Taking Flowers to Market - Fawn Rueckert

FAWN: How many of you
actually are considering,

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

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

at farmers markets.

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

grow in South Jordan.

I have a my micro farm.

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

and the other is just in my backyard.

I'm going into my fifth season farming

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

My first year
I just sold to neighbors off Facebook

and things like that.

I also teach the backyard
cut flower garden course

at Snuck farm. And,

we do workshops and consultations.

So that's a little bit about me.

Farmers markets.

So I love farmer's markets.

I've always loved farmers

markets.

And looking at them.

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

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

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

with the business of flower farming.

So some of the business, or the benefits

from selling at a farmer's market,

every new grower wants to know
how to be seen

in their community,
how to help people find them.

And,

selling at a farmer's
market is so helpful.

in being able to

be seen in your community
and make those contacts.

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

you can find more opportunities
to sell your flowers.

Market managers.

Just this week, I had two emails

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

One in Payson, one in Herriman,

and then also an opportunity
to sell my flowers online.

So you expand your horizons a little bit

beyond just selling at a market.

For me, it's been a stepping stone.

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

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

and they wanted flowers every week.
And so,

they'd sign up for subscriptions,

a lot of them ask me growing questions,

which leads to them coming to workshops.

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

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

is by gathering,

emails while you're at the market.

It was a little tricky
this last year.

I did not gather any emails

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

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

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

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

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

Or that week,
someone will buy them.

Whereas it might be hard to find,
an event florist

that wants,
you know, a mishmash of things.

Okay, so I think a big question.

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

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

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

and the energy to invest in tents
and market fees

and all those things.

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

are on weekends
and, or weeknights.

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

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

life to go to the market.

Do you have support?

Do you have childcare?

It is a really hard thing

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

Resources.

Do you have a car?

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

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

And then personality.

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

But you do need to be friendly.

You need to be able to

talk to people
and be able to approach people.

If that's really hard for you,

you might find the farmer's
market really overwhelming.

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

He gets really bored and drives me crazy.

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

Okay,

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

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

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

Choosing a market.

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

sell at different markets
and they can tell you which markets

are the busiest
or the most profitable in our state.

Find out things like foot traffic.

Are they busy?

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

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

Location.

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

So looking for those areas is pretty good.

Pretty important.

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

Resale markets
will typically have lots of crafts.

Whereas producers are more focused on
farmers.

There are pros and cons to both.

I sell at the South Jordan market,

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

And that is a resale market.

And so,

you get a very different clientele
at each.

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

What their fees are can be an issue.

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

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

They're typically lower. And,

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

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

in our community.

And then season length.

I have a market that starts in June.

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

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

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

And then weather.

Some of these markets,

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

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

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

Okay.

So I think one of the biggest worries
that we have

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

And like Heather was saying that it's

not a bad thing to have competition.

It makes you a better farmer.

But you can also distinguish yourself.

And there can be multiple farmers
at the same market.

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

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

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

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

They can become become known for that.

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

for flowers will go to that market.

It'll become a draw.

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

If the lady down the row

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

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

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

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

So, the most important thing is not to be

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

selling flowers that you lower
your prices.

You really need to base your prices

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

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

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

Cheap isn't best.

Okay, so

some things about really killing it
at the farmers market.

If you want to really have
a consistent business

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

your flowers are the prettiest
and the longest lasting,

then you need to bring the best product
you have.

If there's something that's

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

Because that first time
you sell a bouquet,

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

And if they don't have

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

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

know your harvest stage,
hydrate them well,

and they'll keep coming back.

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

It's pretty common for people to walk by,

customers that returning customers
will walk by with someone else.

Someone new
is buying a flower and say, hey,

those flowers are going to last two weeks.

They're the best. You should buy it.

And I don't have to do the selling.

It's my customers doing it for me.

So it's kind of awesome.

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

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

My flowers are in the shade.

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

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

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

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

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

Let's see. So,

when you are setting up your display,

there is a

catch phrase that says stack them high
and watch them fly

that vegetable farmers use.

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

We want to show abundance.

People like to have lots of choices.

It looks good.

It's appealing.

It stops people in their track.

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

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

that are sitting on a mostly empty table

that are the hardest to sell. So,

clearly mark your prices.

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

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

I have three price points, I have three.

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

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

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

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

I also really like long tablecloths.

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

Underneath my tablecloth.

That's kind of nitpicky, but

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

and then think about
whether they can find you again.

Do you have business cards?

Do you have a banner up?

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

It helps with repeat business.

Okay.

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

Pricing is hard.

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

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

your expenses and your labor.

The costs of really producing those stems.

Labor is our biggest cost.

