The long and short of it......
Short: We've moved. We are no longer living in a trailer in Florida. We are now living in Richmond again and my husband starts his job tomorrow morning at 8 am.
Long: Just after Independence Day we received our first flavor sample. At this same time we asked the manufactured to work up some numbers for us. We needed to know how much this was going to cost us per bag, per case, etc. We had many potential retailers ready for this information and we were ready to get some real numbers put together for them. The flavor sample came and it was bland. We asked them to work on the flavor some more. They did and also sent us some preliminary numbers. We were shocked at what they sent. They were quoting a 1 1/2 lb bag of jerky for double what we were expecting. In the beginning we had told them our price range and they said they were sure they could hit that mark. They doubled it!
After two solid days of pencil to paper we just couldn't figure out how to make this figure work for us. We were the middle man but the manufacturer cut us out of any profits on our end. We would do all the selling work for them and make zero in return. It just didn't make any sense to us. We had to tell them to put the project on hold. The numbers were just too high. The manufacturer understood and thought it may be a problem. So that was the end of the jerky. We definitely tried and it was a great learning experience for us.
Now what to do????? My husband had been working hard to find a job, any job that paid more than minimum wage but just couldn't find a thing. We agreed that we would move to where ever there was a job for him, including back to the same city where we had just moved from a year ago. He made one phone call and lo and behold he had a job. It was more than minimum wage and he has the opportunity to start up his lawn care business again.
In two weeks time we found a house, sold our flea market booth, packed everything up and we have now moved. We are living in Richmond again and so far all is good. We have been here three days.
Currently my view is a sea of boxes and jumbled furniture. The trailer is currently parked on the street but will be going into storage in a day or so. The kids have their own rooms again but last night I heard them all together giggling. While they will enjoy their own spaces I love that they are each other's best friends.
We have had many excitements recently but I have to say one of my biggest excitement is that I have a dishwasher and two refrigerators in my kitchen right now. I can't wait to go grocery shopping and fill them up and begin cooking again on my real sized stove and real sized oven.
I have lots of things I want to write about and will get to them in time. Please keep checking back! And leave me a comment or two. It makes my day to see a comment posted on my blog.
Showing posts with label Flea Market Stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flea Market Stories. Show all posts
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Friday, June 27, 2014
Slow Times=Slow Adjustments
Right now it is really slow at the flea market so we are adjusting our schedule to accommodate the slow times. The market is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays but since it is so slow on Fridays we are opting to stay closed on Fridays for a while. We will work Saturdays and Sundays and see how things go.
We had another meeting about production with our manufacturer of our beef jerky. Things are coming together quickly. We are getting more and more excited and nervous every single day.
Luckily with the holiday week this week, I have been given a ton of hours at the Michaels. This will be so nice when it converts to cold hard cash in a few weeks.
I have also been working on some "samples" for the classroom where I will be teaching some classes. Baby hats, scarves, tablet covers, etc.
So we are adjusting to the heat, slow times, and learning patience in the waiting game for jerky.
We had another meeting about production with our manufacturer of our beef jerky. Things are coming together quickly. We are getting more and more excited and nervous every single day.
Luckily with the holiday week this week, I have been given a ton of hours at the Michaels. This will be so nice when it converts to cold hard cash in a few weeks.
I have also been working on some "samples" for the classroom where I will be teaching some classes. Baby hats, scarves, tablet covers, etc.
So we are adjusting to the heat, slow times, and learning patience in the waiting game for jerky.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
People Who We Thought Were A Threat
Back in the flea market world we have found people who have become our friends and those who we label as a threat to us and our business.
In the beginning of our endeavor at the flea market we began to attempt to "protect" our product. We didn't want others to swoop in with our product and set up close or even far from us and sell the same product. We identified one person, Chad, who owned a dip business three aisles over as a potential threat. He had spoken to us and we had gotten to know a bit about him through our conversations and watching his actions. He wanted to expand, take other dip businesses out, and take over the dips business in all of the flea market. He began to expand quickly to two other locations with a possibility of a third location in the market. Another dips business had "words" with him and he was hot to take them out of business. In casual talks with my husband Chad was told (by my husband) that we were looking into expanding to bakery items (pastries, cookies, breads, etc). Next thing we know Chad has bought and opened a booth on the busiest aisle of the market and is selling breads, cookies, and pastries. Hmmmm..... wonder where he got that idea. Chad came over to our booth one day and bragged about his new booth and him selling baked goods and he mentioned he would also be selling jerky as well. My husband reminded him of their "gentleman's agreement" that we wouldn't sell dips if he didn't sell jerky. Chad responded with, "It's just business..." Again, this man was labeled a threat.
We kept doing what we intended to do in the time we intended to do it in. We opened up a booth with baked goods but ended up closing it within a month. It wasn't making money and it was taking away from our focus. We did it on our time and in our way, not because someone else was trying to swoop in on our ideas.
Chad eventually put jerky in his booth on the busiest aisle but the jerky is exotics and we don't deal in exotics. So he ended up not a threat at all.
In January on aisle C, about 10 booths down from our jerky booth that my son ran for us, another vendor switched her product to jerky. This time it was the same jerky that we sold. We identified her a threat. She tried to undercut us slightly which didn't work. She never hurt our sales on that aisle or on any other aisle. In February we closed our booth on C, not because of her but because we had bought a booth on the busiest aisle and my son, who had been running that booth had begun baseball practice and wasn't available to run that booth anymore. In March, the other vendor on C had opened another booth on aisle F and by May she closed down her booth on C. Currently, we have a vendor on aisle F who sells our product. He buys wholesale from us and he out sells this lady every day. When we found out our number one product had been discontinued, we cried and then decided to go with the flow and continue on. We had other things in the works anyway. This lady found a stash of this discontinued product and ordered 58 cases. She was going to wait for all us to run out of product and raise her prices and get our customers. Two weeks ago we found her in another market during the week and she was unloading her product for less than what she paid for it. Last weekend I walked by her booth on F and she had some jerky still on her table but she was also selling personalized, cartoons that you print off the computer. She adds your name and prints it out and sticks it in a $2 frame for you. She was never a threat and still isn't. Again we did nothing but keep on doing what we were doing.
There was a guy who had been selling jerky in the market on aisle D for a long while prior to our arrival. He had a whole store of all different jerkies, both exotics and beef. He never sold our brand, however, he did have a relationship with the "honey" guy on the busiest aisle. This honey guy has a booth just 4 booths down from us. The honey guy would give the jerky guy on D some honey to sell in his booth. Once we arrived on the busiest aisle the honey guy began selling our same jerky on his booth. We approached the market since there was supposed to be a "5 booth" rule (can't sell the same product within 5 booths of the next person). However, the market chose to bend this rule since the guy had a double booth and the jerky was displayed on the far end of the booth from us. Basically, the market chose not to deal with it. We labeled this honey guy a threat. However, he hardly ever sells any jerky that we have seen and he has never hurt our sales. Again, not a threat in the end.
Lesson learned?
In business, most people are not your friends.
In business, you have to keep your mouth shut as to your own business plans because others will try to swoop in and do what you had planned first.
In business, label your threats and watch them. Most of the time they don't hurt your business at all if you are sticking with your plan and adjust accordingly. Be prepared to use the system in place to protect your brand (like we did with the honey guy). But be prepared for the system not to work in your favor.
In business, those who swoop, rush, or try to take over a product that you are planning to bring in, will likely fail in the process because they rushed to beat you.
In business, stick with your plan and time frame. With careful thought and planned actions you will succeed.
In business, often no response to those who act looking for a response from you will anger them more than any response you could have given them. Chad was looking for a response when he came over to tell us he was selling jerky in his booth. We didn't give him one. He was looking for a response when he began selling bakery items. We didn't give him one. The lady on aisle C was looking for a response when she began selling our product but we didn't give her one. We still aren't sure why the honey guy is selling jerky. We believe the other jerky guy who is in business with the honey guy was looking for a response, but we didn't give him one either. What we did do was just acknowledge that we knew what they were doing and selling. That was all.
In the beginning of our endeavor at the flea market we began to attempt to "protect" our product. We didn't want others to swoop in with our product and set up close or even far from us and sell the same product. We identified one person, Chad, who owned a dip business three aisles over as a potential threat. He had spoken to us and we had gotten to know a bit about him through our conversations and watching his actions. He wanted to expand, take other dip businesses out, and take over the dips business in all of the flea market. He began to expand quickly to two other locations with a possibility of a third location in the market. Another dips business had "words" with him and he was hot to take them out of business. In casual talks with my husband Chad was told (by my husband) that we were looking into expanding to bakery items (pastries, cookies, breads, etc). Next thing we know Chad has bought and opened a booth on the busiest aisle of the market and is selling breads, cookies, and pastries. Hmmmm..... wonder where he got that idea. Chad came over to our booth one day and bragged about his new booth and him selling baked goods and he mentioned he would also be selling jerky as well. My husband reminded him of their "gentleman's agreement" that we wouldn't sell dips if he didn't sell jerky. Chad responded with, "It's just business..." Again, this man was labeled a threat.
We kept doing what we intended to do in the time we intended to do it in. We opened up a booth with baked goods but ended up closing it within a month. It wasn't making money and it was taking away from our focus. We did it on our time and in our way, not because someone else was trying to swoop in on our ideas.
Chad eventually put jerky in his booth on the busiest aisle but the jerky is exotics and we don't deal in exotics. So he ended up not a threat at all.
In January on aisle C, about 10 booths down from our jerky booth that my son ran for us, another vendor switched her product to jerky. This time it was the same jerky that we sold. We identified her a threat. She tried to undercut us slightly which didn't work. She never hurt our sales on that aisle or on any other aisle. In February we closed our booth on C, not because of her but because we had bought a booth on the busiest aisle and my son, who had been running that booth had begun baseball practice and wasn't available to run that booth anymore. In March, the other vendor on C had opened another booth on aisle F and by May she closed down her booth on C. Currently, we have a vendor on aisle F who sells our product. He buys wholesale from us and he out sells this lady every day. When we found out our number one product had been discontinued, we cried and then decided to go with the flow and continue on. We had other things in the works anyway. This lady found a stash of this discontinued product and ordered 58 cases. She was going to wait for all us to run out of product and raise her prices and get our customers. Two weeks ago we found her in another market during the week and she was unloading her product for less than what she paid for it. Last weekend I walked by her booth on F and she had some jerky still on her table but she was also selling personalized, cartoons that you print off the computer. She adds your name and prints it out and sticks it in a $2 frame for you. She was never a threat and still isn't. Again we did nothing but keep on doing what we were doing.
There was a guy who had been selling jerky in the market on aisle D for a long while prior to our arrival. He had a whole store of all different jerkies, both exotics and beef. He never sold our brand, however, he did have a relationship with the "honey" guy on the busiest aisle. This honey guy has a booth just 4 booths down from us. The honey guy would give the jerky guy on D some honey to sell in his booth. Once we arrived on the busiest aisle the honey guy began selling our same jerky on his booth. We approached the market since there was supposed to be a "5 booth" rule (can't sell the same product within 5 booths of the next person). However, the market chose to bend this rule since the guy had a double booth and the jerky was displayed on the far end of the booth from us. Basically, the market chose not to deal with it. We labeled this honey guy a threat. However, he hardly ever sells any jerky that we have seen and he has never hurt our sales. Again, not a threat in the end.
