6: How To Get Started Selling At Markets & Vendor Events (Step-By-Step)

Thinking about selling at farmers markets, festivals, or vendor events? This episode walks you through every single step: from getting your business license and the right insurance, to setting up your booth, prepping for weather, taking payments, and capturing customers after the event. I'm sharing exactly what I did to go from zero to $900 in sales at my very first event. Whether you make soap, skincare, food, or crafts... this is the setup guide I wish I'd had.

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Transcript

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If I see that the event is about three or four months away and there's over 4,000 people that are interested, that means it's probably going to be a really good event. This is Dirt and Drive, the podcast all about turning a small homestead into a real business. Welcome to Dirt and Drive, and this episode I'm going to talk about how to get started selling at farmers markets and vendor events. And I'm going to walk you through it basically exactly what I did to get started to take us from our having no events to selling over $900 in product at our first event last fall. So this episode is going to be all about the stuff that I wish someone had told me before I started so that I would kind of have a better way of planning. But it took a lot of research to figure out okay, what's all the stuff that I need to do? How can I best market my stuff? And let me preface this by saying that the best marketing for your product is having a quality product itself. So if you don't have a quality product, whether you can sell at events or not is not the issue. It's whether you can actually have repeat customers back, which will help you build your business long term. So you want to have a quality product, but we're not going to talk today about creating a product. But this whole episode is going with the idea that you've already got a quality product that you want to sell, you know what you want to sell, and here's how to get started selling at markets and vendor events. So the first thing you really need to do is make sure your business is legal. So that includes setting up an actual business with your state wherever you are and having an EIN number. So for me personally, I set up an LLC for my company, and that gave me an EIN number or what's known as an employee identification number. Now that's the first step. And you'll want to consult with a business consultant or a lawyer to figure out what exactly you want to set up because there's different types of LLCs and different types of businesses you might want to set up, whether you're doing a partnership or not. So that can vary. But either way, you need to figure that out, and that's your first step. So your second step is going to be signing up to collect sales tax. So if you sell an actual product at events, you have to charge sales tax and you have to remit that sales tax to the state that you are in. And it's going to vary based on the county as well. So make sure you're registered to sell sales tax, and then also make sure you're registered with your county as your business. So those are the three main things. You want to make sure you're legally covered as a business. So that's going to lead into the next one, which is to get insured. So you need to have at least some liability insurance as far as whether you know your tent is going to blow into another person's tent, and then you've you are going to be responsible for those damages. But you also need to have liability insurance for your products. So for me in particular, I sell tallow soaps and skincare. So I have insurance that is for cosmetic handcraft makers. And there's a couple options for that, whether you're a soap maker, a skincare maker, getting something like that. There's there's a couple options. There's the soap and cosmetic skill, there's the handmade artisan insurance. So you want to get those, but also talk with a broker about getting general liability insurance just to make sure that you're fully covered. And then if you really, really, really want that extra, extra care, have an umbrella policy for everything. So this goes along with making sure you're protected through your business as well, because if something happens and you don't have a business license and you don't have insurance, uh-oh, trouble. So just make sure you're covered and consult with a broker, an insurance agent, and a lawyer if you need to. But make sure you research and figure out specifically for your products, how you can best be covered. Now, the nice thing about finding a broker is they actually don't charge anything for you to use them. They will find you the best deal and the best coverage for your situation. So finding a local broker in your area can really be beneficial so that you'll get the best deal and you'll make sure that you have the best coverage so that you are fully prepared just in case something happens. And if it feels like overkill, it's not overkill until you need it. So just get it. You gotta do it. Uh, the soap and cosmetics field in particular, I think is a couple hundred dollars a year. The handmade artisan insurance is a couple hundred dollars a year, but depending on what you make, you might find something different. But having both the general liability and specific to your niche can be really awesome to have, especially if something happens. So even if you make a quality product, you know, stuff can happen. Even