Why good signage for you farm gate sales (or farm shop) is essential

 Direct selling farm produce, Farm Diversification, farm retail, Marketing  No Responses »
Apr 262012
 

In Britain during World War II road signs were taken down because of fears of a German invasion. The thinking was that it would slow down an advancing army. No signs, no directions. Travel for just a few miles in the British countryside and you soon see how confusing it would be without signs.

Signs are really helpful! Especially if you want to direct people to your farm gate or farm shop to buy produce. Help people out. Put up a sign and make it easy to find your outlet.

What kinds of signs can you use?

Signs come in a variety of materials and sizes. For your farm entrance you can choose from wooden, metal or plastic signs. There are a variety of recycled plastic signs available which are cheaper than metal and easier to maintain than wooden signs. If you are part of a farm accreditation scheme or registered with a body like the Soil Association, there are often subsidised signs available.

A hand painted wooden sign can be very appealing, just make sure the painting is weather proof so that the sign looks good for years to come.

Let’s say you only sell produce in the summer months, then you want temporary signage. PVC banners can be strung up on your fence line when you’re open for business. What about road signs?

 Are there any regulations about signs?

On public roads in the UK, you may be able to get brown ‘tourist attraction’ signs but there are criteria to be met. The brown signs are regulated by the “Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002”. It is your local highways authority that authorises brown signs on local roads. Read more about brown signs in this article.

 Where should you put signs?

If you were travelling from London to Penzance, just think how many signs you’d pass. So don’t think one sign will do the job. You need to direct people in from the nearest main road right to your farm. And it doesn’t stop there.

Just because they’ve turned down the farm track doesn’t mean they’ll end up knocking on the right door. Don’t forget signs to guide people from your entrance right up to the farm house or farm shop door. Why do you need so many?

Remember what it feels like when you’re in unfamiliar territory. You start to doubt your self. If there is no sign, you wonder which way to turn and strangely many people ignore the obvious way and go off down side turnings.

Plenty of signs reassure people that they are heading the right way. It also avoids them ending up in your slurry pit or hay barn. So what information should go on your signs?

 What should you put on your farm signs?

Roadside signs need to be simple. The name of your farm shop with an appropriate symbol is enough for signs several miles from your farm. Look out for those brown signs that indicate tourist attractions and you’ll get the idea. Once you get to the entrance you can add more details, your farm name, logo and any symbols you can use such as organic certification symbol.

Next to the door of the farmhouse or farm shop, put up a sign with even more information such as the opening hours of the shop, a contact number and website if you have one.

What if you don’t want customers in the winter?

You can simply have a sign below your farm name, which says ‘open’ on one side and ‘closed’ on the other. Bed & Breakfast places do a similar thing with ‘vacancies’ and ‘no vacancies’. If you want to make it extra clear, you could have the opening times at the farm entrance. For example,

Open June to September only, Mon – Sat, 8-6pm.

Don’t make people work to find your farm, use signs to guide them in

With no current threat of invasion you don’t need to skimp on signs. Even with sat navs, people like the reassurance that they are on the right track. Invest in clear, good quality signage and guide people right to the door of your farmhouse or shop.

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 Posted by Juliet Fay at 3:34 pm  Tagged with: , ,

Why taking a Perample Sample into butchers gives you twice the chance of getting a regular order

 Farm Diversification, farm retail  No Responses »
Apr 052012
 

In the days before websites, I turned to the Yellow Pages to find butchers’ shops in the nearest city. Once I had a list, I set off, without any samples, hoping to interest them in our organic chickens. At each shop I gave my spiel about our wonderful chickens, and smiled hopefully.

What happened?

All but one said no. That one butcher took a chance on me and asked me to deliver 10 chickens the following week. He took a big risk because I had nothing to show him.

Imagine how much more compelling my spiel would have been, if I’d offered a sample. Imagine if it hadn’t been any old sample but a Perample Sample.

What is a Perample sample?

A Perample Sample is the sample that creates the best, but true, first impression. It is a perfect example of the quality product you can deliver to the butcher’s shop week after week. Let’ say it is a fresh, oven- ready chicken, plucked to perfection and dressed with an inconspicuous poultry tie. The skin is firm and taut with perhaps a golden tinge from an outdoor life pastured on grass. It looks ready to be basted and popped in the oven.

