0:00
how much money can you make at Live
0:01
Events selling freeze-dried candy and
0:04
freeze-dried products well in today's
0:05
video I'm going to share with you how
0:06
much money I made at a local Holiday
0:09
Market here in Boise Idaho using my
0:11
freeze drying business and hang on till
0:13
the end of this video because I'm going
0:14
to share with you things that I would do
0:16
differently if I was going to do my next
0:18
event coming up next year that would set
0:21
you up for success to make more money
0:23
more conversions and be more successful
0:26
in your freeze drying business hey
0:27
everyone I'm David with the freeze
0:28
drying business and we're f focused on
0:30
connecting the freeze drying business
0:32
Community with the tools and resources
0:34
needed to grow a sustainable business
0:36
you're going to be spoiled today because
0:37
I'm going to share with you my Square
0:38
account where I'm going to show you how
0:40
much money I made per day at this
0:41
two-day event as well as the different
0:44
types of categories of products and then
0:46
how much total gross money I made so
0:48
that you're more equipped to go do more
0:50
live events in your local area and make
0:53
money as a freeze drying
0:56
business all right first let's just talk
0:58
about live events in General whether
1:00
it's a farmers market a holiday market
1:03
because this video is in December so
1:04
we're just wrapping up Christmas holiday
1:07
bazaars things like that events are
1:09
happening all around your local area and
1:12
there's an opportunity for you to
1:13
connect with your community and show
1:15
them what you've been creating in your
1:17
freeze dryer and there's a lot of fun to
1:19
that because you get to see the reaction
1:21
of chewing down on that freeze-dried
1:24
fruit that they' never tasted that
1:25
texture before or eating that
1:27
freeze-dried Skittle or freeze-dried
1:29
chareston shoe whatever you're making in
1:32
your freeze dryer this is the fun part
1:34
so live events are a great way for you
1:36
to sell direct to Consumer it's a great
1:39
way for you to be seen out in the
1:40
community get a lot of brand exposure
1:42
and it's just another sales Avenue
1:45
Beyond just social media your website
1:48
wholesale and other different ways that
1:53
product other things to know about Live
1:55
Events is it's much more labor intensive
1:58
most of the time you're having to be on
2:00
site at that booth at that table inside
2:03
outside there's a lot of different
2:04
elements that you're going to have to
2:05
deal with when you're going to a live
2:08
event like that now I've done indoor
2:10
events and I've also done outdoor events
2:12
I don't do very many in my freeing
2:14
business because I have a small family
2:16
and I just don't have the time to
2:18
dedicate to a two-day event a week-long
2:20
event sometimes not even a full Saturday
2:23
but it's been beneficial for me to do a
2:25
couple because one there's a lot more
2:27
people doing freeze-dried candy
2:28
freeze-dried businesses is in the local
2:31
area and it's a great way for me to get
2:32
exposure and make sure I'm
2:34
differentiating myself in the market and
2:36
the same goes for you now live events
2:38
are structured differently based on
2:39
where you're at and where I'm at but you
2:41
should know that the event coordinator
2:42
typically is going to charge you a booth
2:44
fee that Booth fee is going to run you
2:47
for the rental space they might charge
2:49
for electricity they might charge for a
2:51
corner Booth an inside Booth different
2:54
types of sizes of booths but generally
2:56
that's how they're going to charge you
2:58
for that fee the another way that they
3:00
can charge as well is have a more
3:02
smaller Booth fee and then they can also
3:05
charge you for more commissions they
3:08
might be more in control of the actual
3:10
collection of the transactions from
3:12
everybody that attends and all the
3:14
consumers are going in and out in the
3:15
same direction and the event coordinator
3:18
is handling all those transactions now
3:20
the nice part about that is that they're
3:22
going to handle the sales tax for you so
3:24
you don't have to worry about that but
3:26
they are going to take a small
3:27
commission from you maybe that's going
3:29
to range from 5 to 20% maybe even 30%
3:32
but generally speaking the more popular
3:34
the event the more prime location the
3:36
event is located they're going to have a
