How To Find Local Markets To Sell Your Handmade Products
Selling your candles in person is such a special experience and something I think every handmade business owner should experience at least once!
"But how do you find these markets?"
This is a question I get frequently on my channel whenever I talk about my experiences as a vendor.
I decided to put together a quick resource to help you find events in your area:
1. INSTAGRAM
Instagram is a great way to find local events in your city! But it takes some research. I recommend searching hashtags that events in your area would be using in their social media posts.
For instance: search "yourcity" + 'events' or 'festival' or "thingstodoin" + yourcity.
What you are looking for are flyers, announcements, or anything that looks like an advertisement for an event. This could lead you to two things:
1. You could find the actual event management company. (these are the IG accounts you REALLY want to find + follow!)
2. You could find another small business who is attending this event as a vendor.
Both are helpful because you are able to get information about coming up events, where they are held, how to apply.
2. FACEBOOK
Facebook, although not as popular as it used to be 10 years ago, is still a great opinion to try to find local events.
On the facebook app, click on your profile photo with the three lines on the bottom right hand side. Scroll down under the "All shortcuts" area and click on the "Events" tab.
Click on the top right magnifying glass icon and search terms like "events" "market" or "festival".
By default it will search your current city, but you can also type in another city to view events in that location as well.
Tip: If you have a major or larger city within 30-45 minutes of you, it may be worth checking out what events are going on over there!
3. LOCAL
Word of mouth, local posters, flyers and advertisements are the old-fashioned ways of finding out about events-- and it's still is one of the best ways!
Keep your eyes open to any posters stuck to traffic lights, or attached to a pole on the center divider of an intersection because sometimes there are local event advertisements.
Walk into coffee shops or other locally owned businesses and see if they have a bulletin board with flyers for local events. Community is usually a huge part of every city so these event managers want to make sure that they can get the word out in every way that they can.
Talk to people! I know....I know. Talking to strangers is not everyone's favorite past time, but it's not as bad as you think. In natural "small talk" situations, just casually bring up if they know of any farmers markets or events coming up soon. This could be when checking out at the grocery store, or buying a coffee.
You can also drive around on Saturdays to popular locations in your city: malls, strip malls, "downtown" areas, etc. If you find a bunch of white canopies, then you found an event space!
Once you find these event locations, I recommend attending as a customer first! You'll be able to identify the traffic level, the difficulty of accessing the event, the other types of vendors and the parking situation.
You are one step closer to experiencing selling your handmade items in person! It can seem like an intimidating concept, but trust me--it is so rewarding!
