Market Nosh uses some great tools, and it is always good to share those tools with others to make the job of reaching an audience easier.
Within the Marketplace, you will be the master, you are the creator and you know your business, but here is a little more help with the online world you may be creating to allow customers to reach you when you are not present in body.
Know of a useful tool we could share with other Market Stall Vendors, let us know.
Tools To Support Your Customers
Without your customers there is no business, so how we look after them is paramount. (See this lesson about Customer Experiences) Your customers are key.
You want them to have the very best experience of your business and you want them to tell others about the great products and services you have.
Some important parts to the puzzle you may need to make that happen are:
– Website
– Social Media Account
– An Active email address if possible
Website/Facebook Page
To be able to send a customers to a one page website/Facebook page is key to ensuring you are still in touch even after you leave the marketplace.
You have managed to forge a link, have a customer in front of you, so why not also provide them with a way to reach you again. Perhaps it is just to check when you are next at the market, or to even ask for your services for an event they may be holding. To not have this as an option will mean you are limited to the few hours you are in the marketplace.
Keep it simple.
Websites / Facebook Page
Websites can be built pretty quickly these days with services which are as simple as drag and drop.
Wix and Squarespace are two of the major players here when it comes to building a simple website. Squarespace even has builting shop features if you are thinking of selling via your website.
Facebook Pages are simply the easiest and free to use. Facebook even has shop features that can be set up to allow you to sell to your customers with ease on a platform they are already using.
You will need an account and my suggestion is to keep posting little updates to keep the page relevant. This way it can catch everyone who visits your page, follows you and for those who want to find you after visiting the marketplace.
Virtual Staff
Virtual Staff may also help in getting some of the admin work sorted or keeping things in order for you.
Upwork: As with any staff, use caution and be very clear about what you want and when you want it.
Virtual Staff Finder: Outsource your time and energy to a virtual assistant who has the necessary skills, freeing you up to do what you do best.
Fiverr is a great option to get a few quick templates or icons made for you without a huge cost, freeing you up time to do what you want to do and be creative.
Email Automation
There are rules about email and keeping email addresses in Europe and the UK. This is personal data and you need to keep it secure. So tread carefully here.
However, saying that, collecting email addresses at your stall to send a newsletter to later on can be a great way to get your products in front of your customers.
Use an automated program that allows sending of emails regularly and to your list of people who can sign up directly without you even writing an address in. They also can opt out if they want to and you can leave that responsibility to the customer.
AWeber: An excellent broadcast email provider, that allows for easy newsletter setup, full membership control and signup form customisation. 30-day free trail and excellent tutorials.
Mailchimp: Offers a free service to small websites that will allow you to begin emailing your members and set up signup form.
Social Media Tools
Social media has a massive impact in your business. If possible try to keep updating the main places customers are often visiting.
Facebook, X, Instagram and Pinterest are huge and really imprtant to specific spaces and creativity niches.
My tip, pick one and get good at it before adding them all and making your work load so heavy you stop being creative.
When you do decide to use more than one service there are a couple of option to be able to send out posts using a simple one click solution.
Look at Hootsuite: An industry leading social media “All-in-One”, and I don’t say that lightly. They have tutorials, easy dashboards and mobile integration to keep you in touch with multiple streams of social media. Free trail too.
Buffer: An alternative to Hootsuite with some great social media tutorials too and social media integration.
Creative Tools
There will be occasion to make some graphics and use some photos. It is always best to use your own whenever possibe, but sometimes you need a little more variety. A few programs that are free to use and get your creative flare going are:
Pixabay – free image download and use. You can change and alter any of the photos. Just don’t sell them as your own work.
Adobe Stock Image – is a paid service for stunning photos. It can get costly though.
Canva – Great for creating social media posts, Posters, Fancy documents and really anything creative with an easy to use drag and drop features. Only your imagination will hinder your work here.
Tools To Support Your Business
Getting organised and knowing where and what you have is important to a successful business. Nothing like trying to look through a bunch of papers to find something you urgently need, or worse, lose something.
Stay organised from the get go. It can get busy, but always try to update your tools daily. Little and often will make it so much easier, than once a month or once a quarter.
Online Marketplaces
Being in a physical marketplace is great, but if you have crafts and want business to run even when you are asleep, why not consider either of these two global online marketplaces.
Etsy: A global community of creative entrepreneurs. This is especially for crafts and handmade items you wish to sell.
Shopify: Create your online storefront, have payments systems setup easily and have peace of mind security.
Document Storage and Management
You are going to have documents. Plenty of them. From licences to artwork to your tax bills and bank statements. They need to be stored somewhere.
Get setup with some easy places from the get go.
Google Drive: You probably already have a gmail address, but you also get some online storage too. It’s free and easy to use and share documents. spreadsheets and presentations. Even collaborate with others in a different locations.
Office 365: This is a more powerful program from Microsoft, and offers all the features of Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel. If you sign up to their yearly plan, you’ll get 1 TB of storage too.
Dropbox: If you want to transfer a lot of files easily or make them available to someone, this can be a useful program. Especially if you have lots of large files to move.
Evernote: Ever wanted a program to remember everything for you? This is the program for you. It will store everything from documents to reminders and make everything searchable and secure. It is very easy to use and one to consider when storing your information.
Tools To Support Your Finances
To be clear once more, this is not financial advice. These are some tools to use to help you get organised. If you choose to use them great. A good old spreadsheet will work just as well and you can use those on Google Drive or Office 365 without any hassle.
Should you want a little more automation in your life, here are a few tools to use.
Wave: An all in one program designed to take the task of accounting and make it a pleasure. Scan receipts, send invoices and receive payments. Oh, and it’s free to use, until you make or receive a payment. Recently they moved only to serve the US market so check if you can use it in your country first.
Quickbooks: Easy accounting software, with payroll and HMRC (tax) recognised, this accounting program may just be the right one for your business.
Pandle is also easy to use, free software for the UK.
GNUCash is a program for your computer and is very simple and basic. No online platform and I have to caustion you to backup your work to a place where it is safe or else it is lost for good.
To make and receive payment you will need a service that processes these payments. They will be linked to your bank account but are facilitators for you to receive or send money when at the market stall.
There are plenty of little machines to allow you to also set up tap and pay accounts for you products with very little fees for the service which allows you to make sales, even when someone only has their phone and a card. We live in very easy times.
Paypal: For the most recognised form of electronic payment, use PayPal. They have also introduced credit card payments via card reader and mobile phone.
Stripe: A different form of payment processing and if you decided to use the free accounting software from Wave, this will be the payment provider anyway.