3:38
higher commission and a higher Booth fee
3:40
but you're going to have a lot more
3:42
opportunities to sell to your
3:45
consumers so once you decide that you
3:48
want to do a live event you're going to
3:49
want to start researching where those
3:51
Live Events are and which one's the
3:52
right fit for you now personally for me
3:54
I try to go for indoor events because I
3:57
want to get out of the elements and
3:58
especially with freeze-dried handy
4:00
specifically and also freeze-dried fruit
4:03
the elements that are going to impact
4:05
those products the most is going to be
4:06
heat and sunlight and so I default to
4:08
the indoor events where there's a
4:10
temperature controlled area and also I'm
4:12
out of the elements so you know you're
4:14
not U having to deal with wind for your
4:16
booth and your canopy that might blow
4:18
away you're not dealing with different
4:20
types of rain and cold and sleep and
4:23
hail and all that type of jazz so I like
4:26
going towards indoor events sometimes
4:28
those indoor events are smaller
4:30
sometimes those indoor events are going
4:32
to charge a little bit more for those
4:33
booths but I would look at indoor events
4:36
to start with that's just my personal
4:37
preference now typically there's more
4:39
outdoor events than there are indoor
4:41
events also outdoor events have less of
4:44
a commission or less of a booth fee just
4:47
because there's not as much of a fee to
4:50
rent the space for that event
4:53
coordinator think about renting the
4:55
fairgrounds or renting some type of big
4:57
building with a warehouse to fit all
4:59
these these different vendors it does
5:01
cost a lot of money so therefore their
5:03
Booth fee and their commission that they
5:04
might charge from you is going to be a
5:06
lot higher so outdoor events are
5:09
beneficial in that way now where do you
5:11
find these events I would start looking
5:13
at Facebook if you have a Facebook
5:15
account you can look at events that are
5:17
upcoming next year next month things
5:20
like that you can click on their website
5:22
click on their whatever their hyperlink
5:24
is in that event and see if they're
5:25
accepting vendor applications and it's
5:27
important that you put your application
5:29
in far ahead of schedule because
5:32
typically you might be the first freeze
5:33
drying business applying and that
5:35
catches the eye of the event coordinator
5:38
but also you have a lot more lead time
5:40
to know whether you're going to be the
5:41
selected vendor at that
5:45
event one of the most commonly asked
5:47
questions that I get about Live Events
5:50
is how much product should you bring to
5:52
the event how do you forecast it I asked
5:54
myself the same question when I first
5:56
started and as a general rule I found to
5:58
be consistent around 5 to 10% of
6:01
products should be brought based on the
6:02
estimated attendance now that's a
6:04
general rule that I go by I feel like
6:06
it's very consistent across everybody
6:08
else that I did in fact I did a poll
6:10
recently on the YouTube channel here
6:12
that I asked people is that a fair kind
6:14
of forecast and most people agreed with
6:17
that in fact there was about 86% of
6:19
people agreed with that now it might
6:21
vary based on the size of the event and
6:24
it also may vary based on the largess of
6:27
the attendance so for example a large
6:30
County Fair might be a week long and
6:32
they may estimate a 100,000 people go
6:35
through there but is 100,000 people
6:37
going through the booth area or just
6:40
attending so you are going to have to
6:42
kind of fluctuate in terms of that
6:44
forecasting model based on the size of
6:46
the event but in general I'd probably
6:48
bring at minimum 5% to those types of
6:51
events now let's get to the exciting
6:52
part I'm going to spoil you with a lot
6:55
of transparency of my square account I
6:57
may not show you everything but I am
6:59
going to show you how much I made I'm
7:01
going to show you the categories and
7:02
count and kind of give you some
7:04
commentary about what I saw coming out
7:06
of this event but I hope you enjoy this
7:08
and I hope it's going to excite you for
7:10
potentially what you could make in your
7:12
local area doing Live Events next year
7:17
in I'm going to share with you how much
7:19
money I made in gross sales as well as a
7:22
breakdown of the categories of items and
7:25
the individual items that I sold at a
7:28
