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Entrepreneur Guys 2.0: The Side Gig (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter glvsav37
- Start date
glvsav37
Footballguy
Breaking this up
The lady next to me decided not to do lemonade given there was already 2 of us, and that was our main product. She already had a food truck with funnel cakes and such, so they just stuck to that which was very nice of them.
Being I was late to begin with, then all this debating and walking down to ask to move, I was really behind setting up. Also I was alone b/c my buddy wasn't dropping his daughter (My helper for the day) off until right as the festival was opening.
I was still in set up mode when customers started visiting. I sure was not turning them away b/c of the competition, so it took me a while to really get set up. Plus being it was my first real event, I really hadn't battle tested the whole set up yet, things were def a bit disorgnazied for the first hour of so. We found our groove and had a good opening amount of customers, esp being we were at the far end of the festival.
As the day went on we had a very steady flow of customers, and I kept peeking over at the other tent and he maybe had 1 to my 5-6 customers. IDK what it was but people would walk up and gravitate toward my tent. Now the other guy did more then lemonade—shaved ice, iced coffee, and and served his in a fresh pineapple which im sure was a huge up charge, but looked very cool walking around with. But I also think his booth was a little intimidating looking with all that product. IDK? But we were def beating him in customer count...and it wasn't even close. Also, I didnt have my menu board out so no one knew my prices until they came to the tent.
He was a nice guy but you could tell he was getting very frustrated and the volume I was getting as the day went on. He had a partner in the tent so I would watch him make some drinks and start walking up and down the street with them, doing some walk-around marketing. Then by the end of the day he was offering free refills.
We kept a clicker to keep a drink tally and while we were not exact, we sold about 150 cups for a 6 hour festival day. People were raving about them and how good they tasted. So day 1 was def a success.
The best was that 2 ladies from a nearby medial office ordered 7 lemonades from me. They went to the other guy first but he didn't accept credit cards, so they brought the business to me.
That said, I have 2 (of 3) other nights with this organization, but we will see if they keep both of us, and/or move us to different locations. Unfortunately, the 1st night we have to miss b/c its my daughters graduation.
The lady next to me decided not to do lemonade given there was already 2 of us, and that was our main product. She already had a food truck with funnel cakes and such, so they just stuck to that which was very nice of them.
Being I was late to begin with, then all this debating and walking down to ask to move, I was really behind setting up. Also I was alone b/c my buddy wasn't dropping his daughter (My helper for the day) off until right as the festival was opening.
I was still in set up mode when customers started visiting. I sure was not turning them away b/c of the competition, so it took me a while to really get set up. Plus being it was my first real event, I really hadn't battle tested the whole set up yet, things were def a bit disorgnazied for the first hour of so. We found our groove and had a good opening amount of customers, esp being we were at the far end of the festival.
As the day went on we had a very steady flow of customers, and I kept peeking over at the other tent and he maybe had 1 to my 5-6 customers. IDK what it was but people would walk up and gravitate toward my tent. Now the other guy did more then lemonade—shaved ice, iced coffee, and and served his in a fresh pineapple which im sure was a huge up charge, but looked very cool walking around with. But I also think his booth was a little intimidating looking with all that product. IDK? But we were def beating him in customer count...and it wasn't even close. Also, I didnt have my menu board out so no one knew my prices until they came to the tent.
He was a nice guy but you could tell he was getting very frustrated and the volume I was getting as the day went on. He had a partner in the tent so I would watch him make some drinks and start walking up and down the street with them, doing some walk-around marketing. Then by the end of the day he was offering free refills.
We kept a clicker to keep a drink tally and while we were not exact, we sold about 150 cups for a 6 hour festival day. People were raving about them and how good they tasted. So day 1 was def a success.
The best was that 2 ladies from a nearby medial office ordered 7 lemonades from me. They went to the other guy first but he didn't accept credit cards, so they brought the business to me.
That said, I have 2 (of 3) other nights with this organization, but we will see if they keep both of us, and/or move us to different locations. Unfortunately, the 1st night we have to miss b/c its my daughters graduation.
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I think you found the reason for your outselling him. When I look at a booth with a lot of options it is overwhelming. If I see a booth selling the one thing I want at a reasonable price I will always go there.
glvsav37
Footballguy
Day 2: Another street fair, but this one was in the town next to me, so very close.
