Our first market was held in Long Beach, California with an organization called Creative Communal. It was such a great start for us and we're so thankful to have been a part of it, considering our application was completely bare boned. Since we were brand freakin' new, we didn't have anything really but an idea and some proof that we could maybe do stuff. They required a mockup of our setup and to this day, when I look back at that initial photo, it shocks me that someone gave us a chance. Life lesson: Knock on doors and see what opens.

The First Application

These are the photos that launched us into our market run. All we had was an umbrella, a singular table, two foldable chairs, a huge painting of our Cocker Spaniel and a few products. We used my jewelry holder to display the few dog collars I made, two blank canvases to showcase our art offerings (we didn't even have time to paint on them!), and a cork board display of our Pet Portrait Tags. I guess Creative Communal saw the potential because we got in to their Halloween Market! We had about a month to figure out the rest of our business like bags, a point-of-sale process, price signs, getting a banner with our name on it, etc. The night before the market was an all hands on deck type of night! We had Pitch Perfect (my fav!) playing in the background and to this day, if we're working overtime before a market, that movie is our good luck watch. It never fails to get us through long nights.  

The First Market

A few things that let us know we're in a good market:

1. The organizers are present and available, making the start very easy and stress free. 
2. Location matters
3. The vibes

The morning of our first market was nerve wracking. I remember worrying if we were going to make sales, what people thought of our business concept and hoped that people would be nice. I've always been a consumer, but being on the other side as a seller was something new. I worked retail before but it wasn't my items, my store, my dream. This was us asking strangers to buy what we were selling and we were going to see what people truly thought. 

Our actual setup was A LOT better than our mock up. We used a longer table and had an actual banner with our name and logo. We also had a bigger shelf display for our collars so we were able to showcase more sizes of each collar design. We still didn't have time to paint some portraits on our smaller canvases but hoped that people could see our talent with our big Cocker Spaniel canvas on display. 

Our first sale that day was a Night Galaxy Cat Collar. Jamil and I high-fived each other after, something that we still do to this day when we make a crazy sale. We met a lot of people and their cute pets. We sold a couple of collars and custom art sales that day, which was amazing! Not all sales were instant though- some came later by word of mouth, and some came years later from someone who held onto our business card. 

Lessons Learned

That's the beauty of doing markets. As difficult and time consuming as they can be, they allow you to get in front of people and showcase yourself. Not all markets are winners, but you can make them a win by receiving feedback on your products and concept, making connections, and creating content. While we've learned many more lessons from markets since then, these are the main things we gathered from our first market:

1. choosing the right market is very important

The right market is a market that opens your mind to what could be. That is to say, when we were first searching for what market we wanted to join, we looked for one that gave off a certain vibe, a vibe of creativity and happiness. The vendors at this market put a lot of effort to show off their products which made us raise our expectations of what we wanted our setup to look like.  It wasn't a huge market - just a single street promenade in an established plaza that drew a lot of shoppers with about 25 vendors. The organizers also did a really good job of promoting and having activities for families to come out and enjoy which helps draw a crowd. The market price to be a vendor was also a reasonable price which is important to note when figuring out if a market is worth it or not. 

       2. sometimes its not your products, it's how you present them

So one of our products, our Pet Portrait Tags (later renamed to Pet Charms), did okay in markets in the beginning but it would take some explaining. We marketed it as a type of accessory for your pet's collar, something to add on to their existing tags. This was our original concept and what we used it for ourselves. We had an example of it on a toy dog, we placed it with our own background tags, we basically told people that's what they are. For some people it was genius, they loved it! For others, it wasn't great, with a lot of feedback of 'my pet doesn't wear a collar', or, 'my dog would eat that in a heartbeat', which were all very valid reasons people didn't make a purchase. We saw this problem at our first market but didn't have an immediate fix. It took us a couple of markets to figure out how else we can market it and use it, and once we did, the Pet Charms started doing a lot better. In this case, we had a great product, it just wasn't marketed as great as it could have been. Markets help you get immediate feedback. 

     3. don't get discouraged, focus on yourself

Unless you have a one-of-a-kind, never before seen, out of this world business, you'll most likely have competition. It's very easy to get discouraged, especially if your neighbors are doing better than you are during a market. You shouldn't let this discourage you, instead, let it push you to think outside of the box. How can you distinguish yourself to be something different? For us, we tell people who visit our booth that we like to take a more artistic approach to a pet company. There are so many creative people out there but we're able to provide our own great customer experience, quality product that we stand behind at great prices. At the end of the day, as long as we're true to ourselves, there's no limit to how far we can go with our little business. Comparing yourself to others is easy to do but your ideas can take you farther if you let them. Especially starting out, we felt like all the vendors were friends with each other and were even friends with the customers! After doing enough markets, you'll become a regular with your own vendor friends and loyal customers who come back just to shop with you.

4. practice your set up before an actual market & come up with alternatives

Doing a practice run of how to set up your tables and display, what you need to set up first vs last, where all your tools and screws are, etc will save you so much time and stress on the actual day. Each market is different, but most likely you'll have about an hour or so to drop off your stuff, park your car, and set up before the market starts. This also helps you make sure you have everything you need so you're not forgetting something like table legs, table covers and scissors (guilty for all three!). Practicing alternate setups also gives you flexibility on what your setup can look like if there are any unforeseen changes that occur on market day. It's always better to be prepared for as many things as possible!

All in all, markets are great for so many reasons. The most important thing is to have fun, learn and gather what you can. There's a lot of information out there regarding markets and market setups so if you have any questions, I would love to help so please ask! We have since upgraded to a 10x10' tent and are still evolving it to better match our needs to show off all of our growing products. Stay tuned for a closer look into our booth.