live event with my freeze drying
7:30
business just a couple of weeks ago as
7:32
of the start of this video I'm going to
7:34
share all this through the point of sale
7:35
system I use called Square you have a
7:38
lot of different option when it comes to
7:40
POS systems and one of the ones that I
7:43
think is easy to use is square it's a
7:46
great way to download an app that then
7:49
you can connect to a card reader and
7:51
also something on the iPhone and Android
7:53
devices where you can scan people's
7:55
credit cards now what I really like too
7:57
is as you're going to see in the screen
7:59
share I have ways also to set up for it
8:02
to collect tax for the state of Idaho
8:04
and you can do the same thing for your
8:06
state if you require to have to collect
8:08
sales tax from people now what you're
8:10
seeing on my screen is my Square account
8:13
and I've got a couple reports that I'm
8:15
going to share with you about what I did
8:18
at this event and as you can see here is
8:24
$16.97 per average gross sales meaning
8:27
every transaction that I did I sold
8:28
about one to two items because all of
8:31
the item prices for my products that I
8:34
sell is between $9 and $10 and for this
8:37
event I did candy and fruit for $9 and
8:41
then I did Ice Cream whether ice cream
8:43
sandwiches or ice cream Scoops for $10 I
8:46
also did um$ 139 transactions or sales
8:55
$2,359 is the total now you see that
8:58
there's a dis discrepancy over here it
9:00
says the total collected was 2500 now
9:04
that's because there is a subtraction of
9:06
the amount of sales tax so in total I
9:10
collected 2500 but after taxes taken out
9:14
I grossed 2359 now scrolling down here
9:17
you can also measure if you had this all
9:20
set up you could collect um all of your
9:22
cash and record that but you might want
9:24
to notice this right here
9:26
$797 is the amount that square took in
9:29
transaction fees so this is the way that
9:31
square makes money so it's free to use
9:34
square but they do take a fee for part
9:38
of the processing for those credit card
9:40
charges so that's how much they took
9:42
from me I have candy as a category fruit
9:45
ice cream and then I also listed Taffy
9:48
now Taffy could be in the candy category
9:50
but I put it separately because I had
9:53
previously been selling Taffy and I
9:55
wanted to see based on the different
9:57
flavors that I had for for Taffy which
10:00
ones would sell the most and kind of
10:01
keep track of that so there's a lot of
10:03
different ways that you can customize
10:06
your uh transactions here but uh in
10:09
total as you can see a 100 bags of my
10:12
candy items that I brought and a total
10:15
of 46 fruit 76 ice cream and then I sold
10:19
25 Taffy so 125 items in total candy the
10:24
next category that I gross the most was
10:26
76 in the ice cream category and then
10:28
with fruit I sold 46 I actually think
10:32
that this was phenomenal with my ice
10:34
cream side this is one of the reasons
10:36
why it might be beneficial to go into a
10:38
commercial kitchen and be able to be
10:40
licensed to do TCS type items which is
10:44
the temperature controlled substance
10:46
type of items which includes ice cream
10:48
and I really pushed that I did a lot of
10:50
samples of that so if you actually
10:53
247 total different items that I sold
10:57
and divided that by the 450 items that I
11:01
brought estimated wise to the first kind
11:05
of couple days of the event that's
11:09
61% sales conversion on the amount of
11:12
inventory that I brought I think that
11:14
was phenomenal and um I think you should
11:17
probably aim for about 50% sales if you
11:19
can as well and I think 50% is a great
11:22
Target for you to try to sell in terms
11:24
of the amount of inventory you brought
11:26
and the amount of inventory you grossed
11:28
again that really comes down to are you
11:31
the right salesperson are you somebody
11:33
who can get out in front be personal
11:36
talk to people get them to taste
11:37
something and if you're not get somebody
11:39
at your booth that you could pay or get
11:41
some family relatives um friends that
11:44
are are very personal are people who
11:46
love to get out there and talk to people
11:48
and that can really boost the sales all
11:49
right so now let's take a look at the
11:51
individual items because I think that's
11:54
important so what I'm going to do is I'm
11:56
going to filter the amount of units sold
11:58