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

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

But our time is valuable. So,

really knowing your true costs,

looking to break even, track your hours,

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

time stripping the bouquet,
you know, stripping your stems

and making bouquets and weeding
all those things add up.

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

So and then,

watch your stem counts.

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

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

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

And then I have this picture here,

and these are some David
Austin Garden roses.

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

This was, a customer

had ordered, an expensive birthday,

bouquet and surprised his wife

with it at the farmer's market.

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

into a market bouquet

unless I was charging
appropriately for it.

So just pay attention to those things

like ranunculus
or garden roses or dahlias and

use them judiciously.

Talking too much.

One of the other things that people do is

at the end of the market, sorry.

They will,

ask for discount
sometimes if you have flowers left over.

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

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

I can go get them cheap.

And that must be
what they're really worth.

Sorry.

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

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

Take them somewhere, give them away.

You can think of it as PR.

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

It becomes a gift instead of a discount.

And then

with pricing.

I love this quote from Seth Godin.

Cheap as another way to say scared.

And I think

lowering
our price should be our last thing.

I think we need to think about,

do my flowers look good?

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

Am I getting the word out?

Do people know I'm here?

Am I being friendly?

Am I being engaging?
Doing all those things?

Before
we think about discounting our prices or,

not charging enough.

Okay, so here are my boys.

They helped me sell at the market because
we do two markets on saturday mornings

and I can't be in two places at once.

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

and they're not allowed to sit

while we're selling at the farmer's market
until

all the flowers are sold.

They really love that.

It's good to be friendly.

I usually just say, hi,
how are you doing to people?

You can be friendly

and talk to everybody without being pushy.

I also find it.

It's great to accept
as many forms of payment as possible.

So credit cards, cash,

Apple pay, Google pay,
all of those things.

The easier
you make it for people to pay, the

less obstacles
there are to them buying your flowers.

Once we sell a bouquet, we usually,

you know, if half a bucket is empty
and another half a bucket is empty,

we combine the buckets,
we keep our displays looking good.

It gives us something to do
while we're sitting there.

And helps our display look good.

And, another collect your email addresses.

This is a great thing because
when you want to contact them later

to tell them
when the market starts next year,

or to tell them when,

you're selling your subscriptions
or that you're starting weddings.

This is how you can contact
these people later.

And then I think this is most important
as you come back and you do it again,

and then you come back
and you do it again.

If someone comes
and they buy your flowers,

and they think they were
the most amazing flowers in the world,

and they come back and you're not there
the next week, you've lost a sale.

So I think the farmers market

is the most successful
when you commit to it, when you go back

year after year or even week after week,
if you're just trying it for a season.

There's nothing wrong with
trying it for a season

and seeing
if it works with your lifestyle.

But I do think if you're going
to really have the benefits

and the rewards of

selling at a farmer's market, then
you've got to have some commitment there.

Okay.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about

is sold out the real goal?

So on this picture on the,

the picture with less flowers,
I sold out that day.

Which is always awesome to be able to say
I took everything and I sold it.

The one above,

I did not sell out that day.

I think I had two bouquets left over,
but it was my highest grossing market,

that I've ever had.

It was just our last market
of this last season.

And a lot of times,
we think it's great to sell out,

but if you're selling out
super early in the day and,

your market starts at nine
and you're sold out by 11 or 12

and you've got another hour to go,
think about what's going on.

Are you,

selling your flowers cheaply?

Are you not bringing enough product?

Can you work on that for the next season?

We are trying to double our production
again this year because

we can probably sell it.

And so, those are just some things
to think about when you're selling out.

Really, what you want to do is

sell the most flowers, right?

And so it's okay
if you have a couple bouquets left over,

if that means that every person

that wanted a bouquet
that came to the market got one.

I always felt terrible
when I'd sell out early,

and then people would come up to me
and go, oh.

I was, you know, I'm here
just for flowers or something.

And I knew I missed a sale because
I didn't have enough flowers that week.

So something to think about.

And then,

subscriptions, like I said earlier,
a lot of my subscriptions come from

referrals from the farmers market
and some selling

after you get those email addresses.

Some selling points
for when you approach people

about subscriptions,
they already know your quality.

They know you have great variety.

That's one of the things
my subscribers say when I,

ask them in surveys,
what do they enjoy about our flowers?

It's the varieties that they get,
that they're different.

It's more convenient
to have flowers delivered to you

or to pick them up once a week,

than have to go to the farmers market
and see if there's any there.

We also do a spring subscription,

and that starts before
there are any farmer's markets open.

And so that's an opportunity
to extend your,

selling period. And,

and then the assurance
of being able to get flowers

if you're selling out all the time.

And people might just want to make sure
they have your flowers.

So that's kind of

what I've got for you.

It looks like there's some

questions.