Being I'm on the board of neighboring Chamber of Commerce, I know a lot of the organizers, so not sure if that helped me, but I got a cherry of a spot. Pretty much dead center of the 1/3 mile festival. Not a food or drink vendor in my sightline. I saw one other lemonade guy toward the end of the festival as I was driving in to set up, but even though there was no direct competition near me, I left the menu at home and stayed with the same prices as the day before.
Plus I was next to a local politician's tent who I am very good friends with and his staff. We made a mistake in one drink and the politician (Nick) took it from us vs us tossing it. He was raving about how delicious it was to everyone on line, and I was backing him up with "Remember folks, he's an elected official, he's not allowed to lie!" lol
This was a longer festival, started at 10 and went to 5, however it rained off and on until about 12:30 and was very overcast—Not good lemonade weather. However once the clouds broke, it got hot...fast!!
My daughter was there for 1/2 the day b/c needing to go to work. Her friend had planned on relieving her. b/c of the weather, I debated calling her and telling her to forget it and wow what a mistake that would have been. We got crazy busy with times where the line was 3-5 deep. We had such a constant flow that I could barely find time to refresh the ice and water. I brought 3 6L tubs of sugar (a 1/4 cup goes in each drink, and each tub contained about 8 lbs of sugar), and I totally ran out of it by the end of the day.
My favorite flavor (a $9 cup) is Blue Raspberry which makes the drink a very cool, gatorade blue color, and its really delicious. We had so many people coming up asking "Is this where you get the blue lemonade???"
We lost count bc we were so busy and my daughters friend was not as diligent as my helper from the day before, but we estimate we did about 190 or more cups yesterday....and thats during a rain-shortened day.
Being I'm on the board of neighboring Chamber of Commerce, I know a lot of the organizers, so not sure if that helped me, but I got a cherry of a spot. Pretty much dead center of the 1/3 mile festival. Not a food or drink vendor in my sightline. I saw one other lemonade guy toward the end of the festival as I was driving in to set up, but even though there was no direct competition near me, I left the menu at home and stayed with the same prices as the day before.
Plus I was next to a local politician's tent who I am very good friends with and his staff. We made a mistake in one drink and the politician (Nick) took it from us vs us tossing it. He was raving about how delicious it was to everyone on line, and I was backing him up with "Remember folks, he's an elected official, he's not allowed to lie!" lol
This was a longer festival, started at 10 and went to 5, however it rained off and on until about 12:30 and was very overcast—Not good lemonade weather. However once the clouds broke, it got hot...fast!!
My daughter was there for 1/2 the day b/c needing to go to work. Her friend had planned on relieving her. b/c of the weather, I debated calling her and telling her to forget it and wow what a mistake that would have been. We got crazy busy with times where the line was 3-5 deep. We had such a constant flow that I could barely find time to refresh the ice and water. I brought 3 6L tubs of sugar (a 1/4 cup goes in each drink, and each tub contained about 8 lbs of sugar), and I totally ran out of it by the end of the day.
My favorite flavor (a $9 cup) is Blue Raspberry which makes the drink a very cool, gatorade blue color, and its really delicious. We had so many people coming up asking "Is this where you get the blue lemonade???"
We lost count bc we were so busy and my daughters friend was not as diligent as my helper from the day before, but we estimate we did about 190 or more cups yesterday....and thats during a rain-shortened day.
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glvsav37
Footballguy
Some photos:
This is our tent
This was the guy across from us, and the truck next to us.
Our 1st Instagram customer tag!!
and for any tinkerer guys, for BOH approval, we had to create a fully working, hot water running 3 compartment sink. So after some research my father and I built this monster off of a rolling cart, some steam pan trays, a cordless water pump, and an RV water heating unit. WE add the 4th Hand washing sink b/c I needed that too, even though that could have be separate.
The sink
the heater
the guts (not hooked up)
I def need to find a way of bing more portable and organized with things for the next show. Tools and suck in 1 bin, supplies in another, etc. But I'll get there,
This is our tent
This was the guy across from us, and the truck next to us.
Our 1st Instagram customer tag!!
and for any tinkerer guys, for BOH approval, we had to create a fully working, hot water running 3 compartment sink. So after some research my father and I built this monster off of a rolling cart, some steam pan trays, a cordless water pump, and an RV water heating unit. WE add the 4th Hand washing sink b/c I needed that too, even though that could have be separate.