alberry ice cream because I'm in Idaho
12:01
from tillamuk tillamuk ice cream is what
12:03
I do 22 individual bags and I charge $10
12:07
per bag so that's 220 bucks Charleston
12:09
shoes this was the money maker as well
12:11
as caramel M&M's I really pushed these
12:14
in terms of samples caramel M&M's are
12:17
rare to find a lot of people just stick
12:18
with the gummies and the Skittles and
12:20
things like that I wanted to go
12:22
something way different and this is
12:24
definitely a product that not many
12:26
people do so um I think I did well there
12:29
Charleston shoes I'm I'm going to
12:31
mention this uh later on in the video
12:32
but man sampling something that is a
12:35
very relevant to specific demographics
12:38
like Charleston shoes for kind of that
12:40
older generation who was familiar with
12:43
more with that candy man that really
12:45
resonated well and um did really well
12:48
with that candy I sold a lot of Jolly
12:50
Ranchers in there Skittles and then it
12:53
went down to the Huckleberry Taffy and
12:55
uh and my top fruit was pineapple I
12:57
figured this would be the case with
12:59
pineapple because not many people do
13:01
pineapple it I did a video on this and
13:04
I'll include a link in the video
13:05
description of my pineapple how to
13:07
freeze dry pineapple video but not many
13:09
people do it because it takes a long
13:11
time to freeze dry I knew that pineapple
13:14
still has a great taste and I wanted to
13:16
give people that taste at this event so
13:18
I'm not surprised that I sold the most
13:20
pineapple out of all the fruit that I
13:22
brought which was raspberri strawberries
13:24
a strawberry banana blend and also
13:26
apples and that was over I'm going to
13:28
say it's over a two-day event because
13:30
the the first night on Friday was more
13:33
of like a paid entry I think I made
13:36
maybe 200 bucks that night which uh you
13:39
know I didn't really want to include
13:41
that as per se so this is I would say a
13:45
22360 about1 18 hours total of being
13:48
there from going and setting up to being
13:51
at the event to closing down I spent
13:54
about 18 hours there hey if you're
13:56
really liking this video hit the
13:57
Subscribe button I'd love to be able to
13:59
do more videos and if you have more
14:01
comments or things that you wanted to
14:04
see and you want me to do more of these
14:06
videos comment below in the video I'd
14:08
love to know what I can expand on and
14:10
what you'd like to see more so let's get
14:12
back to the other side of the video and
14:15
I'll fill you in on a little bit more
14:16
tips and tricks from this
14:21
event so now you know how much money you
14:23
can make at a live event even in a small
14:26
setting where there's 5,000 people in a
14:29
let's go ahead and recap what we've
14:31
learned so far about Live Events to set
14:32
you up for Success so number one is to
14:35
forecast your inventory to bring to an
14:37
event based on 5 to 10% of the total
14:40
estimated attendance so again if you
14:42
have 5,000 people that are estimated to
14:44
show up bring about 250 to 500
14:49
individual pieces of product so that you
14:51
can sell that in any variety also aim
14:54
for 50% sold of the inventory that you
14:57
bring you can do it and I know you can
14:59
do it because I did it through samples
15:01
as well as being approachable at the
15:03
booth get out there talk to people make
15:06
sure they know who you are and say hey
15:08
have you ever tried freeze dyed ice
15:10
cream have you ever tried a freeze dyed
15:12
Charleston Shoe hey do you like taffy oh
15:14
if you tried freeze-dried Taffy these
15:17
are all the things that you got to be as
15:19
a salesperson sell your business sell
15:21
what you're doing because a lot of
15:23
people don't know what you're doing and
15:25
I want to also provide you some feedback
15:27
that I got from this holiday event the
15:29
thing that I changed with my talk track
15:31
is I said have you tried this and I
15:34
named the product hey do you like taffy
15:37
oh have you tried freeze-dried crunchy
15:39
Taffy it doesn't stick to your teeth hey
15:42
have you tried freeze-dried ice cream oh
15:45
no I've got tillamuk freeze-dried ice
15:48
cream I've got chocolate peanut butter
15:50
freeze-dried ice cream hey have you ever
15:52
tried freeze-dried pineapple most people
15:54
have tried freeze-dried strawberries and
15:56
freeze-dried apples and freeze-dried
15:58
