Hello Everyone,
So, the Inglenook Artisan Market has been and gone. What a fantastic experience, we had so much fun and genuinely loved every minute of it.
Although we enjoyed ourselves, there was a lot to learn quickly and to prepare for next time. Fortunately, my brother-in-law’s girlfriend, Sarah, is a natural on a market stall and figured out a few shortcuts among other things to turn us into a well(-ish) oiled machine by the end.
Things we did right:
The night before the big day, Kat asked me to set up the dining room table how I wanted it to look on the day. This was such a good idea, as what I had layout wise in my head just didn’t work in reality. We did some manoeuvring of candles and jars to come up with pretty much what we used on the day. The only change I made during the market was to add price labels to the candles and to have both types of jars either side of the other merchandise.
After we had set up the stall, Sarah made the excellent suggestion to pre-wrap our candles other than those on display. This was genius and streamlined the packing process. The reason we wrap your beeswax products in paper is to prevent it rubbing up against any jars and marking them. It also helps hold the candles together when they’re wrapped and of course protects them. We had some beeswax blocks for sale that we couldn’t really pre-wrap due to them all being on display, so we cut some lengths of paper and some masking tape ready for any sales.
The morning before Adam and Sarah arrived, I went to the bank to get some change ready for the Sunday. As I’d never done a market before I asked the bank clerk what I should get out and in what denominations. He was really cool about it and told me a little trick that seems to work. He asked how many people I was expecting to turn up to the market day, I told him that Inglenook Market averages around 1500 visitors. He told me his rule of thumb would be to divide it by 10, so £150. He said that out of all of those people there’ll only be a small percentage coming to my stall and they’ll be giving me more money to use as change for the next customer. He then asked what the lowest denominator I’d be using was, i.e. if I charge 99p the smallest change I need is 1p in case someone gives me a £1 coin. I was selling in full pounds or in 50ps to make my life easier so, £1 for a small honey dipper and £2.50 for a big one. He suggested that I break the £150 into 5x£10, 10x£5, 10x£2, 20x£1 and 20x50p. You know what? He was absolutely on the money (no pun intended)… at no point were we short of change and we even exchanged some pound coins with another seller who had run out and only had notes. I’m going to make his rule of thumb one of mine, I’ve even written it on a post-it-note in the top of my money box in case I forget next time.
The card reader was a BIG win. Although most of the money we received was via cash, we would have missed out on a third of our sales if we didn’t have one. The app was useful too as it records the cash transactions for free. This means that our daily total was easily seen by all of us using the app and we could track what our individual sale total was. We had some issues at the beginning with getting the reader to connect to all of our phones and there was also an issue of a queue forming while we waited for the reader to register payment at times but it worked like a dream and we didn’t have any complaints.
The most important thing I did well on the day was having someone there to help. Adam and Sarah helped me throughout the day, and I am so so so fortunate to have had them with me. An extra pair of hands when you’re busy is invaluable. I was busy talking (as I do… at length) and they were either bagging up items for the customer, totting up the bill for me or they were dealing with another customer to keep the line moving.
They didn’t know a right lot about the process of making the products at the beginning, but they listened to what I was saying to customers and did an excellent job of regurgitating it to others when I was busy.
We were a bit all over the place for the first few sales, but I think it was Sarah that designated us jobs to make it smoother. I was the “Face”, my job was to talk the customers into submission, Adam was the “Money” as he was the first one to get the SUMUP app working and so totted up the sales and handed over the card reader, Sarah was the “Bagman” as she had the packing and presentation skills down. Like a well-oiled machine the customer would tell me what they want, a card machine would appear to my right and I’d reach back, without looking, to have a paper bag handed to me with everything inside.
We were like this up until there was a bit of a lull around lunch time when Sarah realised that you could see who sold what … That’s when the competition started, and it was every man, woman, and child for themselves. Some customers clocked our little game and asked who was in the lead as they passed by several times. Poor Kat was busy marking in the morning and when she managed to come down around 1ish for lunch we were well into the competition and unwilling to leave the post lest the others wiggle into the lead. The final tally has Sarah in the lead with 35(!) sales, Adam was next with 26, Kat was unfortunately stuck at 6 and I, god love me, have 3… I blame my loss due to the fact that I was talking a lot with my customers. Sarah took to market selling like a fish to water and with her deft packing skills, we didn’t have a chance. You don’t want to mess with ‘the Bagman!’
Things we need to improve:
Firstly, I really need to improve how I talk to the public. I’m too chatty and I could see eyes glaze over every so often. As we see from the tally above, Adam and Sarah did the best job by just letting the customer browse and answering questions when asked. I’m too forward and engage with people too readily with a “Hello!” as soon as they approach, meaning they look up at a fool rather than the products on the table. Next time I’m definitely going to hold myself back a bit and let them have a good look at the table before I start chatting their ears off.
I’m a bit too generous and self-depreciating and I need to knock it off. “Selling” is a bit of an alien concept to me… I dislike taking money off people and when someone came to buy a large number of candles, I felt obligated to hand them a bunch of free stuff and knock the price down. After totting up my earnings and checking my stock I’ve realised that I technically gave them a considerable amount of money off without realising it. Not only is it taking money out of my business, it is also unfair on the other customers who have just purchased the items I’ve handed out freely. I need to stop letting my insecurities cost the business money, but I’ll learn.