The sink
the heater
the guts (not hooked up)
I def need to find a way of bing more portable and organized with things for the next show. Tools and suck in 1 bin, supplies in another, etc. But I'll get there,
glvsav37
Footballguy
I was really sweating the Board of Health inspection. I've never interacted with them except on the permits and such and they seemed very 'by the book' in the office and have the power to shut you down if they don't like what they see.. However the guy who came to my tent Saturday could not have been nicer. He congratulated me on my 1st event, and found a few minor things I needed to fix but was very nice about all of it.
all it really was were, boxes of product on the ground, I need to have a milk crate of something to get them up off the ground. And second I had a bottle of Windex sitting on a box of lemons and we need to keep chemicals away from product. It was more b/c of my rushed opening, I just missed it and he was totally chill about all of it.
Def a relief with the whole interaction and review.
all it really was were, boxes of product on the ground, I need to have a milk crate of something to get them up off the ground. And second I had a bottle of Windex sitting on a box of lemons and we need to keep chemicals away from product. It was more b/c of my rushed opening, I just missed it and he was totally chill about all of it.
Def a relief with the whole interaction and review.
DA RAIDERS
Footballguy
Good for you! Sounds like it went well
glvsav37
Footballguy
July has been slow. Just a few outdoor concerts at libraries. Have yet to crack $100 at any one of them, but with no vendor fee, its just money in the pocket for 2-3 or so hours of time. I could have booked more in july but I was unsure where I would be with town paperwork and such, so I didnt want to commit a lot of money to vendor fees that I would risk not making.
But we just had a 4 hour, night street party and did close to 200 cups, making $1,200 for the night. This is a 3 night event spread out over the summer, and this was night 2. I had to miss the 1st one b/c my daughter graduated HS that same night. The 3rd one is in late Aug.
Night events are fun b/c I got glow cubes and they make the drinks really stand out.
August is going to be very busy. I have an event almost every weekend, at least 1 (if not 2) concerts a weeknight, and just booked a huge 4-day/4-night carnival starting on Aug 22.
I got sick of loading and unloading my SUV, so I went out and bought a 2nd hand trailer for all the stuff. It was only $300 and has been a lifesaver (I built the wood walls). Now I pull it into my garage, keep it loaded and just refresh it before each event. I was loading and unloading 4x for each event (1 in at home, 1 out at the event, then another in and out when the event was over) which was getting to be a big PIA.
But we just had a 4 hour, night street party and did close to 200 cups, making $1,200 for the night. This is a 3 night event spread out over the summer, and this was night 2. I had to miss the 1st one b/c my daughter graduated HS that same night. The 3rd one is in late Aug.
Night events are fun b/c I got glow cubes and they make the drinks really stand out.
August is going to be very busy. I have an event almost every weekend, at least 1 (if not 2) concerts a weeknight, and just booked a huge 4-day/4-night carnival starting on Aug 22.
I got sick of loading and unloading my SUV, so I went out and bought a 2nd hand trailer for all the stuff. It was only $300 and has been a lifesaver (I built the wood walls). Now I pull it into my garage, keep it loaded and just refresh it before each event. I was loading and unloading 4x for each event (1 in at home, 1 out at the event, then another in and out when the event was over) which was getting to be a big PIA.
Long Ball Larry
Footballguy
I think gally might be interestedso thats a "no" for when I'm looking for someone to staff the next facility in my concession takeover empire??
Looks like you are not the only one selling Lemonade.
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/not-just-kids-anymore-adults-123115232.html
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/not-just-kids-anymore-adults-123115232.html
glvsav37
Footballguy
lots of great stories in there...and yup...I started basically the same way, just a youtube video (then started seeing more on TT)
its been a busy summer and I def have and money. This week is the big one...a 4 day carnival so
glvsav37
Footballguy
Wow, what a weekend. Total take for the weekend: $7,500.
When I 1st started this, I booked a busy street fair for this past Thursday night. Then a few weeks ago I got the opportunity to be at a 4 day carnival. I couldnt turn down the carnival, but also couldn't be in 2 places at once. So we cobbled together a 2nd tent setup and my wife got her Food Handler's Certificate (required for the BoH to run the tent). She ran tent 2 with my 14 y/o son (who has worked with me all summer) and a buddy's wife. While My 18 y/o daughter and myself ran the carnival tent (we knew the 1st night would be slower).
After that, it was the 4 of us for the rest of the carnival.
Saturday was a madhouse, we had lines 10 groups deep at times. We ran 2 stations—myself and my son— while my daughter took orders and my wife mixed and finished the drinks.