Lesson learned?
In business, most people are not your friends.
In business, you have to keep your mouth shut as to your own business plans because others will try to swoop in and do what you had planned first.
In business, label your threats and watch them. Most of the time they don't hurt your business at all if you are sticking with your plan and adjust accordingly. Be prepared to use the system in place to protect your brand (like we did with the honey guy). But be prepared for the system not to work in your favor.
In business, those who swoop, rush, or try to take over a product that you are planning to bring in, will likely fail in the process because they rushed to beat you.
In business, stick with your plan and time frame. With careful thought and planned actions you will succeed.
In business, often no response to those who act looking for a response from you will anger them more than any response you could have given them. Chad was looking for a response when he came over to tell us he was selling jerky in his booth. We didn't give him one. He was looking for a response when he began selling bakery items. We didn't give him one. The lady on aisle C was looking for a response when she began selling our product but we didn't give her one. We still aren't sure why the honey guy is selling jerky. We believe the other jerky guy who is in business with the honey guy was looking for a response, but we didn't give him one either. What we did do was just acknowledge that we knew what they were doing and selling. That was all.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Opportunities arise!
Three weeks ago I took a part time job working in a big box crafting store. So far I work about 12-15 hours a week. I love my job for the most part, but it is long hours on my feet on a hard, concrete surface. A week ago my husband took a job working about 25-30 hours a week for a guy who rehabs houses that have been foreclosed to get ready for resale. It is good, sweaty work. At this point we are making about $9 an hour each. It isn't bad and certainly is helping us make ends meet. But that is not what this post is about.
Each week we meet so many interesting people who stop by our booth in the flea market. Sometimes they are just tasting our product and other times they are buyers. Whichever, we always try to strike up a bit of a conversation with them. Sometimes they want to talk and start a conversation with us and other times we ask them questions to get them talking. Typical conversation centers around where our jerky comes from, if we make it ourselves or not (not), or where they are from. We often get visitors from out of state so it is fun to talk about their state, why they are here, and sometimes what they do for a living. We share that we are recently moved here, starting up this business, and a bit about our family. Sometimes our kids are with us and we will take a bit about them, our homeschooling life, baseball, and our church life.
Several months ago we had a guy and his wife come by one of our booths. I had a fairly lengthy conversation with them about their product that they were interested in selling. They had been in the food business for a while they said and were in the process of bottling a bbq sauce. They also had soups they said and other items as well. I told them that I would be interested in trying some of their products and considering putting it in our booth to sell. I told them to bring me some samples when they were ready. I never heard from them again.......until yesterday.
They stopped by our booth on the produce aisle and spoke with my husband. They had their bbq sauce bottled and wondered if we were interested in selling it for them. We can't because the market has a rule that you can't sell the same item or product as someone else within 50 ft of your booth. We are in the center and right across the aisle from us is a hot sauce and bbq sauce shop. So we directed them over to the other shop. BUT the guy said that he had jams and jellies that he was interested in selling as well and we may be interested in that. We are and will be getting in touch with him. He also gave us some awesome information about possibly being able to set up a produce booth with jams/jellies/pickles and our jerky. We will be looking into that as well. We can set up during the week and extend our week from just a Friday-Sunday business to a 5-7 days a week business. This would increase our sales as well as our visibility in the communities around here.
We have some trepidation about this as well. One, we are creating our own line of beef jerky. How will this help this goal. Two, we will be making more money and have a bit more flexibility in our hours as well as giving us time for developing our beef jerky business as well. Three, there is no guarantee of income. We make what we can but can't guarantee making any money with this. (We can guarantee our income with our other jobs working for others, however, it is limited.)
We have lots of things to research right now--where to get fresh produce, permissions to set up in this new venue, setting days and times and much more.
Each week we meet so many interesting people who stop by our booth in the flea market. Sometimes they are just tasting our product and other times they are buyers. Whichever, we always try to strike up a bit of a conversation with them. Sometimes they want to talk and start a conversation with us and other times we ask them questions to get them talking. Typical conversation centers around where our jerky comes from, if we make it ourselves or not (not), or where they are from. We often get visitors from out of state so it is fun to talk about their state, why they are here, and sometimes what they do for a living. We share that we are recently moved here, starting up this business, and a bit about our family. Sometimes our kids are with us and we will take a bit about them, our homeschooling life, baseball, and our church life.
Several months ago we had a guy and his wife come by one of our booths. I had a fairly lengthy conversation with them about their product that they were interested in selling. They had been in the food business for a while they said and were in the process of bottling a bbq sauce. They also had soups they said and other items as well. I told them that I would be interested in trying some of their products and considering putting it in our booth to sell. I told them to bring me some samples when they were ready. I never heard from them again.......until yesterday.
They stopped by our booth on the produce aisle and spoke with my husband. They had their bbq sauce bottled and wondered if we were interested in selling it for them. We can't because the market has a rule that you can't sell the same item or product as someone else within 50 ft of your booth. We are in the center and right across the aisle from us is a hot sauce and bbq sauce shop. So we directed them over to the other shop. BUT the guy said that he had jams and jellies that he was interested in selling as well and we may be interested in that. We are and will be getting in touch with him. He also gave us some awesome information about possibly being able to set up a produce booth with jams/jellies/pickles and our jerky. We will be looking into that as well. We can set up during the week and extend our week from just a Friday-Sunday business to a 5-7 days a week business. This would increase our sales as well as our visibility in the communities around here.
We have some trepidation about this as well. One, we are creating our own line of beef jerky. How will this help this goal. Two, we will be making more money and have a bit more flexibility in our hours as well as giving us time for developing our beef jerky business as well. Three, there is no guarantee of income. We make what we can but can't guarantee making any money with this. (We can guarantee our income with our other jobs working for others, however, it is limited.)
We have lots of things to research right now--where to get fresh produce, permissions to set up in this new venue, setting days and times and much more.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Catching Up...... Sorry for the pause in posting
It is one of my downfalls.....when stress hits I tend to get silent. It is a downfall in blogging, social media, and in real live relationships as well.
Needless to say, we have been a bit stressed around here.
In March we received an email from our jerky manufacturer that they would no longer be making our brand of beef jerky. We placed our last order and started saying some prayers. We contacted another meat company who used to make beef jerky but hadn't in some years. They said that they would be interested in entertaining the idea but would get back with us. (Boy am I making this very long story short!) We didn't hear from them for a week or so and we contacted them again. The guy asked if we could send him some samples of the popular brand of beef jerky. We did and didn't hear from him again. He was on vacation, out of the office, probably just avoiding our calls.
In the meantime we had to do something. We negotiated with our existing beef jerky manufacturer that we would be the ONLY people selling another brand of jerky that they have. It comes in a smaller bag, half the size of the bags that we are selling, and costs more than the bags we were selling. Not good, but we bought some and just had to deal with the cards that we had in our hand. It sold okay the next couple weekends. We were so glad that we still had our beef sticks that were selling well.
April came and at Easter we decided to head back to our old home town to celebrate the holidays with our family still living there and to get our stuff out of storage. We spent the last of our money to get there and rent a trailer to bring our stuff back. Unfortunately it was a bad move on our part. Well, honestly we aren't sure if it is a bad move or not. While we were home we went through every single box we owned. We put our hands on every single thing! We weeded out about 50% more of our stuff. Some was trash, some slated for donation, and the rest went towards a gigantic yard sale. We sold about $600 worth of stuff! Woo hoo! We thought we did pretty well. We also went through our furniture and cleaned out our storage unit that we were keeping our furniture in. We took a bunch of stuff to a new consignment shop that had just opened and was happy to receive our things.
We ended up bringing back only some things. Some basic furniture and some other items we had been missing terribly. We still have a truck load sitting back there in my stepmother's basement.
The end of April my parents moved down here to southwest Florida. Their house is in the process of being built and will look beautiful when it is done. In early May we went down to visit them. We loved the area and thought that perhaps we might want to live there too. It is a growing community and lots of new building is going on. We thought we would try to get a job there and then move.
We came back two weeks ago from our visit and immediately began putting in applications for jobs. We also didn't have any money to buy new product from our manufacturer and didn't have but $300 in product sitting on our tables. Luckily, a vendor we had been wholesaling to decided he didn't want to sell the product anymore and we were able to consign his product he had leftover back. Basically, we took it back and are selling it for him. He gets the amount he put into it and we get the profit because we did the selling work. Bonus for each of us. He gets rid of his product and we get product to sell.
We have also put our booth up for sale. We can sell the space and move to another area in the market and continue to sell our product. We are not excited about this but again, we are totally broke and need the money. We are willing to part with our best selling spot to make ends meet at home.
A week ago I got a job and began work. I am now working at a national chain store that sells craft supplies and home decor. It is part time and I have already put in 17 hours. I love it. I really do. I feel useful, valued (not that I am not valued at home or in our other business), and I love the store. I was already a customer there so I was familiar with the products, placement and the basic policies. When I applied and interviewed for the position apparently my interview went well because the manager decided to hire me for a different position I had applied for and gave me a 50 cent raise immediately! Double bonus!
And to top everything off last Wednesday we got a phone call out of the blue from the other meat manufacturer (the one we had sent the samples to and never heard back). They said they were in the development phase and about two weeks out on sending us some samples of their new jerky. WHAT??? We thought they weren't doing anything after not hearing from them for so long. So we are waiting on them to send us samples and we might be back in the jerky business after all.
So that is pretty much where we are and how we are doing. We are waiting on samples, broker than we have ever been before, late on bills, working a part time job, and putting in applications everywhere for anything.
I would love to say I am enjoying my time here in sunny Florida but right now.....not so much. We are at the end of our patience living in a 40 ft. trailer. It is still big enough for all of us but it is the little things. The water in the kitchen turns off when someone flushes the toilet. The lights go out when we overload the circuit breakers which doesn't take much to do, and everyone seems to be in each other's way.
And yes, I promise to post a bit more often.
Needless to say, we have been a bit stressed around here.
In March we received an email from our jerky manufacturer that they would no longer be making our brand of beef jerky. We placed our last order and started saying some prayers. We contacted another meat company who used to make beef jerky but hadn't in some years. They said that they would be interested in entertaining the idea but would get back with us. (Boy am I making this very long story short!) We didn't hear from them for a week or so and we contacted them again. The guy asked if we could send him some samples of the popular brand of beef jerky. We did and didn't hear from him again. He was on vacation, out of the office, probably just avoiding our calls.
In the meantime we had to do something. We negotiated with our existing beef jerky manufacturer that we would be the ONLY people selling another brand of jerky that they have. It comes in a smaller bag, half the size of the bags that we are selling, and costs more than the bags we were selling. Not good, but we bought some and just had to deal with the cards that we had in our hand. It sold okay the next couple weekends. We were so glad that we still had our beef sticks that were selling well.
April came and at Easter we decided to head back to our old home town to celebrate the holidays with our family still living there and to get our stuff out of storage. We spent the last of our money to get there and rent a trailer to bring our stuff back. Unfortunately it was a bad move on our part. Well, honestly we aren't sure if it is a bad move or not. While we were home we went through every single box we owned. We put our hands on every single thing! We weeded out about 50% more of our stuff. Some was trash, some slated for donation, and the rest went towards a gigantic yard sale. We sold about $600 worth of stuff! Woo hoo! We thought we did pretty well. We also went through our furniture and cleaned out our storage unit that we were keeping our furniture in. We took a bunch of stuff to a new consignment shop that had just opened and was happy to receive our things.