if you're in an event and you've got all the this weight to make sure that your tent's not gonna blow away, something can still happen. So just make sure you're protected. Now that I've just like gone way into that more than I probably needed to, I just want to make sure you guys please be covered and protected. It's very important for your business. So let's move on and talk about um setting up for payments. So for me personally, I chose to set up with Shopify to take my payments because I also wanted to utilize how they have for websites. Now, there's Square is another option, and I'm sure there's a ton of options out there. Whatever you choose to go with, uh, try to make sure it's something that where you can take card payments in person, but you can also sell online. And with that, along goes getting a domain for your brand. Now, to get started selling at events, do you have to have this? No. If you just want to sell at one event and that's all you want to do, just to kind of get your feet wet, you want to get started. You don't need to go through this whole process setting up a website. And you know, you can take things like Venmo or Cash App or you can take cash, but definitely having a way to take cards is going to increase your ability to take sales, to make more sales. So many people they want to use tap on their phones, they want to use tap on their cards, and having that option just increases your likelihood of having more sales. So if you if it's a small event and you're just trying to get started, okay, maybe start out with like Cash App or Venmo, making sure you're still tracking all that stuff and collecting sales tax. And I believe Venmo has an option for that where it will automatically add in the sales tax. Um, but if you really want to get set up for success in the future, if this is a long-term business for you, make sure you have a website. Now Shopify has it where they handle it all online, and I can do my in-person sales as well. I have a card reader, and you don't really need a whole lot to get started with this. You can actually take payments on your phone. So if you don't want to spend the money on having their card reader or having like an iPad set up or anything like that, if you have uh a phone where you can download the point of sale app, you can have people tap right on your phone. Now you can't take chip inserts, so that's where buying a card reader from them will be good so that you can take the insert as well. In case somebody's tap doesn't work, they want to be able to insert the card so that you can take payments. Now, next you want to make sure you have some cash on hand. So even though if you're taking card payments, a lot of people still want to pay with cash depending on the area that you're gonna sell in. I've sold in markets where most of the people all have cash, and then I've sold in markets where nobody had cash. But always make sure you have some. And with that, you also want to make sure you keep that on your body somehow so that you somebody doesn't walk away with your stuff. But maybe 150 to 200 in small bills so that you can make change if you need to. Um, keep it in an a vendor apron, even in your pocket. Um, I got a little fanny pack, it's not very fashionable. Trying to upgrade and get maybe a nicer one to use. Um, but just a way that you can protect the cash but have it just in case you need to make change. So now let's talk about finding events because everybody's like, okay, how do you find good events? So for me, uh some of it has been experienced just picking events and uh kind of gambling on it and saying if it was going to be any good. And a couple of those that I did, one turned out really horrible, and but several turned out absolutely fantastic. So if you don't know of events in your area, if you haven't visited them, if you're not sure, um, what I like to do is I'll look at see if the event has either a past event on Facebook or if they have it upcoming if it's already scheduled, and kind of looking at the interaction on the event page. If I see that the event is about three or four months away and there's over 4,000 people that are interested, that means it's probably going to be a really good event. Because for most events, uh just small towns do small events, it might be like a couple hundred. So if it's an event that's got several thousand people interested, that's probably gonna be a really good event. Now, there it's also something where you can ask your friends. So if you have Facebook and you're connected with a lot of your friends or TikTok or wherever, you know, post and ask, like, hey guys, like what are your favorite events to do in this area, or what are some big events that you just really love? Or if you're connected with other vendors, ask other vendors for tips on events in your area. So you can do a little bit of research and kind of figure that out. Like say, okay, what are the big events in this area? And even the simple Google search. If you search and say, okay, I'm looking for events in this area, and I want the biggest events, like maybe the top 10 events, and it'll give you back a pretty good list of events. Now, I like to event check the website Eventini. A lot of events are listed there, and they actually take their entire applications there and payments there. It's all in one platform, which is uh makes it really convenient. So that's a great one. Uh, there's Eventbrite, there's another one called Zapplication, and then some events like Chambers of Commerce and stuff