My first market was the Mission Viejo Farmers Market on a Friday morning in March.
I had my table runner, my soaps lined up in neat rows, my price list, and absolutely no idea what to expect. I made $74. I paid $39 for the booth. I went home with $35 and more information than I could have gotten from any blog post.
Here's what I actually learned, and what I wish someone had told me before I showed up.
1. Choose your market as carefully as you choose your ingredients
Not all farmers markets accept non-food vendors, most markets are produce-first meaning fruits, vegetables, baked goods, and prepared foods fill the majority of vendor spots. Non-food vendors typically fill a limited number of slots, often 10 to 20 percent of the total vendor count.
Before you apply, visit the market as a customer first. Walk it. Look at who's shopping. Are they stopping at the artisan tables or rushing past to get to the produce? Is the crowd your customer, are they clean beauty, wellness-minded, and willing to spend $15 on a soap bar? A food-heavy market with a grocery crowd is a very different environment than an artisan maker market.
I learned this firsthand. My first market skewed heavily toward grocery shoppers. My second market, a curated artisan event, generated three times the revenue with half the foot traffic. Audience fit matters more than foot traffic volume.
2. Do a full mock setup at home the night before
Do a mock setup at home to streamline your display on the day. Little details like bringing a backup battery for your phone or a card reader can save the day.
The morning of your first market is not the time to discover your table runner is too short, your price list is still in the printer, or you forgot your card reader. Set up your entire booth at home the night before: table, products, signage, payment setup, bags, everything. Time yourself. Figure out what's missing before 6am on a Saturday when nothing is open.
I forgot my QR code card at my first market. I hand-wrote my Venmo on a piece of paper and taped it to the table. It worked, but it didn't look like the brand I was trying to build.
3. Set out testers, and know how to use them
Set out a small sample bar of each soap variety at the front of your table so people can pick it up and sniff the scent. This prevents all your packed soaps from getting handled repeatedly keeping your main stock clean and tidy. If your soaps are wrapped clearly, mark a few as tester and consider having a bowl of coffee beans nearby to help customers reset their sense of smell between scents.
Smell is your single most powerful sales tool at a market. Someone walking past your table who catches a whiff of Citrus Herb will stop without thinking. Someone who picks up a bar, smells it, and then rubs a tiny amount on their hand, that person is 80% of the way to buying.
Have one unwrapped tester bar per scent. Label them clearly. Let people touch them. Let them smell them. And have that coffee bean bowl, it actually works.
4. Know your one-sentence pitch before you arrive
At a market table you have about 8 seconds to stop someone who is walking past. You need one sentence that does it.
Mine became: "I make grass-fed tallow skincare for dry, sensitive, eczema-prone skin with 5 ingredients or less."
Most people stop at "5 ingredients or less" because they've never heard of it. Curiosity opens the conversation. Your job isn't to sell, it's to start a conversation. The sale follows naturally.
Ask open-ended questions like "What scents do you usually go for?" or "Have you tried handmade soap before?" and capture emails or social handles by offering future discounts or sneak peeks.
5. Price for your customer, not your cost anxiety
New makers consistently underprice at markets because they're nervous. They think lower prices mean more sales. The opposite is often true. An established non-food vendor can earn $200 to $800 per market day, so price your goods using cost-plus pricing. That's materials plus labor plus overhead multiplied by 2 to 2.5 times.
At a well-curated artisan market your customer is not there looking for the cheapest option. They're there looking for something special, something they can't get at Target, something worth paying for. A $15 handmade grass-fed tallow soap bar positioned with confidence and a clear story will outsell a $9 bar that looks apologetic about its price every time.
Know your COGS, know your margin, price with confidence, and don't apologize for it.
6. Your booth IS your brand, treat it that way
Your booth should draw people in from across the aisle. Plan an organized cohesive theme for your display that reflects your brand's personality.
Everything on your table should look intentional. Your table runner, your price list, your labels, your bags...all of it should feel like one unified world. If your brand is warm, minimal, and premium your booth should communicate that before anyone reads a single word.
At small batch lab our table runner is the foundation and everything else builds on it. Consistent height variations, minimal clutter, products spaced so each bar has room to breathe. A crowded table reads as cheap. A spacious, considered display reads as premium.
7. Capture every customer, not just the sale
The customer who buys from you today is valuable. The customer who buys from you every month for the next three years is transformational.
Use business cards or branded stickers on every bag to drive customers back to your site. Every purchase should come with your card, your Instagram handle, and an invitation to join your email list. At my table I have a small sign that says "join our list for early access to new scents and limited editions" with a QR code linking directly to my Klaviyo signup.
Every email address you capture at a market is a customer you own, not rented from an algorithm, not dependent on a boutique keeping you on their shelf. Build that list from day one.
8. A slow market is still a good market
My $10 net profit market gave me my first retail partner.
I met the owner of L'emi Boutique at that market. She stopped at my table, picked up a bar, asked about the ingredients, and by the end of the conversation asked about consignment. That market cost me $39 and generated a retail partnership that has brought in significantly more than that every month since.
There is absolutely nothing unusual about having a disappointing show, there is always something good that comes out of the experience.
Every market is a conversation, a data point, and an opportunity. Some will surprise you. Some will disappoint you. All of them will teach you something that no blog post (including this one) can fully prepare you for.
Show up. Set up. Smell great. Talk to people. The rest follows.
small batch lab is a handmade grass-fed tallow skincare brand based in Orange County, California. Find us at local artisan markets, at select boutiques in OC and Long Beach, and online at smallbatchlab.com.
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