Farmers Market

I mentioned in another post that I was planning on applying to a local farmers market. The application is FINALLY done. Seriously, it was a more comprehensive application then I've ever had to fill out for any other events like wholesale shows. I'm impressed with the level of detail they want but it took a lot longer to get everything pulled together then I initially thought it would.

It's a long shot that they'll even let me in since my products are a bit "different" from the normal farmers market variety, but after spending the last three summers wondering if I should get into a farmers market I figured I should at least give it a try now that I have some products that can be sold by the piece rather than pre-packaged (by the piece works much better for farmers market customers).

The Farmers Market I'm applying to also has an option of only participating in one market a month rather than a weekly commitment. Since I'm not sure if my type of product will do well or not in a Farmers Market, the biggest thing that had kept me from applying to a market in the past was the fact that I didn't want to commit to sitting there week in and week out even if my products weren't selling. It's far easier to think that I'll just have to sit there for 4-5 markets rather than 20. If things are slow I'll just knit.

My first hope is that I get into the market and that if I do that those 4-5 markets would net enough to let me pay for a few months of my workspace rent. Summer is historically really slow from a sales standpoint but busy from a production standpoint so it's when I usually start to run a deficit on the business bank account and have to draw from the business savings. If these markets could help out by throwing a few extra hundred dollars into the checking account every week it would help cover my rent and hopefully give me a little breathing room before I had to dip into savings.

The application is headed off today so I'll let you know how it turns out. In the meantime, my business turns 4 today. It's very easy to remember the day I signed all the gov't papers to make my business a legal entity since I left the lawyers office and couldn't figure out why the nearby bars were so full. Ah yes, St. Patricks. Here's hoping there's some luck of the Irish with you today. And a little luck of the Irish goes with my Farmers Market application.