will just take payment and do events on their own. So check with the local chamber of commerce in the area that you're looking to get in as well. So let's talk about the requirements. Like every event is gonna be different, and some of them are actually juried events. So they will have a jury that goes over the application and they vote on it to approve who. And some events will just let everyone in. Um, so it just varies. You got to look at the rules specifically and and just read through the terms before you apply for the event so that you understand how the process works. But what most all events will want is they'll want professional pictures of your setup. So this is where we'll get into this in a minute about getting the stuff for actually setting up an event, but they're gonna want to see pictures. So setting up your, if you have never done an event before, don't freak out. Set up your tent and your whole thing, or whole setup of how you want it to look. You'll need to do this for a practice run anyway, because it's never a good idea to just show up and not have an idea how your setup's gonna look. So do a test setup and take some really nice pictures with good light. It'll be outside, so hopefully a nice, a nice sunny day, maybe a little bit of overcast, so the sun's not shining too bright. Whichever, take some pretty pictures of your booth setup, and then you can include those in your application. Now, they're also probably going to want your business license, your sales tax ID, and your insurance. So every event is a little different, not all require all of these things up front, but a lot of them go in good faith that you do have these things, but most say you have to have and collect you have to have a sales tax ID to collect taxes. So that is number one. Now, for these events, some of them you're gonna want to apply early because some of them fill up really fast. You have to do it ahead of time. I've had events where the deadline is six months ahead of time and I missed it by like a day, and I was like, no, I really wanted that one. So keep an eye on the event. If it's a big event that you really want to get into, make sure you have on your calendar or uh somewhere organized, say, okay, this is the deadline of when I have to get that application in. So as I was saying, every event is different. Most events that I've encountered require you to handmake your products or make them yourselves and not to be a reseller or a MLM. Some events allow this, so make sure you're checking the rules before you apply. Because some events will actually have an application fee, and you don't want to waste your application fee. So make sure you read through all the rules on the application before you actually apply so that you know if you qualify to be at this event. And that leads into know the events rules. So each event is gonna have a little bit different rules. Some events require you to have a white tent, they all usually require you to have weights. If they don't require you to have weights, then I would question even maybe going for that event. So just watch out for that. Um, they'll have like a vendor arrival time windows, they'll say whether there's electricity available or not, and they'll also include the rain cancellation policy, whether they'll refund your money or not. I think the key tip here is to make sure you take professional photos of your tent before you even apply and understand all the terms and conditions of when you are applying. All right, let's get into the actual how to prepare and build your booth. This is probably the fun part to talk about. So, all the things that you want in order to set up your tent. So, actually, that's number one, get a tent. Most events, like I said, do require a white tent. So, but that can depend on your area. That that will vary. So, I've seen several events require a white tent, others don't care. So, we just decided to get a white tent because there were so many that were saying they wanted it. There's some that are easy ups, there's some that um have windbreakers on the top, there's ones that um come with tent weights, there's ones that don't have tent weights. So, definitely that leads into number two have tent weights. So, now if a tent comes with tent weights, chances are the weights are not heavy enough to handle your tent. You do not want 10-pound little pucks on your tent. Uh, those will not hold the tent if even the slight gust of wind comes. So, get yourself some good weights. Most events require anywhere from 40 to 50 pounds per leg. So, we have some tent weights that we got that uh we put sand in, and now we're actually probably gonna add a little bit of water to make them even heavier. They're right around the 30-pound mark, but I think once we add water, they're gonna be at the 40 to 50 range. Um, but find some good ones. Um, you can also stack multiple weights. Some people will take a bucket, like a five-gallon bucket, and fill it with cement, and then they they attach that to their legs. Like you can be creative if you don't have a lot of money to start. There's ways that you can make tent wigs, um, gallons of water. I mean, now obviously some of these options are not necessarily professional looking. So depending on the vibe that you're trying to have with your business. If you're grassroots, if you're just getting started, I wouldn't stress about it too much. But as you're building your brand and you want to look a certain way, make sure all the things that you're doing are not just kind of MacGyvered