Farmers Market Lessons

This weekend, I sold at the Woodstock Farmers Market for the first time. It was a lot of fun! I will definitely return next weekend and probably just about every Saturday after that until it ends in late October.

The other sellers were great. The guy next to me had fresh produce and herbs, and he gave me free rosemary, basil, and garlic! Next week I am going to give him some of my Mosquito Repellent and Cooling Aloe Gel in return.

I also bought some croissant doughnuts from a bakery booth (Bex's Bakery, I believe, but I can't find them online) and they were delicious. I bought some lavender tea bath soaks and a lavender plant from another seller. Once it blooms, I am going to use the lavender flowers for some of my products!

There was another bath & beauty seller - I didn't catch the name of their booth - and the seller was really great about giving me tips after I told her I usually only sell online. She started three years ago with just one table full of soap, and now she has multiple tables and setups and is doing very well. It was a bit nerve wracking being so close to her booth, but things ended up going just fine.

For the first hour, though, I was convinced this was going to be a disaster. Truth be told, I've sold at two farmers markets and one craft show previously, and I always feel the same way. I never sell any products during the first 45-60 minutes of any show, and the Woodstock Market is only three hours long every Saturday. So for the first hour, I inevitably panic about how I'm going to lose money and everybody is going to hate me. By the end of the show, I feel differently. Every. Time.

And with that in mind, I learned a lot of lessons during this first show that I'm sure will help ease my panic in future weeks:

1. Double check your supplies. I left the house and had a nagging feeling that I forgot this small cardboard box with tape (so I could hang up my banner) and my price displays, and when I got to the market I discovered that I absolutely did forget all of that. My dad ended up bringing it over (thanks, Dad!), but it was too late to hang up the banner.
2. Arrive earlier than you think you need to. By the time I got there - which was about 45 minutes before the show started - there were already more sellers than the organizers had anticipated, so a lot less room. My booth ended up being kind of out of the way (although not as much as some other sellers) and as a result, I missed a fair amount of traffic.
3. Make friends. I'm pretty shy, but the guy next to me was so talkative and nice that I felt right at ease talking to him. It was extremely nice of him to give me free things, and I would have returned the favor if I had been more prepared. 
4. Bring LOTS of samples! I failed here. I only brought three samples. The other bath & beauty seller told me that she gets traffic by inviting people over to try things and suggested I do the same (she really was shockingly helpful). The produce seller next to me handed out some garlic cloves to people, and he also gave women and children flowers - including me! He really was so sweet.
5. Also sell some inexpensive items. I think I heard the bath & beauty seller promoting her $1 lotions (or something like that). All the items that I sold were my most expensive items, but I had one person ask me if I sell 1 oz mosquito repellents, and I think that's not a bad idea.
6. Smile! And talk to people! The produce seller next to me was way better at that than I was. I was actually pretty good about keeping a smile on my face the whole time (it can get so boring between customers), but he was great about saying good morning to everyone and inviting them over to his booth.
7. Start preparing early. I was pretty good at this. Every day last week, I would come from work and spend three hours working on Squeaky Clean. I expanded my inventory, labeled and laminated my items, and packed up. I even stayed up until 1 AM the night before the market to finish getting ready. And yet, somehow, I still wasn't totally prepared. Half of my bath salts weren't labeled, so I didn't try to sell the rest. I didn't do a mock set-up beforehand, so organizing my items was a mess when I first arrived.

There are probably more lessons to be learned, but those are my top seven. Can't wait until next weekend!