My First Farm Market

Life has been crazy busy the past few weeks. Our daughter is dating a young man -- his brother was killed last week in a hit and run -- a tragic situation. We've had a couple volunteer groups helping here on the building project. I'm still TRYING to get some things organized in my life and get into some semblance of a routine. I'm working on some small changes in business ... at least, they seemed like small changes ... getting them made is taking a lot longer than I thought. I am particularly trying to change the way I display necklaces at craft shows -- I like my ovals on the jewelry displays, but I have a lot more necklaces available than that and need to figure out a better way to show them off.

This past Saturday, I did my first farm market show -- it was great! I really had no idea what to expect, so set a sales range with the thought that, if I sold in that range, I'd be happy -- I exceeded my range!!! The market is in Elkhart Lake, which I've been told is a cottage community for Chicago executives. When it was time to sign up for the farm market, I knew my schedule would not allow me to be there every week and I was a bit concerned about "saturating my market" to be there each time, so I carefully chose 4 Saturdays. It seemed to me that if there were a lot of cottages in the area, a lot of people would "go to the cottage" for Fathers Day -- and I had that pegged. What I didn't realize is that it was also a race weekend for Road America -- town was packed! I've also chosen July 4 -- I expect a lot of people at their cottages again. I picked 2 dates in August -- they are more random but should be when produce is really filling the market. We'll see if I made good choices -- so far, so good!

Today I have a "private show" -- I'll be setting up for some new friends who want to see my work. Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go!! Wish me luck!!! Oh, and Part 5 of my new business "adventure" series will be posted in the next day or so.