Market stalls? shopping centre casual traders?

RICHI8996

Does anyone if selling at markets and in shopping centres is proffitable? I have done lots of research and in my town noone is selling handmade soap. I used to work in the local shoping centre that attracts 250,000 people weekly and have negotiated a good price for a pitch. there is also a large outdoor market every sunday near were I live. I have sourced a good wholesaler and worked out realistic retail prices. I also want to sell jewlery towels and lots of other things but soap being the main. Can anyone tell me if im throwing money away before I start or with some good displays and selling techniches can it work? If anyone has a market stall what do you roughly take home daily. I do work full time but want to make a go of this. Thanks. P.S IM NOT JUST GREEDY (honest) I HAVE OVER 12K OF DEBT AND WANT TO PAY THAT OF IN THE NEXT YEAR. I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING SO ANY HELP WOULD BE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED

simpywimpy

I guess it all depends on what customers want to buy and what they are willing to pay. Coming up to Christmas you should benefit from the gift trade if the prices are right and people are always looking for something a little bit different for a gift.

I think our local market would benefit from famous make seconds stall if I could only locate a supplier

Encantador

RICHI8996 wrote: »

Does anyone if selling at markets and in shopping centres is proffitable? I have done lots of research and in my town noone is selling handmade soap. I used to work in the local shoping centre that attracts 250,000 people weekly and have negotiated a good price for a pitch. there is also a large outdoor market every sunday near were I live. I have sourced a good wholesaler and worked out realistic retail prices. I also want to sell jewlery towels and lots of other things but soap being the main. Can anyone tell me if im throwing money away before I start or with some good displays and selling techniches can it work? If anyone has a market stall what do you roughly take home daily. I do work full time but want to make a go of this. Thanks. P.S IM NOT JUST GREEDY (honest) I HAVE OVER 12K OF DEBT AND WANT TO PAY THAT OF IN THE NEXT YEAR. I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING SO ANY HELP WOULD BE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED

Make sure the other things you might want to sell are not already being sold, a) because the market might stop you selling them and b) you will already have a competitor in the same market, best avoided if at all possible.

Then work out all your costs, decide on how much you would want to earn per hour including tax and NI, then add on 50% for all te things you forgot to include.

Divide the total by a averagely priced bar of soap, ie total costs £1000 per week average bar of soam £2.20 = have to sell 450 bars of soap each and every week. Not perfect but should give you an idea of whether the numbers stack up.

Then spend some time in the market at different times of the day/week and see how many people are around. In a market there are a lot of hours with not many people around. Also talk to other traders who sell similarly priced items.

Jo_F

You will also have to make sure that the soap maker has all the relevant licences etc and you need all the correct labelling and signage as things like that have to be properly labelled with all the ingredients etc. otherwise you will fall foul of Trading Standards.

Also you would need to look into product and public liability insurance, a lot of markets won't allow you on without it. I had £1m public liability with my handmade jewellery, and in order to have a stall at a local recent event the local council insisted on a minimum of £5m.

simpywimpy

There is a market traders association as well that will have loads of helpful advice to anyone wanting to start

RICHI8996

Thanks for your replies. If anyone out there has or does this some advice would be great. I have checked out the market traders association and you get free liability insurance when you join.
Thanks again