name, ask how a recipe they mentioned last week came out, or whether aunt frieda's cat came home yet you've made a friend, and friends like to help friends.


Be Consistent It's important that the weekly visitors can count on you being there, week in and week out. If you're out of town a good bit think about finding a good partner you can count on. You can most likely split fees and other startup costs reducing overhead.


Meet Your Neighbors Be sure to be good to your fellow sellers. While you may be in direct competition with some, the value gained in making connections with them can pay off big time. Every time you make a sale or a new friend be sure to mention the great coffee two booths down, or the organic squash your neighbor picked this morning. It's likely they'll hear your sales pitch for them, and return the favor in kind.


I've run out of time. We'll go over setting up expense tracking next time, good luck!