Growing and making your own food, so you’re self-sufficient, is wonderful. We love harvesting fruit and vegetables on the farm, as well as having food from the animals. Sometimes, however, you have more than enough. If you want to make a living from your farm, selling your produce to other people will help you. A stall at a farmers’ market is the perfect way to promote and sell your products. If you haven’t started selling anything yet, it ideal to get you started. But you need to have some business sense (a tax calculator and basic accounting software wouldn’t hurt either) if you want to be successful. Read on to find out how to do it properly.
Finding a Market
If you want to have a market stall, you first need to find a market. And it might not be as easy as you hope! You might know of several possible places already. It’s important that they’re accessible for you, although it’s up to you how far you’re willing to travel. However, securing a stall might not be an instant thing. Sometimes there might be a limit on how many businesses can set up at a market. If there’s no space left, you’ll have to put your name on a waiting list. Think about how much space you need too. Will you need a lot of room to put out your produce?
Deciding What to Sell
Selling your products isn’t always as simple as laying out some carrots and eggs. There are lots of things you could make so that you have something different to offer. Many farmers will produce similar products, and you need to stand out. You could use the fruit you grow to make jams and preserves, or even cakes. Perhaps you could have wool from your sheep turned into yarn or turn your milk into butter and other products. You could even grow something a bit more unusual. For example, you could choose some more unusual varieties of potatoes or tomatoes.
Running the Stall
Now comes the hardest part of actually running the stall. You need to treat it like a business, because that’s what it is. At least, you need to treat it as one arm of your business. Managing money and your bottom line is essential. If you’re selling produce by weight, it’s important to weigh it out accurately. Get yourself a pair of accurate scales at farmersmarketscales.com to make sure you aren’t wasting anything. You can find lots of portable sales solutions that make it easier to sell at a market. There’s no need to try and manage the cash with a notebook and pencil, and you can take card payments too.
Expanding Your Business
Your market stall can be the face of your business. It gives you the opportunity to develop and promote your activities. For example, you can use it to introduce online sales to anyone who buys a product. You don’t have to stick to running everything from the market.
Launching a farmers’ market stall could be an excellent way to make money. Just don’t expect to break even straight away.