We ended up bringing back only some things. Some basic furniture and some other items we had been missing terribly. We still have a truck load sitting back there in my stepmother's basement.
The end of April my parents moved down here to southwest Florida. Their house is in the process of being built and will look beautiful when it is done. In early May we went down to visit them. We loved the area and thought that perhaps we might want to live there too. It is a growing community and lots of new building is going on. We thought we would try to get a job there and then move.
We came back two weeks ago from our visit and immediately began putting in applications for jobs. We also didn't have any money to buy new product from our manufacturer and didn't have but $300 in product sitting on our tables. Luckily, a vendor we had been wholesaling to decided he didn't want to sell the product anymore and we were able to consign his product he had leftover back. Basically, we took it back and are selling it for him. He gets the amount he put into it and we get the profit because we did the selling work. Bonus for each of us. He gets rid of his product and we get product to sell.
We have also put our booth up for sale. We can sell the space and move to another area in the market and continue to sell our product. We are not excited about this but again, we are totally broke and need the money. We are willing to part with our best selling spot to make ends meet at home.
A week ago I got a job and began work. I am now working at a national chain store that sells craft supplies and home decor. It is part time and I have already put in 17 hours. I love it. I really do. I feel useful, valued (not that I am not valued at home or in our other business), and I love the store. I was already a customer there so I was familiar with the products, placement and the basic policies. When I applied and interviewed for the position apparently my interview went well because the manager decided to hire me for a different position I had applied for and gave me a 50 cent raise immediately! Double bonus!
And to top everything off last Wednesday we got a phone call out of the blue from the other meat manufacturer (the one we had sent the samples to and never heard back). They said they were in the development phase and about two weeks out on sending us some samples of their new jerky. WHAT??? We thought they weren't doing anything after not hearing from them for so long. So we are waiting on them to send us samples and we might be back in the jerky business after all.
So that is pretty much where we are and how we are doing. We are waiting on samples, broker than we have ever been before, late on bills, working a part time job, and putting in applications everywhere for anything.
I would love to say I am enjoying my time here in sunny Florida but right now.....not so much. We are at the end of our patience living in a 40 ft. trailer. It is still big enough for all of us but it is the little things. The water in the kitchen turns off when someone flushes the toilet. The lights go out when we overload the circuit breakers which doesn't take much to do, and everyone seems to be in each other's way.
And yes, I promise to post a bit more often.
Monday, February 3, 2014
God is GOOD!
This past weekend we continued to have more and more "drama" at the flea. I told you the start of the weekend and on Sunday I was at the information booth chatting with our friendly "rules enforcer" Billy. He is nice enough but he is the one when there is a problem with a vendor or someone selling the same stuff too close then he gets involved. He also makes sure that all the booths that are taken are paid for and that someone isn't using an empty booth for free, etc. So he and I are chatting about stuff in general. A lady walks up and she is looking for a map and then she turns to me and asks me if I work here. I am thinking she is looking for a particular booth and I say yes. Billy says, "This is one of our vendors, how can I help?" She then says, is it okay for a vendor to cuss at a customer? Billy says, "This is a family friendly place, cussing at a customer is not allowed, no." She says, well I just heard a vendor cuss at a customer. Billy asks if she could describe the vendor, where he worked, etc. She says, "His name is Chad and he sells dips. He just told a customer that he could F---ing do whatever he wanted." I then walked away, and told Billy I would talk to him later. Ha ha.... Chad is getting in trouble!!!!
I don't know the end of that and probably won't. I do know that there are many people in the market who don't like him or have had run ins with him. The market should throw him out but in the end he will get what he deserves whatever that is.
We came out of this weekend making our average. It was rent weekend at the market and I went up to pay the rent on Sunday. Billy was at that window and I told him I wanted to pay the rent and he handed me my bill. So I hand him my cash and the lady who normally works the booth starts telling me that she was able to adjust our account and get one booth off the bill (the eggs booth) that we don't want anymore. At the same time my husband calls me and tells me NOT to pay the rent. He had already talked with the lady who works the rent window and they agreed to wait until next weekend to let her get everything straight. Well, too late. I had already given the money to Billy and he had already put it on my account. Sorry. My husband had asked my son to tell me not to worry about the rent payment that he had already taken care of it.
Because of the rent confusion, we ended up not having enough money to make an order from the factory this week. We woke up this morning knowing that we couldn't make an order and that we would have to wait another week before we could. We hoped that there wouldn't be anything on the inventory list and we wouldn't feel bad about not being able to make an order. However, we got a phone call about 10 am. It was a guy who wanted to buy beef jerky wholesale from us. He wants to sell it at his flea market that he owns about 25 miles away. He said he got a bag from a guy selling it at his market and wants to start selling it when the guy leaves.
So we discussed it and decided to wholesale to him. We also knew that he would help us make an order this week. So we call him back and tell him we will sell to him. Now we just need to wait for the inventory list to come out by email. The inventory sheet comes out and there are some great flavors on there that we are desperate for. So we go ahead and place the order adding the new guy's order too. Thank GOD we had his order because otherwise we wouldn't be able to pay for the order. Nor would we have been able to make an order at all for us. We make about $3 a bag selling it wholesale. So we are making a bit of money on his order too. This is what we used to pay for part of our order.
God is so perfect and has perfect timing for everything. We are so thankful.
We met up with the guy, today and he tasted some of the flavors that he would be getting from us. We hit it off right from the beginning. He is from our home state and he reminds me a lot of my uncle. We talked for a long time and he told us to put our label on the jerky that we put on it for us to sell. He said he would be happy to promote our website. He also asked if he could sell our product at local festivals and at the speedway during their events and such. UH YEAH!! We have wanted to sell ours there but the fees to get a booth is high and we don't have enough manpower to do that. So by him doing it then our product gets into more hands and it will promote our website!! :D We love that idea. We don't have to pay the fees, he will and we won't have to man the booth, he will.
So now we are in the wholesale business and we are still promoting our website too. What wonderful blessings.
I don't know the end of that and probably won't. I do know that there are many people in the market who don't like him or have had run ins with him. The market should throw him out but in the end he will get what he deserves whatever that is.
We came out of this weekend making our average. It was rent weekend at the market and I went up to pay the rent on Sunday. Billy was at that window and I told him I wanted to pay the rent and he handed me my bill. So I hand him my cash and the lady who normally works the booth starts telling me that she was able to adjust our account and get one booth off the bill (the eggs booth) that we don't want anymore. At the same time my husband calls me and tells me NOT to pay the rent. He had already talked with the lady who works the rent window and they agreed to wait until next weekend to let her get everything straight. Well, too late. I had already given the money to Billy and he had already put it on my account. Sorry. My husband had asked my son to tell me not to worry about the rent payment that he had already taken care of it.
Because of the rent confusion, we ended up not having enough money to make an order from the factory this week. We woke up this morning knowing that we couldn't make an order and that we would have to wait another week before we could. We hoped that there wouldn't be anything on the inventory list and we wouldn't feel bad about not being able to make an order. However, we got a phone call about 10 am. It was a guy who wanted to buy beef jerky wholesale from us. He wants to sell it at his flea market that he owns about 25 miles away. He said he got a bag from a guy selling it at his market and wants to start selling it when the guy leaves.
So we discussed it and decided to wholesale to him. We also knew that he would help us make an order this week. So we call him back and tell him we will sell to him. Now we just need to wait for the inventory list to come out by email. The inventory sheet comes out and there are some great flavors on there that we are desperate for. So we go ahead and place the order adding the new guy's order too. Thank GOD we had his order because otherwise we wouldn't be able to pay for the order. Nor would we have been able to make an order at all for us. We make about $3 a bag selling it wholesale. So we are making a bit of money on his order too. This is what we used to pay for part of our order.
God is so perfect and has perfect timing for everything. We are so thankful.
We met up with the guy, today and he tasted some of the flavors that he would be getting from us. We hit it off right from the beginning. He is from our home state and he reminds me a lot of my uncle. We talked for a long time and he told us to put our label on the jerky that we put on it for us to sell. He said he would be happy to promote our website. He also asked if he could sell our product at local festivals and at the speedway during their events and such. UH YEAH!! We have wanted to sell ours there but the fees to get a booth is high and we don't have enough manpower to do that. So by him doing it then our product gets into more hands and it will promote our website!! :D We love that idea. We don't have to pay the fees, he will and we won't have to man the booth, he will.
So now we are in the wholesale business and we are still promoting our website too. What wonderful blessings.
Friday, January 31, 2014
More Flea Market Follies
Oh my goodness, I feel like I have walked back into middle school with the drama that has been happening in the past couple weeks.
So where did we leave off???? We were doing well. Having a hard time getting product from the manufacturer since Christmas and our biggest worry was do we have enough product to last the whole weekend???
Then two weekends ago a woman about 10 booths up from us on Aisle C decided to get her hands on our product and start selling it in the market. She had the same price point as us and has about 5 different flavors. She already had a table where she was selling scarves and candles. She moved the scarves to the middle and started selling beef jerky. It was a strange sight to see scarves and beef jerky on the same table but it was more shocking to see how many other vendors came up to us "excited" to tell us that she was selling the exact same product as us. We have an exclusive agreement with the manufacturer to not sell product to any person in about a 50 mile radius of us. But they can't do anything to keep other people from getting their hands on the product and selling it in the same place as us. So now we have competition. We didn't see any drop in our sales on that aisle even though she was there, which was interesting. We think she sold a few but can't be sure exactly how much she sold. Later in the weekend we found out that she had moved the scarves off the table completely and was using the table completely for jerky. Then on Sunday of that weekend she brought in a second table and made the table twice as wide in her space to display her jerky. Again, while we were angry that someone would come in and sell the same product there wasn't much we could do. We contacted the manufacturer on Monday and let our rep know that someone else was selling the jerky in our area and he basically told us that he would talk to the other distributor in the Orlando area who knew people in our market and we had heard that was where she got it from, but other than that there wasn't much he could do. Fine. So now we have competition.
Last weekend she continued to sell but again there wasn't much change in our numbers so she wasn't affecting us much. We have already established a clientele and they were still buying from us. Also last weekend we bought a new booth. It is on the produce aisle. This is a highly sought after aisle and it is the only aisle that they sell produce. Everyone goes there to get their produce so you get a highly visible spot for the locals and regulars to the market. Many people shop on produce and don't go to any other aisle. We rocked on that aisle, however, the market management decided that we can't sell eggs without a license from the Florida Dept of Agriculture. However, when we contacted the FDA they said that we didn't need a license from them and that our vendor's license was enough. The market didn't believe us and they asked us not to sell the eggs until we had documentation or a license. So we shut down eggs completely. It was becoming too hard anyway with having to keep them cool and we weren't selling enough each weekend to warrant much more effort on our part.
