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How many of you 
actually are considering,

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going to a farmers market
or who have sold at farmers markets.

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It'd be really fun to have a discussion 
of what's worked well for different people

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at farmers markets.

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Before we get into that,
a little bit about me. I,

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grow in South Jordan.

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I have a my micro farm.

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I have two sites, one
at a neighbor's property

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and the other is just in my backyard.

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I'm going into my fifth season farming

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and it's our fourth season with markets
and with subscriptions.

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My first year
I just sold to neighbors off Facebook

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and things like that.

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I also teach the backyard
cut flower garden course

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at Snuck farm. And,

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we do workshops and consultations.

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So that's a little bit about me.

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Farmers markets.

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So I love farmer's markets.

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I've always loved farmers

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markets.

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And looking at them.

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And so when I moved here to Utah,
I wanted to find flower farmers,

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at our local farmers markets,
and there just weren't any.

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And so that's kind of how I got started,
even,

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with the business of flower farming.

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So some of the business, or the benefits

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from selling at a farmer's market,

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every new grower wants to know
how to be seen

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in their community,
how to help people find them.

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And,

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selling at a farmer's
market is so helpful.

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in being able to

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be seen in your community
and make those contacts.

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Networking at a farmer's market,
talking with other vendors,

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you can find more opportunities
to sell your flowers.

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Market managers.

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Just this week, I had two emails

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from one of my market managers
telling me about a different market.

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One in Payson, one in Herriman,

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and then also an opportunity
to sell my flowers online.

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So you expand your horizons a little bit

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beyond just selling at a market.

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For me, it's been a stepping stone.

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A lot of my subscribers have come from
being customers at the farmers market.

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Maybe
they weren't able to make it every week,

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and they wanted flowers every week.
And so,

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they'd sign up for subscriptions,

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a lot of them ask me growing questions,

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which leads to them coming to workshops.

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A lot of times they'll ask about weddings,
and I've done a few for them.

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And a great way
to make sure you get the most of that

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is by gathering,

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emails while you're at the market.

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It was a little tricky
this last year.

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I did not gather any emails

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for this year, but,
hopefully once we, you know,

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maybe you can try a QR code
or something like that.

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And then the other thing is it's a little
bit less exacting than florist sales.

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And I don't necessarily mean quality,
but you can take what you grow.

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So if you only have red zinnias
that year, someone will buy them.

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Or that week,
someone will buy them.

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Whereas it might be hard to find,
an event florist

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that wants,
you know, a mishmash of things.

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Okay, so I think a big question.

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I have lots of friends
that have tried selling at the market,

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and I think a good thing to do
before you start is to

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find out whether it's really suited
for you, before you take the time

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and the energy to invest in tents
and market fees

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and all those things.

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Do you have the time? 
Most markets, most successful markets

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are on weekends
and, or weeknights.

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And if your kids are all in sports
and that's important to you,

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it might be really hard
to take the time out of your busy family's

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life to go to the market.

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Do you have support?

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Do you have childcare?

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It is a really hard thing

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to take a small child
to the farmer's market and try to sell.

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Resources.

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Do you have a car?

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Can you produce flowers over a season?
Or are you worried that you will have them

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for July and August,
but maybe none of the rest of the year?

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And then personality.

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I really don't think that you need to be
an extrovert to sell at a farmer's market.

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But you do need to be friendly.

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You need to be able to

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talk to people
and be able to approach people.

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If that's really hard for you,

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you might find the farmer's
market really overwhelming.

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And then you might be like my 14 year old
if it's a real slow, slow market.

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He gets really bored and drives me crazy.

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So if you get bored easy,
maybe that's not well suited either.

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Okay,

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so, I did want to mention
this was my first farmer's market.

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This picture, and obviously
I did not have a lot of product,

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so I'm going to refer back to that later.

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Choosing a market.

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If you go to a market and talk to vendors,
a lot of these vendors

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sell at different markets
and they can tell you which markets

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are the busiest
or the most profitable in our state.

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Find out things like foot traffic.

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Are they busy?

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If you go and visit them, you know,
in the market before you plan on selling,

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then you have an idea 
of what kind of foot traffic.

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Location.

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Some areas are just a little more affluent
and we sell a luxury item.

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So looking for those areas is pretty good.

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Pretty important.

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Whether it's a 
producers only or a resale market.

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Resale markets
will typically have lots of crafts.

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Whereas producers are more focused on
farmers.

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There are pros and cons to both.

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I sell at the South Jordan market,

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and that's a producers only
and I sell at the Daybreak Farmers Market.

