Hustle at the Farmer's Markets: Visibility to Grow Your Food Biz

We LOVE a good Farmer's Market. In fact we work hard to get to most of the market's in the East Kootenay region. There are so many to choose from. Jaffray on Tuesday, Kimberly on Thursday, Sparwood on Friday, Cranbrook and Baynes Lake on Saturday and Fernie on Sunday.  Our project coordinator Tanya lives in Fernie, so the Mountain Market vendors get more of her Farmer's Market spending money than other communities in the area, but she and our team get out to the others at least a few times each summer.

Now, let's think about our approach and experience market goers on a greater scale...do you see where we're headed here. If you're a food entrepreneur selling at the Farmer's Market in your community, you no doubt have a loyal following of customers who line-up religiously to buy your products. The question is, are you growing?

Fernie Mountain Market Coordinator Dawn Deydey networking with Jill and her sister from Stoke Cold-pressed Juicery in Kimberley, BC.

In small business visibility is really important. That's why visual social media platforms like Instagram are so popular, customers get the feeling that they can "see" you. Now with the Instagram Story feature and Facebook Live feature, the way customers are seeing business is evolving. Becoming a savvy content marketer is essential to your food biz, but if you're not there yet, not to worry...you can hustle your way into customer's market bags with one simple move.

Travel to more Farmer's Markets.

In the East Kootenays you can be selling at Farmer's Markets 5 days a week! That's huge. Not only will you grow your sales, but you'll also grow your brand awareness (another blog post on that coming soon.) and your visibility. Sure, being on Instagram is trendy and valuable to your biz, but being out there, selling face to face with all those market goers will add value (and profits) that social media just can't touch.

Now we get to give a shout out to some local Cranbrook Food Biz hustlers who were visible in Fernie last weekend. Virtual food biz fist bumps go to:

Three Crows Farm
Mama's Dumplings
Asteria Tea Company
Stoke Cold-pressed Juicery
Cutter Ranch

These Food Biz owners got hustle! Do you?

Where do you live and what Market's do you sell at? Comment below to share your food biz travel stories.