Can Selling Treats at Booths Help Recover Costs?

[linojackie]

I have a couple of booths coming up, but I haven't had very good luck lately with sales and bookings, so I was trying to think of ideas to offset the cost of doing booths to find new leads. I just got my new consultant news in the mail and for some reason, I got excited!

I was thinking of making some of the small batter bowl mixes, maybe some of the brownie lollipops, mini bread loaves, etc and selling them at my booth as well as collecting orders and a couple of items I have on hand as cash n' carry. AND, if someone wanted to book, they could take one of the mini-loaves or a lollipop as a booking reward.

What do you think? Any other good ideas you can ad?

 

[christinaspc]

I have done that before and it went over well. Good luck !!!!

 

[ChefJWarren]

If you are doing your booth at a school, set it up as a Fundraiser. I did this today and since people knew proceeds were going right back to the school, they were more apt to order. I had $200 in sales!

 

[linojackie]

I planned on doing that and told them so. I also told the chairperson that they would get $5 for ever booking I get. We'll see what turns up...

 

[cathyskitchen]

I'm doing a Christmas Bazaar at a local church the first weekend of December, and I'm planning on making a bunch of the Small Batter Bowl mixes (cookie, brownie, soup), as well as the Prep Bowl gift items shown in the latest CN (fill a prep bowl with Hershey's Kisses, star mints, etc., wrap with a bow and put a gift tag on top). I figure if I don't sell them all, I'll be able to give them as teacher gifts for the holidays. And, if I do sell them all, I can take orders for more. I'm not even planning to have much of a set up at my table - I'll have catalogs on hand if people want to place orders, and it will be a great booking tool - if they want to see something in person, I'll tell them I'll bring it to their show. I've found that having cash & carry at the holiday fairs goes over well - people are looking for a quick and easy gift that's already put together, and all they have to do is hand it to the person. That's what I'm going to offer! Good luck and let us know how it goes!

 

[esavvymom]

I'm planning on making a bunch of the Small Batter Bowl mixes (cookie, brownie, soup), as well as the Prep Bowl gift items shown in the latest CN (fill a prep bowl with Hershey's Kisses, star mints, etc., wrap with a bow and put a gift tag on top). I figure if I don't sell them all, I'll be able to give them as teacher gifts for the holidays. And, if I do sell them all, I can take orders for more.

Couple of questions from a newbie:

(1) when you take orders, are you taking orders for the pre-made items that you ran out of? or just for say a Batter Bowl, or the prep-bowl sets, etc?

(2) Do you charge what retail would be then? So for the prep-bowls, since they are $20 for 6, that's about $3.34 per bowl, plus the candy inside- so $4 for a bowl? or do you charge a little more? Obviously, if you charged, say $5, a smart person would see they could buy a set of 6 and make them cheaper

Any other ideas besides the batter, whisk and prep bowls? I have a small school bazaar and I'm thinking that might be worth trying- but I don't want to put alot of money into things...but if it gets the leads, it might be worth trying. I feel like I've already spent alot more money trying to market myself and get out there than I wanted to. Thankfully, I had some cash saved when I started, but I blew through that pretty quick between my kit and my first booth and my Grand Opening (which was a bust!). So trying to think a little more about how to get the leads.

Thanks for the great ideas so far though! Definitely going to calculate some things out and see what I can swing.:balloon:

 

[Grandmarita]

If you have time before your own show, go to some Church bazaars in your area, and see what price range they are selling things for. I was in a Craft Fair at our local Historic Museum in 2005. The few sales I had were from the other vendors who for lack of a lot of traffic on a rainy day, walked around and chatted and bought from other vendors. The gal with Tasterfully Simple had samples and did sell some of her spices. One with the cake and cookie mixes in quart canning jars for only $5.00 took most of them home, after two full days. That told me my idea of selling batter bowls filled with the ingredients would have been a waste of my efforts. I did make them up in the small batter bowls for Christmas gifts for our pastor, pastoral assistant and family members I wanted to give something to, but not expect to exchange gifts with. I spent a considerable amount on all the soup ingredients for the colorful layering. I'm not sure
with the increased prices we can afford to do it this year.

My recruiter is suggesting we get see-through gift bags at the Dollar Store or Dollar General and put in items costing less than $10. We might have luck getting folks to
enter a drawing for things they can see. You would want to be sure to draw at least
one name while at the event. If you wanted to use the Seasons Best and maybe
a brown scraper, and Orange peeler plus a few recipe cards with your name on them,
you could afford to draw one per hour or when you have accumulated ten names.

I've signed up to do two Bazaars in Nov. The price at one is $35 from 8AM-3PM, and the other at my Church is $20 for the same hours and carries over til after our Sunday Mass when we generally have a coffee hour. That one includes a Cookie Walk and Soup and sandwich luncheon to generate traffic. We are in a small town, and may be competeing with other Churches on the same day. Some folks do a circuit of these events. Good luck. Please let us know how you did.

I'm not trying to discourage you, since I am willing to try Bazaars again, in order to
get some contacts and sell some of the surplus I have accumulated in the three years I have been a Consultant. I will have Cash & Carry available but hope to get orders to
qualify as an extra Show for Nov. It's hard to guess what the economics will be in another month or two.

 

[esavvymom]

has anyone tried or thought of anything with the 1-cup Easy Measure All? I noticed it's pretty cheap. Trying to find the CHEAP items that are still very practical.