We decided to try something different and offer $5 refills (our standard prices start at $8 a drink), and what a hit! We actually had people pre-paying for the refill. Even though it was less profit, it brought more people back to the tent for the refill and some even ordered another drink or 2.
This was our last event technically for the summer. Hockey season for my son starts next weekend so our weekends are now shot. I have a mid Sept event and then possibly 2 in October but we will see if I take them. The weather can be either really hot or very chill here in NY in October, so I will wait and see.
Overall its been an interesting summer, with some bangers and some duds. I def learned a lot and have plans for next year. Overall, I have not counted the final numbers, but we did about $14k for the season and that was with a very slow June and July. I'm sure I can increase that with picking better festivals and more time to apply for them next year.
When I 1st started this, I booked a busy street fair for this past Thursday night. Then a few weeks ago I got the opportunity to be at a 4 day carnival. I couldnt turn down the carnival, but also couldn't be in 2 places at once. So we cobbled together a 2nd tent setup and my wife got her Food Handler's Certificate (required for the BoH to run the tent). She ran tent 2 with my 14 y/o son (who has worked with me all summer) and a buddy's wife. While My 18 y/o daughter and myself ran the carnival tent (we knew the 1st night would be slower).
After that, it was the 4 of us for the rest of the carnival.
Saturday was a madhouse, we had lines 10 groups deep at times. We ran 2 stations—myself and my son— while my daughter took orders and my wife mixed and finished the drinks.
We decided to try something different and offer $5 refills (our standard prices start at $8 a drink), and what a hit! We actually had people pre-paying for the refill. Even though it was less profit, it brought more people back to the tent for the refill and some even ordered another drink or 2.
This was our last event technically for the summer. Hockey season for my son starts next weekend so our weekends are now shot. I have a mid Sept event and then possibly 2 in October but we will see if I take them. The weather can be either really hot or very chill here in NY in October, so I will wait and see.
Overall its been an interesting summer, with some bangers and some duds. I def learned a lot and have plans for next year. Overall, I have not counted the final numbers, but we did about $14k for the season and that was with a very slow June and July. I'm sure I can increase that with picking better festivals and more time to apply for them next year.
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Sounds great.
Is that $14K profit or gross sales? So half of that take was that final weekend of $7.5K?
I would be interested to know what that came out to per hour (using total hours worked of all people working the booths/setup/teardown) with respect to profit.
glvsav37
Footballguy
Mostly gross, I had to buy a lot of things like juicers, tables, tent, trailer, utensils and food grade storage, cups & lids, etc. Without running exact number I would say it made about 9K net. MY biggest single expense was the portable sink setup I needed to build for BoH approval (which I don't see anyone else using, so IDK how much that was really needed) which was about $600 to create.
But now that I have those, next year will be a much better profit ratio.
I'll always have product expenses like the cases of lemons, sugar, ice, water and flavoring, but that accounts to around $0.70-$0.80 a cup
As far as setup, yea that sucked. We got really good at it toward the end, but it still sucked. I purchased an open trailer mid-summer and kept most of stuff in there—tables, sink, tent, coolers, etc—and just backed it into my garage until the next event.
Now that I have the trailer, in the offseason I'm considering building a rolling counter that I can wheel into the trailer (like this w/o the canopy). It would have storage inside it so we can just pack the supplies into the cart and push it back into the trailer. I just need to figure how to make it light but sturdy. That would cut setup/break down time and energy considerably.
I knew this season was going to be learning experience from both a financial and procedure standpoint.
My biggest win was that my 14 year old son really enjoyed working the tent and we got a bunch of great bonding time together. Profit or loss, that was worth it.
glvsav37
Footballguy
another note re: setup/tear down time
I would love to get a fully decked out trailer one day. But those and traditional food trucks come with their on headaches. Was talking to the ice cream truck guy on the last day and he was telling me how his truck blew a transmission the day before and had to have the truck towed to the carnival so he could serve out of it. He's going to have a huge maintenance bill waiting for him to get that thing fixed. So while my little tent requires a bit of sweat equity to set up, its not going to break down on me either.
I would love to get a fully decked out trailer one day. But those and traditional food trucks come with their on headaches. Was talking to the ice cream truck guy on the last day and he was telling me how his truck blew a transmission the day before and had to have the truck towed to the carnival so he could serve out of it. He's going to have a huge maintenance bill waiting for him to get that thing fixed. So while my little tent requires a bit of sweat equity to set up, its not going to break down on me either.
