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Market Day
Collective Events Management
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Guide For organisers Version 1 |
|
Market Day
Collective Events Management
|
Guide For organisers Version 1 |
The stall fee is the one number that decides whether your day washes its face, and whether your sellers come back next year. Get it wrong in one direction and you are out of pocket. Get it wrong in the other and your sellers quietly do not apply again. This is how to work it out properly, what it has to cover, and the two checks to run before you publish it.
That is the whole of it. It is not a membership, it is not a donation, and it is not a way of balancing a budget that does not balance.
Which means the fee never rises to cover a thin day. If fewer people are coming than you hoped, raising the fee charges sellers more for less. It is the first thing a spreadsheet suggests and it is the wrong direction every time.
And the money is not yours until the day runs. If the day does not go ahead, every stall fee goes back, in full. Same for entry fees. Hold it, do not spend it on a venue deposit and hope.
There is always a stall fee. Even a community day with free entry charges something, because a fee of nothing tells a seller the spot is worth nothing, and a seller who paid turns up.
Everything else in this guide is either working out one of those three numbers properly, or deciding what to do once you have the answer.
Work through every group. Most days do not need every line, but the lines people forget are almost always in Compliance, Safety and Admin.
| Group | What sits in it |
|---|---|
| Venue | Hire fee, bond or deposit, extra hours, key or access fee, cleaning fee, damage excess |
| Compliance | Council event application, temporary food premises permit, public liability insurance, traffic management plan, noise or amplification permit |
| Amenities | Portable toilets and servicing, hand wash stations, drinking water, bins and waste collection, cleaning crew |
| Safety | First aid officer or service, first aid kit, fire extinguishers, security, RCD testing, high visibility vests |
| Site | Marquee hire, table and chair hire, generator and fuel, extension leads, fencing, matting |
| Atmosphere | Entertainment or musicians, PA hire, kids activities, decorations |
| Food and drink | Catering for volunteers, coffee cart minimum spend, urn and cups, ice, esky hire |
| Signage and print | Banners, A-frames, bunting, stall number cards, seller lapel badges, site maps, directional signs, flyers, posters |
| Marketing | Boosted posts, local paper or radio, flyer distribution, a photographer |
| Admin | Change for the float, EFTPOS hire, card processing fees, stationery, postage, fuel and travel, volunteer thank yous |
| Packdown | Cleaning crew if separate, waste removal, any make good on the venue |
| Contingency | A percentage of everything above. See the next section |
Card processing is a real cost and it is not small. Roughly 1.75% plus 30 cents a transaction. Three hundred transactions is about $150 before you have sold anything. Work it from your expected transaction count, not as an afterthought.
The float is not a cost. It is money you draw out and bank back the same afternoon. Book it as a movement with two dates, never as an expense, or your day permanently records spending money it got back.
Cash paid out on the day needs its own line. Every day with a tin has an afternoon where somebody pays someone forty dollars out of it. Two names, a reason, the amount, a signature.
Ten percent is the default and it is the line first time organisers leave out. It is the one that decides whether anybody ends up out of pocket.
Take it off cash cost lines only. Exclude anything donated and anything marked not applicable. Ten percent of a donated hall is a contingency against a risk nobody is carrying, and it quietly inflates your fee for no reason.
| Cash cost lines | $2,888 |
| Excluded: donated venue $450, donated prizes $180, two lines not applicable | $0 |
| Contingency at 10% | $289 |
Every dollar here is a dollar your sellers do not have to carry.
| Income | Note |
|---|---|
| Ticket or entry sales | By type, live. If entry is free this is zero, and your sellers are carrying the day. Say so out loud, see the fairness check |
| Donations | The donate button on your public page |
| Sponsorship | Show cash and in kind separately. In kind reduces a cost, it does not add income |
| Grants | With their acquittal date, because that is work you are taking on |
| Your own catering | Only the margin, not the turnover |
| Raffle or door prize | Net of the cost of the prize, if you bought it |
This is where most calculations go wrong. There are four different counts and only one of them belongs in the sum.