Then today we find out that a booth just two booths away (we are supposed to have a 5 booth buffer) is selling the exact same jerky as us. They also sell honeys, jams, and salsas. They do a nice business with their honeys, etc. So why they want to sell jerky, I don't know. But I went over to "check things out". I go up and the guy asks if he can help me. I say I am looking for a strawberry jam and I was also interested in his jerky. His wife pops around from the back of the booth, recognizes me and immediately goes up to her husband close up and tells him something. I know she is telling him that I am the lady with the jerky on the other booth. Good he needs to know. Yes, I am going to confront him. I am also going to be nice and I also want to get rid of all the extra eggs we have that we can't sell any longer. So I ask his wife "how did you like the eggs you bought from us last week?" Nervously, she answers, "they were good." So I tell her, "I am glad. We have a bunch of extra eggs and I would like go give you a dozen eggs completely for free. No strings attached. I ask for nothing in return." I tell her to come see me on aisle A later and I will give them to her. Her husband then says, "you are the one with the jerky, right?" "Yes I am." He then goes on to say, with a guilty tone in his voice. "please know that us bringing jerky to our booth was already in the making before you came on our aisle. We were already in the process of getting it and we don't want you to think that we were trying to be vindictive in any way towards you all." :? yeah right. But I say, "I am sure you weren't. We moved to this aisle just last week and I am sure we cause quite a stir around here. We are just a family trying to make a living here at the market. This is our only income and our only job. There is enough business in this market for everyone." We go on to talk about strawberry jam and I tell him that I usually make ours but we are living in a trailer right now and I have 6 inches of space and not enough room to do any kind of canning or I would make my own (total truth). We talk a few more minutes about that and he comes back to the jerky. He says that the other jerky guy in the market got it for him and that he really wanted us to know that it was not vindictive at all. I tell him that I am sure he wasn't doing that and again reassure him that we are good honest folks just trying to make a living and that we have specific principles that we live by and one is that we aren't going to try to hurt his honey business and that we respect the rules of the market and respect other vendors and their products. These are our values and it is surprising to us that others think that if they bring in the same exact product that they will do well with it in the same space as another vendor who already had it first. When that happens the vendor is only hurting not only the original vendor's business but their own at the same time. They can't expect to have the same success with the exact same product as what they witnessed the first vendor have. We choose not to do that to our neighbors but can't control the actions of others. So then I tell him I will be back later in the weekend to buy the jam as I don't have the cash right now. I start to walk away and he says, "please let your husband know that we weren't trying to undermine him or his business." I told him, "I will tell him but it would be good in you told him yourself as well." He says, "well, I am not able to get away from my booth much to do that." :? Whatever, dude, you have a wife who can watch your stand while you go over and introduce yourself to my husband and try to grovel your way through this.
I did notice that he sounded like he had gotten caught and that he sounded like he was feeling guilty about what he had done. I also noticed that many vendors don't have the guts to confront one another with a problem or issue like I am willing to do. I also noticed that he had taken his six bags of jerky off his booth by the end of the day. Hmm....... My husband said that he didn't come over and talk to him at all and that it didn't appear that he had samples of his jerky out or that he didn't appear to sell any.
Now, over on aisle C my son said he didn't notice anyone walking by with bags of jerky that they had bought from the other lady on his aisle. But as we were packing up on that aisle this afternoon I heard the lady who sells jerky tell someone else that she wanted the table and something else moved to aisle F. The guy said he would do it. So I wonder if she is going to move her jerky business to another aisle this weekend or next. I would be in full support of that. I think Aisle F would be a great spot to have jerky. But we don't have the man power to man a booth over there.
Back when we started with the jerky, there was another guy in the market selling it. He was selling it on aisle B. We moved to another aisle and began selling it. There is enough business in this market for the both of us. But not on the same aisle. I still stand by that. We knew the other guy already had a following and that people came to find him on aisle B. We didn't want to take that away from him. We didn't want to confuse his customers by having a booth on the same aisle as him. That wouldn't make good business sense nor would it make a good business practice. We would hurt his business as well as ours and look stupid in opening up a booth on the same aisle. So we opened on another aisle. We would establish our own customers and be at another location in the market. The only people we would confuse are the visitors/tourists but they wouldn't really be confused as they wouldn't know of the other guy. Any of his regulars would know where to find him. Period. We weren't hurting his business. But to think that by bringing in a product on the same aisle as us would be suicide for them. What makes people think that this is a smart move? Basically, they aren't thinking.
As for us, we will defend our product and our brand. We will guide people to us and give them the facts. 1. We are the ONLY manufacturer authorized dealer of this product in this area. 2. We don't know where they are getting their product from. 3. If our customers have any issue with the product we have direct contact with the factory, they don't. We can call the factory directly and get resolution. They can't.
Oh the honey lady never came this afternoon for her free eggs.
So where did we leave off???? We were doing well. Having a hard time getting product from the manufacturer since Christmas and our biggest worry was do we have enough product to last the whole weekend???
Then two weekends ago a woman about 10 booths up from us on Aisle C decided to get her hands on our product and start selling it in the market. She had the same price point as us and has about 5 different flavors. She already had a table where she was selling scarves and candles. She moved the scarves to the middle and started selling beef jerky. It was a strange sight to see scarves and beef jerky on the same table but it was more shocking to see how many other vendors came up to us "excited" to tell us that she was selling the exact same product as us. We have an exclusive agreement with the manufacturer to not sell product to any person in about a 50 mile radius of us. But they can't do anything to keep other people from getting their hands on the product and selling it in the same place as us. So now we have competition. We didn't see any drop in our sales on that aisle even though she was there, which was interesting. We think she sold a few but can't be sure exactly how much she sold. Later in the weekend we found out that she had moved the scarves off the table completely and was using the table completely for jerky. Then on Sunday of that weekend she brought in a second table and made the table twice as wide in her space to display her jerky. Again, while we were angry that someone would come in and sell the same product there wasn't much we could do. We contacted the manufacturer on Monday and let our rep know that someone else was selling the jerky in our area and he basically told us that he would talk to the other distributor in the Orlando area who knew people in our market and we had heard that was where she got it from, but other than that there wasn't much he could do. Fine. So now we have competition.
Last weekend she continued to sell but again there wasn't much change in our numbers so she wasn't affecting us much. We have already established a clientele and they were still buying from us. Also last weekend we bought a new booth. It is on the produce aisle. This is a highly sought after aisle and it is the only aisle that they sell produce. Everyone goes there to get their produce so you get a highly visible spot for the locals and regulars to the market. Many people shop on produce and don't go to any other aisle. We rocked on that aisle, however, the market management decided that we can't sell eggs without a license from the Florida Dept of Agriculture. However, when we contacted the FDA they said that we didn't need a license from them and that our vendor's license was enough. The market didn't believe us and they asked us not to sell the eggs until we had documentation or a license. So we shut down eggs completely. It was becoming too hard anyway with having to keep them cool and we weren't selling enough each weekend to warrant much more effort on our part.
Then today we find out that a booth just two booths away (we are supposed to have a 5 booth buffer) is selling the exact same jerky as us. They also sell honeys, jams, and salsas. They do a nice business with their honeys, etc. So why they want to sell jerky, I don't know. But I went over to "check things out". I go up and the guy asks if he can help me. I say I am looking for a strawberry jam and I was also interested in his jerky. His wife pops around from the back of the booth, recognizes me and immediately goes up to her husband close up and tells him something. I know she is telling him that I am the lady with the jerky on the other booth. Good he needs to know. Yes, I am going to confront him. I am also going to be nice and I also want to get rid of all the extra eggs we have that we can't sell any longer. So I ask his wife "how did you like the eggs you bought from us last week?" Nervously, she answers, "they were good." So I tell her, "I am glad. We have a bunch of extra eggs and I would like go give you a dozen eggs completely for free. No strings attached. I ask for nothing in return." I tell her to come see me on aisle A later and I will give them to her. Her husband then says, "you are the one with the jerky, right?" "Yes I am." He then goes on to say, with a guilty tone in his voice. "please know that us bringing jerky to our booth was already in the making before you came on our aisle. We were already in the process of getting it and we don't want you to think that we were trying to be vindictive in any way towards you all." :? yeah right. But I say, "I am sure you weren't. We moved to this aisle just last week and I am sure we cause quite a stir around here. We are just a family trying to make a living here at the market. This is our only income and our only job. There is enough business in this market for everyone." We go on to talk about strawberry jam and I tell him that I usually make ours but we are living in a trailer right now and I have 6 inches of space and not enough room to do any kind of canning or I would make my own (total truth). We talk a few more minutes about that and he comes back to the jerky. He says that the other jerky guy in the market got it for him and that he really wanted us to know that it was not vindictive at all. I tell him that I am sure he wasn't doing that and again reassure him that we are good honest folks just trying to make a living and that we have specific principles that we live by and one is that we aren't going to try to hurt his honey business and that we respect the rules of the market and respect other vendors and their products. These are our values and it is surprising to us that others think that if they bring in the same exact product that they will do well with it in the same space as another vendor who already had it first. When that happens the vendor is only hurting not only the original vendor's business but their own at the same time. They can't expect to have the same success with the exact same product as what they witnessed the first vendor have. We choose not to do that to our neighbors but can't control the actions of others. So then I tell him I will be back later in the weekend to buy the jam as I don't have the cash right now. I start to walk away and he says, "please let your husband know that we weren't trying to undermine him or his business." I told him, "I will tell him but it would be good in you told him yourself as well." He says, "well, I am not able to get away from my booth much to do that." :? Whatever, dude, you have a wife who can watch your stand while you go over and introduce yourself to my husband and try to grovel your way through this.
I did notice that he sounded like he had gotten caught and that he sounded like he was feeling guilty about what he had done. I also noticed that many vendors don't have the guts to confront one another with a problem or issue like I am willing to do. I also noticed that he had taken his six bags of jerky off his booth by the end of the day. Hmm....... My husband said that he didn't come over and talk to him at all and that it didn't appear that he had samples of his jerky out or that he didn't appear to sell any.
Now, over on aisle C my son said he didn't notice anyone walking by with bags of jerky that they had bought from the other lady on his aisle. But as we were packing up on that aisle this afternoon I heard the lady who sells jerky tell someone else that she wanted the table and something else moved to aisle F. The guy said he would do it. So I wonder if she is going to move her jerky business to another aisle this weekend or next. I would be in full support of that. I think Aisle F would be a great spot to have jerky. But we don't have the man power to man a booth over there.
Back when we started with the jerky, there was another guy in the market selling it. He was selling it on aisle B. We moved to another aisle and began selling it. There is enough business in this market for the both of us. But not on the same aisle. I still stand by that. We knew the other guy already had a following and that people came to find him on aisle B. We didn't want to take that away from him. We didn't want to confuse his customers by having a booth on the same aisle as him. That wouldn't make good business sense nor would it make a good business practice. We would hurt his business as well as ours and look stupid in opening up a booth on the same aisle. So we opened on another aisle. We would establish our own customers and be at another location in the market. The only people we would confuse are the visitors/tourists but they wouldn't really be confused as they wouldn't know of the other guy. Any of his regulars would know where to find him. Period. We weren't hurting his business. But to think that by bringing in a product on the same aisle as us would be suicide for them. What makes people think that this is a smart move? Basically, they aren't thinking.
As for us, we will defend our product and our brand. We will guide people to us and give them the facts. 1. We are the ONLY manufacturer authorized dealer of this product in this area. 2. We don't know where they are getting their product from. 3. If our customers have any issue with the product we have direct contact with the factory, they don't. We can call the factory directly and get resolution. They can't.