This will really help with the profit ratio for sure. Start up costs are always the biggest issue and hump to get over to make a business work. If you can survive that part where you now have a lot of the stuff already it really helps.
Sounds like you got out of it exactly what you were hoping for. Good bonding time and doing something you seem to like. I am happy it is working out for you.
glvsav37
Footballguy
lol me too
3C's
Footballguy
Lemonade stand story.
Felony charge for stealing $40 seems harsh but F that guy anyway. And the side story of the community response.
Those kids are getting new iPhones or something.
Felony charge for stealing $40 seems harsh but F that guy anyway. And the side story of the community response.
Those kids are getting new iPhones or something.
glvsav37
Footballguy
the article is behind a subscriber wall, but I think I saw this (or a similar) story.Lemonade stand story.
Felony charge for stealing $40 seems harsh but F that guy anyway. And the side story of the community response.
We def made sure to watch our cash box and tip jar like a hawk and tried never to turn our back on it.
3C's
Footballguy
Weird, I'm not a subscriber anymore. But yeah, punk stole the kid's jar with $40. Originally he was charged with petty larceny but they upgraded it to grand larceny, a felony. And the community came out in droves and through donations and purchases the kids got $6700.the article is behind a subscriber wall, but I think I saw this (or a similar) story.Lemonade stand story.
Felony charge for stealing $40 seems harsh but F that guy anyway. And the side story of the community response.
We def made sure to watch our cash box and tip jar like a hawk and tried never to turn our back on it.
Johnny Rock
Footballguy
Great job! Very good details in your posts. Feels like I’m there. Good luck next summer!
Seems like this can be become a plan for the stand. Kids say that their tip jar was stolen and get a story about it and then the community comes to the rescue and they get a bigger return.
(I hate that this was one of the first things that comes to mind but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if someone would actually try it).
glvsav37
Footballguy
Gig 1 in the books yesterday and it was quite interesting. Long update, sorry, hopefully worth it.
For starters we showed up and there was a ton of lemonade vendors, including one directly across the street from us. Turn out this guy really took advantage of the event, as were were setting up, the president of the chamber was fighting with him bc he paid for 1 spot and ended up taking up 3. He had a whole BBQ, Mediterranean food booth with a side lemonade cart off to the side. The real crappy part was that the cart was located on a corner, so she had no one next to her and was set up on an angle to attract people walking up the street, where we were set up parallel between a row of other vendors and an ice cream truck, so you really didn't see us unless you were directly in front of us (except for my sign on the top of my tent and my 15ft feather flag).
Photo 1 Photo 2
Apparently I heard they made him pay for an additional spot, but he still took up a ton of extra space.
Bigger issue then having the same product across from us, is that his open flame BBQ was blowing directly into my tent all day. The wind direction never changed, and at timers it was blowing hard. It was so annoying. I joke that I didn't need to get dinner afterwards, I could just lick my self and enjoy their food.
There was also a very small lemonade cart dead center in the street at a small median at the front of the festival, and then many of the food vendors sold their own version of a lemonade. On the other side there was a guy selling lemonade in a those cheesy palm tree cups, but I think he was a Minute Maid, sugar water product b/c his thing was the cups and for his price, I doubt he was doing fresh as well.
The other thing is it was unseasonably cold here. After a week of rain, we only had a high of 68'sih, cloud cover and lots of wind. Not really lemonade weather.
So we knew we were in for a long day.
The fair was packed, great turn out. The road where were was not very wide, so people were shoulder to shoulder through most of the prime part of the day. The sun never really came out except for about 45 mins late in the day.
With all that considered, we did have a good collection of customers, wouldn't say it was consistent, but we did have pockets with 3 or more customers stacked up and many transitions had multiple cups. B/c my son was doing most of the squeezing and my wife was doing the finishing/shaking, I was taking orders and cash, and so i was able to keep an eye on my cross street neighbor and overall I didn't see a ton of action at her cart either.
Lastly our prices are generally higher then most. I was seeing $5 lemonades, as well as free refill ones, but we are start at $8 for original, $9 with a flavor and $10 for out deluxe which has candy and such. Plus we are one of the few that take cards....the guy across from me was cash only.
That said, we sold over $900 on the day which I was pleasantly surprised (I had guessed $700). I did have 2+ cases of lemons left over, but we have another event in 2 weeks and they will hold well in our fridge. I also bought a used chest freezer last summer and so all our extra ice went back in there. So I have a head start on product for the next one.