| Count | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Invitations sent | Nothing financial. It is a marketing number |
| Applications received | Nothing financial. It tells you your reach, not your income |
| Stalls accepted | The starting point, and the only one most people use |
| Stalls expected to trade | This is the one. Accepted, minus your no-show rate |
| Position | Fee | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | You fund the gap yourself. Know the number before you decide, not after |
| Break even | The figure | The day washes its face. No surplus, no shortfall, no room for anything going wrong |
| Buffered | Figure plus margin | Covers your no-show rate and gives you something to absorb a surprise. This is the sensible default |
A buffered fee is not profiteering. It is the difference between a day that survives one supplier letting you down and a day that does not.
The standard stall is 3m x 3m. That is a 10ft by 10ft plot, and it is the standard because it is the footprint of the pop up gazebo almost every seller already owns. Draw your site plan in 3m squares and most sellers will arrive with something that fits.
| Stall type | Space | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Stock stall | 3m x 3m | The standard. Anything selling physical product off tables or racks |
| Food or drink | 3m x 3m minimum, often 3m x 6m | Needs room behind for prep, a hand wash station, and somewhere to stand that is not in front of a hot surface. Compliance gated |
| Service or booking | 3m x 3m, screened or cornered | Massage, hair, photography. Anything where somebody sits still and would rather not be watched |
| Pre loved | 3m x 3m, or a car boot bay | Second hand, clear outs, trash and treasure |
| Workshop stall | 2m x 3m, or 3m x 3m with depth | A display at the front and three or four stools behind, where the seller teaches a fifteen minute thing |
| Awareness or lead stall | 3m x 3m, or 2m x 2m indoors | A website, an app, a local service, a trade. Nothing sold on the day. They are collecting names, not taking money |
| Small or information stall | One trestle, about 1.8m x 0.8m, in 2m x 2m | A community group, a sign up table, a raffle table. It does not need a gazebo |
| Community or not for profit | Usually 3m x 3m, often a trestle | A school club, a charity, a local group. Present rather than selling, and priced at or near nothing |
| Showcase spot | A share of one long table | Not a stall. A seller from afar who is not there in person |
| Unmanned brochure slot | About 30cm on a shared table | A physical presence with nobody standing there. A brochure holder, a card stack, a sign with a code. Minded by a volunteer |
Every other type on this list assumes somebody selling something. An awareness stall lets a trade, a service or a local organisation take a spot without pretending to be a market seller. They pay for the crowd, the same as everyone else, and they should be priced accordingly.
Set one base fee and express every other tier as a ratio of it. That way, when your costs move, you change one number and every tier moves with it. Working out six separate prices by hand is how tiers drift out of proportion.
| Tier | Suggested | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Stock stall, 3m x 3m | Base, 1.0 | Everything else is priced against this |
| Pre loved, service, workshop | 1.0 | Same footprint, same access to the crowd |
| Food or drink with power | 1.4 to 1.6 | More space, more power, more compliance handling, and usually the highest takings of the day |
| Double site, 3m x 6m | 2.0 | Two plots is two plots |
| Awareness or lead stall | 0.8 | Full footprint but no takings on the day. Still paying for the crowd |
| Small or information, 2m x 2m | 0.6 | Less space, less prominence |
| Showcase spot | 0.4 | A share of a table, and nobody standing there |
| Unmanned brochure slot | 0.25 | Thirty centimetres and a volunteer's attention |
| Community or not for profit | 0, or near it | They are part of why people come. Charge nothing, or a token |
| Early bird | 0.85 | With a real cutoff date. It buys you certainty early, which is worth the discount |
The ratios above are a starting point, not a rule. Adjust them to your day, then keep them fixed across tiers so nobody can argue they were treated differently.