Oh the honey lady never came this afternoon for her free eggs.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
New Happenings at the Flea
This weekend has been interesting!
First this past Tuesday we met with a local baker and agreed to try her breads in our shop. We tried to make it easy on her and told her to give us a variety of breads and some cinnamon buns. Period. She could pick the breads and she could piggyback on what she was already making for her own booth in other markets this weekend. We just asked her to make us some too. That is it. Easy. Nothing special for us. We would pick it up and pay her on Friday morning at her market that both she and my husband go to. Easy Peasy.
Friday comes and I am feeling better (had a stomach bug on Wednesday and Thurs). My husband goes off to the market first and my son and I follow to pick up the bread about two hours later. We get the bread, take it to our market and open up for the day. Friday morning at the market my husband was at was super slow, and it was also slow at our market. One vendor bought some of the artisan bread that we got from the baker and went off. He came back about five minutes later and brought me back the bread. He had begun to eat it and noticed that the center wasn't done. It was raw dough. He was super nice about the whole situation and I gave him his money back and I took the bread back. I also checked the other breads that were artisan style and they were all raw in the center too. My husband had already left the market he was at so he called the baker and told her. She was mortified and said she would fix it. That morning when we picked the bread up she had said she was up all night baking our bread and it was a long night. She hadn't slept yet. I told her to go to sleep and not worry about replacing any bread with us this weekend. She agreed to back us muffins next weekend in exchange for the bread that we had to throw out. We offered to save it for her to pick up but she told us to throw it out.
On the way from the first market my husband was at he stopped by our "secret place" to pick up some Nature's Own, Wonder Whitewheat, and Merita breads to sell for the weekend. He got a nice variety. We didn't sell any of her cinnamon buns on Friday or today. I take that back. We sold one to a vendor. But we didn't sell any of her other breads. We did sell some of our Nature's Own, Wonder Whitewheat, etc. yesterday and today. This may be the way we go at this point.
New news!!!! Someone else is selling the same product as us in the market this weekend. This lady, Bobby, has two tables in the center of the aisle about 8 spaces down from us on Aisle C. We suspect she got it from the original guy who was selling it in the market when we started selling jewelry next to him. It is just speculation but we will find out soon, I guess. When we contacted the manufacturer of beef jerky the rep told us that we would have exclusive territorial rights. He would not sell to anyone in the area of us. While we can't control who brings it into the market we can control how they get it. They would have to drive to pick up the product from another distributor or have it shipped to an address over 75 miles away from here. OR they can buy from us if we agree.
While she didn't really hurt our sales yesterday on Aisle C we think our sales today over there were hurt by her. We hardly sold a thing. There were people who walked by our booth and said "we already sampled on the table back there" pointing to her table down the aisle. We didn't see but one person carrying a bag they bought from her but we can't be sure how many walked the other way and not by us after they bought. Also we had our son over on that aisle manning our booth as I had to stay home most of the day with a sick child. Our sales could have been off with him being over there all day long too.
Tomorrow, my husband will man the booth on Aisle C. He will get a better feel for what is going on over there and she will have to compete with a grown man, not a kid for sales. My husband is a great sales man too.
On Monday we will contact the manufacturer and let them be aware that someone else has encroached on our territory. We aren't sure what they will do if anything but we hope they may have some ideas for us. In the meantime, my husband will talk to Bobby and tell her that we will be contacting the manufacturer about this and let her know that they will follow up on it. We will also let her know that we are the ones that she should be talking to if she wants to purchase at wholesale the product to sell and we can discuss that with her if she is interested in continuing to sell it. We will also let her know that we don't have any "beef" with her but with the person she is getting the product from.
If it is the original guy then my husband is going to go to his flea market where he has bragged that he makes all this money and will tell him that we are willing to set up a booth there and sell our product at wholesale cost to the public for as long as he wants to continue to supply Bobby or anyone else in our area with product. Basically, my husband will attempt to make a "gentleman's agreement" with him (Roger) to stay out of our market and we will stay out of his. Hopefully this will work. Crossing our fingers.
I have other news too. We think we may have a lead on a booth on the produce aisle. This will be HUGE for us!!! This aisle is always busy and our eggs belong on this aisle. We would sell both eggs and jerky in the booth. It is a center booth and it is smallish but it will work. We hope to talk to the person renting the booth right now and will know what we can do soon.
Haven't heard anything about the house yet. Hoping to know something tomorrow or Monday on that.
I had no idea that we would be involved in such "drama" by moving down here and just trying to make a living here, eek out a livelihood, and raise a family. Ha!
First this past Tuesday we met with a local baker and agreed to try her breads in our shop. We tried to make it easy on her and told her to give us a variety of breads and some cinnamon buns. Period. She could pick the breads and she could piggyback on what she was already making for her own booth in other markets this weekend. We just asked her to make us some too. That is it. Easy. Nothing special for us. We would pick it up and pay her on Friday morning at her market that both she and my husband go to. Easy Peasy.
Friday comes and I am feeling better (had a stomach bug on Wednesday and Thurs). My husband goes off to the market first and my son and I follow to pick up the bread about two hours later. We get the bread, take it to our market and open up for the day. Friday morning at the market my husband was at was super slow, and it was also slow at our market. One vendor bought some of the artisan bread that we got from the baker and went off. He came back about five minutes later and brought me back the bread. He had begun to eat it and noticed that the center wasn't done. It was raw dough. He was super nice about the whole situation and I gave him his money back and I took the bread back. I also checked the other breads that were artisan style and they were all raw in the center too. My husband had already left the market he was at so he called the baker and told her. She was mortified and said she would fix it. That morning when we picked the bread up she had said she was up all night baking our bread and it was a long night. She hadn't slept yet. I told her to go to sleep and not worry about replacing any bread with us this weekend. She agreed to back us muffins next weekend in exchange for the bread that we had to throw out. We offered to save it for her to pick up but she told us to throw it out.
On the way from the first market my husband was at he stopped by our "secret place" to pick up some Nature's Own, Wonder Whitewheat, and Merita breads to sell for the weekend. He got a nice variety. We didn't sell any of her cinnamon buns on Friday or today. I take that back. We sold one to a vendor. But we didn't sell any of her other breads. We did sell some of our Nature's Own, Wonder Whitewheat, etc. yesterday and today. This may be the way we go at this point.
New news!!!! Someone else is selling the same product as us in the market this weekend. This lady, Bobby, has two tables in the center of the aisle about 8 spaces down from us on Aisle C. We suspect she got it from the original guy who was selling it in the market when we started selling jewelry next to him. It is just speculation but we will find out soon, I guess. When we contacted the manufacturer of beef jerky the rep told us that we would have exclusive territorial rights. He would not sell to anyone in the area of us. While we can't control who brings it into the market we can control how they get it. They would have to drive to pick up the product from another distributor or have it shipped to an address over 75 miles away from here. OR they can buy from us if we agree.
While she didn't really hurt our sales yesterday on Aisle C we think our sales today over there were hurt by her. We hardly sold a thing. There were people who walked by our booth and said "we already sampled on the table back there" pointing to her table down the aisle. We didn't see but one person carrying a bag they bought from her but we can't be sure how many walked the other way and not by us after they bought. Also we had our son over on that aisle manning our booth as I had to stay home most of the day with a sick child. Our sales could have been off with him being over there all day long too.
Tomorrow, my husband will man the booth on Aisle C. He will get a better feel for what is going on over there and she will have to compete with a grown man, not a kid for sales. My husband is a great sales man too.
On Monday we will contact the manufacturer and let them be aware that someone else has encroached on our territory. We aren't sure what they will do if anything but we hope they may have some ideas for us. In the meantime, my husband will talk to Bobby and tell her that we will be contacting the manufacturer about this and let her know that they will follow up on it. We will also let her know that we are the ones that she should be talking to if she wants to purchase at wholesale the product to sell and we can discuss that with her if she is interested in continuing to sell it. We will also let her know that we don't have any "beef" with her but with the person she is getting the product from. If it is the original guy then my husband is going to go to his flea market where he has bragged that he makes all this money and will tell him that we are willing to set up a booth there and sell our product at wholesale cost to the public for as long as he wants to continue to supply Bobby or anyone else in our area with product. Basically, my husband will attempt to make a "gentleman's agreement" with him (Roger) to stay out of our market and we will stay out of his. Hopefully this will work. Crossing our fingers.
I have other news too. We think we may have a lead on a booth on the produce aisle. This will be HUGE for us!!! This aisle is always busy and our eggs belong on this aisle. We would sell both eggs and jerky in the booth. It is a center booth and it is smallish but it will work. We hope to talk to the person renting the booth right now and will know what we can do soon.
Haven't heard anything about the house yet. Hoping to know something tomorrow or Monday on that.
I had no idea that we would be involved in such "drama" by moving down here and just trying to make a living here, eek out a livelihood, and raise a family. Ha!
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Eggs, Christmas, Jewelry and Drama at the Flea
Just before Thanksgiving we went to another (about 15 minutes away but in another town) and we were set up next to "the egg guy".... stop me if you have heard this before. The egg guy started talking to us and then asked us if we were interested in selling eggs in our area. I feel like I have written this before.... We said yes but not yet. We called just before Christmas to tell him we were still interested in selling eggs but not until after the 1st. But during the conversation the egg guy told us that he had been contacted by our "nemesis" Chad (the dips guy) and he wanted to sell eggs in our area. We decided right there and then that we wanted to order some eggs and start selling immediately so Chad didn't get in on this. The egg guy said he wouldn't sell to anyone else selling in our market. We would have an exclusive agreement with him. Cool! So we got two cases of eggs, about 32 dozen and started selling that weekend. It was a bit sooner than we were prepared to do but we did it anyway. It made Chad mad apparently but he didn't talk to us about it. Chad decided to call the egg guy's supplier and try to cut out the middle man. The egg guy is their distributor and has an exclusive arrangement with the farm (the supplier). So fast forward to last week. The egg guy calls my husband to find out how many eggs we want this week. My husband tells him and he asks my husband how well he knows Chad. Not very well but not liking what we know of him. He is underhanded, a liar, sneaky, vindictive, and a bully. The egg guy tells my husband that Chad had called him back and told him he still wants to do eggs and the egg guy told Chad he already had a vendor in our market. Chad tells him that we aren't selling right and he will do it better than us. He then goes on to tell the egg guy that he tried to call the farm and they wouldn't sell him the eggs that Chad had to go through the egg guy. The egg guy tells him again he won't sell the eggs to him. Chad then goes as far as to cuss him out on the phone. The egg guy told us to tell Chad that if he ever sees him he is going to clock him. LOL. We didn't tell Chad that. We don't really talk to him.
So the long and short of it, yes, we are selling super jumbo eggs. They are all organic but not labeled organic because they don't go through the sorting process because they are so large, they don't go through that process, hence no label. But they are steroid and hormone free, all vegetarian fed, cage free, etc.
We have a new booth on the corner of a busy aisle for the eggs. Just down from our jerky booth. The kids trade off who is running this booth. It is pretty easy to run. The first order of eggs sold in two weekends and we picked up a second order, 5 cases instead of our first order of 2 cases. Today we sold 18 dozen eggs. my husband sold at a market set up at the local hospital this morning. It is mainly for the employees. They loved the eggs being there. In fact my husband took 12 dozen eggs there this morning and within an hour he was calling me to bring him more. Today was really slow at the flea market. The kids and I manned three booths while my husband was at the hospital with our youngest daughter. But even though it was super slow we had an okay day there. We made our goal of selling 20 bags of jerky and surpassed it by the end of the day.
