eXtension Entrepreneurship Webinar Series Begins April 11th with Farmers Market

Mark your calendars! The eXtension Entrepreneurship webinar series is finishing the season with three presentations of interest to farmers' market vendors and  farmstand owners. All webinars will air monthly on the second Thursday at 2:00pm (ET); 1:00pm (CT); 12:00pm (MT); 11:00am (PT) at https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/etc-cop.

On Thursday April 11, 2013 join Londa Nwadike, University of Vermont Extension Food Safety Specialist, for Food Safety for Farmers Market Vendors. Farmers Markets are a great venue for food producers and value-added processors to introduce their products to consumers, make sales, and also to get valuable feedback on their products. To protect this valuable outlet for your food products, it is essential that all the food sold at the market is as safe as possible and follows local, state and federal regulations. This helps to assure your customers that your business, as well as the entire Farmers Market, has product safety and quality in mind. This webinar will provide information on the food safety risks associated with direct marketing of foods, the regulations that farmers market vendors are required to follow, and strategies/best practices for maintaining a safe environment at farmers markets.

On May 9 our webinar will explore Tracking Sales to Learn What Customers Really Think with Mary Peabody, UVM Extension. You have a great product! Your prices are right in line with the competition! Your quality is outstanding! So, what is the next step in direct marketing success? Well a good place to start is by learning who your customers are, what they think of your products and who is buying what. We'll take a look at some ways that you can learn more about your customers and your sales and use what you learn to improve your bottom line. We'll take a look at simple, quick and inexpensive ways to collect information as well as some more involved strategies that will get you more detailed results. Most of the information will be directed at individual vendors but many of the ideas can be adapted by managers to assess whole markets.

On June 13 we conclude our series with Ginger Myers, UMD Extension Marketing Specialist presenting Are you a Supermarket Vendor or a Super Market Vendor? While marketing your products at a farmers market is a great way to sell direct to customers and garner instant feed back about your products, it does require you work at providing customers with the best shopping and purchasing experience possible, if you want repeat business. Simply putting your products out and waiting for customers to make their selections and then pay you is the same as shopping at the supermarket. That's called transactional marketing. Instead, provide customers with a great shopping experience anchored by high quality products and you'll become a super market vendor. This is relationship marketing where the customer experiences a value-add connection with you as the producer. This presentation examine the traits of highly successful market vendors including market organization, display techniques, signage, communications at the market and through social media, and the vital customer service techniques used by super market vendors.

No pre-registration is required and there is no fee to participate. About 10 minutes prior to the start time simply go the Adobe Connect Pro meeting room at https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/etc-cop. You will be presented with a login screen that has an "Enter as Guest" option. Enter your full name then click "Enter Room" to join the conference. You will be able to hear the audio directly from your computer’s speakers. 

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