Beeswax Blocks … no-one has a clue how to use them! Neither did I really … I just saw them as the norm for beekeepers to sell at market stalls. The most asked question of the day was “what do you actually do with beeswax blocks?” and the answer they got was three perplexed expressions. After the question was put to us a few times we all went mad googling possible uses. Surprisingly there are quite a lot of things you can use beeswax for, but most involve melting it with another kind of wax to make something useful. On its own there are only a few things you can do. It really didn’t sell very well compared to everything else and I think the lack of knowledge was a big factor. Kat has suggested making a little card I can place in the tray with the blocks explaining some uses. Personally, I’m debating just melting them down into candles or using it to make some lip balms, etc. as I’m not sure it is something that everyone wants to buy. We’ll see if they’re more popular next time and now we have a bit more knowledge under our belts.
After looking at the other stall owners we also realised that we need a banner on the top of our stall or something big to catch everyone’s eyes from a distance and let them locate us easier. One poor woman told us that she’d been wandering around all of the stalls trying to find us. She wasn’t the only one struggling to find us and the fact that we were next to the Crepe station with a big queue probably didn’t help too much either. I’m not complaining about the placement, as it meant that those in the queue could look while they waited, just that we need a way to advertise ourselves better. Whilst on this train of thought, it was noted that my QR code links to my business pages only brought confusion rather than the expediency I had hoped for. They’re useful for putting on my jars to save label space, but definitely need to get some business cards with the social addresses themselves printed. Another thing to learn from.
Lastly, I need better shoes. It’s Wednesday (as I write this) and my feet are STILL hurting. I spend a lot of time on my feet at work, walking from one area to another, making samples at high workstations. I generally have no issue with my feet. I wore walking boots to the market day because I thought the floor might be muddy, they give me ankle support and they’re the warmest shoes I own. It seems walking boots are excellent for walking … not so much for just standing around. Their soles are obviously hard to prevent jagged stones piercing through your feet. Unfortunately, hard soles don’t lend themselves to cushioning. I’m going to have a shop around and find the comfiest shoes I can. A friend in healthcare says her “nurse trainers” are excellent but doesn’t know how to buy some outside of the hospital. I can feel a call to my sister the surgeon coming on!
What I was surprised by:
My biggest surprise was how early some of you lovely people come to the market! Our first sale was to Mike Toole, a lovely bloke who owns the house I collected a swarm from in July, (talked about in a previous post). He arrived at 9:45am! The market only opens at 10am, so he arrived as we had literally just finished setting up. I’ve kept the £10 note he gave me separate from the others, as it was the first ever sale I’ve made and think it should be remembered for nostalgia. I’m going to put it in a frame and hang it somewhere in the house. Thank you for your custom Mike, it means a lot that you woke up so early to support us! After Mike, we had people turning up, on average, every 5 minutes until lunch when it slowed down a bit.
After talking to all of you, I found out that most of our customers came because they saw my post on the local village Facebook page. It’s almost scary how far reaching a small post can get. I genuinely thought most of my customers would be from random people wandering around and noticing me. Not many mentioned my Instagram or Nextdoor posts, so it shows how much further reaching Facebook is.
One shock for me was that I’ve inspired several of you to try beekeeping! I guess my pretty honest posts about being an absolute clutz has helped you realise that anyone can be a beekeeper. I took a load of leaflets from my BBKA group to the market and quite a few were handed out. I am hoping to start selling Nucs of bees next year and at a discounted price if you’re part of the Ormskirk & Croston BBKA group so jump on their beginners’ course and let me know if you have any questions!
There were a few requests for products that I don’t make yet such as soft set honey, chunk honey and cut comb among other things. One such request was “where’s yer cider?”. It’s on its way dear friend, hopefully I’ll be producing cider next year, now that I’ve pleased the EHO with my processes and set up, and in other news got a food hygiene rating of 5 stars! I guess my mild OCD is good for something! I was going to try and sell some this year but life got in the way unfortunately. Thank you for everyone’s suggestions, I’ve taken them on board, and I’ll be producing next year.
My last surprise was how many of my sales were to those who live in Rainford. You really look after your small businesses and I can’t find the words express my appreciation. So many of you told me that you only came to the market just to find me and it absolutely blew me away! Not only that but I’ve had a bunch of messages and comments on my posts saying how much you love the honey and my candles. Thank you all so much for all your support! It means the world to me!
So, there you have it, everything I learned from my market day experience. We have a few jars of honey left over but not enough stock to have another market stall on its own. Kat and I are currently trying to devise some Christmas present bundles to take to the November or December market but if we can’t find an affordable solution to this soon then we might just have to leave it until around this time next year. That’s what happens when you start a season with only 2 hives. The good news is that this time next year hopefully we will have honey and wax from 17 colonies instead, just think of the difference that will make!
Hope you’re all safe, well and have enjoyed the post
Greg & Kat
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