At this point we are doing pretty well. I got our books all up to date this week so we could send in some information to the landlord of the house we looked at. We are making our goal each week and have been steadily increasing in income each week for the most part since we started with jerky. We expect to level off in a month or so. At this point we are no longer having to dip into savings and are beginning to beef that up again slightly. When we get to our leveling off point then we will be able to add a few things to our budget like health insurance (not sure how this will play out with Obamacare now though), the kids sports again, and possibly getting those annual passes to Disney World. At this point now we can afford a house but just need a landlord who is willing to take a chance on us. We are keeping our fingers crossed and praying hard that this will work out for us.
Oh we also added a new item to our shop this weekend. BREAD. It is Wonder Bread, Nature's Own, and Merita. We have the white-wheat, whole wheat, whole grains, and my favorite, Honey Oat. Yum. They are close to the "sell by" date and are selling them at $1.99 a loaf. The "sell by" date on them is Jan 12, 13,and 14th right now. So there is still plenty of days to use the bread while it is still good. We sold a few loaves today which I was a bit surprised because it was so slow. Now that more people will know we have bread we will start to sell more. That is one thing we have learned is that when you introduce a new item it takes people a few weeks to start really buying from you. I had several people tell me they just bought eggs at the store or just bought bread at the store but now they know we have it they will plan to buy from us next time. That is how it works. So we "eat" a few weekends and then start selling like crazy. We are just testing the bread out right now and hope to have the Flowers bakery begin delivery of their breads to us each Friday morning at a cheaper rate than what we are paying now. We are getting it now for $1 a piece.
At this point we are selling beef jerky, eggs, and bread. We are also in talks still with a distributor to possibly bring in pastries, cakes, coffee cakes, and artisan breads. It may be a while before anything is hammered out. My husband hasn't taken another job and if things continue the way they are he won't really need to. Oh, the website is beginning to pay off a bit too. We have had four orders in the past couple weeks. They were all sent out promptly so we are hoping for future repeat sales. We tell everyone of our website when we sell the jerky at the booth and we hope it will eventually begin paying off.
As for "drama" besides the Chad issues, Frank the collectible toys guy pulled out of the market over the Christmas holidays. We got back and he wasn't there. He left his sign up which was just a piece of poster board and he left us a message on it saying he had a fun time hanging out with us. We think his wife convinced him to shut down. The Avon people who bought the business in November have decided to move on too. Apparently when they bought the business the previous owner took all her business from the flea market with her and is now servicing these customers by door to door deliveries. I never got to know her well but am not surprised she would pull something like this. The new owners are the nicest couple but they can't stay with no real sales. So the lady got a job in Ft. Lauderdale and they are in the process of moving down there and they will open a booth in the market down there on weekends and she will keep her 9-5 job during the week for a while. It is sad to see them go and it leaves 5 empty spaces in our area not to mention the 4 center tables that are empty too. Joe and Joe the leather guys are fine. They had a nice Christmas visiting family in Long Island. The older one is ready to retire and they younger one is ready to fully take over the business. Joe Jr. is 55 years old and he wants to get rid of all the leather by summer and replace it with denim. He says denim is the new leather for bikers and he thinks he will sell more of it. He wants it to be a mens shop. He is talking about downsizing their 9 booths into 3 or 4 booths and giving up the rest. It won't happen until after "bike week" which is in March. Sammy the rug guy on our aisle is doing well. He and I have had some very interesting conversations about his religion (Coptic Christian) and his celebration of Christmas and fasting. He sells a rug every now and then and Joe Jr and I get excited for him. Sammy is a very quiet man generally but he enjoys a bit of "flea market drama" from time to time. Steve the dress guy said he was pulling out at Christmas and we put up with him through the weekends leading up to Christmas because we knew he was leaving and we wouldn't have to deal with him. We get back the first weekend in January and guess who is still there,
yup, Steve the dress guy. He comes over to our side of the access road and smokes his cigarellos or whatever you call the cigars that are the size of cigarettes. The smoke blows right into our egg booth and my daughter gets really upset by it. I have had to talk to him twice about smoking on our side. Just smoke down wind of the booth. Easy right??? Apparently not. He sits right in front of our booth, under the big "no smoking" sign and smokes. Ugh!
I haven't done anything with the jewelry we originally started selling. We had been taking it to the flea market in a nearby town there and selling it all for a dollar and it was doing well but now that they are back inside the fairgrounds gates (when we were going it was held in the parking lot and it was easier to get a spot to sell). Now they are back in the gates it is harder to get a space and people are spending the nights out there in their car waiting in line to get a spot. It is crazy!!! We don't want to get involved in all that.
I had the thought that I would put it on a table in the center of our aisle and sell it there until it is all gone. I have it all packed up in boxes in storage right now and it isn't doing me any good. Plus adding another table in our aisle will help to fill it up a bit more.
We have a meeting with a lady who runs a bakery tomorrow morning to discuss bringing her items into our booth at the flea market. She does breads, sweets and specialty items like gluten free breads and vegan breads. We want to bring in her breads and her sweets but put it under a different label so it doesn't compete with her bakery or other markets she is doing. I will let you all know how it goes.
Oh and yesterday a lady who owns a nice corner booth over on the produce aisle came to me and asked me if I wanted to buy her booth. She said she thought my eggs would do well over there and I agree. But she wants $15,000 for her booth which is a fortune that we don't have. She sells dip mixes like the other dip guy, Chad. They have been in competition with each other for a few months now. She said she isn't interested in competing with him anymore and wants out. She isn't selling her business but just the booth. I told her we would get back with her. She went on to tell me that Chad has a rich grandmother who is funding his expansions at the flea market. He is opening another booth soon over on aisle E also. So now he has the big booth with the breads and pastries and dips on produce aisle, a dip booth on C, a dip booth on Main, and now a new one on E.
This isn't the first time that someone has come to us and asked us to either sell their products or buy their business or buy their booth. We haven't figured out why but wonder if we look like we are made of money, look like suckers, or look like we are successful. Hmmm......
So the long and short of it, yes, we are selling super jumbo eggs. They are all organic but not labeled organic because they don't go through the sorting process because they are so large, they don't go through that process, hence no label. But they are steroid and hormone free, all vegetarian fed, cage free, etc.
We have a new booth on the corner of a busy aisle for the eggs. Just down from our jerky booth. The kids trade off who is running this booth. It is pretty easy to run. The first order of eggs sold in two weekends and we picked up a second order, 5 cases instead of our first order of 2 cases. Today we sold 18 dozen eggs. my husband sold at a market set up at the local hospital this morning. It is mainly for the employees. They loved the eggs being there. In fact my husband took 12 dozen eggs there this morning and within an hour he was calling me to bring him more. Today was really slow at the flea market. The kids and I manned three booths while my husband was at the hospital with our youngest daughter. But even though it was super slow we had an okay day there. We made our goal of selling 20 bags of jerky and surpassed it by the end of the day.
At this point we are doing pretty well. I got our books all up to date this week so we could send in some information to the landlord of the house we looked at. We are making our goal each week and have been steadily increasing in income each week for the most part since we started with jerky. We expect to level off in a month or so. At this point we are no longer having to dip into savings and are beginning to beef that up again slightly. When we get to our leveling off point then we will be able to add a few things to our budget like health insurance (not sure how this will play out with Obamacare now though), the kids sports again, and possibly getting those annual passes to Disney World. At this point now we can afford a house but just need a landlord who is willing to take a chance on us. We are keeping our fingers crossed and praying hard that this will work out for us.
Oh we also added a new item to our shop this weekend. BREAD. It is Wonder Bread, Nature's Own, and Merita. We have the white-wheat, whole wheat, whole grains, and my favorite, Honey Oat. Yum. They are close to the "sell by" date and are selling them at $1.99 a loaf. The "sell by" date on them is Jan 12, 13,and 14th right now. So there is still plenty of days to use the bread while it is still good. We sold a few loaves today which I was a bit surprised because it was so slow. Now that more people will know we have bread we will start to sell more. That is one thing we have learned is that when you introduce a new item it takes people a few weeks to start really buying from you. I had several people tell me they just bought eggs at the store or just bought bread at the store but now they know we have it they will plan to buy from us next time. That is how it works. So we "eat" a few weekends and then start selling like crazy. We are just testing the bread out right now and hope to have the Flowers bakery begin delivery of their breads to us each Friday morning at a cheaper rate than what we are paying now. We are getting it now for $1 a piece.
At this point we are selling beef jerky, eggs, and bread. We are also in talks still with a distributor to possibly bring in pastries, cakes, coffee cakes, and artisan breads. It may be a while before anything is hammered out. My husband hasn't taken another job and if things continue the way they are he won't really need to. Oh, the website is beginning to pay off a bit too. We have had four orders in the past couple weeks. They were all sent out promptly so we are hoping for future repeat sales. We tell everyone of our website when we sell the jerky at the booth and we hope it will eventually begin paying off.
As for "drama" besides the Chad issues, Frank the collectible toys guy pulled out of the market over the Christmas holidays. We got back and he wasn't there. He left his sign up which was just a piece of poster board and he left us a message on it saying he had a fun time hanging out with us. We think his wife convinced him to shut down. The Avon people who bought the business in November have decided to move on too. Apparently when they bought the business the previous owner took all her business from the flea market with her and is now servicing these customers by door to door deliveries. I never got to know her well but am not surprised she would pull something like this. The new owners are the nicest couple but they can't stay with no real sales. So the lady got a job in Ft. Lauderdale and they are in the process of moving down there and they will open a booth in the market down there on weekends and she will keep her 9-5 job during the week for a while. It is sad to see them go and it leaves 5 empty spaces in our area not to mention the 4 center tables that are empty too. Joe and Joe the leather guys are fine. They had a nice Christmas visiting family in Long Island. The older one is ready to retire and they younger one is ready to fully take over the business. Joe Jr. is 55 years old and he wants to get rid of all the leather by summer and replace it with denim. He says denim is the new leather for bikers and he thinks he will sell more of it. He wants it to be a mens shop. He is talking about downsizing their 9 booths into 3 or 4 booths and giving up the rest. It won't happen until after "bike week" which is in March. Sammy the rug guy on our aisle is doing well. He and I have had some very interesting conversations about his religion (Coptic Christian) and his celebration of Christmas and fasting. He sells a rug every now and then and Joe Jr and I get excited for him. Sammy is a very quiet man generally but he enjoys a bit of "flea market drama" from time to time. Steve the dress guy said he was pulling out at Christmas and we put up with him through the weekends leading up to Christmas because we knew he was leaving and we wouldn't have to deal with him. We get back the first weekend in January and guess who is still there,
yup, Steve the dress guy. He comes over to our side of the access road and smokes his cigarellos or whatever you call the cigars that are the size of cigarettes. The smoke blows right into our egg booth and my daughter gets really upset by it. I have had to talk to him twice about smoking on our side. Just smoke down wind of the booth. Easy right??? Apparently not. He sits right in front of our booth, under the big "no smoking" sign and smokes. Ugh!I haven't done anything with the jewelry we originally started selling. We had been taking it to the flea market in a nearby town there and selling it all for a dollar and it was doing well but now that they are back inside the fairgrounds gates (when we were going it was held in the parking lot and it was easier to get a spot to sell). Now they are back in the gates it is harder to get a space and people are spending the nights out there in their car waiting in line to get a spot. It is crazy!!! We don't want to get involved in all that.
