How to get onto better local markets

[Subsonic]

For those that don't know, I started selling cookies as my new business. Currently we (co-founder and me) are selling on one local market. Profits have been minimal but feedback amazing. Hence we want to get onto more markets in the holidays to get better at selling cookies.

I have more or less emailed every nearby market I could find online. Sadly I did not get many responses.

Since that doesn't qualify as a no, I have been thinking of other ways to contact them. Scraping the phone numbers using something like snov.io and just showing up at market time have been the two things I could come up with.

Maybe you have another perspective or idea that could help me out.

 

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[machinistguy]

For those that don't know, I started selling cookies as my new business. Currently we (co-founder and me) are selling on one local market. Profits have been minimal but feedback amazing. Hence we want to get onto more markets in the holidays to get better at selling cookies.

I have more or less emailed every nearby market I could find online. Sadly I did not get many responses.

Since that doesn't qualify as a no, I have been thinking of other ways to contact them. Scraping the phone numbers using something like snov.io and just showing up at market time have been the two things I could come up with.

Maybe you have another perspective or idea that could help me out.

Should be someone for each festival in charge of finding and managing vendors. Find out what that position is called and figure out how to sell to them.

 

[MRiabov]

Hey, @Subsonic, this might be dead overkill, but there is this thing called Puck Fest here in Ireland that you can use to gain traction, fast.
There is so many people they often don't fit in, and it this is over kilometers of road.
This festival is for 3 days, also.

This, might be overkill. But bake cookies in Germany, get to Ireland, Killorglin, mail the cookies yourself, and set up a station here, get the cookies and multiply your profits.

Also, an idea would be to enclose something akin to business cards, so people can just call you up and set it up.

P.S. If you want to make it 100% legal, I have a meeting with a local officer regarding an LLC/self-employment, we can set you up.

 

[canone]

Hey man. Sounds great that you receive positive feedback.
I would start in universities. I'd give them away for free, and you can either tell them 2 things.

1. Be upfront: "Please go to the local market and ask for our cookies when you're there, because we're trying to get in and when a lot of people ask, we can create demand"
2. "You can buy our cookies in *add local market* at xx-street (preferably somewhere next to the uni)" So they go and ask if it's available.

Now, I don't know if it would work, but if you do this for a couple weeks and maybe invest in a couple thousand cookies to give away, not only would you make customers try it, but you'd also go to the stores and try it again. If a couple dozen students ask for your cookies, I'd show up in a shirt with your company's name written on it and try to get in.

Also make sure you are able to produce a lot of the cookies fast.

 

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[Two Dog]

The eternal problem with local markets is lack of traffic and data capture for recurring business. Every time my wife mention local markets to sell anything (most recently tie dye bags), I think of the tiny sales window and low foot traffic.

For baked goods, my preference is always finding bigger venues and selling boxes or bags to increase revenue. Think schools, churches, fundraising events, consignment at local shops, website sales with local delivery, co-working spaces, coffee shops, brewpubs, concert venues, university campus, sporting events, train stations, etc.

None of which answers your question about finding local markets because I don't think that's a good place to sell much of anything. It's all about finding location with a high volume of foot traffic.

Old marketing question: Which is the better business?

Selling the world's best hot dog in the alley or selling crap hot dogs in front of the football stadium?

 

[MRiabov]

The eternal problem with local markets is lack of traffic and data capture for recurring business. Every time my wife mention local markets to sell anything (most recently tie dye bags), I think of the tiny sales window and low foot traffic.

For baked goods, my preference is always finding bigger venues and selling boxes or bags to increase revenue. Think schools, churches, fundraising events, consignment at local shops, website sales with local delivery, co-working spaces, coffee shops, brewpubs, concert venues, university campus, sporting events, train stations, etc.

None of which answers your question about finding local markets because I don't think that's a good place to sell much of anything. It's all about finding location with a high volume of foot traffic.

Old marketing question: Which is the better business?

Selling the world's best hot dog in the alley or selling crap hot dogs in front of the football stadium?

+1, how does Scale work into it?

 

[Two Dog]

+1, how does Scale work into it?

You're referring to CENTS? Endless ways, but today's answer is "scale doesn't matter at this stage". Just sell cookies.

The entrepreneur and execution are what makes scale possible, not the business or the idea. I suppose selling in front of bigger venues IS scale. I just don't think of that way. It's more about not getting bored out of your mind watching three people wander around the empty market while phone scrolling. For me, scale is more like Mrs. Field's or Crumbl franchising or getting picked up by a grocery chain with 80 locations. Something that requires a commercial production facility and delivery trucks.

 

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[Subsonic]

The eternal problem with local markets is lack of traffic and data capture for recurring business. Every time my wife mention local markets to sell anything (most recently tie dye bags), I think of the tiny sales window and low foot traffic.

For baked goods, my preference is always finding bigger venues and selling boxes or bags to increase revenue. Think schools, churches, fundraising events, consignment at local shops, website sales with local delivery, co-working spaces, coffee shops, brewpubs, concert venues, university campus, sporting events, train stations, etc.

None of which answers your question about finding local markets because I don't think that's a good place to sell much of anything. It's all about finding location with a high volume of foot traffic.

Old marketing question: Which is the better business?

Selling the world's best hot dog in the alley or selling crap hot dogs in front of the football stadium?

Yeah I know that. Our current one had a foot traffic of about 57 people per hour last week. (We track data in a very caveman way using a tally counter app)

I know the vendors on the big markets are making 1k a day in profit and more. Hence I believe getting on there is a good next step for the business.

 

[Subsonic]

Today I rolled up to a bigger market and just interrogated all the sellers untill I got hold of the decision maker.

Rather nice dude in his sixties who told me that I can show up the next week with some papers and start selling.

Big win. That one has foot traffic of about 250 per hour (estimated by me).


Honestly I should have done this sooner. I made my co-founder search out all the phone numbers and addresses for the local markets and by next week I will have about 4 to 6 market locations to sell at.

I'll also make a real progress thread at that point.