Starting up a market stall is one of the best ways to start up your own business; it gives you the perfect experience to be able to transition into the big world of business and compete for the ‘top spot’. Making your first experience of business and trading an enjoyable one as well as successful is absolutely vital in your development as an entrepreneur.

Here we will be sharing our experience and expertise with our top tips on how to start up a market stall.

1.       Planning Your Money

Ensuring you have the capital and resources to start up and run a market stall is completely essential, for example you wouldn’t buy a car if you couldn’t afford the insurance or the petrol on a regular basis so why would you do it when starting up a new business? Work out exactly how much money you actually have and all the prices of what you need, put all of this information into a spreadsheet to avoid any mistakes. This will take time, but it is time that will prevent you from ultimately losing money in the end.

2.       Licencing and Laws

Although this is not the most enjoyable part of running a market stall, it has to be done and it has to be done properly with no cut corners to prevent any potential wrong-doings. You must obtain a trading license from your local authority to actually be able to trade, you must also have insurance to cover your products and all of your other properties associated with your trading. Do your research surrounding all of the laws and regulations in the world of trading and business to ensure you are completely compliant with all parts.

3.       Products

Decide on the products that you want to sell on your stall. There are questions you must ask yourself to ensure that the product is suitable:

-          Will you make a profit from selling your products?

-          Will your product sell in your chosen location?

-          Does your product clash with anyone else’s on your chosen market?

  • If so, what makes your product better than theirs?
  • Why should people buy your product over theirs?

Don’t just sell a product because you might get a good return, choose a product that you are interested in. Remember, in trading your product is only as good as the person who’s selling it.

4.       Develop Trading Skills

Developing your skills will obviously come with time, but look around, take note of how other people are trading. There is no reason why you couldn’t take something someone does and do it better, that is the world of business. After some experience in trading, everything will become so natural and things that you may not have been able to do before will come as a second nature, so be patient in your development.

5.       Promotion

Be proud of your new business, spread the word of your products - this can be done in a range of ways, for example:

  • Design and build a website - there are many businesses that can help you build your own website and it is easy.
  • Set up some social media pages - most people nowadays are connected to either Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and these places have now been tailored to suit businesses too.

Do not be afraid to explore these methods of online marketing, as they could prove to be very helpful.

6.       Get There Early

Be an early bird, people like coming early to avoid the stress of the crowds. So be ready for these people and show that you are there to offer your services and your products. This will give you that head start above all the other traders.

7.       Location

People don’t like change, especially customers and that is why it is important to find a good space in the market and stick to it. Don’t make it a job for your customers to find you, be there for the customers where they expect you to be. Also, find a space that everyone has to walk through, by the entrance or by the toilets so that potential customers have to walk through.

8.       Healthy Float or Invest in Other Ways of Paying

Keep a healthy float, there is nothing worse for a customer than not being able to use their money as you cannot give them the proper change. You will come to realise how much money you will need in a float over your time in trading. Alternatively, in the dawn of contactless you could also invest in new payment methods to prevent looking for the right amount of “shrapnel” to give to your customer, this will also help kill off the queues so you could potentially serve more customers.

9.       Love Thy Neighbour

The traders near you are your neighbours and your customers should be your friends, customers like special treatment. They like the extra service they are given, this will just make them come back for more in the future, treat them badly and there is no way of them returning. Returning customers are important as they often prove to be the best source of revenue.

10.   Believe in Your Products and Yourself

Finally, you should believe in the products you sell, you should be able to sell them with confidence. Without having confidence in your own products, why should potential customers buy them? Tell them why they are better than what you would find elsewhere.

 

If you’re thinking about setting up your own market stall, see our full range of high-quality market stalls.

For further information, call us today on 01691 829 333!