together, unless that's part of your branding, and then that works. You can get outside the box and think of different ways to weigh your tent down as long as you're meeting the minimum weight requirement. And you want to have that, because honestly, I've seen so many videos and so many instances where people's tents blew into others, blew into people. People can get injured, you can destroy your stuff, all your hard work, so and you can destroy other people's stuff. So just make sure that you have tent weights. So important for the long-term safety of your business and the safety of others around you. Okay, so now that I've gone on and on about tent weights, can you tell I'm passionate about that? Let's talk about tables, tablecloths, um, maybe a cooler, hand truck, or cart so that you, if you don't know whether you're gonna be able to park right next to where you're setting up, you might have to truck stuff thin. So you're gonna want some kind of hand cart for those situations. Tables enough to display your stuff. And we started with basic brown tablecloths, our first event. That was what I could afford at the time. I did get little um branded uh pieces of cloth to go over them that kind of showed our branding a little bit so that it still kind of looked professional, but it was very scrappy just um trying to figure it out in the beginning. So don't feel like it has to be absolutely perfect. You know, what you can afford at the time, as long as it looks somewhat nice and somewhat professional and somewhat matching to your aesthetic for your brand and your business, then I think you're good. So a couple other things that I got for us to uh display our stuff is I got shelves to put our soaps on. Now I wanted the shelves for the height because I've heard my entire life, anything I've ever done, eye level is sale level. And I mean, you think about it, you go into the grocery store most of the time, all of us are just looking at eye level. So it's that's and that's where actually brands will pay a premium to stores to be featured at eye level because that's how significant it is. So I wanted to have eye levels, so I got us some full some shelves off of Amazon and they fold up so that we can transport them easy enough, and they work great. They look really professional, I feel, and they display the soaps and people can see them really well. I also got some tiered displays for the checkout area where I sometimes put creams like now. If we're using our refrigerator for the tallow creams, then I don't necessarily use the tiered display because it's just too much going on on the table. But on on at when I'm set up just with a table indoors somewhere, I'll use my tier displays uh because those work really well and they look nice and professional and they're not and they're not that expensive. I think I got four of them for um under $100, or I think it was actually more around like $40. I don't know. I honestly couldn't believe the deal I got. So shop around, find a good deal, especially if you're you know bootstrapping, scrappy, throwing your business together, trying to get this going. Um you're the underdog here, it's okay if you don't have a whole lot of money to spend on a lot of things, but fine, you can find good deals if you're willing to shop. Now, a couple other things you might need uh bags for when people make purchases, uh any kind of um tissue paper for purchases if you need to wrap stuff up. It's if it's fragile and you don't want them walking around, you're worried about the thing. You don't want them to break it on their way home, and then they're just pointed, oh, they just got this and now it's gone. And figuring out how your checkout process is going to work. If you're gonna do the whole iPad setup, um I would just I would not recommend that for your first go-around. Um, just you're gonna learn so much at your first event. Just be willing to go in and learn, okay, what can I improve? And I still do this now. Every event, I'm like, okay, what can I improve? How can I make this better? Um, so it's it doesn't have to be perfect right outside the gate. Now, a couple of things you might need. You might need a little bit of power. So you're gonna need some power if you like you need to keep your phone charged. If you're checking people out, you got to make sure the checkout system has power. If you're like us and have a refrigerator to keep your tallow creams or your lotions and moisturizers or desserts or cakes or cookies or whatever in the summer heat, and you need to keep them cool, having power for that is gonna be really important. So getting some kind of battery pack that you can use, or we have a big battery we just got from Jackery that is working extremely well for us, and it's powering our fridge, we're able to charge our phones so we're able to charge the checkout system, and the battery has still been lasting and insane. It still has so much life on it at the end of the day. So find yourself a good battery. Now, to start with, you you know, that might be small battery packs or something you might already have that you can use. Um, but if you are going to advance further, you're gonna need to probably look into getting some sort of good big battery that you can use because you might need to, if you need lights, if it's a nighttime market, you're gonna need to get lights, you need to plug those in. If you uh need to, if it's the middle of summer, you need to put a fan, because we use now using a fan because it's so hot and actually customers love