Finding a Location
May 24, 2010 | 
Author Getting into Fairs and Festivals to Sell Your Doughnuts
As we talked about In the previous post finding a good location for your donut business is a top priority. We personally are staying away from pricey malls that charge a lot for rent and where the overhead is a lot and the traffic may not be what we expect. I have paid a lot of attention to food places in the mall, people selling fudge, candied popcorn and every kind of sweet you can imagine, and it seems that many do not stay very long. I would love to know the reasoning behind this. One cookie store, actually opened up another small stand in the center aisle of one of the mall coridoors. I assumed that they must be doing quite well to open up another store. But regardless, we do not plan on opening a doughnut shop in the mall.
As we mentioned last week, we are trying to get in a flea market where we can sell doughnuts. I think we might have mentioned before, that we are also interested in selling doughnuts at fairs and festivals. People at fairs and festivals are pretty much a captive audience. Eating tasty foods is almost a tradition at these places. Instead of leaving when they get hungry, they find places to eat there. When you are selling small doughnuts at fairs and festivals, you are also selling convenience.
When you are selling doughnuts at a fair or festival the rent is usually a lot less than if you had a storefront establishment. In addition you are only paying when people, a lot of people are there. When you rent a spot at the mall, you are paying when there might not be very many people at the mall. If you make your business portable, you can travel to a lot of the fairs and festivals all over the country. If you feel financially secure to do so and are not tied to your job this may be an an excellent opportunity for you. Traveling from Festival to Festival is not for everyone, But can be very rewarding monetarily.
It can be very difficult to get your foot in the door at fairs and festivals. There is often times a waiting list just to set up shop. Many times if you have something different such as a doughnut, you may have a better chance of getting your foot in the door. I always thought it would be a neat idea if they had some sort of bidding process for the food vendors, it would be interesting to see how it went. It may price some people out of the market.
Location Advice for Starting a Donut Business
Location means everything, not only in business but where you live. I have seen a lot of businesses go in and out of our local mall. For example, there was a hot dog stand, for lack of a better word, that I had liked to go to work about 10 years. Admittedly, it was not in the food court of the mall but a wave from the buzz. For the past couple years, I would go there by myself and eat a hotdog. At first I would buy a combo meal and eat two hot dogs chips and a drink. Then I scaled back and just bought one hotdog and entry, I always enjoyed their root beer. The people that work there were not very friendly but I enjoyed the food. I always assumed that they did well, since they had been there so long. There was a sandwich place that was there before them that close unexpectedly. I had never been here. I was at the mall about a week ago and noticed that the hot dog place had gone out of business. I would love to have known what caused them to leave. I could only imagine that they were not making any money. It always baffled me why someone would put a restaurant or food placed in a location that a previous restaurant had failed. This just goes to show you that location means everything.
I would say that the mall would not be a very good location for a doughnut business. Their rent on a space at the mall would be tremendous, you would have to sell a lot of doughnut. In addition there's a lot of wasted time at the mall because they are not busy. The best times would be on the weekends when there are the most people. Unfortunately you cannot set up shop at the mall on the weekends. Where I live malls are still a big thing, But everywhere else most seem to be dying out. There is an interesting website on the Internet about malls that are dying. It is contrary to what is happening in our area. But admittedly of the need up any kind of food related business is scary, but other name one... mall is very scary. I would much rather start out small selling doughnuts to churches and schools then to have the huge overhead that a mall environment would entail.
Choose a location that fits into your budget. Have you ever thought about going to the flea market? Seemingly, flea markets do very well in our area. We are trying to get into a local flea market, but it has proven to be difficult. Do your research before you set up shop, it will pay off in the long run. As with any thing, location can prove to be a very big deal. The wrong location can put you out of business or the right location can make you a lot of money.
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Tags: dead malls, doughnut business, dying malls, Finding a Location, location advice, mall location | 
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Finding the Right Location for Your Donut Business
It is a very important component of any business, but especially for the donut business.... the business needs to be where the people are gathered. This is no different with the doughnut business. There are many places you can set up shop, anywhere from flea markets to mall locations. Of course the location you choose will often depend on how much money you are willing to spend on securing your desired location.
Carnivals and other outdoor activities are an ideal place to sell doughnuts. Also, any place where a large crowd has gathered. If you can locate your doughnut shop near a football, basketball or other outdoor activity, you will well be on your way to getting consistent revenue. If you have a lot of traffic, chances are real good that you will be able to sell your mini doughnuts. People just cannot resist the smell and taste of these delicacies. Carnivals and outdoor activities are easy to set up, easy to manage any overhead is very low. You may want to get a trailer or simply setup your doughnut fryer on a secure table. There are many manufacturers that will sell doughnut or concession equipment to you. It is not difficult to find equipment for the donut business.
