My 5 Top Tips To Organising Tack Sales

My final tack sale is done, for this Summer.

I will now spend time concentrating on preparing stock for The Lady Saddler online shop.

Then I will finalise preparations for the winter tack sales to start back in September 2019.

It’s taken me two years to find out what works and what doesn’t when it comes to organising tack sales.

I even wrote a blog about the five reasons why I run a monthly equine tack sale here.

If you want to organise your very own tack sale then here are my 5 top tips for doing so:

1. Find A Suitable Venue

Ideally, the venue should be on one level; warm in winter and cool in the summer.

The ideal venues are church halls, social clubs and community centres as their hourly rental is usually appropriately priced and have their own public liability insurance.

The accessibility needs to be easy, with a well lit car park being a very big bonus.

There is further revenue to be had if the venue has a kitchen facility, ideally with a hatch so you can offer hot and cold refreshments and snacks.

Obviously, the need for toilet facilities is a must and another tip is to always make sure that all rooms are left as clean and tidy as they were when you arrived.

2. Be Consistent

You have to have a routine with these sorts of events.

Having them planned here there and everywhere doesn’t always work.

If you plan them regularly on a certain day of a certain month then people get to know the pattern and remember to come.

3. Charge A Reasonable Fee

Nothing is FREE these days.

If you are organising tack sale events you still have to pay for the hourly rate of the hall.

If you are setting up, doing all the marketing and then the running of the events then if you’re not getting paid to host them then you are still paying out with your time.

This is fine if you gain an alternative benefit.

Some people arrange tack sales to raise money for charity, to sell their unwanted items and/or to showcase their small business.

Whatever the reason be sure to price your event accordingly to who you expect to attend.

I tend to charge £10 each for the hire of the tables, this guarantees enough revenue to cover the hire charges.

I charge £1 entry for everyone except children under 5. This money is then put towards the marketing literature I produce or put to charity.

The kitchen usually sells hot and cold drinks and small snacks such as cookies, cup cakes and chocolates etc, from 50p upwards.

The income from this is usually put towards the outgoing costs first with any extra being put away for a day when we don’t take as much money to cover costs.

4. Have Patience

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your tack sales.

I had to run my tack sales for two years before I knew which months to concentrate on and which venues were the best.

You’ll never earn a fortune from doing tack sales but they are fun; they raise money for charity; and you get to network or showcase your own business.

5. Be Friendly

I cannot stress the importance of this tip enough.

Even though a tack sale is not a business, it should still be organised in a professional manner; if not, it should be!

When you are asking people to part with their money, the least you can be is professional and friendly.

If anyone is rude and unfriendly to you then just smile and move on, do not ever stoop to their level of unfriendliness.

Summary

Hope this has provided you with some useful tips on how to set up your very own tack sale.

Remember, there is no right or wrong way to do anything, just ways you’ve tried and ways you haven’t yet.

If you haven’t seen what I do for a living yet then take a look over at The Lady Saddler website.