It comes in a pristine, cardboard poultry box where it sits on crisp, clean grease proof paper. Because you know how to process birds properly the chicken has set properly and there isn’t the hint of a blemish anywhere on the bird.

 Why does it give you twice the chance of getting the sale?

There are 3 reasons the butcher is twice as likely to want to do business with you. These are:

1. You’ve shown the quality of your product

2. You’ve made the effort to bring in the sample

3. You’ve shown enterprise in cold calling

How does the Perample sample help the butcher decide?

They always say you never see a poor butcher. Why? Successful butchers combine an uncompromising attitude to quality with a farmer’s attitude to price. To make their margin they will push for the lowest possible price. Quality is what brings their customers back. They can’t afford even one sub standard lamb chop, so woe betide any supplier that tries to get away with seconds or poor quality meat.

By bringing in your Perample Sample, you allow the butcher to weigh up the quality right in front of his eyes. If satisfied with that, all he has to do is focus on getting the right price. Without a sample he is taking a big risk by ordering with you.

When should you take in a Perample Sample?

Pick your time to deliver a Perample Sample. Avoid delivery times as you’ll be jostling with established suppliers. Avoid times when customers are queueing, the butcher won’t give you the time of day. How do you find out the best time? An hour before closing when equipment is being cleaned down, is a good time to call in.

 It takes too much time to visit butchers with samples

Taking a Perample Sample to the right butcher could get you a £100.00 worth of weekly orders, that’s over £5000 worth of business per year. If you take your Perample Sample then you’ve taken away half the risk for the butcher, making them twice as likely to place an order with you.

A carefully prepared Perample Sample will create a lasting, good impression which will increase your chances of winning new business. All you have to do is make sure every consignment maintains the same quality.

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 Posted by Juliet Fay at 12:12 pm

How the Grocer’s Apostrophe led to generations of confused writers

 Marketing, Style  No Responses »
Apr 052012
 

When you have a baby, everyone has an opinion about the best way to look after it.

Your mother will tell you how she did it in her day. Your mother-in-law will tell you something else. The midwife will give you the current thinking (which contradicts everything else you’ve heard) and your friends will do something never advised in the baby books.

And all this leaves you, the new parents, totally confused. What do you do? How do you decide what’s right and what’s not?

Whenever there’s conflicting information we get confused. That’s why the Grocer’s Apostrophe has caused confusion for writers down the generations. It’s very common but never appears in English Usage books.

 What is the Grocer’s Apostrophe?

The Grocer's Apostrophe

The Grocer’s Apostrophe is the little, suspended comma that mysteriously appears on signs, typically in green grocers’ shops. It shows up when vegetables go plural. One apple; many apple’s.

It was named for the greengrocers who brought it into common usage. You’ll find plenty of examples of the Grocer’s Apostrophe along the racks of beautiful fruit and vegetables. Look out for: potato’s, tomatoe’s, cauli’s, carrot’s, banana’s and more.

So what’s wrong with it?

Why is it incorrect (what is an apostrophe anyway)?

Technically it is the wrong use of an apostrophe. Strictly speaking, an apostrophe has only 2 uses:

1) To show missing letters

2) To show possession

Let’s take a look at those two examples:

 1) To show missing letters

In spoken and written English we often run two words together. So did not becomes didn’t, he will becomes, he’ll. The apostrophe tells us there is one or more missing letters.

Didn’t (the apostrophe marks the missing ‘o’)

He’ll (the apostrophe marks the missing ‘wi’)

That brings us to the second use of the apostrophe.

 2) To show possession

You can use an apostrophe as shorthand for ‘belong to’. Instead of, The coat belongs to Jack, we can say, [i]Jack’s coat.

You never need an apostrophe just to show the word is a plural.

So by adding apostrophes to plurals, grocers are accidentally making their vegetables possessive. And possessive vegetables are something we don’t need!

Grocer’s Apostrophes pop up in all sorts of writing, not just on signboards. How did this catch on so widely?

How has it confused generations?

It is a universal truth that when unsure, we tend to look over our shoulder. What is our neighbour doing? We learnt this in school. If in doubt, copy your neighbour. Yes it was frowned on, sometimes got us in trouble, but it beat handing in a blank page.

