The Importance Of Showing Up In-Person
BY LAUREL GREENFIELD
“For a couple years, I was hyper-fixated on getting my business to the point where it would run 100% online. I thought it would be amazing if I could just wake up every day and see online orders just pouring in. But after 5 years in business, I can tell you that when it comes to running a handmade product based business, there is nothing more valuable than showing up in person to meet your customers and sell face to face.”
Laurel Greenfield Founder of Laurel Greenfield Art shares some of the valuable learnings she has acquired throughout her small business journey.
Intro
For a couple years, I was hyper-fixated on getting my business to the point where it would run 100% online. I thought it would be amazing if I could just wake up every day and see online orders just pouring in. All I needed to do, I thought, was create the perfect instagram, create the perfect website, and run a couple facebook ads and then I'd have all the freedom in the world. It wasn't totally my fault that I thought this. There are countless online marketing gurus that'll tell you this is the way to go. But after 5 years in business, I can tell you that when it comes to running a handmade product based business, there is nothing more valuable than showing up in person to meet your customers and sell face to face.
That's not to say online sales and marketing don't matter.
They're an important piece of the puzzle and are great ways to nurture existing customers and meet new ones all over the world. But showing up in person can create momentum in your business faster than online marketing alone (especially in the early stages of business) and has benefits that online marketing alone doesn't. Here are 3 reasons why:
1. You get instant feedback.
When you're selling in person at a farmers market or craft show, you get to hear from customers instantly. You can see what sells and what just sits on the table. That knowledge helps you know what to focus on and what to cut from your product line. Oftentimes online sales come in a slow trickle and it can be hard to see sales patterns emerging, but selling in person allows you to make a larger number of sales at once so you can gather that sales data and use it to inform business decisions.
2. You make money faster.
Selling in person allowed me to make art my full time job faster than if I had relied only on online sales. I started selling at in person markets in 2018 and was able to go full time in 2022. The reason is the same as above. At in person markets you make a larger number of sales at once. It's not a perfect science and sales can be higher some weeks than others, but overall, markets are a great way to infuse cash into your business. When you start you may make a few hundred dollars per market, but as you get to know your customers and perfect your booth set up, you can start to see sales of a couple thousand per market!
3. You become known in your community.
Going viral and having people all over the world buy your product sounds amazing and I hope we all get there one day. But that doesn't happen overnight and you don't want it to! One of my former art teachers said to me once that you don't want the whole world watching you as you figure your business out. That's always stuck with me and helped me have a little patience with myself. I learned to enjoy the beginning of my business where I can make mistakes without many people watching. Instead of focusing on reaching The World, I focused on reaching the local community first through markets. Seeing the same people at weekly farmers markets creates a sense of loyalty and trust between you and your customers that you can't get online. It also creates strong word of mouth marketing because people LOVE to tell their friends about their favorite new local product. Being someone's favorite local business can do so much more for your business in the long term than becoming someone's internet obsession for five minutes.
I know markets can be exhausting. They require equipment and can take a lot of time, but over time you'll streamline your set up and the whole thing will become less mentally taxing.
The benefits for your business will far outweigh the downsides of markets, and this has been totally true in my experience!
So find a local market in your area, create the least expensive set up possible, and start showing up. Your business will thank you for it!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laurel Greenfield is a Boston-based, color-loving painter on a mission to capture life’s happy food moments in vibrant color.
She’s obsessed with hearing the stories behind family recipes and memorable meals and is passionate about giving her collectors a meaningful way to celebrate their own happy food moments through paintings and prints.
Be sure to visit her Shop inside the Boston Public Market!