Nudging in on the Farmer's Market

I'm moving to a new city in a couple of weeks (well, not new... since I've been there before) and I was wondering if anybody had experience with regards to being a vendor at a local farmer's market. I am considering opening a stall that sells sweet and savoury items based on some sort of dough (so think pies, scones, specialty breads, perhaps even pastas, etc.) that is focused on using good local produce and exacting technique, and most importantly a whole lot of love and care.

What I'm particularly interested in are the details involved with respect to finances, primarily expected sales figures (this will of course depend on the amount of traffic flowing through the place and other things I will need to pry from the market coordinators). The business itself will be exceptionally small scale, involving only myself (so that will simplify things a lot), will employ a rented commercial kitchen to make my product (I will not be owning or operating a commercial kitchen myself), and I will register a business name, other permits and get the appropriate insurance for this sort of venture. This will hopefully form the basis of a short business plan I can use to guide the business in the right direction.

I've done some research on a few markets in the area and found some initial figures on the cost of the stalls and some of the criteria they go through to judge the acceptability and conditions involved with regards to operating the stall... all of which are reasonable and very enlightening as a person who hasn't actually operated a business before. For example, one non-profit market approximately 30 minutes outside of town offer a $30/day stall rate (outdoors) on top of which a $35 membership fee which lasts the entire year (approximately 17 potential market days). Is that a good price? Of course, that price can only be evaluated given the amount of potential traffic that flows through it. If 10 people go there every week then obviously it's a bad price... but I'm not entirely sure how much prices can vary.

By the way, I will be moving to the Ottawa area, Ontario, Canada... and although some conditions wouldn't be valid there compared to some other place your opinion is also appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any advice you may have and hope to get some interesting answers.

I will most likely be operating a stand that consists of a tent-like structure that's about 10 feet x 10 feet, as opposed to a permanent store front I believe you're referring to. I was thinking of also serving freshly squeezed lemonade and other fruit drinks to supplement the baked goods, but of course that depends on who's nearby and what the market organizers will approve of. Thanks for your advice, I'll be looking into it about a couple of weeks from today.

My current repetoire will consist of about two dozen pies/tarts, about eight dozen scones, about 5 dozen single-serving sized cakes (I was thinking of making chocolate fondant/molten cakes and a spiced pear upside down cake at the moment), and another dozen smaller serving pies and tarts and the aforementioned beverages. I'm giving myself about ten hours of hard work to get that done, which may or may not be totally unreasonable. I intend to use butter for all of my products (as opposed to lard or shortening), which bumps up the food cost of some things.

Great pointers, shroomgirl. You really touch on a few things I've been thinking about but haven't implemented yet (I'll have to wait until I'm actually there). With regards to the display and how the stand will look I have something in mind to boost the appeal of the product and to up the polish of the final product. I was thinking about going the whole "natural/wholesome" angle with a nice rustic but clean display. In line with the natural/wholesome angle I would like to focus on biodegradable packaging made out of mostly recycled materials, for which I'll need to find a local supplier. Boxes for pies, paper bags and other cartons for the other products. As for cups the hotel I work at uses some sort of cup that uses a plastic material made out of corn, apparently pretty good for the environment. I don't know how much it costs so it'll have to be affordable.

I really like the tip about buying blemished products. Certainly you don't need perfectly looking lemons to make lemonade and you don't need perfect apples when you're going to cook them. I only hope there's something similar for butter as well :).

I guess most importantly is the salesmanship angle of the business, being able to strike a note with potential customers and so forth.

Your shortbread lady sure got a lot of perks for her rent. Sounds like she got a great deal.

To be honest, I have very modest monetary aims at the moment... and if I make money it's really just icing on the cake. I'm currently using it as a means to supplement a non-existent income and to gain experience in a side of the business I have little dealing with.

Interesting enough, I was just reading an article somebody wrote about their Alberta-based farmer's market (a mustard-based business) and the difficulties they faced (including very low profit margins). I'm already going to be staging at a couple of restaurants while I'm there and I had no plans on taking a lousy job to make money anyways so any income (as meager as it is) is welcome (apart from not earning money I'm on solid financial grounds in terms of lack of debt, etc.). As long as I can earn enough money to reimburse on the capital and costs I invest in the business it will be worth it in my twisted equations.

Although I never really thought about it in that way, but I do plan on becoming a business owner (on the scale of a restaurant or bakery) one day; I really welcome any opportunity to build a network in the area and pick up experience along the way beyond what I get in my normal work (although if I lose money it would be a costly lesson... though not as costly as having a sinking restaurant). I would be marketing myself personally as a business that can do custom orders on top of the load I'd do for the market.

I do have friends in the area and are acquainted with their families, who run businesses outside of the city. That will reduce the difficulty of starting this venture up (Should I choose to do so in the end). I also have a pretty decent maple syrup supplier from this group of acquaintances as well.

Most of the markets don't start operating in force until May anyways, so I have plenty of time to do more on-site research and calculate the cost of doing business.

HappyFood, one of the reasons I thought I stood a chance in the field was by recalling various competition I'd seen in the past... most bakers in the markets sold sub-par products (in my opinion) due to a variety of reasons, though at some places the price point was pretty insane (such as 6 dollar pies... and this is in Canadian money). I feel that the quality of my product will stand heads and shoulders above most, if not all of the competition though the downside will be in the higher cost/price of the product. It was discussed earlier that the type of clientele (bargain-hunters or discerning customers willing to pay more for quality) will be very important in determining which market to sell at and the method in which to sell the product. Having heard from everybody on that point I fully intent to find out what I'm up against in that regard.

If you think my time and money would be better spent going to business school or reading a book, or getting a date I'm more than willing to entertain the idea :).

Thanks everybody for your insight and I welcome any continuing discussion about the topic. I try to take every suggestion to heart.

Well, the main stage I expected to work at has yet to materialize... so I guess I'll have more time on my hands than I thought. Also, I've found that many places don't want stagieres, which I guess they have a reason for. Obviously everybody's holding on to their jobs nowadays due to the economy so it's going to be a long process.

I start the second stage on Friday, let's hope that goes a little better.

I had considered private dinners and personal cheffing, but I figured that I would need a substantial client base or at least list of contacts to get started. My friends aren't generally the type to be procuring those sorts of services anyways.