Seeing the Grocer’s Apostrophe scattered liberally around sign boards up and down the high street, is it any wonder that it has crept into annual reports, sales copy and articles?

The question is, does it matter?

Who cares about apostrophes these days?

Grammarians get very upset about the Grocer’s Apostrophe. They cry foul and lament the decline of language and standards in public life.

But language is about communication.

I’ve grown up with the Grocer’s Apostrophe. It hasn’t impeded my vegetable buying efforts. In fact I feel quite nostalgic about it. So I say let it stand……but only in the green grocers’.

I don’t recommend using the Grocer’s Apostrophe in your sales copy or article writing. Iit gives conflicting messages. They confuse people. Confusion is best avoided when talking to customers (as it is when looking after babies!).

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 Posted by Juliet Fay at 11:01 am  Tagged with: ,

When to use capitals in headlines and subheads

 Marketing, Style  No Responses »
Mar 292012
 

Once upon a time in olde England we used to say thou and shalt. We don’t anymore. Language and style evolve. Yesterday I had a discussion with associates in Canada, about capital letters in headlines.

In my article writing, I use sentence case. That means I only use a capital at the beginning of the heading or subheading. And for proper nouns like names of people and places. It’s the same way I use capitals in an ordinary sentence.

Lets take an example. When you use sentence case in a headline, it looks like this:

Why black cabs in London are iconic

The first word has a captial letter and the place name London does too. Yesterday, during our discussion, I realised others take a different view!

Jack uses capitals all through his headlines and subheads, but not for every word. So he would write the same headline like this:

Why Black Cabs in London Are Iconic

This is known as title case. All the main words in the title have a capital letter.

Notice the in doesn’t have a capital letter. Words of less than 3 letters generally don’t start with a capital letter, even when you use title case.

So who’s right?

Both of us! A quick check online reveals that there is only one rule. And that is, be consistent! Neither style is right. Fashions change. It used to be, book titles used title case. Articles in journals and magazines generally did not.

Today some newspapers like The New Yorker use title case, others don’t. If you glance across the titles of the books on your bookshelves, you’ll see a wide variety of styles including no capitals at all, ALL UPPERCASE, and a MIX of UPPERCASE and lowercase.

I took the decision to drop title case because I found it hard to be consistent. Words like and made me trip. To capitalise or not? And always looks funny with a capital letter, even at the beginning of a sentence!

There was good reason to use title case in headlings before it was easy to change formatting. Capital letters made a headline or subhead stand out from the body of the text.

Now we can easily embolden, colour and enlarge our headline or subhead. It stands out. The capital letters on top, just make it look cluttered. Sentence case looks cleaner.

So the decision is yours. Use title case or don’t. Just stick to one golden rule, thou shalt be consistent!

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 Posted by Juliet Fay at 11:07 am  Tagged with: ,

Why a contract butcher is worth his weight in gold when you set up direct selling meat

 Direct selling farm produce, Farm Diversification, Marketing  No Responses »
Mar 122012
 

I remember when we first tasted our home reared organic meat. As the bacon fried in the pan we oohhed and aaahed because NO yucky white liquid came oozing out of the bacon. This was going to be good. We made a big thing of sitting down with our plates of bacon and sausage, admiring the evenly sized, plump sausages, beautifully browned, the rind on the dry cured bacon, crisped to perfection. We slowly raised our forks for that first mouthful.

That first mouthful. I still remember the taste. Ahh heavenly. We’d never tasted such fine bacon or such succulent sausages. The sense of achievement was intoxicating. Well of course it was going to taste amazing wasn’t it because we’d reared the meat ourselves? All the care and hard work that had gone into choosing the breed, getting the right feed, setting up the outdoor paddocks. All that work was gloriously justified in that first delicious mouthful.

It might not have been like that.

We might have tried cutting up the pork ourselves, found a recipe for bacon and sausage and had a bash at making our own. Then our reaction might have been a little dampened by the chunky mis-shapen rashers cut without a meat slicer by our amateurish selves. It’s likely that a first attempt at curing bacon could have gone awry leaving us with over salty cured meat. As for sausages, there’s so much that can go wrong, turning your delicious pork into an inedible mess.