Per seller overrides exist and should be recorded on the invitation, not agreed in a message and remembered. If you waive a fee for someone, the day's income projection has to know.
| Costs | |
| Venue, donated | $0 |
| Public liability insurance | $220 |
| Power, extension leads and RCD testing | $140 |
| Cleaning and waste | $180 |
| Print: stall cards, name tags, signage, posters | $160 |
| First aid kit and extinguisher check | $60 |
| Card processing, 310 transactions at 1.75% plus 30c | $150 |
| Admin, travel and volunteer thank yous | $90 |
| Cash costs | $1,000 |
| Contingency, 10% of cash cost lines | $100 |
| Total costs | $1,100 |
| Income that is not stall fees | |
| Entry, free | $0 |
| Donations, expected | $120 |
| Sponsorship, cash | $150 |
| Non stall income | $270 |
| Left for stalls to carry | $830 |
| Stalls | |
| Accepted | 28 |
| No-show rate, 10% | 3 |
| Expected to trade | 25 |
| Break even fee, $830 divided by 25 | $33 |
| Buffered, plus 15% | $38 |
With a base of $38, a food stall with power is $57, a 2m x 2m information stall is $23, a showcase spot is $15, and a community group pays nothing. Every one of those moves automatically the next time a cost changes.
A seller needs to take roughly five times the fee before the day feels worth doing, once they have counted their stock, their fuel and a whole day of their life. Run the number before you publish.
And where entry is free, turn it around and say the quiet part out loud:
A seller will ask why they pay when the shoppers do not. Have the answer ready rather than improvising it on the day.
If the answer is "that is a stretch", there are only ever three levers. Pull one, do not raise the fee.
1. Drop the fee. Work out what the shortfall is and what would cover it. Dropping $38 to $32 across 25 stalls costs $150, which is about twenty more people through the gate.
2. Add non stall income. A small entry fee, a raffle, one sponsor, a donate button. Every dollar here comes straight off the stall fee.
3. Cut a cost line. Look at your biggest three. Marquee hire when the hall has trestles is the classic one.
Put the honest numbers on the application: how many people the day expects, how many stalls, and what that means per stall.
A seller who takes a stall knowing it is a small first year day is a seller who came in with their eyes open, priced their stock for it, and is not angry afterwards. A seller who was told it would be busy is a seller you have lost, and they were the one who could have brought three more next year.
Nothing if there is nothing. It is a real call on the surplus, so put it in your sums while you are sketching rather than discovering it at close.
Fill this in once your cost lines are drafted. If you do not know a figure yet, write the guess and circle it, so you can see later which numbers were real.
| Total cash costs | |
| Contingency percentage | |
| Contingency amount | |
| A. Total costs | |
| Ticket or entry income | |
| Donations | |
| Sponsorship, cash only | |
| Grants | |
| Own catering margin, raffle, other | |
| B. Non stall income | |
| C. Left for stalls to carry, A minus B | |
| Stalls accepted | |
| No-show rate you are assuming | |
| D. Stalls expected to trade | |
| Break even fee, C divided by D | |
| Buffer percentage | |
| Your base stall fee | |
| Fairness check: base fee times five | |
| Is that realistic for your sellers? |
| Tier | Ratio | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Stock stall, 3m x 3m | 1.0 | |
| Food or drink with power | ||
| Double site, 3m x 6m | ||
| Service, pre loved, workshop | ||
| Awareness or lead stall | ||
| Small or information, 2m x 2m | ||
| Showcase spot | ||
| Unmanned brochure slot | ||
| Community or not for profit | ||
| Early bird, closes |
| 1 | Divide by stalls expected to trade, not stalls accepted
The single most common error, and it under-prices the day by exactly your no-show rate. |
| 2 | Run the times five check and answer it honestly
If it is a stretch, pull one of the three levers. Do not publish and hope. |
| 3 | Put the real numbers on the seller application
Expected attendance, stall count, and visitors per stall. Sellers who know what they are buying come back. |
| 4 | Remember whose money it is
Not yours until the day runs. If it does not happen, every fee goes back in full. |