it. It's a big draw because we have a fan in our booth. Um, but having a way to plug that in is important, so unless you get like a rechargeable one that'll last all day. Along with that, I want to touch on the fact that a well-lit booth will usually do well and make great sales. So if it is dark out, you need to make sure you have some sort of lighting so people can actually see your stuff. So let's quick go through like a few other essentials that you might need. So, like zip ties, bungee cords, a rope for 10 emergencies, like if you need to tie a sign or you need to attach something to something, having these on hand is important. Scissors, tape, sharpies, sticky notes, um, paper pen. If you need to if you need to write down what stuff costs, what you sold, like if your technology fails and you take cards, you need to be writing stuff down so that you know what you sold and when for how much. Snacks and water, water is extremely important. You're gonna be there all day. You need to make sure you have enough water. You can get overheated, especially if it's in the middle of the summer and it's really hot out. You need to be drinking lots of water, having a cooler with snacks and water, so important. And if you are so busy, you you think you might be able to go grab some food, but you get so busy and you can't, you're gonna be so happy that you pack some snacks. Another thing to make sure you have sunscreen, bug spray. I've been at events where we're outside and I've been bitten up by those little noceums, and that's no fun. So make sure you have some bug spray too, and weather appropriate clothing. So if you know it's gonna rain, have a rain jacket, have umbrellas. Um, make sure you, when you buy a tent, you have a tent with sidewalls so that you can protect your stuff if it starts raining. Comfortable shoes, very important. Uh, if it's really hot out, make sure you're wearing like shorts and you're you know, and clothing that's gonna be too hot. You don't want to be wearing a sweatshirt, small trash bag for your space. Most events want you to bag up your own trash and take it with you. They don't want you to leave it there. The trash cans are usually for customers and visitors only. Okay, that was a lot. That was a lot of stuff that I mentioned. I'm sure I've missed something because there is a lot that goes to it, but I want to say and summarize this part up with just get started because you will improve as you go. With, like I said, with every event you're gonna learn and you're gonna be able to add things as you go and say, okay, this worked for us, this didn't work for us. So don't feel like you need that Pinterest perfect booth right out the gate. Just get started because at the end of the day, execution will beat out sitting on your phone wondering, oh, what should I do? Uh, I feel like I can't afford all this stuff. No, just just get going and don't stress about it too much. At least make sure you have the very basics that you need for the safety of your patrons, the safety of you and whoever else is helping you, and just get started. And with that, let's talk about the weather prep. So I did talk about the sidewalls on the tent. That's really important. If it is going to rain, you want to be able to protect your product. If it does start raining, pull your product back away from the edges if it's there. If you know ahead of time that it's going to rain, kind of adjust in your mind where you're putting stuff for the safety of your product because you don't want to lose product. So that means also having things like plastic sheeting to cover them, maybe extra tablecloths. If you know it's only supposed to rain like for a little bit and then it's gonna clear up. If you have backups for things, that might be good. And make sure you're storing your product in protective bins. So I got these plastic bins to transport our product our soaps back and forth. So, and that has protected them so well. Except for one time when I dropped them at an event and we lost a bunch of soap. But prior to me dropping them, they were so protective. From the rain, and they would have been fine. So just make sure you don't drop your bins. But having something to transport to protect your products, really important. And then in the heat, you want to make sure you have a cooler with ice packs for if you're selling food or you're selling creams or anything, you need to have a way to keep that stuff cool in this horrible heat. So we have a fridge and we have a cooler. In the beginning, all we did was use the cooler, and I would be taking the creams in and out throughout the day once I noticed they were getting too warm. And so if you're selling something like that, that's kind of a way you can work around it before you can afford to upgrade to something like a fridge. So something I do ahead of time is I I know an event is coming up in the weekend. I check the forecast a week ahead of time. And I will also double check the night before the event so that I know I have everything that I need. So if you know that there is going to be a high probability of rain, you can prepare for that. And actually, I've have a plan now. If it's going to rain, we don't take all our product anymore. We take uh like half our setup. We won't take all the tables, all the all the everything. We won't take the fridge if it's going to be under a certain temperature. And I know the creams will be fine out in the weather. So keeping an eye on the weather can help you prepare as far as what you're wearing as