I’m sure most of you reading this have not earned anywhere near a thousand dollars in one day, nor even in one week. That’s not to say it is impossible; many in the entertainment industry earn that much and more in one day. However, they did not attain that level of income overnight. They literally spent many years and many thousands of dollars training and perfecting their craft.
I can honestly say have earned $1,000 in just one day. I have done that many times and I’m going to tell you exactly how I did it. (And it did not take years of honing my craft, either.)
First of all, I am a professional flea market vendor. Making the next sale is always on my mind when I am at work (Can I even call it ‘work’? It’s more like having fun and it’s only two days a week!)
That doesn’t mean I can’t be friendly with shoppers and the other vendors. That’s actually a requirement in my business because everyone is a potential customer. People love to spend time with people who are happy and having a good time – it rubs off – so if I am happy, they’ll be happy, and happy people feel good about themselves and people who feel good about themselves spend more money.
See how one thing leads to another? Attitude is like a flat tire – you won’t get very far until you change it. Make sure yours is ready to go.
Being a flea market vendor, I won’t make money if I don’t have something to sell. The old adage is true in my business, ‘the more you have, the more you’ll sell’. If I wanted to make $50 a day, I could do that with only a couple hundred bucks in merchandise. But to make a thousand dollars in a day, I need several thousand dollars worth of merchandise.
It is not difficult to build your inventory. It just takes a bit of time if you don’t have several grand to invest up front. Buy what you can afford. You’ll sell it for more than your cost and get your original investment back, plus profit. Put all of the money back into buying more and more merchandise each week – over time your inventory will quickly grow and before you know it you’ll have a couple thousand dollars in merchandise to sell.
Even when I have the inventory, several things must come together to make it happen, to earn a thousand dollars in one day.
1. Traffic.
You will be very hard-pressed to earn a thousand dollars in one day if you are at a flea market that only draws a couple hundred buyers a day. It doesn’t make any difference if you have five thousand dollars worth of merchandise available, you still need people to buy it.
You need to sell in very large flea markets, markets that attract many thousands of eager shoppers each day.
There are flea markets in the U.S. that cover more than 100 acres and attract more than 30,000 shoppers in just one day.
A large flea market with a huge crowd of eager buyers is mandatory if you want to earn $1,000 in a day.
2. Merchandise.
I have sold brand new items and I have sold gently used items and I can tell you for a fact you will always make more money selling brand new items. Not only will you sell more of them each day, you will also make a larger profit.
To make the most profit, buy your merchandise at the lowest possible price. I don’t buy it at Wal Mart. I order my merchandise from true wholesale companies and I buy in large quantity to get the lowest prices. I may need to buy 500 pieces of a certain item to get the lowest price and I may not sell them all within one week, but I know I will sell them all eventually and make a really great profit doing so. Buying by the case is how you get the lowest price.
Sell what people want to buy. That is the best advice I can offer.
Don’t sell heaters in August, people are already hot. They don’t want to be hot, they want to be cool. When it’s hot and sunny, sell big hats, sell sunglasses.
If you know there is a rock concert coming up in a couple weeks, sell binoculars so people can get up close and personal to their favorite stars.
Sell what people want to buy. It’s just common sense, but you’d be amazed how any people lack common sense.
Try to have something for everyone. If you only sell brand new purses, you’ve cut out men and children. If you only sell men’s work boots, you’ve cut out women and children. If you only sell toys, you’ve cut out men and women, the very people who have the money. Not everyone has kids. Make sure you can sell to everyone who walks by, not just a certain part of the crowd.
3. Location.
I am sure you know where your local Walmart is. It’s right there on so-and-so street. It’s there every day of the week. You can count on that.
Well, as a flea market vendor you want your shoppers to count on you being in the same location, too, so they can find you. Don’t start ‘space hopping’ all over the flea market one day to the next. Get yourself into a good space or two and stay there. Reserve it ahead of time.
Don’t get stuck in a corner where few shoppers will walk after noon or one o’clock. Figure out where the shoppers are hanging out, where there is always a large crowd, even late into the afternoon. Get yourself a space in or very near to that area of the flea market. You don’t make sales if you don’t have buyers, so set up where the buyers are. Go to them – they won’t always come to you.
4. Prices.
Some will disagree with me on this but I’m going to say it anyway.
To earn $1000 in one day, you can make fifteen sales at $100 per sale (the extra $500 is your merchandise cost) or…
…you can make one hundred $15 sales to earn $1,000 in one day.
Which do you think is easier to do?
In my own experience it is much easier to make one hundred $15 sales. Or 200 $7.50 sales. Or 300 $5 sales. (That’s quite easy to do in a flea market that attracts 30,000 shoppers a day.)
The vast majority of buyers will not spend $100 on one item, but they will spend $20 to $40 total on a whole bunch of small items if the price is just a few dollars per item…
Many of my items, brand new, mind you, are priced at less than $3 each. They are all within the same niche and most people buy four, five, six, seven, ten, twelve, fifteen or more different items at one time. Most people will spend between $20 and $30 and not blink an eye.
But $100 for one item, even if it is a brand new chainsaw or electric generator? “Well, I gotta thing about it.”
And there you have it, how I make $1,000 in only one day. (Only six to seven hours, too. Not even an eight hour day.)
Set up in a large, very busy flea market, bring something for everyone and don’t go crazy with your prices.
