DebM

I recently moved from Ohio where I was heavily involved with the farmers market scene (5 mkts/wk), basically April-October. I am shocked that the most popular one here in this area (Atlanta GA outerbelt) only runs June-Aug. What's up with that? We do have one not far from us that reacently started up a year-round market.

I mix lavender/peppermint 50/50. For soap and herbal tea for sale at farmers markets.. I have about 10 different mints growing in my garden but I swear one could put lavender in anything and it would sell! I had to drop out of the business for a while, nice to be back :-)

I have been testing long term storage, but can't say about GM that's been added to the base. Synthetic fragrances or EO blends can alter over time. That said I have a couple bars at 3 yrs and 2 yrs still in my closet - wrapped in saran wrap then stuck in a zip lock. "Straight" EO still smells good although a little weaker. I do not color.

I live in Georgia so I get mine from soapgoods.com.

This! Thanks - you guys are awesome! ~Debbie~

Hi - I vend at a convention every year that rotates through different states. I LOVE jasmine but I was wondering if any of you think of a particular state or location when you think of jasmine? Thx!

A long stint of unemployment for my husband is resulting in us moving 750 miles away and selling our house/small farm for a new start. I just do not have the energy or health to start all over again developing new markets. Is there a formula used to put a price on the business? Something like capital investment times gross sales divided by number of full moons per year? lol - the number thing has always been my arch enemy.... I am aware that a lot of times when businesses like this sell, the only thing the buyer really wants is the recipe book and sales accounts but I've got a lot of other stuff too that I don't want to move (like separate set-ups for farmers markets, festivals, and inside craft shows) not to mention all of the mfg. stuff... Thanks for any input.

My experience over the last 7 years: >1) Probably a pretty obvious one but do most, if not all, retailers require bar codes on your products? Bigger stores do, Mom & Pops don't (generally). But even that can vary - I was with Whole Foods for a while (soap) and one store worked really, really hard to get local products in (their big marketing angle) and set up internal codes. Other stores wanted codes *real* codes, not just something run off out of Microsoft Word. >2) Do they require a guaranteed sale? For example, if your product doesn't sell or if the retailer wants to stop selling your product, do you have to buy back what they have remaining in inventory? That was asked of me once and I knew the store was big into community support so I told them if they decided to drop me, to donate the products to a shelter for the tax write-off, I would not be able to do buy-backs. I, like another poster, have traded out slow-moving items for either new or faster moving ones too. >3) Do most require samples prior to offering your products? I always do that and also offer to do sales training (I make herbal soap so there are some qualitites that are good sales points). >4) Do most require some kind of sales history for your products? In other words if you haven't sold a lot of product will they even consider putting it in their store? That never seemed to be a factor for me. >Any other nuggets you care to share would be greatly appreciated. Be excited when you do your sales pitch and make them understand it is a business *partnership*.

My best selling is BB's Orange Spice, I float orange peel granules in them. But my fave is a gold-frankinsense-myrrh 3-pk in one of those little gold bags. I use Arabian Spice for the "gold".

WSP's blends as well as the "straight" e/os do not have carrier oils, they are certified "pure" which I do happen to like for the market I sell to. I too have found other sources for most things but my problem is the all natural base which she calls something else now, detergent free I think. I want to switch to SFIC bases direct from the mfg which unfortunately I can't right now ... Lots of really good f/o suppliers - for e/os I watch prices at a lot of places since those prices do fluctuate a lot. The biggest shocker for me was Patchouli after the Indonesian tsunami. Luckily I had just bought a year's supply! When I see if I'm going to continue my business (due to two moves in two years), I'll pick everybody's brain about bases.....

I've been doing farmers markets for 7 years - the biggest question isn't how many vendors, but how many customers. I am doing one market in an upscale area whose attendance has declined dramatically for unknown reasons and two vendors would be too many. In *most* cases it is not - a good market master will put like products throughout the market, not bunched together, and would not allow the *same* type of soap. One of the festivals I vend at has 5 soapers and we are all different and all do well. I do m/p and concentrate on herbal soaps made with herbs from farm, and I also offer herbal tea & jams & jellies. My herbal soap however, far outweighs any food items. Far-r-r-r. Good luck to you, I'd be interested in hearing how things go. Is this a suburban market? A city market? In a touristy area?

I use E-Z Up. I had a First-Up from Walmart that lasted exactly ONE show!

I did a lot of farmers markets and festivals in a *very* windy area. If allowed, the very best way to anchor for us was to get the dog stakes that look like a big screw and screw them into the ground, and use ratcheted straps. This was really good for overnight festivals on grass. For farmers markets or not-so-windy areas, LuminousBoutique's set-up is very popular. They are easy to pack, easy to handle. In our area, they tend to be about 3' long and hooked to the top of the frame to hang by a bungie which stretches enough for the pipe to just touch the ground. I've often wondered if the weight wouldn't warp or wear out the frame, but we're all using the really heavy E-Z ups, and it doesn't seem to.

I use etsy as my catalog because it's easier than the one that came with my website. I don't think I've sold anything to anybody that wasn't already a customer. I've been looking at blujay.com, may switch to there.

My best selling for boys is actually Dirt FO from WSP. They think it's hilarious!