well. It's not something that you control, but you can prepare for it. Next, we're going to talk about signage and pricing. So you want to have really transparent pricing and signage in your booth to increase your sales opportunity. So there's nothing worse than going into a booth. I'm sure you know if you even if you haven't done festivals or vendor events before, maybe you've been to a yard sale where nothing was priced, and what do you do? And you're mine, well, I don't want to ask, and you know, so you just kind of turn away and leave. So making sure you have your prices available is very transparent. Right now, we just have our prices. I printed off, and I made a nice little graphic in Canva and I printed it off, and then I put it in photo frames, and that's how we show our prices. Now we are currently in the middle of upgrading to labeling all our products with uh barcodes so that I can scan the products to check us out faster. And that's that's a Shopify feature that uh we're using with the iPad. But before that, I made sure, you know, even though the prices weren't on the individual products, I still had them on display sides. We have them on display sides and we also have them on the products. So just making sure that things are priced and it's very clear so people are more willing to buy. Now, as far as some branding goes, now if you have the funds and you have the money and right out the gate, like you know what you want your branding to be and you want to buy the nice tablecloths, go for it. I'm of the mindset, like move quickly, just take action and fix it as you go. Now, if you're unsure and or you don't have the funds to do something like that, then wait until you're able to sell some to really upgrade some of those things. Because the tablecloths are nice, yes, but can you start with a simple tablecloth that is not necessarily that expensive? Um, and it still does the job and it still makes your booth look nice. Don't feel like you have to have the Pinterest worthy booth. Now, with that, make sure you have a way of people connecting with you. Um, whether you have your website set up yet or not, or whether you are actually selling online, you still want people to be able to follow you so that if they want more, they know where to get it. Or if you're trying to really build this business, you want to be building up your social media as well. So make sure you have, you know, a business card of some sort that you can hand out with every purchase. Now I hand out business cards with every single purchase, and it also has a QR code to my website, has all my social channels, has a little scratch off so that people can get a little coupon code to shop on my website. So making sure you're giving that to people is a great way to secure not just the sale from that day, but hopefully secure the customer long term. Couple things of note is a lot of times at vendor events, vendors will just be kind of sitting down below and on their phones, not really engaging because a lot of social media in the last several years has had this idea just go around so much that, oh, I want to be left alone when I'm walking at festivals or vendor events. And that's great. And you know what? You can read people, read people's energy, whether they want to be talked to or not. And you know, if I'm sensing that someone just does not want to be bothered, I'm not gonna bother them, obviously. But in general, we have had more success by engaging with potential customers from the get-go, saying, hi, how are you? How was your day? Are you here on vacation or you know, something relatable to the market? And we'll ask them things like, Have you tried tallow before? And then we're actually engaging and we're in a connected conversation versus just trying to sell. And then with that, we we don't sit down in low chairs, we actually got high back chairs so that we can sit higher. So, because your legs work are gonna get tired throughout the day if you need to sit down for a little bit. We have high chairs, you sit in, so it still looks like you're engaged and you're not just sitting down. If you're on your phone, try to make it quick if you've got to check something, but don't just be sitting back there on your phone and hoping that people are going to buy. I've seen it time and time again. I've actually seen vendors leave early, even though it's against the rules at most events. I've seen them leave early because they're upset they're not making sales, but the whole time they were sitting on their phone in a chair behind their table. So you're gonna have to actually, unfortunately, for an introvert like myself, you've got to engage if you want to make sales. And part of this will also be having your story ready. So if you are making some kind of product by hand, you know the ins and outs of it. You know what it takes to make what you're making. And you're usually, if you're making something, you're excited about that. Let that come across. Let people know the details of like, oh, this is, you know, this is this type of um crochet hook. So you can share those details with customers and be excited about that about it. Your excitement is going to transfer to them because excitement honestly is contagious. So be excited about your product, be willing to share and educate whatever it is that you're selling, educate customers on it. And you'll you should do pretty good. So, with that, make sure you're capturing your customers at the event. So if you are not checking people out on Shopify or Square and not