If you would of said that I could be managing a farmers market a year ago I'd of thought you had been crazy. The opportunity arose quite suddenly to be the manager of our local farmers market. I'm no expert on how to run a farmers market, but the following are very important concepts to think about when you're considering starting a farmers market for the community or overtaking one as a manager.
Before you even begin to formulate your local area, vendors, layout, marketing strategies you must have a table of directors. This board could be the governing entity of one's market. You will need people that are experienced in urban planning, business, the agricultural scene, and active together with your community. It can also be a good idea to talk to other farmers markets; how did they start their market? What advice do they have? Would they be willing to help you? When you have your board members selected, you'll need to develop a mission for the market. What do you mean? What are you wanting your community to get by your presence?
You can't have a farmers market without vendors. The sort of vendor for the market really depends in your location. Here in Asheville, artisan vendors don't do great. Produce vendors those would be the vendors you want. You need to be sure that they are not all selling the exact same crops. Variety is key. At our market we've five produce vendors. Each of them have different items for sale. With the newest craze of food trucks, it would have been a good plan to recruit one or many for the market. My market is a smaller farmers market and I came across that it's best to try to reach out to food trucks which are just starting out. Those that have been around for an extended period of time may consider your market - if it's on the tiny scale or perhaps setting up - a waste of the time because they could not make what they would consider to be always a good profit because of their time.
Marketing is a deal. Based off data the easiest way to market is using social media; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,etc. These are valuable assets to any business. You may also use Google Business to let people learn about your market. Social media posts are free, that will be great when you're just starting out. Once you obtain your market sustainable cash flow, you can look into boosting posts on Facebook and Twitter Farm. Both Facebook and Twitter offer you setting your advertising budget which allows for less stress; once your financial allowance has been spent the advertising stops until you reset it. Another good plan is to partner up with local businesses which are prepared to promote your market utilizing their social media. From my experience going and talking to local restaurants, breweries, kitchen supply stores that do food demos are great prospects.
Location! Location! Location! This is essential to farmers markets. A year ago my market was behind a church in their parking lot. There is no road visibility. We lacked new customers due to no visibility. Throughout the off season we worked diligently to locate a new location that was more visible, had walk ability, along with good parking. We're now partnering with an area business to use their parking lot which has road visibility, parking along with walk ability for our neighborhood. This move was a win-win for everyone involved. Our clients are now their customers, and their clients are now our customers.
If you intend to start your own personal farmers market here are some resources to think about reviewing before starting the process. There is a class you are able to take through the Farmers Market Federation of NY, Cornell University Cooperative Extension of Broome County and SUNY Cobleskill and funded by NYS's Fresh Connect Program. This system costs $200, after taking the certification course you will be a certified Farmers Market Manager. It's an online course. I intend on taking it in the near future. Another great resource is ASAP. They've a section focused on how to become a farmers market manager with Powerpoint slides, PDF's on farmers market rules and regulations. The most effective part is that this can be a free resource.