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And that is a resale market.

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And so,

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you get a very different clientele 
at each.

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And there's, I love them both,
but it's important to think about.

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What their fees are can be an issue.

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Just make sure that when you are applying
for a farmer's market

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that they know that you're not a crafter,
you should be paying farmers fees.

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They're typically lower. And,

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but a lot of market managers
won't understand that at first.

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So it's somewhere that we have to do
a little bit of education

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in our community.

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And then season length.

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I have a market that starts in June.

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I love it,
and then my next market starts in August.

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And that kind of helps me
with the glut of flowers that we end up

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at that time in the season, and so it's
nice to have them staggered that way.

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And then weather.

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Some of these markets,

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if it's on a Wednesday afternoon
and it's super hot and there's no shade,

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it might not be a good fit
just because it could damage your product.

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And so you want to think about that
as you choose a market.

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Okay.

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So I think one of the biggest worries
that we have

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when we go to a farmer's
market is what if there are other farmers?

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And like Heather was saying that it's

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not a bad thing to have competition.

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It makes you a better farmer.

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But you can also distinguish yourself.

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And there can be multiple farmers
at the same market.

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Just like when you're shopping
for a pair of blue jeans or something

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and you go to the mall and you want 
to have lots of options to try on.

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You'll go to somewhere
where there's lots of stores

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and that's, you know, a market
that has lots of flower farmers.

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They can become become known for that.

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And the people who want lots of options
and lots of varieties

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for flowers will go to that market.

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It'll become a draw.

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You can also look at different ways
to sell your flowers.

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If the lady down the row

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is selling bouquets,
you can think about selling single stems.

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I remember someone talking about
selling at the Salt Lake Farmers Market,

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and they didn't sell sweet peas,
and the farmer down the row from them did.

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And so they would send people looking for
sweet peas down there, and vice versa.

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So, the most important thing is not to be

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so worried about not selling your flowers
because there's other farmers there

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selling flowers that you lower
your prices.

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You really need to base your prices

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on what you need to make
to be a sustainable business.

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And if you get scared,
you don't want to to have a race

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to the bottom where you lower your prices
and become the cheapest.

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Cheap isn't best.

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Okay, so

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some things about really killing it
at the farmers market.

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If you want to really have
a consistent business

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where people are coming back
to you every week because they know

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your flowers are the prettiest
and the longest lasting,

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then you need to bring the best product
you have.

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If there's something that's

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kind of wilty, I don't like to take it
to the farmer's market.

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Because that first time
you sell a bouquet,

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that's like one of your
your only chances, right?

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And if they don't have

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the best experience with it,
they might not buy from you again.

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So you want to be knowledgeable
in the varieties you grow,

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know your harvest stage, 
hydrate them well,

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and they'll keep coming back.

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And what's great is when they come back,
they'll tell other people.

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It's pretty common for people to walk by,

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customers that returning customers
will walk by with someone else.

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Someone new
is buying a flower and say, hey,

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those flowers are going to last two weeks.

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They're the best. You should buy it.

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And I don't have to do the selling.

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It's my customers doing it for me.

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So it's kind of awesome.

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If it's a really hot day,
I like taking frozen water bottles

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and sticking them in the buckets,
I always keep my tent.

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My flowers are in the shade.

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And then another big thing is
when people are walking around,

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they don't think about it,
but the flowers will wilt pretty quickly.

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And so I like to offer to hold them
while they shop

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so that they're not walking around
with their stems out of water,

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if they're going
to be shopping for a while.

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Let's see. So,

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when you are setting up your display,

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there is a

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catch phrase that says stack them high
and watch them fly

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that vegetable farmers use.

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And I think the same thing applies to our 
displays at the farmers market for flowers

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We want to show abundance.

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People like to have lots of choices.

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It looks good.

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It's appealing.

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It stops people in their track.

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So bring everything you have.
Pack it in so it looks lush.

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And I think it's, it's always
those last two bouquets

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that are sitting on a mostly empty table

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that are the hardest to sell. So,

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clearly mark your prices.

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People are shy.
They don't want to ask you.

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It also makes it clear
that everybody's getting the same price.

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I have three price points, I have three.

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I have my petite bouquets,
my regular bouquets, and my mason jars.

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And sometimes I'll do a premium bouquet
that's a little bit larger

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and a little bit more money,
but I don't go beyond that.

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Simple is easy for you
and it's easy for your customer.

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I also really like long tablecloths.

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I don't want my junk
hanging out on the bottom.

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Underneath my tablecloth.