capturing those emails or phone numbers so that you can follow up, have a signup sheet for maybe a giveaway or a signup sheet for your email list so that you can email them, say, hey, you know, when I'm out at events, I email ahead of time what I'm having or when I get my website ready. I would love to be able to let you know. So you can capture those emails while you're there and then still be able to follow up later, even if you don't have your stuff completely ready yet. Remember, the goal is not just to sell one thing to someone at an event. The goal is to have a customer for life. So when you're at the actual event, some things that you should take note of. How is the event? What's the foot traffic life? Did I get in a good spot? Do I need if I do this event next year? Do I need to be here sooner because it is a first come first come, first serve? Uh, did they have assigned spaces? Can you request a different space next time? Um, these are things that you want to think about, you know, for next year. Was it worth it? You know, are the sales being good enough for the cost of the event? So as you're at the event, be thinking about these things and that way that for next year, if you plan to come back, you you can have. I actually have a little spreadsheet now of events, and I have little notes that I make on each event so I know next year, okay, we're not going to do this one again, but we will do this one again if we can get in. So making those notes so that you can prepare for next year, because again, if you're trying to build a business long term, it's not just about what's going on right now, it's about what's going on over the next five years. Is this event going to grow? Is this a really good event? Or is this a not a good event? Are these organizers wonderful? Are they well organized? Are they communicative with you? Or is it a bad organizer where they didn't tell you anything and it was horribly organized when you got there and nobody attended? So you need to know these things so that you know whether to spend your money next year. Because honestly, at this point, we are booked almost every weekend through till January. And probably by next year, I'm not gonna remember half of the situations that happen because I'm gonna be just there's so much. So having a way to keep records and make take notes is super important for planning long-term at events. Now, with that, I will say make sure you're taking um advantage of connecting with the organizers, especially if they do multiple events, because you want to build that relationship and building relationships with other vendors as well, because other vendors are gonna have advice for you based on what this event was good, but this one wasn't. And vendors talk. So building those relationships and kind of um planning that way is super important. And that's something that I have made a priority. When I'm at an event, I'm making a connection with the organizers. I'm polite. If I have any kind of pul complaint at all, I'm very polite about it. Um, but I don't usually have complaints. We're pretty easygoing. You want to be polite and um promote the event. Honestly, if if you're going to try to build up relationships with other vendors and these events, you want to be promoting them as well. Get more people to the event. And that has honestly been something that has helped us so much with getting repeat customers to come back to events because they know, hey, she's gonna be here at this date. I know I can pick up my product there, and it works, it's a win-win for the event, other vendors, and for you. The promoter, the promoter relationship is honestly one of the most underrated relationships uh that you can build as a vendor. And this is why it's so important to also check and follow their rules. So if they say no tear down early, which most events are no teardown early, unless they say, okay, the it's the weather's bad, everybody leave, we're closing down. Um, but to tear down early for because of a lack of sales or whatever, this is usually against the rules. Um, and most of them will not allow you to come back if you ever do that. So keeping these relationships good needs to be a priority for your business long term if you want to keep going to these events. Now, this reminds me of our very first event is a great promoter that we have been doing multiple events with now. And it was um Pumpkin Fest in Canton last year, it was our first event. I was so nervous and it was very overwhelming. I mean, I overthought everything from our labels to our pricing to you know how I was storing everything, how I was transporting, how the setup was gonna look. I'm not gonna lie, it was the most overwhelming experience because it was just so scary. Like I was putting myself out there in this brand new business that I was doing that I had basically built from nothing, and I was going to, I'd never been a vendor at an event. I had I visited plenty of them, but I did not know how it was gonna go. And from the moment the event started until the end, we were slammed. We had a line out our tent, and it was we sold over $900 in product at our first event, and that was the moment I knew we actually had a business. With that, I will say, um, I've been to this person's events, uh, the Black Sheet Promotions, they're awesome. All their events are wonderful. And, you know, I've seen people at their events leave early and they're not welcome back, even though they have pretty much open vendor, like they don't do a jury. They'll let as long as