Of course we are speaking about setting up our will allAnd in and in and in and indonut business at carnivals or other places where outdoor activities are held, but you may be interested in a stand-alone building. This would be a huge undertaking and the help of a franchise would help you get your feet wet in the donut business. There are advantages to standalone donut shops, but the overhead is a lot more than if you simply sell your doughnuts at carnivals, flea markets or other outdoor activities. The goal is to not have a huge amount of overhead when you first start out.
Another way you can get your doughnuts out to the public would be to offer them to churches, or other religious groups. You can market to churches, perhaps split the profits with them, and get the word out about your delicious doughnuts. Churches are an excellent avenue to sell your doughnuts. Word can spread fast when your doughnuts are exposed even to just one religious organization. If you got big enough you could even and lest someone to do your marketing for you, while you are location helping sell the doughnuts.
Location, location, location, as you know, in business it is very important. It is no exception with a doughnut business. If you have a good location, market your doughnut business with precision, you'll will be on your way to increased profits.
Update on Our Venture
Per John Reid;
So, I bet your wondering why we haven't talked about our own progress towards starting a donut business. The answers are procrastination and not enough time. Starting this business is still on our radar as we talk about it at nearly every one of our weekly business meetings. But the four of us have our hands in many different pies business wise of which the donut endeavor is only one. Other projects have been taking most of our attention lately, but we beginning to come back to this one.
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Leading to Dead Ends……
The following is per our partner, John Reid:
I talked to two sources today about setting up space for our donut venture.
1. I spoke to Tim Rollins at Metropolitan Partners (614) 883-1322 and I think this is his cell phone. I told him we were interested in the concert series at Pullman Square. Told him I'd spoken to Matt Kelly at the beer tent, and he knew him. Tim said they have to be very careful with on the street food vendors during those events so as not to upset the restaurant vendors. That's why we haven't seen many and that makes logical sense. But, I went ahead and told him we wanted to sell fresh donuts which is a novel concept and something that should not threaten the restaurants. It's not like we're selling hot dogs and hamburgers. He agreed and said maybe. He and some other people from the company will be travelling to Huntington in a few weeks for a series of meetings with local promoters in the city to talk about next year. He asked for my phone number so he can let me know what happens with that. I gave him mine as well as the Pinnacle Ventures number. I thought it best not to be too secretive as telling him what we wanted to do with donuts could get our foot in the door a bit more.
2. Spoke to lady at Milton Pumpkin fest. This one would be a hard one to get in to. She said they have vendors that have been with them from the very beginning and that they get preference. She said there's usually about 5 slots left and it's up to the committee to decide. I asked if we had a novel concept, something different if that would help us get in. Of course she asked what it was and using my best judgement I told her donuts. She was not impressed and said they already have a person doing pumpkin donuts, pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin dumplings. That info didn't help our cause there. I went ahead and asked for rental numbers and the procedure to apply. There's a great website that tells all about it--www.wvpumpkinpark.com. Basically it's $350 rent and $20 for utilities if in the Baker's Tent. More if you have a stand outside. That's for the whole festival and not each day. She said they would start looking at 2010 vendors about February.
I'm a little dishartened about the Pumpkin Festival as this was the same non-chalant attitude that Donnie and I got at the Milton Flea Market. It's going to be tough to break into most of these places. They're not just going to welcome us in. We might have to start with some new festival that doesn't have a big concession following like the recent Swine Festival in Guyondotte. But, there are tons of festivals around and they all can't be booked. We can also get more creative with our marketing and the areas we target. We're smart and can come up with plenty of good ideas.
Some New Hope
Two of our partners were at Pullman Square over the weekend and started talking to one of the vendors there.... he is manager at one of the restaurants on the property so it was not clear (to me anyway) whether he owned the concession stand (which was selling beer) or if someone else did.. In any event, he was very generous with our partner regarding sales, etc. From all appearances, he is doing very well during the 13 week season.... We are using him as a resource to get our foot in the door there... We have a few months before the season picks up, but we are most definitely not giving up.
On another note, I have recieved 2 very informative calls'/emails of late from Lil Orbits, I must say I am very impressed with them thus far.. I am going to email him back to see if he has any advice on how we can get our foot in the door at these locations... He sent me a listing of places we could possibly sell the donuts; fairs, carnivals, etc. Very informative..... I will keep you updated as we move forward. We would really like to have a location ready to go before we invest in the equipment.. We don't want to be out the money then have to struggle to get the location setup. My advice to anyone reading this, try to line up a location before you purchase your equipment, that is what we are doing...
Not Looking Good for our Desired Location
Well, my partners concluded their site visit and it was as good as we had anticipated. They only allow two food vendors at any one time and there is a waiting list... Unless something different was sold, then they might give an exception, this may be a way in for us, not sure.. We will discuss it at our next meeting. Still waiting for the vendor information, if I do not get anything tomorrow I will call back and see what is going on.
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