There are lots of ways that you can make money from home – you can start a craft and sell it, you can baby-sit, dog walk, take online surveys but let’s face it. It sounds like fun. Until you need to physically go out there and do the cold-calling and find your customers. But what if the customers came to you? Wouldn’t that be so much better?
So how you would do this? One really fun way is that you can arrange a market in your community! It doesn’t have to be big one. A local one with some vendors and foot traffic can definitely get you some additional money to take home. I do this on a regular basis (every 4 – 6 weeks) and love it. Once you have done your first one, well – it’s kind of like riding a bicycle. You won’t forget and you will only get better!
To help you out I have a couple of tips below and then a fantastic eBook that you can get your hands on that will ensure the smooth running of your first local market!
1. Take the Time to Plan
Some people are natural planners while others tend to be more cautious. Even though duffing up the arrangements on a market won’t cost you millions, it could still cost you money and at the same time, ruin your reputation. After your first market you might want to have another one and will find it difficult to get vendors to sign up if you let them down previously.
Here is something else to consider, especially if you plan on doing this regularly (for example once a month or once every two months) : think about setting up a blog or a website in addition to a Facebook page.
If you have a website, it will give your market credibility. You can showcase different venues, products and highlight various artisans to show people who will be selling at your market. It will also provide the vendors with free marketing, and you will find that these people will often remain loyal to you in return..
2. Decide to do it alone or with a small team
It will obviously take you longer to arrange if you are working alone but even if you decide that is how you are going to do it, we still recommend that you have a couple of volunteers to help you on the day, just to set up the tables and run any last minute errands that you might need done.
4. Vendors and products
On the day, or afterwards, contact them again and ask them for feedback. Have a thick skin. Naturally people naturally don’t like to receive negative feedback but try not to take it personally. Use this as a learning curve for your next market so that you can do it better.
4. Learn more so your next market is even better !
Look for vendors and products that will be keeping inline with your requirements. Look for vendors who are completely passionate about their products and just want the world to know what they are producing.
Many businesses start off at markets. There are so many people out there who are crafters or bakers and look for new avenues to take their product to market. Be that person!
If you are serious about making a couple of hundred dollars in one weekend by putting in some work beforehand, it is completely do-able.
To sum up…
Even if running a market is not want you want to do forever or on a large scale, consider this:
1. By arranging a market, you will earn some extra money – sure!
2. You will enhance skills you already have or even better, learn something new such as cold-calling, improving your organisational skills, logistical planning, decor skills and more.
3. The biggest plus-factor for me personally is that you will network before, during and after your market. When you look for ways how you can make money, you will meet other people who are trying to do the same thing. If you have another business, use this market as an opportunity to grow your network by talking with your vendors and also with your customers. This is the perfect place to chat to future clients, get into conversations and casually ask questions to get their feedback on all sorts of things you might be looking to have answered.
Any opportunity to network is simply that, an opportunity. The question is – what you are going to do about it?
