Summer is in full swing, and Fall is just around the corner! Do you know what that means? That means the county fairs, summer flea markets and farmer’s markets are here! Are you wanting to sell at one of these events but don’t know where to begin? Don’t fret, here’s a simplified guide to prepping yourself for success.
1. Know you’re audience
Whether it’s your local county fair, or a church fundraiser it’s important to keep in mind who you’re customers are going to be. Knowing your audience will allow you to tailor your products more to what they might like. An example of this would be, if you’re selling at your church picnic you may want to sell religious items, or light-hearted themed items.
2. Have enough inventory
Depending on how long you’ve been trying to sell, you’re either confident or not confident in your products. Someone who is not confident might think, ‘well I doubt anyone will want to buy my products at the market, so I don’t need to have much inventory’. FALSE! If you haven’t sold at a fair or market before there’s no way for you to know whether people will think that. So it’s important to at least have 2 of every item you’re hoping to sell. (Unless it’s one of a kind, never can find again antiques).
3. Keep a Sale log
This might be something a lot of people overlook, because they take digital payments or they have an inventory list. However it’s very important to write down every item you sell and how much you sold it for. Keeping this kind of data log will give you the ability to be able to see what you made total at a sale at a glance.
4. Bring Extra price tags
Whether you plan on changing the prices to offer a discount as the sale winds down, or a price tag mysteriously disappears it is always good to have an extra tag along. Personally I prefer using reusable/erasable tags so that the price can be easily changed without waste.
5. Have money for change
For a newbie this is an easy one to overlook. Especially if you’ve never been apart of any sale of any kind. It would be easy to think you just show up and sell, right? But it’s a bit more complicated. What happens if someone asks ‘I only have a $20 but I’d like to buy your stuffed animal but it’s $5 do you have change?’. Having change on hand allows you to make more sales and not have to turn customers away because you don’t have proper change. TIP: if you only sell items that end even with no change you eliminate having to count change. A basic cash box should include quarters, $1’s, $5’s, $10’s and $20’s.
I hope you found this blog post informative and inspirational that you feel confident in prepping for a market! Stay tuned for more informative and how-to tutorials.