Our first stall experience
What a couple of weeks it has been! With our first stall making its debut for Chilli Fest UK in sunny Eastleigh, and then following up with mixed bag weather in Melton Mowbray.
The Eastleigh stall was nerve wrecking, considering we have never set up a stall before selling our Sun Wah Chilli Oils.
After getting to know our neighbouring stalls, we realised that our £50 budget stall from Amazon, was not going to last the remaining events throughout summer, let alone the year.
It was clear these guys were long serving stall champions, each averaging 3-4 years experience.
But nonetheless, they each provided valuable tips for setting up and what to invest in for a prosperous stall future.
The second weekend in Melton Mowbray allowed us to quickly improve our set up and shake up our delivery of information.
As you can see from above, the Eastleigh set up was extremely basic, but it actually did the job.
The weather allowed it to stay up, which was fortunate, but the risk for the next few events was not worth taking, so a quick investment for a more sturdier gazebo had to be implemented.
Water based leg weights also helped with the overall structure, thus preventing a wobbly gazebo.
A red canopy added to the effect, being in the ‘chilli’ business, this was most appropriate.
The next best (small) investment were cable ties.
These were excellent in keeping up the table and top banners and supporting the stand up banner.
It was much stronger than string and allowed the banner to be fully stretched across the gazebo without having a floppy effect.
“Meeting the locals at the stall and getting them to try our chilli oils was very satisfying, since everyone hadn’t heard, seen, or tried it before.”
Swindon stall at Chilli Fest, 29th July 2017
Following on from two successful stalls, we can confidently move on into our next big one, which is happening in Swindon.
We just hope the weather holds out in this area, so we can provide the locals with more tastings of our quality Chilli Oil and hopefully produce some sales.
Our main objective for these events is to generate brand awareness, and become more nationally dominant, as opposed to just being London based.
With several more stalls arranged for the rest of summer and leading up to Christmas, we can safely say that the build up for 2018 will be huge.
The fact that we have our online store to back our nationwide presence is essential, it gives us a big stepping stone to propel the business further.