I had the thought that I would put it on a table in the center of our aisle and sell it there until it is all gone. I have it all packed up in boxes in storage right now and it isn't doing me any good. Plus adding another table in our aisle will help to fill it up a bit more.
We have a meeting with a lady who runs a bakery tomorrow morning to discuss bringing her items into our booth at the flea market. She does breads, sweets and specialty items like gluten free breads and vegan breads. We want to bring in her breads and her sweets but put it under a different label so it doesn't compete with her bakery or other markets she is doing. I will let you all know how it goes.
Oh and yesterday a lady who owns a nice corner booth over on the produce aisle came to me and asked me if I wanted to buy her booth. She said she thought my eggs would do well over there and I agree. But she wants $15,000 for her booth which is a fortune that we don't have. She sells dip mixes like the other dip guy, Chad. They have been in competition with each other for a few months now. She said she isn't interested in competing with him anymore and wants out. She isn't selling her business but just the booth. I told her we would get back with her. She went on to tell me that Chad has a rich grandmother who is funding his expansions at the flea market. He is opening another booth soon over on aisle E also. So now he has the big booth with the breads and pastries and dips on produce aisle, a dip booth on C, a dip booth on Main, and now a new one on E.
This isn't the first time that someone has come to us and asked us to either sell their products or buy their business or buy their booth. We haven't figured out why but wonder if we look like we are made of money, look like suckers, or look like we are successful. Hmmm......
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Panic and a solution. More Flea Market Stories.
Okay, last week we went in to super panic mode. Seriously panic. We are down to our last of our money and have nothing to show for the shop in the flea market at all. I spent $3000 on products, store fixtures, rent, business cards, etc. We have made maybe $300 the entire month selling jewelry. Joe and Joe the leather guys keep telling us that business will pick up and that we will do much better when the Christmas shopping comes around but I can't wait till then. We will be broke and need to make rent for the booth and rent for our trailer as well as our regular bills.
We expected and had a plan that for the first month with everything we were reading online and everything that we had heard from the people who work at the flea market (managers, rental office people, etc) that we would come in and hit the ground running making about $1000-1500 a weekend. The first weekend I made a measly, what??? $30 maybe! That isn't going to cut it. So the next weekend we move thinking it is our space and location. We set up, it looks great and I made $19 the first day and maybe $50 the whole weekend. Still not going to cut it. But we have our savings.....right???? We expected to be able to put our profits back into the business with new merchandise and beef up our merchandise to about $10,000 (retail) in the first month. So then the second month we would take 50% profits out and pocket them and then put 50% back into the business to keep it running but still keeping about $10,000 in merchandise in stock. I even placed a second order for some product that would be great for Christmas holidays. I used some of our savings to purchase this knowing that holiday stuff was needed. It was in the plan but we were expecting to use the sales of other jewelry to fund that purchase. Ugh.
I can't remember if I told you or not but the first weekend we set up we were right next to a booth that had no back. This guy comes in about 2 hours after we got there and the flea market is already open and has been for a while. He backs up to the back of the booth pops his trunk and pulls out a vinyl sign and some boxes and opens up for business. He sells beef jerky in bulk. Not ten minutes after he arrives he has a line of people handing him money. He sells these bags for $20 a pop. It is good value, he gives out samples and he is making money hand over fist. A couple hours later he packs up and leaves. He was only there 4 hours and he said to my husband he made $600!!! The market is open from 9-5 and he is there from 10 to 2 maybe. The next day he shows up, does the same thing and leaves early. This day he mentions something to my husband that he wants to find someone who he can sell this stuff to wholesale and then not come to the market anymore. He says he drives 2 1/2 hours from the other side of the state to be here.
That is 5 hours in the car a day. Crazy. That night my husband and I were talking and my husband says he might be interested in buying wholesale from him and selling beef jerky too. The guy made tons of money those two days doing basically nothing. So the next day, Sunday, I was by myself and talking to the jerky guy. I told him that we were interested in possibly doing jerky and buying from him. The jerky guy tells me that he has someone else who is interested and plus he isn't ready to start doing that yet and he wants to sell here himself for a while longer. So I said okay, no problem.
A couple weeks ago my husband started looking into the jerky business and thought we would start with some other company, not the company the other guy is selling with. We buy some product but don't like it as well as the company the jerky guy is selling with. We contact the same company and they tell us they will sell to us. So last week we make a huge decision and go "all in" as they say in gambling worlds. We take all our last of our savings and spend it on beef jerky. We buy a pack of business cards and make a few signs on our computer. We rent the center table right in front of my booth. We set up and last Friday, my husband started selling beef jerky. He sold more than I sold that first day than I sold the entire month in jewelry! The next day he did better and Sunday was his best day! Sunday, people came looking for him to buy!
So we are now in the beef jerky business. My husband is an awesome sales person and ropes them right in. He gives out samples and he tells them about his website too. You should go see it. http://www.jerkyrun.com
This weekend we sold half of what we had and sold out of many flavors. We placed another order this morning hoping to get it in by this weekend.
I am still going to keep my jewelry but sell it at a reduced rate through the holidays and see how things go. Kenneth wants us to close down the jewelry shop and get another booth at the other end of the flea market so we can reach more people. Lots of people have two or more booths in different places. There is a rule though that you can't sell the same stuff within 5 booths of someone else with the same stuff. So no one can sell jerky around my husband right now and we don't interfere with the other guy selling either. We are on aisle A and he is on aisle B. The other guy came in late on Friday and left early and then on Saturday he came in a little earlier and came and talked to my husband and told him that he would be interested in selling to us wholesale. He asked where we got our product from and we told him the manufacturer. He gets his from his brother who purchases it from the manufacturer and the brother lives in Chicago. Not sure what the brother does but it sounds like they split their shipments. Anyway the other jerky guy also asked why we didn't tell him we were interested in getting into the jerky business. We told him that I had talked to him about it and he said that someone else was interested and he wasn't ready to wholesale to people yet. He couldn't seem to remember that conversation. Hmmm..... Oh well.
So things are improving for us now. FINALLY!!!! Yay! We are still super poor but we are moving in the right direction now. Today my husband is going around to some auto repair shops and such giving them his business cards and handing out samples of his product. If they want to buy right away he has it all in the back of the car and hopefully he will get people to come to him in the flea market along with wanting to buy right away from him today. He is also going to try out a few more flea markets in the area too and see if he can get in and sell.
We expected and had a plan that for the first month with everything we were reading online and everything that we had heard from the people who work at the flea market (managers, rental office people, etc) that we would come in and hit the ground running making about $1000-1500 a weekend. The first weekend I made a measly, what??? $30 maybe! That isn't going to cut it. So the next weekend we move thinking it is our space and location. We set up, it looks great and I made $19 the first day and maybe $50 the whole weekend. Still not going to cut it. But we have our savings.....right???? We expected to be able to put our profits back into the business with new merchandise and beef up our merchandise to about $10,000 (retail) in the first month. So then the second month we would take 50% profits out and pocket them and then put 50% back into the business to keep it running but still keeping about $10,000 in merchandise in stock. I even placed a second order for some product that would be great for Christmas holidays. I used some of our savings to purchase this knowing that holiday stuff was needed. It was in the plan but we were expecting to use the sales of other jewelry to fund that purchase. Ugh.
I can't remember if I told you or not but the first weekend we set up we were right next to a booth that had no back. This guy comes in about 2 hours after we got there and the flea market is already open and has been for a while. He backs up to the back of the booth pops his trunk and pulls out a vinyl sign and some boxes and opens up for business. He sells beef jerky in bulk. Not ten minutes after he arrives he has a line of people handing him money. He sells these bags for $20 a pop. It is good value, he gives out samples and he is making money hand over fist. A couple hours later he packs up and leaves. He was only there 4 hours and he said to my husband he made $600!!! The market is open from 9-5 and he is there from 10 to 2 maybe. The next day he shows up, does the same thing and leaves early. This day he mentions something to my husband that he wants to find someone who he can sell this stuff to wholesale and then not come to the market anymore. He says he drives 2 1/2 hours from the other side of the state to be here.
That is 5 hours in the car a day. Crazy. That night my husband and I were talking and my husband says he might be interested in buying wholesale from him and selling beef jerky too. The guy made tons of money those two days doing basically nothing. So the next day, Sunday, I was by myself and talking to the jerky guy. I told him that we were interested in possibly doing jerky and buying from him. The jerky guy tells me that he has someone else who is interested and plus he isn't ready to start doing that yet and he wants to sell here himself for a while longer. So I said okay, no problem. A couple weeks ago my husband started looking into the jerky business and thought we would start with some other company, not the company the other guy is selling with. We buy some product but don't like it as well as the company the jerky guy is selling with. We contact the same company and they tell us they will sell to us. So last week we make a huge decision and go "all in" as they say in gambling worlds. We take all our last of our savings and spend it on beef jerky. We buy a pack of business cards and make a few signs on our computer. We rent the center table right in front of my booth. We set up and last Friday, my husband started selling beef jerky. He sold more than I sold that first day than I sold the entire month in jewelry! The next day he did better and Sunday was his best day! Sunday, people came looking for him to buy!
So we are now in the beef jerky business. My husband is an awesome sales person and ropes them right in. He gives out samples and he tells them about his website too. You should go see it. http://www.jerkyrun.com
This weekend we sold half of what we had and sold out of many flavors. We placed another order this morning hoping to get it in by this weekend.
I am still going to keep my jewelry but sell it at a reduced rate through the holidays and see how things go. Kenneth wants us to close down the jewelry shop and get another booth at the other end of the flea market so we can reach more people. Lots of people have two or more booths in different places. There is a rule though that you can't sell the same stuff within 5 booths of someone else with the same stuff. So no one can sell jerky around my husband right now and we don't interfere with the other guy selling either. We are on aisle A and he is on aisle B. The other guy came in late on Friday and left early and then on Saturday he came in a little earlier and came and talked to my husband and told him that he would be interested in selling to us wholesale. He asked where we got our product from and we told him the manufacturer. He gets his from his brother who purchases it from the manufacturer and the brother lives in Chicago. Not sure what the brother does but it sounds like they split their shipments. Anyway the other jerky guy also asked why we didn't tell him we were interested in getting into the jerky business. We told him that I had talked to him about it and he said that someone else was interested and he wasn't ready to wholesale to people yet. He couldn't seem to remember that conversation. Hmmm..... Oh well.
So things are improving for us now. FINALLY!!!! Yay! We are still super poor but we are moving in the right direction now. Today my husband is going around to some auto repair shops and such giving them his business cards and handing out samples of his product. If they want to buy right away he has it all in the back of the car and hopefully he will get people to come to him in the flea market along with wanting to buy right away from him today. He is also going to try out a few more flea markets in the area too and see if he can get in and sell.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Here is a "catch up" about what has been going on with us.
So here is the long and short of it. We will see how far I get before my kids interrupt me with questions on their school work.