Fun moment: A lady came to our tent and said "Yes, you are here!!" She said she came to our tent at a big festival at the end of last summer. At this one, she said she walked the whole fair looking for us, hoping were there. She said how much she loved our product and was so happy we were vending. She asked if we were doing $5 refills (which we did at the one she saw us last year) and I said we weren't (we don't always do it, depends on the fair), but for her I would honor it, and sure a heck she came back for another one. I still make about $4 on a $5 refill b/c we reuse the cup.
Business Moment: We have business cards on the table. When we got home, I found a FB message from someone asking us to be at their event in July. Turns out he was a customer that day, like the product and grabbed a card. So I booked a new event just from being there.
Benefit moment: I love the trading that goes on at these things. We had a delicious pretzel vendor next to us who handed us 2 big bags of leftover pretzels at the end. And down the road was a C4 (energy drink) rep who had so much product left over that he dropped a free case of drinks off for my 15 year old...complete score for him! lol
One last grrrrr....We had a parking lot behind us that many vendors parked in. The guy across from me who took advantage of the spaces also had his truck parked there. As were were packing up, I saw the small cart from the front of the fair push past us and load into that guys truck. So not only did that dude have the cart across from us, he also had one tucked into a tiny non-spot that i'm sure he didn't pay for or finagled some deal out of it. But whatever, competition will always be there, gotta roll with it.
Next one is in 2 weeks and we do very well there. I happened to see the treasurer of that chamber at this event, he's a friend of mine and my insurance agent, and I was grumbling to him about the number of Lemon vendors, and he said they cap theirs and only allow a certain number of any one type of vendor.
For starters we showed up and there was a ton of lemonade vendors, including one directly across the street from us. Turn out this guy really took advantage of the event, as were were setting up, the president of the chamber was fighting with him bc he paid for 1 spot and ended up taking up 3. He had a whole BBQ, Mediterranean food booth with a side lemonade cart off to the side. The real crappy part was that the cart was located on a corner, so she had no one next to her and was set up on an angle to attract people walking up the street, where we were set up parallel between a row of other vendors and an ice cream truck, so you really didn't see us unless you were directly in front of us (except for my sign on the top of my tent and my 15ft feather flag).
Photo 1 Photo 2
Apparently I heard they made him pay for an additional spot, but he still took up a ton of extra space.
Bigger issue then having the same product across from us, is that his open flame BBQ was blowing directly into my tent all day. The wind direction never changed, and at timers it was blowing hard. It was so annoying. I joke that I didn't need to get dinner afterwards, I could just lick my self and enjoy their food.
There was also a very small lemonade cart dead center in the street at a small median at the front of the festival, and then many of the food vendors sold their own version of a lemonade. On the other side there was a guy selling lemonade in a those cheesy palm tree cups, but I think he was a Minute Maid, sugar water product b/c his thing was the cups and for his price, I doubt he was doing fresh as well.
The other thing is it was unseasonably cold here. After a week of rain, we only had a high of 68'sih, cloud cover and lots of wind. Not really lemonade weather.
So we knew we were in for a long day.
The fair was packed, great turn out. The road where were was not very wide, so people were shoulder to shoulder through most of the prime part of the day. The sun never really came out except for about 45 mins late in the day.
With all that considered, we did have a good collection of customers, wouldn't say it was consistent, but we did have pockets with 3 or more customers stacked up and many transitions had multiple cups. B/c my son was doing most of the squeezing and my wife was doing the finishing/shaking, I was taking orders and cash, and so i was able to keep an eye on my cross street neighbor and overall I didn't see a ton of action at her cart either.
Lastly our prices are generally higher then most. I was seeing $5 lemonades, as well as free refill ones, but we are start at $8 for original, $9 with a flavor and $10 for out deluxe which has candy and such. Plus we are one of the few that take cards....the guy across from me was cash only.
That said, we sold over $900 on the day which I was pleasantly surprised (I had guessed $700). I did have 2+ cases of lemons left over, but we have another event in 2 weeks and they will hold well in our fridge. I also bought a used chest freezer last summer and so all our extra ice went back in there. So I have a head start on product for the next one.
Fun moment: A lady came to our tent and said "Yes, you are here!!" She said she came to our tent at a big festival at the end of last summer. At this one, she said she walked the whole fair looking for us, hoping were there. She said how much she loved our product and was so happy we were vending. She asked if we were doing $5 refills (which we did at the one she saw us last year) and I said we weren't (we don't always do it, depends on the fair), but for her I would honor it, and sure a heck she came back for another one. I still make about $4 on a $5 refill b/c we reuse the cup.
