How to Set Up & Run Markets Fairs & Fetes

How to Set up & Run Markets Fairs & Fetes

Published by Suzie Louis at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Suzie Louis

License Notes.

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Cover image: Fair, Boris Kustodiyev, 1910

Cover design: Suzie Louis

Originally published as Diary of a Novice Market Organiser 2013

Chapter 1 - How it all Started

Everyone loves a market - or the idea of markets as a place where people get together to trade, barter and buy. Whether we know it or not, markets appeal to our sense of community, give us a feeling of belonging and provide us with something we need: an antidote to the mind numbing chain store experience.

Philosophy aside, milling happy crowds, stalls stocked with the best in what is fresh and colourful, coupled with the often flamboyant personalities of traders is a mix it's hard to resist. So markets flourish as our increasingly urban culture breaks out for a few hours on the weekend to enjoy them and seek what is local, sustainable, beautiful and unique. When you go to a market that's what you're looking for. Believe me I know, I run one.

For these and many other reasons I love markets and have fond memories of enjoying sunny days wandering through market stalls, chatting to stallholders, hearing their stories and buying delicious food and handmade treasures I couldn't find anywhere else. There was a time for me, and it still holds true for most, that being at a market is fun, relaxing and a great way to while away a morning or afternoon.

But if you're the organiser of said market things are very different. You stand out from the relaxed crowd because of the wrinkles in your brow and anxious look as you stand assessing how many visitors are on the ground and the likelihood of more arriving during the day; check on stallholders to make sure they're not asleep at their stand or worse, not selling anything and then the sky to see if it's going to rain and send your wonderful crowd scurrying home.

That's me, a market organiser and madwoman.

In October 2012, as a novice organiser, I launched Exeter Village Market in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales with 'optimism'. Of course I was optimistic, in the beginning I didn't know how much was involved or how hard it was going to be.

One of my major problems was being broke. This came home to me at Christmas time when, uncharacteristically, I presented my family with handmade gifts. They were surprised to say the least but it was the beginning of a significant change in my attitudes. These days I don't buy much but when I do it's for cash.

You see I wasn't used to being broke and had, in the past, enough money to have people do things for me or credit cards that were readily available to absorb the cost of impulse or time pressed purchases. In my new life after the law the money and credit wasn't there but I did have time and after a while I came to resent parting with hard to find cash to pay other people. My answer was, 'how hard can it be'? to do whatever the task was.

In short I began to do everything I could myself and find a free or the cheapest way of achieving the result I needed. I was amazed at the free software on the internet, how generous people are with their knowledge on blogs and forums and what I could learn to do. Although I'd learnt new principles of law on a regular basis and kept up with the constantly updated rules of practice and procedure, my knowledge was specific and therefore limited. I was becoming a legal nerd and probably a bore.

New skills and how to acquire them on the cheap is one of the principles of this book: planning and building my market was done with minimal cash and maximum input by me. 'Hands on' now has a new meaning for me and if I don't know how to do something I go and find out how. It's a new kind of power and I like it.

As a result I have mastered many new skills and built up a store of knowledge now contained in this book, together with the story of my very recent experience in setting up Exeter Village Market. The experience is so raw Exeter is still in its first year and its long term success or failure is still an open question. What may assure its success is my commitment to making it work using the skills I've built up since leaving the law and some I've brought with me.

If you're setting up a market or running events, I assure you, you can do it and it doesn't have to cost a fortune. I've done it; so can you.

Where did I start? With the decision to go for it, I suppose. Why I did I do it? For money is the short answer. I was out of work and needed an occupation which takes me to some sad (tears please) personal history and a consideration of my difficult personality.

I came to the decision after a significant lifestyle change which included leaving the law without a 'career transition' plan. I once wrote what became a popular blog post with the title, 'I Don't Want to be a Lawyer Anymore' which included a list of careers presumably available to lawyers who wanted to make the move to a life outside the law. It's a long list of interesting jobs but comes with a number of caveats I have since come to appreciate. If you want to be employed by others, unlike me you need to be relatively young when you make the move, have a skill in an area that is relevant to business and live in a large city.

