According to an old Chinese proverb,
“A journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step”
A few years ago, my wife took that step as she sold her baked goods at a local pop-up.
Whats a pop-up?
Its like a tiny flea market that happens on a semi regular basis.
My wife went to sell her pastries.
She worked really hard through the week to have everything read for yesterday.
It wasn’t easy since we have 2 young kids, and that means not being able to truly work on the business until after they are in bed.
Here’s the thing tho, she had no idea how this would turn out…its a lot of work for a lot of unknowns.
- Besides the common concerns you get from doing anything new, she wondered:
- Would there be enough people to sell to? (it was the first time this pop-up was in our location)
- would anyone want to buy what we are selling?
- what if our product wasn’t good enough?
- etc.
I’m glad to say, things went well.
The pop-up didn’t get as much traffic in this new test location as they do in their regular location, but it gave her some great feedback.
- We saw what people gravitated toward (fresh chocolate chip cookies)
- We saw the power of free samples
- We also learned what people would be willing to spend money on, so we know not to make too many high ticket items.
So, yes, people were willing to buy her products, and it was good enough for the market (probably the best thing at the pop-up)
If she never attended the pop-up, she wouldn’t have gotten our name out there, and she wouldn’t have learned the lessons she did.
They will help to propel her forward to do even greater things.
The point is that she learned a lot because…say it with me…she TOOK MASSIVE ACTION!
Taking massive action, isn’t always easy.
Besides the fears of doing something new, there’s always a cost of time and money to get going, but the learning experience and the chance to make real money is worth it!
(we made a nice profit from the things we did sell, I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do with a lot more foot traffic)
The pop-up was also a chance to network with other entrepreneurs…and she may have found some alternative ways to make her side hustle profitable and more dependable.
I also think it helped my wife to feel more like a business as opposed to someone playing business.
The thing I want you to take away from this is that people do want the things you have to offer.
You just need to find the ways you can be seen.
You also need to try different ways to get your name out there, because we may live in an online age, but we still live in a face to face world.
What are you going to do to take massive action today?