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That's kind of nitpicky, but

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it's just one of those things
I think makes you look so professional

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and then think about
whether they can find you again.

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Do you have business cards?

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Do you have a banner up?

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Do they know if
if they can order from you again?

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It helps with repeat business.

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Okay.

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So pricing.
Pricing came up a lot in Heather's talk.

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Pricing is hard.

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I think it's a really hard thing
when you're starting out.

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And one of the most important things
you can do is start tracking

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your expenses and your labor.

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The costs of really producing those stems.

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Labor is our biggest cost.

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And I think that it's the thing
that we like to discount the most.

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We don't think about it
because it's just our time.

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But our time is valuable. So,

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really knowing your true costs,

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looking to break even, track your hours,

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all of your hours, even if it's time, 
posting on social media, or

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time stripping the bouquet,
you know, stripping your stems

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and making bouquets and weeding
all those things add up.

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And, you probably work
more than you think you do.

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So and then,

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watch your stem counts.

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It's one thing to say my bouquets are $20,
but what does that mean?

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Is it a ten stem bouquet
or is it a 25 stem bouquet?

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You know, one of those going to be 
much more profitable than the other.

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And then I have this picture here,

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and these are some David
Austin Garden roses.

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And I don't take them
to the farmer's market.

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This was, a customer

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00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:34,200
had ordered, an expensive birthday,

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bouquet and surprised his wife

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with it at the farmer's market.

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And so I wouldn't put tons of 
high value flowers

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00:14:46,900 --> 00:14:49,640
into a market bouquet

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unless I was charging
appropriately for it.

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So just pay attention to those things

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like ranunculus
or garden roses or dahlias and

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use them judiciously.

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Talking too much.

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One of the other things that people do is

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at the end of the market, sorry.

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They will,

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ask for discount
sometimes if you have flowers left over.

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And when you give discounts
at the end of the market,

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you train your customers to know,
hey, if she's got flowers left over,

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I can go get them cheap.

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And that must be
what they're really worth.

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Sorry.

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So I never discount my flowers
at the end of the market.

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I would rather take them to a friend
or to my mother in law.

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Take them somewhere, give them away.

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You can think of it as PR.

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People enjoy getting flowers, and then
you're not devaluing the flowers at all.

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It becomes a gift instead of a discount.

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And then

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with pricing.

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00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:11,000
I love this quote from Seth Godin.

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Cheap as another way to say scared.

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And I think

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lowering
our price should be our last thing.

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00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:22,560
I think we need to think about,

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do my flowers look good?

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If they're not selling, do they look good?

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Am I getting the word out?

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00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:29,480
Do people know I'm here?

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Am I being friendly?

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00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:33,320
Am I being engaging?
Doing all those things?

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00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:36,320
Before
we think about discounting our prices or,

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00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:40,680
not charging enough.

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00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:45,490
Okay, so here are my boys.

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00:16:45,490 --> 00:16:49,360
They helped me sell at the market because 
we do two markets on saturday mornings

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00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:51,440
and I can't be in two places at once.

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And so these are a few things that I've,

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00:16:55,560 --> 00:16:57,040
and they're not allowed to sit

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00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:00,440
while we're selling at the farmer's market
until

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00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:02,510
all the flowers are sold.

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00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:05,560
They really love that.

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00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:07,000
It's good to be friendly.

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00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:10,000
I usually just say, hi,
how are you doing to people?

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00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:13,880
You can be friendly

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00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:16,880
and talk to everybody without being pushy.

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00:17:17,120 --> 00:17:18,200
I also find it.

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00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:21,880
It's great to accept
as many forms of payment as possible.

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So credit cards, cash,

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Apple pay, Google pay,
all of those things.

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00:17:27,360 --> 00:17:31,233
The easier
you make it for people to pay, the

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00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:35,520
less obstacles
there are to them buying your flowers.

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00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:39,920
Once we sell a bouquet, we usually,

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00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:43,840
you know, if half a bucket is empty
and another half a bucket is empty,

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00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:47,000
we combine the buckets,
we keep our displays looking good.

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00:17:48,460 --> 00:17:52,280
It gives us something to do
while we're sitting there.

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00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:55,720
And helps our display look good.

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00:17:56,240 --> 00:18:00,400
And, another collect your email addresses.

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00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:03,879
This is a great thing because 
when you want to contact them later

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00:18:03,879 --> 00:18:06,320
to tell them
when the market starts next year,

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00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:09,760
or to tell them when,

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00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:13,040
you're selling your subscriptions
or that you're starting weddings.

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00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:15,960
This is how you can contact
these people later.