We arrived here two weeks ago and found that, yes, there was a law stating that kids can not live in a campground during the school year, no matter where you are from and if you homeschool or not. This county is weird. The schools are HORRIBLE. They are the bottom of the list for Florida schools in testing and graduation. There is a pretty big homeschool community but we haven't tapped into it yet. Anyway, they have a law that says that school aged children can not live in a campground during the school year. So that means that we would have to move every 21 days to a new campground. We wouldn't be able to take advantage of any monthly discounts and such. So it would have been almost three times more expensive to be moving around every 21 days. So our first order of business when we got here was to get a storage unit, get a mailbox, and find a new campground that either wasn't in the county or didn't care about the law. We got the first two done quickly on the first day and the second day we were here we set out to find a new home. We went to 6 different campgrounds that second day and no one would let us "live" there. Even though we told them we were not residents, even though we told them we had paperwork to prove permission to homeschool, even though we told them anything! Finally as I was in tears one nice person at the KOA told us about a campground we hadn't found yet. She told us to go see Shawn and she had lived there and homeschooled her child and he didn't care.
It was dinner time by then so we went home, licked our wounds and set out the next day to find this campground. We pulled in and drove around before going to the office. It looked nice and quiet, very pretty. So we go to the office, tell the kids to sit in the car, and crossed our fingers. Shawn was AWESOME! We now have a pull through site on an asphalt pad (which makes everything level and the dirt doesn't get into the trailer as easily), it is a double space so we have room for our two cars (basically we pay for two sites) and we have a palm tree right out our window where my hammock sits and hibiscus bushes lining the site. The only downside is we are fighting fire ants but they aren't that big of a nuisance.
The first week we also rented a booth at the flea market. It was a dismal failure. We made only $21 the whole weekend and $16 of that came from a large bucket of sunflowers a Mennonite farmer gave us because he got tired of selling them one day. That weekend we learned a TON! 1. we were in the wrong place, 2. we needed more space, 3. it is the "slow" season and lots of people don't make any sales and many don't even open their booths which hurts other venders around them, 4. we should look into diversifying our products 5. there is this awesome flea market in Webster that everyone says we MUST go to (LOL).
So we set out to find a better place. We found one double booth on another aisle close to the traffic and a much better environment. The other vendors open all the time and they stay open all day long. We moved the next week. We cleaned out our booth space, tore out old carpet, painted, put up pegboard, and shopped for other decorations.
Next to us and across the aisle is a large store (9 booths) of leather jackets and biker stuff. The guys who own/run it are Joe and Joe. Joe Sr, and Joe Jr. They are awesome! They have been so nice to us. They used to have the two booths we have now. They sold us the tarp that fits on the front of the booth (how we secure our stuff inside) for cheap and have let us borrow boards and other things we need. Joe and Joe are from Long Island. Neither Joe Sr, or Joe Jr own a bike or are bikers. LOL
Frank has "the Mancave" across the aisle from us and he is also from New York. He sells collectible toy figurines, action figures, super hero stuff and comic books. He came to me on Saturday and told me he had a box of clothes that doesn't really go with his store and was wondering if I wanted to put them in my shop and we would split the profits on them. I told him to bring them in and I would take a look at them. So Sunday he brings in this HUGE box of clothes. All brand new from Nepal. The best I can describe them are "hippie" clothes. There are men's shirts, woman's skirts, dresses, "I Dream Of Jeanie" pants, and other pants. He told me he thought they were ugly and wouldn't sell but it was worth a try if I was game. I looked at them and immediately decided to hang a few and try them out. I KNEW they would sell well. Joe Jr gave us hangers for it and we hung them up and within a few hours I sold two skirts and three dresses! Frank was shocked! So this week I am moving some of my jewelry over to another place to make more room for the clothes. Later in the afternoon Joe Jr comes over to me and says he has some Christmas ornaments that doesn't really go with his stuff and asks if I want to put them in with my Christmas ornaments (I have a few right now). I teased him and told him he was jealous that I was making money with Frank! LOL We put his ornaments (Hawaiian shirt ornaments) with ours and hopefully they will sell too. I love that our neighbors are trying to help us out.
The kids are doing fine, but I know we are living on borrowed time here. They have been without other kids since we moved. While they get along well I know they crave new friendships and other kids. We are going to check out a baseball team this evening with our son. And tomorrow evening we are trying out a new church. They have services on Wednesdays which will be great for us who work on Sundays. I hope that we will like it so the kids can start participating in youth group and other activities at the church. This church also has a large homeschool community in which I hope to tap.
Our biggest panic has been the lack of income. We have money saved and we knew the first month and getting things settled down here would take a nice chunk and we expected and planned for that. What I didn't plan for was the panic I feel inside every time I spend money at the grocery store, or for the shop etc. None is unexpected, I just didn't realize I would feel this way. We also expected that we would start making money at least in the same amounts that we were making in craft shows but we aren't yet. Last weekend we made $119 for three days. We were bringing in around $250 a day with craft shows. But it is very slow right now and people aren't buying. The crowds will get here in two weeks with "biketober fest" and then the snow birds will come down the first of November.
The biggest frustration so far has been grocery shopping! OH my! Where is my Kroger????? I will even take a Food Lion! We have a Publix. The prices are so HIGH. Also the layout of the store is frustrating. I can't seem to find anything! You don't start with produce. You start with bakery and frozen foods (Ice cream is first) or if you start from the other side it is dairy products. I personally don't want my milk or my ice cream to be in my cart the whole time I shop. It seems the only other stores to shop in is Target Super store (and I have tried that and the produce seems very old and there is not a good variety of products) Walmart (and this one seems dirty and gross), or Winn Dixie. I am going to give Winn Dixie a try soon.
We arrived here two weeks ago and found that, yes, there was a law stating that kids can not live in a campground during the school year, no matter where you are from and if you homeschool or not. This county is weird. The schools are HORRIBLE. They are the bottom of the list for Florida schools in testing and graduation. There is a pretty big homeschool community but we haven't tapped into it yet. Anyway, they have a law that says that school aged children can not live in a campground during the school year. So that means that we would have to move every 21 days to a new campground. We wouldn't be able to take advantage of any monthly discounts and such. So it would have been almost three times more expensive to be moving around every 21 days. So our first order of business when we got here was to get a storage unit, get a mailbox, and find a new campground that either wasn't in the county or didn't care about the law. We got the first two done quickly on the first day and the second day we were here we set out to find a new home. We went to 6 different campgrounds that second day and no one would let us "live" there. Even though we told them we were not residents, even though we told them we had paperwork to prove permission to homeschool, even though we told them anything! Finally as I was in tears one nice person at the KOA told us about a campground we hadn't found yet. She told us to go see Shawn and she had lived there and homeschooled her child and he didn't care.
It was dinner time by then so we went home, licked our wounds and set out the next day to find this campground. We pulled in and drove around before going to the office. It looked nice and quiet, very pretty. So we go to the office, tell the kids to sit in the car, and crossed our fingers. Shawn was AWESOME! We now have a pull through site on an asphalt pad (which makes everything level and the dirt doesn't get into the trailer as easily), it is a double space so we have room for our two cars (basically we pay for two sites) and we have a palm tree right out our window where my hammock sits and hibiscus bushes lining the site. The only downside is we are fighting fire ants but they aren't that big of a nuisance.
The first week we also rented a booth at the flea market. It was a dismal failure. We made only $21 the whole weekend and $16 of that came from a large bucket of sunflowers a Mennonite farmer gave us because he got tired of selling them one day. That weekend we learned a TON! 1. we were in the wrong place, 2. we needed more space, 3. it is the "slow" season and lots of people don't make any sales and many don't even open their booths which hurts other venders around them, 4. we should look into diversifying our products 5. there is this awesome flea market in Webster that everyone says we MUST go to (LOL).
So we set out to find a better place. We found one double booth on another aisle close to the traffic and a much better environment. The other vendors open all the time and they stay open all day long. We moved the next week. We cleaned out our booth space, tore out old carpet, painted, put up pegboard, and shopped for other decorations.
Next to us and across the aisle is a large store (9 booths) of leather jackets and biker stuff. The guys who own/run it are Joe and Joe. Joe Sr, and Joe Jr. They are awesome! They have been so nice to us. They used to have the two booths we have now. They sold us the tarp that fits on the front of the booth (how we secure our stuff inside) for cheap and have let us borrow boards and other things we need. Joe and Joe are from Long Island. Neither Joe Sr, or Joe Jr own a bike or are bikers. LOL
Frank has "the Mancave" across the aisle from us and he is also from New York. He sells collectible toy figurines, action figures, super hero stuff and comic books. He came to me on Saturday and told me he had a box of clothes that doesn't really go with his store and was wondering if I wanted to put them in my shop and we would split the profits on them. I told him to bring them in and I would take a look at them. So Sunday he brings in this HUGE box of clothes. All brand new from Nepal. The best I can describe them are "hippie" clothes. There are men's shirts, woman's skirts, dresses, "I Dream Of Jeanie" pants, and other pants. He told me he thought they were ugly and wouldn't sell but it was worth a try if I was game. I looked at them and immediately decided to hang a few and try them out. I KNEW they would sell well. Joe Jr gave us hangers for it and we hung them up and within a few hours I sold two skirts and three dresses! Frank was shocked! So this week I am moving some of my jewelry over to another place to make more room for the clothes. Later in the afternoon Joe Jr comes over to me and says he has some Christmas ornaments that doesn't really go with his stuff and asks if I want to put them in with my Christmas ornaments (I have a few right now). I teased him and told him he was jealous that I was making money with Frank! LOL We put his ornaments (Hawaiian shirt ornaments) with ours and hopefully they will sell too. I love that our neighbors are trying to help us out.
The kids are doing fine, but I know we are living on borrowed time here. They have been without other kids since we moved. While they get along well I know they crave new friendships and other kids. We are going to check out a baseball team this evening with our son. And tomorrow evening we are trying out a new church. They have services on Wednesdays which will be great for us who work on Sundays. I hope that we will like it so the kids can start participating in youth group and other activities at the church. This church also has a large homeschool community in which I hope to tap.
Our biggest panic has been the lack of income. We have money saved and we knew the first month and getting things settled down here would take a nice chunk and we expected and planned for that. What I didn't plan for was the panic I feel inside every time I spend money at the grocery store, or for the shop etc. None is unexpected, I just didn't realize I would feel this way. We also expected that we would start making money at least in the same amounts that we were making in craft shows but we aren't yet. Last weekend we made $119 for three days. We were bringing in around $250 a day with craft shows. But it is very slow right now and people aren't buying. The crowds will get here in two weeks with "biketober fest" and then the snow birds will come down the first of November.
The biggest frustration so far has been grocery shopping! OH my! Where is my Kroger????? I will even take a Food Lion! We have a Publix. The prices are so HIGH. Also the layout of the store is frustrating. I can't seem to find anything! You don't start with produce. You start with bakery and frozen foods (Ice cream is first) or if you start from the other side it is dairy products. I personally don't want my milk or my ice cream to be in my cart the whole time I shop. It seems the only other stores to shop in is Target Super store (and I have tried that and the produce seems very old and there is not a good variety of products) Walmart (and this one seems dirty and gross), or Winn Dixie. I am going to give Winn Dixie a try soon.
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