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    Ep 284: Moving Your Market

    enMarch 11, 2024
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    About this Episode

    Moving a market is not as simple as scooting a tent or two down the street (not that scooting any tents is without drama.) Sometimes you lose part of your site to a construction project, sometimes a conflicting annual event happens and you have to move the entire market for a day. Finding a new site that can accommodate an established event is a puzzle. You know where the driveways and trees and giant dumpsters are at your current location. What surprises will your replacement venue hold? And how will your shoppers and vendors know where to go? 
     
    Listen in as Catt and Brijet discuss the ways they've found to ease the pain as much as possible, while you're away from your home sweet home site, with tips on:
     
    • Identifying a replacement site 
    • Surveying neighboring businesses and residents
    • Mapping to minimize disruption for your vendors
    • What wedding seating plans and market maps have in common
    • Timing your announcement to avoid confusion
    • Keeping regular shoppers in the loop and attracting new ones
     
    This episode of Tent Talk is supported by Square, helping farmers, vendors and market managers process payments and invoicing in the tents and at the desk. Don't miss next week's Live from the InTents Conference episode! 

    Recent Episodes from Tent Talk

    Ep 284: Moving Your Market

    Ep 284: Moving Your Market
    Moving a market is not as simple as scooting a tent or two down the street (not that scooting any tents is without drama.) Sometimes you lose part of your site to a construction project, sometimes a conflicting annual event happens and you have to move the entire market for a day. Finding a new site that can accommodate an established event is a puzzle. You know where the driveways and trees and giant dumpsters are at your current location. What surprises will your replacement venue hold? And how will your shoppers and vendors know where to go? 
     
    Listen in as Catt and Brijet discuss the ways they've found to ease the pain as much as possible, while you're away from your home sweet home site, with tips on:
     
    • Identifying a replacement site 
    • Surveying neighboring businesses and residents
    • Mapping to minimize disruption for your vendors
    • What wedding seating plans and market maps have in common
    • Timing your announcement to avoid confusion
    • Keeping regular shoppers in the loop and attracting new ones
     
    This episode of Tent Talk is supported by Square, helping farmers, vendors and market managers process payments and invoicing in the tents and at the desk. Don't miss next week's Live from the InTents Conference episode! 

    Ep 283: Best of Tent Talk: Application Excavation

    Ep 283: Best of Tent Talk: Application Excavation
    Are you a farmer or small food business trying to navigate finding spaces to sell at farmers markets? Are you a farmers market manager buried in application emails and trying to find the perfect needles in that haystack? In this episode we're chatting about how we process applications for our markets and approaches used by some of our fellow market managers. Yes, you can have an amazing product and still not be a perfect fit for a specific market. Learn how to narrow down your targets if you're a producer. Listen in to find ways to help a diamond in the rough shine if you're a market manager. 
     
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    Ep 282: Social Media is a Team Sport

    Ep 282: Social Media is a Team Sport
    Plenty of us have a love-hate relationship with social media.There's nothing like it right now for keeping shoppers up to date on market offerings days and times, and helping your farm or bakery stand out at a busy market. It's free, sort of. It takes so much time. It's so effective, until they change the rules. It's a trick to find the sweet spot between sharing honest views of your business and your life and maintaining boundaries.  Listen in as Catt and Brijet discuss the best ways for market managers and vendors to work together to increase sales, including:
     
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    Need more marketing help? Check out our online Market for Markets class  https://www.farmersmarketpros.com/marketing-for-markets

    Ep 281: Farmer Julie Stoner Has Eggs in a Few Baskets

    Ep 281: Farmer Julie Stoner Has Eggs in a Few Baskets
    Farmers Julie of Stoner Family Farms has diversified her products to achieve better sales at her farmers markets. Her farm is a family operation, and the market business is her baby. Bringing her daughters into the tent helps lighten the load, and teaches them all the things that small business owners learn along the way. Listen in as Julie shares:
     
    • How she decides which markets work best for her
    • Where farmers markets land on the list of top income streams
    • Why she decided to diversify her product lines
    • Ways she's helping new market farmers improve their business
     