Business Moment: We have business cards on the table. When we got home, I found a FB message from someone asking us to be at their event in July. Turns out he was a customer that day, like the product and grabbed a card. So I booked a new event just from being there.
Benefit moment: I love the trading that goes on at these things. We had a delicious pretzel vendor next to us who handed us 2 big bags of leftover pretzels at the end. And down the road was a C4 (energy drink) rep who had so much product left over that he dropped a free case of drinks off for my 15 year old...complete score for him! lol
One last grrrrr....We had a parking lot behind us that many vendors parked in. The guy across from me who took advantage of the spaces also had his truck parked there. As were were packing up, I saw the small cart from the front of the fair push past us and load into that guys truck. So not only did that dude have the cart across from us, he also had one tucked into a tiny non-spot that i'm sure he didn't pay for or finagled some deal out of it. But whatever, competition will always be there, gotta roll with it.
Next one is in 2 weeks and we do very well there. I happened to see the treasurer of that chamber at this event, he's a friend of mine and my insurance agent, and I was grumbling to him about the number of Lemon vendors, and he said they cap theirs and only allow a certain number of any one type of vendor.
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Bluesbomber
Footballguy
I am always down for some lemonade, especially if spiced with a little Kentucky water...nudge nudge...
glvsav37
Footballguy
2nd event in the books....Long one today but very fruitful. A local street fair that we did last year.
Today the weather was great, not perfect but better than the 1st event we did a week or so ago. We were banging pretty much right out of the gate. Lines 7-8 orders deep and lots of 2-3 cups per order.
Good thing about doing the same event each year is that people get to know you. We had a few people come to us and say they were looking to make sure we were there.
It was a long day, setup at 8, event started at 10 and ran to 5. overall, about 350 cups sold for $2500 in sales. (last year we did about $1500 at this)
Funny story: I own a sign shop as my main gig. A bout 2 weeks ago I got a call from a woman in my chamber (same chamber as this event host) asking me to wrap her new food trailer (a lemonade truck). She jokingly admitted that she was prob going be a PIA type client, bc she used chatgpt to come up with the ideas and yada, yada. Needless to say, after about 2-3 rounds of design she ghosts me and I never hear from her.
Flash forward to yesterday and I see a few people with similar deli cups as mine, drinking lemonade. I don't think anything of it, its common. My labels are yellow, these labels were white. About 2/3 through the day, I am on line getting food for us, and I see the label up close and its this woman's branding. Whatever, but now my douche bag meter is revving. I go back to the tent and a few min later I see a woman walking by my tent with her cup. I yell out "excuse me, how's that lemonade?" The lady turned to me and gave me a "meh" look. So I said" come here, give me that, i'll give you a free one." She was puzzled but agreed, and so we shook up one of ours. ... About 10 min later she came back and said "OMG, Your's was sooo much better, thank you!" and stuffed a $5 bill in the tip jar. lol
Today the weather was great, not perfect but better than the 1st event we did a week or so ago. We were banging pretty much right out of the gate. Lines 7-8 orders deep and lots of 2-3 cups per order.
Good thing about doing the same event each year is that people get to know you. We had a few people come to us and say they were looking to make sure we were there.
It was a long day, setup at 8, event started at 10 and ran to 5. overall, about 350 cups sold for $2500 in sales. (last year we did about $1500 at this)
Funny story: I own a sign shop as my main gig. A bout 2 weeks ago I got a call from a woman in my chamber (same chamber as this event host) asking me to wrap her new food trailer (a lemonade truck). She jokingly admitted that she was prob going be a PIA type client, bc she used chatgpt to come up with the ideas and yada, yada. Needless to say, after about 2-3 rounds of design she ghosts me and I never hear from her.
Flash forward to yesterday and I see a few people with similar deli cups as mine, drinking lemonade. I don't think anything of it, its common. My labels are yellow, these labels were white. About 2/3 through the day, I am on line getting food for us, and I see the label up close and its this woman's branding. Whatever, but now my douche bag meter is revving. I go back to the tent and a few min later I see a woman walking by my tent with her cup. I yell out "excuse me, how's that lemonade?" The lady turned to me and gave me a "meh" look. So I said" come here, give me that, i'll give you a free one." She was puzzled but agreed, and so we shook up one of ours. ... About 10 min later she came back and said "OMG, Your's was sooo much better, thank you!" and stuffed a $5 bill in the tip jar. lol
Instinctive
Footballguy
glvsav37
Footballguy
by all means....lets get side hustle convo going.
glvsav37
Footballguy
Big news out of Lemonade Land.....we've upgraded and bought a pop up camper that we will be converting into our new serving vehicle.