it's handmade or you make it, they will let you in. Uh, so it's um it's very important to preserve those relationships. And they promote me online and I promote them online, and we've gone to multiple of their events. So those relationships are so important. So please, please, please, if you are new and you're getting started, be prepared to stay the entire time and work on those building those relationships. Because if a vent promoter is putting on that event, chances are they're gonna be putting on more. So you want to preserve those. Okay, so that was a lot. I talked about a lot. Let's do just kind of a recap of what I talked about. So minimum viable vendor list. Here you go. Okay, business license, sales tax permit, liability insurance, products properly labeled and compliant, but we kind of didn't really touch a whole lot on that because uh you should hopefully have that all figured out before you're even ready to be an event. Have your payment system, have some cash for making change, tent and tent weight, super important. Table, tablecloth, and display, bags and packaging for purchases. I don't know why that sounds hard for me to say right now. Simple signage and pricing, cooler for heat-sensitive products, portable battery pack, hand truck, or cart so you can transport stuff, day of essentials kit or a bug out type bag is important. Know the weather plan and have a way for people to connect with you or capture their emails. But again, the key here is you can start simple and get better and improve as you go. It's way simpler than you think. Even though it feels overwhelming, I get it. I was so overwhelmed with my first one. Uh, but one event teaches you more than weeks of planning. So let's just do a couple of highlights. Things I wish I knew before my first event, my first market. Uh, you don't need the perfect setup. Like I said, uh, done beats perfect every time. Weather will eventually be a problem, so prepare for it. Don't chance it. Always bring change, even if you think you're not gonna need it, always bring it. You never know. Your inventory guess will be wrong, and that's okay. You're either gonna bring too much or not enough. I would rather have too much than not enough. Uh, but sometimes it is nice to sell out, it can make you feel good. So you're never gonna get it perfect on the inventory. Don't sweat it. People love to smell and touch, and they love samples, so keep that in mind. If it's a product that you can sample, definitely want to sample it. And then lastly, your fellow vendor relationships are more important than you know. I see a lot of vendors, they will keep to themselves and they don't want to connect with other other vendors, but it has helped me so much, and I've been able to help other vendors just by connecting with them and making friends. As we support each other, and I I try to be very free in supporting my fellow vendors because I am just pro-smusin. I believe in small business, I believe in handmade and other makers, and I want to see them succeed. So that naturally just comes with going to these events and connecting with them and supporting them as best I can. But to me, it has helped me so much, just my heart, but also my business. I I've been able to have customers that are other vendors, and I'm a customer of theirs. So those are way more important than you think. So please, please don't just sit in your booth and keep to yourself. Make friends. So I think that about wraps up this one. I'm sure I probably missed a whole bunch of things. So if you have thoughts, uh the comments are open. The full episode is up on YouTube if you want to leave comments of anything that I missed. But I want to leave you with these closing remarks. Just pick one event and go. You're not gonna have it perfect, and that's okay. You can perfect as you go. Here we started last fall, and here I am about to go into the early fall season coming up for festivals, and I'm still improving things, but I've still been able to sell and have success even on days when it wasn't perfect. Your first one is all about learning. So if you can go in with that mindset, don't go in with the mindset, okay, I need to make all these sales, I need to sell all this product. Go in with the mindset, this is going to be all about learning because your first few events, you may not sell. It may not be a same situation like what we had. You may struggle trying to still figure out your market and where you need to be. And that's okay. As long as you're learning and improving, eventually you will be successful. Thank you so much for listening. And I would love to hear your first market story if you have one. Or after listening to this episode, if you book if you book one, please come back and tell me how it went. I would love it. This has been Dirt and Drive, the business of building a small homestead into a business, and I still can't seem to get that tagline right. I don't know why. But I thank you so much for listening, and I will see you guys next time. Alright, y'all, before you head back out to Pasture, remember this is just people sharing opinions, not medical, legal, or business advice. The opinions expressed here don't necessarily reflect my opinions or the opinions of Dragon Creek Ranch or the Dirt and Drive podcast. Remember to always do your own research. It's okay to get your hands a little dirty, but keep your wrap cheek clean. Thanks for listening, and if you enjoyed the podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. It'll help us reach more folks.