The last caveat recognises the limited opportunities available to me as a specialist litigator living in the country. Where I live is only two hours from Sydney but in economic terms it may as well be the moon. Our local economy is based on tourism, aged care and support services to a population of about twenty thousand people.

The skills you develop as a specialist litigator used to dealing with the hysteria that is a fight over a millionaire's will and lucrative commercial law in the Supreme Court don't have a lot of appeal to local firms of solicitors looking to employ someone to draft Mum and Dad 's last will and testament and do routine conveyancing.

Most country based litigators make their living doing family law which is lucrative because in Australia, like a number of other countries including the US, two in three marriages end in divorce. While relatively few divorces end up in court family disputes can last for years as lawyers gleefully rake in legal fees that reduce the parties' asset pool to a puddle.

But you need to be made of sterner stuff than I to withstand the relentless inhumanity of and warfare between couples who loved each other once but when the marriage is over turn into antagonistic parties pitted in a fight to the death over not only property but tragically, their children. You also need to be able to take money from a client who isn't taking your advice.

I always told clients the truth and gave what I considered to be the best advice for them at the time. Some took exception to my plain speaking which seemed to affront their sense of what they considered to be justice but in truth was legally sanctioned revenge for the failure of the relationship and go and find a lawyer more suited to their mindset. I never minded when they moved on but it wasn't good for repeat business.

When clients did take my advice they'd usually (there were always exceptions) achieve a reasonable result more quickly than those that wanted to hold out for something better after a long and expensive trial.

I know the legal system and can tell you very few disputes need to go to court and the clients who do rarely end up with more than I told them they could get two or more years before. Even if the money award was more or they achieved an extra day a month with the kids it would cost them too much both in money and emotion to get it. It's hard to stand by and watch people destroy themselves in a judicial system they don't and will never understand although they may delude themselves into thinking they do.

My life in the law was finished by family disputes and it nearly did me in.

I came to the law in 1997 when I qualified and was admitted to the profession in the cavernous Sydney Banco Court where my then five year old youngest son distinguished himself by replying to the red robed and wigged Chief Justice Gleeson's 'good morning' to the assembled throng with a bright, 'good morning' (as he'd been taught to respond to adults) which rang out over the otherwise silent court. Titters of amusement followed.

A wry smile played at the corner of the CJ's lips whose nickname then and until he retired as the Chief Justice of Australia was 'the smiler' because it was supposed he never smiled while on the Bench. He did that day. By the way, the Hon. Murray Gleeson is also the actor Eric Bana's father in law and has expressed the view that Bana's best role was as Chopper Reid. He may be right.

After my memorable admission I served nearly two years as a solicitor in East Balmain where I chased money in the courts (Commercial Litigation is the public term) and then, eyes closed, jumped and took myself to the Bar and became a Barrister.

What I didn't realise is what a boys' club the Bar is and how difficult it is for women to make their way. It helps if your Daddy is a judge; you've been to the right schools and been a solicitor in one of the big firms. I had none of those advantages but even then it's hard and I know women who did and left the Bar after failing to attract the big briefs that are the way to the top. At the time what I did have was four children, two still in primary school, and a wonderful husband.

We knuckled down in Sydney's inner west; he became a house husband because someone had to be there for the kids. One of the facts that came out of my professional life was how little I knew about children. An example? My daughter was fifteen before I found out she didn't eat cheese because her father had been packing her lunches and cooking the meals. The family never lets me forget small things like that.

I did a year's reading in chambers in Martin Place. Reading is when an older, wiser barrister takes you under their wing for the first year and makes sure you don't ruin someone's life. Later I moved to Phillip Street, the home of barristers, just across the road from the Supreme Court and waited for briefs. They came and I built up a following of small solicitors doing work in the Equity Division of the Supreme Court, chasing money and small criminal matters. All quite usual for a baby barrister, as newly admitted barristers are known no matter what their age. I loved nearly every minute of it, except for the waiting for briefs and being paid. Both were at times very slow which caused money pressure. It’s a rare barrister who doesn't have an overdraft because it can take a long time to be paid but your monthly expenses arrive like clockwork.

After eight and half years my personality really came into play and a conflict