    Find Julie's blog with resources for market farmers at www.sffvalpo.com/blog

    Ep 280: 2024 InTents Conference Preview

    Ep 280: 2024 InTents Conference Preview
    The 8th annual InTents Farmers Market Conference is just around the corner, starting 3 weeks from today. Listen in to hear more about this year's schedule and what's coming up here in San Diego and live online. There's still time to register, just use the link in our bio or on the home page at farmersmarketpros.com Learn all this and more in this year's sessions:
     
    • Join hive mind roundtables to discuss how we define "farmers market"   
    • Determine staff members' roles and avoid labor law issues
    • Map your market to minimize drama, tempt consumers and maximize sales 
    • Create places of belonging beyond the Anti Racist Farmers Market Toolkit 
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    Ep 279: Maya Madsen: Black History Month and Beyond

    Ep 279: Maya Madsen: Black History Month and Beyond
    We've known Maya Madsen since the beginning of her phenomenal Black woman-owned business' journey. You've heard from her before. We check in often enough to consider her an unofficial Tent Talk podcast co-host. 
     
    From the start she told us she meant to create a vegan cookie empire and she's done what it takes to accomplish that. She not only makes delicious cookies, she collects tons of data. She asks for professional help to analyze trends and inform her next moves. Basically, she treats her happy, gorgeous bakery business like a business. Join us to learn from Maya about:
     
    • How a fractional CFO and operations consultant changed her business
    • Becoming a more profitable business with laminated SOPs 
    • Where farmers markets fit in a business with brick and mortar stores 
    • The origin of this year's Black History Month cookie collection
    • Ways markets can celebrate and not exploit Black History Month 

    Ep 278: Hatching New Vendor Businesses

    Ep 278: Hatching New Vendor Businesses
    How can talented food makers learn to be successful farmers market vendors? In this week's episode of Tent Talk we're chatting about vendor education. Being passionate about your product is important; being fully prepared will increase sales and reduce stress. That makes small businesses enduring. Whether you're starting a new business or you're a market manager thinking about providing support to new and existing vendors, listen in to hear about all this and more.
     
    • What do prospective vendors need to know?
    • Finding local resources to help new and existing vendors
    • Customizing Vendor-101 for your own markets' needs
    • What it takes to develop your own course offerings
    • Should you invest in small business education?

    Ep 277: Chef Saeed is on Fire

    Ep 277: Chef Saeed is on Fire

    Enjoy this week's Vendor Story episode. Hot sauce is a fast growing category at our farmers markets nowadays, and Chef Saeed is on fire with his fermented sauces featuring unique flavor combinations. It's not just the taste that makes a food business successful though. In our Vendor-101 program we talk about the 4 Ps: Product, Packaging, People and Professionalism. Folks go to a grocery store to grab a familiar product off the shelf. They come to the farmers market to discover new things and get to know the people that feed them. Listen in to hear about Saeed Samad's story and tips for building a successful market business.

    Ep 276: Back To Basics

    Ep 276: Back To Basics

    With lots of new farmers markets ramping up for their first or second season, let's take it back to the basics. Experienced manager? Stay with us, sometimes a little refresher can be a great thing. Farmer or vendor? Let's see if you think this is sound advice. 

    There's a lot to know and a lot to do to launch a farmers market and get through those early months. Thinking things through and taking the time to do it right in the first place is a lot easier than fixing mistakes. Locations, budgets, vendor mix and mapping are all key to making a good first impression on vendors and shoppers alike. We’re here to help you think through: 

    • What's the start up budget and where is the funding coming from?
    • Location, location, location! What makes a good site?
    • When do you start marketing a new event? (Yesterday)
    • How do you recruit farmers and vendors? 
    • What to consider when you make your market map

    Today’s episode of Tent Talk, the Farmers Market Podcast, is supported by InTents, the farmers market conference and all of the speakers and attendees that make it happen. Register now and we'll see you March 4th, 5th and 6th, in San Diego or online. 

     

    Ep 275: 2024 InTENTions

    Ep 275: 2024 InTENTions

    It's a new year, a blank slate. January always feels like a good time to think about what's working, what's not, and create your list of things to change and things to do at your market, and personally. We're all about setting InTENTions (see what we did there?). Market managers and market vendors coast to coast, from Florida to British Columbia, join us today to share about what they'd like to concentrate on in 2024. Listen in to hear what we're reflecting on and looking forward to, and what kind of goals some of the folks in our online community have in mind. We'd love to hear about your 2024 intentions: drop a note in the comments.