The same care would have gone into raising that meat but the lack of skill and knowledge in the processing and butchery could have led to a big disappointment.

Instead we used a superb contract butcher, Amberley Vale Foods.

What is a contract butcher?

A contract butcher provides butchery services, particularly for farmers wanting to direct sell their own meat. They either charge per kilo, or they may charge by carcass weight range. Some abattoirs, wholesale butchers (usually supplying independent retailers), high street butchers and even other farmers, may offer cutting services to other producers.

Surely it’s easy to learn butchery skills?

Why would you use a contract butcher?

Butchery takes precision and practice. It is a skill you have to learn. A totally different skill from farming. For any product, presentation is crucial but for meat in particular if you want to get a good price then please don’t take short cuts with the butchery.

A skilled butcher can take an unpromising hunk of meat and turn it into appetising, ready to cook chops, roasting joints and diced casserole cubes. They make it look easy. It isn’t.

You could save a ton of money if you set up your own cutting room

It’s true you could save on cutting charges and you would have more control. Many producers ultimately do set up their own cutting room. But when you’re starting out, you get so much more than a cutting service from a contract butcher.

As well as the best presentation for your meat, you get valuable feedback on the quality of your carcass. For instance over-fat pigs produce bacon with a thick rind which most consumers don’t want. Butchers are very fussy about the quality of meat they take in from the abattoirs so you can learn so much from a butcher’s critique of your carcasses.

At the other end of the process, a butcher will have trusted suppliers for labels and packaging. All these contacts will be invaluable for you when you set up your own cutting room.

In the meantime it can help reduce up front costs if you pay the butcher to package your meat. This saves you having to bulk purchase packaging if your throughput is small. Again you can learn so much from how the butcher lays the meat on the trays, which type of packaging he uses and even where he puts the label.

If you form a good relationship with your butcher, he may let you watch him cut up the meat. When you do set up your own cutting room, this will give you a standard to aim for.

Until or unless you can achieve a similar standard, why would you want to take all that trouble. Many contract butchers are worth their weight in gold? And especially if you find a skilled one.

What butchery skills can you expect from a contract butcher?

At the highest level you have Q Guild butchers. For these guys butchery becomes an art form. You would be lucky to find a Q Guild butcher offering contract cutting services. They are usually working in top end High Street butchers. The simplest solution is to use your abattoir’s cutting services.

Using a cutting service at the abattoir makes life easier for you. You can deliver the animals and collect finished product from the same place. If you use a butcher elsewhere you need to agree who pays for transport of the carcass from the abattoir.

Expect to pay more for any additional processing such as sausage making. Curing bacon requires specialist equipment. Our contract butcher was a bacon and sausage specialist. He supplied top end independent retailers in London from his industrial unit in Gloucestershire.

What about white meat, like poultry?

Poultry butchery is another distinct skill area. You may find it more difficult to get contract cutting services for poultry. It’s best to ask at the abattoir. Just as there are good farmers and poor farmers, butchery skills vary too.

Not all cutting services are the same. You will get better quality and service from a business that promotes cutting services and is used to dealing with farmers.

Make best use of a contract butcher when you first set up

We were lucky to find Amberley Vale Foods, a family run business whose owner took us under his wing. He helped us produce better pigs and his butchery skills wowed our customers from our very first market. He even gave us a bottle of champagne when our first child was born.

Don’t inflict amateur butchery skills on your customers.

Go away and enrol in classes to learn how to do it properly. In the meantime a contract butcher will give you the professional presentation of your meat that will help you win sales and favour. The added benefit of using a contract butcher is that you can learn so much from them abut butchery, packaging and labelling which will be of huge benefit when you do set up your own cutting room.

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If you’re a farm enterpreneur, looking at direct selling meat, then save yourself a ton of time and money by getting advice from someone who can tell you what pitfalls to avoid and how to market your products and turn customers into raving fans. Get marketing advice from Juliet Fay. Email me for a quote.

In the meantime for regular marketing tips for rural entrepreneurs and good links for farm retail follow me on Twitter and don’t forget to sign up for my enews (it’s free!), giving you insights into creating engaging content that lead your customers to buy more.

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 Posted by Juliet Fay at 2:16 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,
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