Ways To Market Yourself…and make money…

Do you think that there are ways to market your farm, nursery, or gardening center and make money at the same time?

Of course you can do that.

Find a farmer’s market or a local fair where you can exhibit your products for a minimal charge. See the picture of the alpacas here. These were brought to a local town’s harvest festival. This gets your business name out there for local folks to see and come buy from you. No other animals were at this event, so if someone was going to pick a place they were familiar with it would be this one. This farm neglected to sell other products and so missed out on an opportunity to leave money on the table. A nice side line would have been to sell the alpacas’ yarn and associated products like knitted or felted hats and mittens, and scarves. Even having a flier to address what else their farm offers the public to bring traffic right to the farm after this event would be good.

A nursery or garden center may pick a winter show because it may be after your busy season to bring in extra money. This is where you can demonstrate assembling, then selling centerpieces for holiday tables or wreaths. The demo intrigues people into gathering around you, then buying from you because they know you made it yourself; that’s what buying local is all about. Yes, some may go home and do it themselves, but most don’t want to bother going to all the trouble and/or they feel you do a better, more artistic job.

People will come back to you again and again because they trust you and will be loyal to you. It may be worth it for you to consistently be at the same shows because people will come back looking for you and your products since they knew you were at a particular show in the past.

Tags: farms, garden centers, nurseries