This was always on the horizon for us, a lot of lemonade businesses move from tents to trailers or converted pop ups. The tent set up is a lot and when you are doing it in the middle of the summer heat, it take a bit out of you. Our current set up is:
• 10x10 tent
• 4 folding tables & table cloths
• sign frame & banner
• 3 coolers of ice
• at least 15 gallons of water or more
• 1-4 cases of lemons
• Sugar, flavoring, candies, etc
• utensils, gloves and other serving items
• 300+ Cups & Lids
• 3 compartment sink
Right now it is mostly in a 4x8 trailer, but the set up and clean up takes at least 45 min on each side, plus stocking the truck at home and washing the items at home.
We almost pulled the trigger on one a few weeks ago, but we decided it wasn't the right time. Since then we have kept an eye on things thinking on getting serious at the end of the season.
However, last week we did a small event where we did less then $100 (normally at least $250 there) and it was hot and muggy AF that night. Even though we don't pay to be at this event, the set up/take down time was not worth it. So we decided to get a little bit more serious for the camper search.
Overall, the camper will allow us to just pull up and open. No need for tables or tents, the signs will be on the trailer already, utensils can be washed and stored before we break down. All we would need to do is refresh the cup/lid stock and refrigerated/frozen items at home before we leave. But best of all, it will give us some basic power to better run things like lights and water pumps. We are going to tear out all the canvas, beds and benches and build serving/storage counters in the front and sinks, water tanks and more storage in the back.
And here's the best part....the camper was only a $100!
Photos
Now the bad, it has a lot more water damage to the ceiling then I expected. It has to be fully rebuilt. One of the rise bars ripped out of the roof bracket, so I need to replace that. And....we brought home some friends....a nice sized bees next that was living inside one of the bench storage areas (I swatted that down last night)
So now the renno begins. I want to try and keep it under $1000. IDK if it will be ready for this season. August is our busiest month, plus it needs to be inspected and and I would need to convert some permits from tent to trailer, etc. It will give me some good content for this thread lol
This was always on the horizon for us, a lot of lemonade businesses move from tents to trailers or converted pop ups. The tent set up is a lot and when you are doing it in the middle of the summer heat, it take a bit out of you. Our current set up is:
• 10x10 tent
• 4 folding tables & table cloths
• sign frame & banner
• 3 coolers of ice
• at least 15 gallons of water or more
• 1-4 cases of lemons
• Sugar, flavoring, candies, etc
• utensils, gloves and other serving items
• 300+ Cups & Lids
• 3 compartment sink
Right now it is mostly in a 4x8 trailer, but the set up and clean up takes at least 45 min on each side, plus stocking the truck at home and washing the items at home.
We almost pulled the trigger on one a few weeks ago, but we decided it wasn't the right time. Since then we have kept an eye on things thinking on getting serious at the end of the season.
However, last week we did a small event where we did less then $100 (normally at least $250 there) and it was hot and muggy AF that night. Even though we don't pay to be at this event, the set up/take down time was not worth it. So we decided to get a little bit more serious for the camper search.
Overall, the camper will allow us to just pull up and open. No need for tables or tents, the signs will be on the trailer already, utensils can be washed and stored before we break down. All we would need to do is refresh the cup/lid stock and refrigerated/frozen items at home before we leave. But best of all, it will give us some basic power to better run things like lights and water pumps. We are going to tear out all the canvas, beds and benches and build serving/storage counters in the front and sinks, water tanks and more storage in the back.
And here's the best part....the camper was only a $100!
Photos
Now the bad, it has a lot more water damage to the ceiling then I expected. It has to be fully rebuilt. One of the rise bars ripped out of the roof bracket, so I need to replace that. And....we brought home some friends....a nice sized bees next that was living inside one of the bench storage areas (I swatted that down last night)
So now the renno begins. I want to try and keep it under $1000. IDK if it will be ready for this season. August is our busiest month, plus it needs to be inspected and and I would need to convert some permits from tent to trailer, etc. It will give me some good content for this thread lol
Instinctive
Footballguy
It looks exactly like the Jayco my family camped in for ten years of summers of my childhood. Awesome.