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00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:19,880
And then I think this is most important
as you come back and you do it again,

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00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:22,680
and then you come back
and you do it again.

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00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:25,000
If someone comes
and they buy your flowers,

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00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:28,000
and they think they were
the most amazing flowers in the world,

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00:18:28,280 --> 00:18:31,920
and they come back and you're not there
the next week, you've lost a sale.

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00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:35,191
So I think the farmers market

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00:18:35,191 --> 00:18:39,760
is the most successful
when you commit to it, when you go back

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00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:44,080
year after year or even week after week,
if you're just trying it for a season.

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00:18:45,050 --> 00:18:47,400
There's nothing wrong with 
trying it for a season

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00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,120
and seeing
if it works with your lifestyle.

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00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:53,640
But I do think if you're going
to really have the benefits

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00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:55,200
and the rewards of

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00:18:55,200 --> 00:19:00,080
selling at a farmer's market, then
you've got to have some commitment there.

340
00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:03,360
Okay.

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00:19:03,360 --> 00:19:06,120
So I wanted to talk a little bit about

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00:19:06,120 --> 00:19:09,120
is sold out the real goal?

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00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:13,920
So on this picture on the,

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00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:18,240
the picture with less flowers,
I sold out that day.

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00:19:19,050 --> 00:19:22,600
Which is always awesome to be able to say
I took everything and I sold it.

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00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:25,200
The one above,

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00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,240
I did not sell out that day.

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00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:31,480
I think I had two bouquets left over,
but it was my highest grossing market,

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00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:33,680
that I've ever had.

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00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:36,680
It was just our last market
of this last season.

351
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:40,760
And a lot of times,
we think it's great to sell out,

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00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:44,040
but if you're selling out
super early in the day and,

353
00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:47,560
your market starts at nine
and you're sold out by 11 or 12

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00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:53,200
and you've got another hour to go,
think about what's going on.

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00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:54,960
Are you,

356
00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:57,600
selling your flowers cheaply?

357
00:19:57,600 --> 00:19:59,520
Are you not bringing enough product?

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00:19:59,520 --> 00:20:02,520
Can you work on that for the next season?

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00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:06,880
We are trying to double our production
again this year because

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00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:09,600
we can probably sell it.

361
00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:14,000
And so, those are just some things
to think about when you're selling out.

362
00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:17,960
Really, what you want to do is

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00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:19,960
sell the most flowers, right?

364
00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:23,400
And so it's okay
if you have a couple bouquets left over,

365
00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:25,360
if that means that every person

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00:20:25,360 --> 00:20:28,220
that wanted a bouquet
that came to the market got one.

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00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,080
I always felt terrible
when I'd sell out early,

368
00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:34,080
and then people would come up to me
and go, oh.

369
00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:38,160
I was, you know, I'm here
just for flowers or something.

370
00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:41,840
And I knew I missed a sale because
I didn't have enough flowers that week.

371
00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:45,160
So something to think about.

372
00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:48,480
And then,

373
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:53,000
subscriptions, like I said earlier,
a lot of my subscriptions come from

374
00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:56,760
referrals from the farmers market
and some selling

375
00:20:57,240 --> 00:21:00,240
after you get those email addresses.

376
00:21:00,360 --> 00:21:02,960
Some selling points
for when you approach people

377
00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:06,360
about subscriptions,
they already know your quality.

378
00:21:06,620 --> 00:21:08,190
They know you have great variety.

379
00:21:08,190 --> 00:21:12,120
That's one of the things
my subscribers say when I,

380
00:21:13,170 --> 00:21:15,920
ask them in surveys,
what do they enjoy about our flowers?

381
00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:18,920
It's the varieties that they get,
that they're different.

382
00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:24,120
It's more convenient
to have flowers delivered to you

383
00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:26,320
or to pick them up once a week,

384
00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:29,490
than have to go to the farmers market
and see if there's any there.

385
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:32,640
We also do a spring subscription,

386
00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:36,520
and that starts before
there are any farmer's markets open.

387
00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:39,600
And so that's an opportunity
to extend your,

388
00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:43,280
selling period. And,

389
00:21:43,630 --> 00:21:46,100
and then the assurance
of being able to get flowers

390
00:21:46,100 --> 00:21:47,770
if you're selling out all the time.

391
00:21:47,770 --> 00:21:50,720
And people might just want to make sure
they have your flowers.

392
00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:54,600
So that's kind of

393
00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:57,240
what I've got for you.

394
00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:00,240
It looks like there's some

395
00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:01,480
questions.