raspberri berries but if you tried
15:59
freeze-dried mangoes these are the
16:02
different things that get people to come
16:03
in to take a sample and go wow that is
16:06
great now it does need to be good but
16:09
you can try a different type of approach
16:11
rather than just saying you want to try
16:13
freeze dried candy most people have
16:14
tried freeze dried candy and they're
16:16
going to pass on you so change up your
16:19
track all right here's four tips for you
16:22
for your booth going into next year or
16:25
your next live event is number one I
16:28
would try to pay a premium to get that
16:30
corner Booth I really liked that I had
16:32
done the in between booths and the
16:35
square booths but this corner Booth man
16:37
it was so sweet I loved how the traffic
16:40
flowed through it and I felt like I
16:41
could have a lot more room to talk to
16:43
customers number two is I would make
16:46
sure that you have promo cards business
16:49
cards things that you can hand them and
16:51
say hey follow us on Instagram go to our
16:54
website we ship we'll ship all across
16:57
the state we'll ship all across the
16:58
country if you can tell them what you
17:00
can do after they have already bought
17:03
your product my next tip is to make sure
17:04
you have plenty of totes that can
17:06
transport all of that product very
17:08
easily that you can put underneath your
17:10
booth if you want recommendations of
17:11
what I use I've got some links of
17:13
different totes from Amazon in the video
17:15
description here and the third thing is
17:17
to find some way to display your product
17:19
now I had the peg boards I found a
17:23
$75 pegboard foldable collapsable type
17:26
of display that I would advise investing
17:28
in one of those if you want to do the
17:30
pegboard or you could just find some of
17:32
those wired racks that is accordion type
17:35
style and then you can hang it with
17:37
hooks or clothesline Clips things like
17:40
that just find something to display your
17:42
product not necessarily for people to
17:43
grab them off of but just so you can
17:46
have more of a display of what the
17:48
product looked like on top of that with
17:51
your booth keep it clean and simple
17:53
don't over clutter your booth space keep
17:56
things more organized where you have a
17:59
clear area where people can take samples
18:01
if you have a corner spot where you can
18:02
have two different areas for samples do
18:04
that but then also just feature your
18:07
different products that you want to sell
18:09
and rotate them out as you
18:12
go hey a common pitfalls that I would
18:15
avoid if I were you going into a live
18:17
event that I've made but now I've
18:19
corrected don't bring a ton of varieties
18:21
of Taffy a ton of varieties of Skittles
18:24
a ton of varieties of fruit things like
18:26
that bring things that you like but also
18:29
that you can sell now if you're
18:30
interested in top sellers that I would
18:31
start out with selling you can go ahead
18:33
and use the video that I'm showing right
18:35
now and that video is my top 20 items
18:38
that I would start selling as a freeze
18:39
drying business and I'll also include
18:41
the link below in the video description
18:43
one of the things I learned very quickly
18:45
is that different demographics know what
18:48
different candy and ice cream and things
18:50
like that taste like for example the
18:52
older demographic kind of knows what a
18:55
Charleston shoes is but the millennial
18:57
gen Z type of crowd doesn't really know
19:00
what a Charleston chew is because it's
19:01
not as a common candy bar right now as
19:04
it was for Snickers and Twix and things
19:06
like that so what I did at this event is
19:09
I had samples of the Charleston chew
19:11
that was freeze-dried but I particularly
19:13
said hey have you ever had a Charleston
19:15
shw yes I have and I made sure I
19:17
tailored it to the demographic that I
19:19
saw that I know would resonate with that
19:21
particular candy and therefore they
19:23
bought more of the freeze dried charlson
19:25
cheu than the younger demographic and
19:28
same goes with like Skittles and things
19:29
like that is you kind of need to tailor
19:32
the tasting and the sampling to the
19:34
demographic don't stop here I've got
19:36
another video of a different event that
19:38
I did that was an outdoor and indoor
19:41
event this past summer you can check out
19:43
what my booth setup was like there see
