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New vendors should come to markets.
They should come and check it out because each market has its own vibe and its own personality.
You need to know what's going to work well with you
because all growers and all vendors are going to have their own personalities as well.
Also are you the retail person?
If you're a grower that's great, but are you the one that is good with the face-to-face with the customer?
Do you want to build the relationship with the customer?
Or are you happy just to produce the product, load it on a truck and
let somebody else deal with the retail end?
You also have to think about branding and how you're perceived by your customers.
How you set up your booth, what kind of tables, what kind of table height,
what kind of table cloth, maybe no table cloth, what kind of wood, what kind of signage you have,
how you display your produce, how you display your items that you make.
Choose your market.
Look at the bylaws, read their contract, decide if that's a good fit for you.
It's not a yard sale. You're getting involved in a community, a group of people.
Our market runs 27 weeks. That's a long time.
If you're continually by a certain other vendor you're going to develop a rapport, hopefully.
So choose where you want to go.
Also, don't over book your time.
Farmers markets, if the market runs 3 1/2 hours, that is not your only time commitment.
You're growing, your transportation, your loading in and out and at end of day
loading off that produce, keeping it cold or whatever your product is.
It's a lot of time.
Schedule your time so you don't get burnt out.
If you've got a staff you can rely on to help you either runt it or get you ready to go market,
that's going to help you a lot and that will also going to help with your burn-out.
Keep your quality of life.
One of the most important aspects, I think, for our consumers
are the relationships that people have and build with their farmers.
And the different people that vend at the farmers market.
You see them each week. You just build a great relationship with people that live nearby.
People really enjoy that.
We encourage the vendors to talk about what they have.
We encourage them to be here a lot.
You can't build your business once or twice.
You can't come here and say, "that market doesn't sell well for me".
It's about learning who the people are.
It slows you down. It makes you understand that food takes time.
It takes time to grow, to produce, to plan, to get it to you and then that
surely increases your enjoyment of the food.
You get a sense of exactly where it came from.
What's growing or does not grow in the state or the county
or the neighborhood that you live in.
These are important things to see the whole process of food.
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