Oops, I missed last week’s post.
Did any of you even notice?
Sometimes it feels like I’m writing into the void.
And then I have to remind myself that I write for myself and all of you here are just a way to keep myself accountable to doing the things I said I would do.
The last couple of weeks have been intense.
I started a little food business. Mostly teaching cooking workshops on preparing Asian food. It’s had some success but I needed to expand my audience base.
So when I was invited to participate in an event (Kawaii/anime/Otaku themed), I thought it might be a good opportunity to promote my workshops and events, as well as get the word out about food for delivery.
I decided to sell dumplings and fried rice at the event…
which meant I had to make dumplings.
I spent most of the 10 days leading up to the event making an endless number of dumplings.
I think my final count was 734 or something to that effect.
I was impressed with myself.
But also, it’s a fuckton of work.
And guess what?
I only ended up selling less than half the dumplings I made at the event. My guess is that I sold about 30-40% of the total number of dumplings I made.
I had predicted that I would sell out.
Not even close.
It just goes to show.
Show what? Well, many things.
Things don’t ever go according to plan. Plan accordingly. I expected to sell many more dumplings than I have currently sold so now I’m dealing with what to do with all my unsold dumplings lol.
People will lie to sell you stuff. Take it with a grain (or huge, heaping handful) of salt. — The event organizers told me they were expecting footfall of 1000 people per day for the 2-day event. In my estimation, the total number of people who actually attended the event was maybe 500. Over two days.
People will say one thing, and do another. This was a rookie mistake on my part. I should have known better, because it’s something that has been true…forever. Many people told me they were going to show up for the event and never did.
The people who show up for you, they’re the real ones. On the flip side of #4, there were people who said they were going to show up, and show up they did. I had one friend make a 1hr journey simply because he promised he was going to show up and show up he did.
Be prepared to change and adapt. On Sunday evening, when sales were not going well, I had the idea to take my dumplings to the people — i.e. walk over to the main plaza (5 min away) to sell the dumplings. But I didn’t act on this quickly enough, and missed out on the opportunity.
Get help. The reason why I missed out on the opportunity in #5 was that I was mainly running the show alone. Apart from being kinda lonely (and mentally and physically exhausting), I couldn’t be at two places at once so… I had to choose where to be: at the booth with all my stuff, or out on the street selling my dumplings. Asking for (and receiving) help is hard for me, and I guess it’s something I’ll need to work more on if this *gestures vaguely* is going to work out.
Everything is a learning experience. I always knew that the food business was tough, but I don’t think I realized how difficult it was until I tried to sell dumplings at this event. It’s physically so demanding and gosh, I don’t know if I could do it again (anytime soon).
There will be incredible moments that make it worth it. For me, this was on Saturday evening when a lady came up with her son to buy some dumplings. They made their purchase, went away, and returned a few minutes later, the lady looking really thrilled. Her son (who was at this point chomping away with a mouth full of food and grinning), had apparently never eaten any seafood in his life. The smell of it turned him off and he had refused to eat seafood — till he tried a dumpling. He was loving it and she was so excited that her son had finally tried some seafood. It made my day that my humble creation could create this effect in people and in that moment, it felt like making 734 dumplings was worth it. Still feels worth it, for that moment.
Logistics can be a nightmare. I’m grateful I had friends who helped me with some of the logistics because starting a food business can be a huge investment. I’m glad I saved some by borrowing stuff from friends, because otherwise, this who venture would have been even more of a $ suck than it was.
Whatever your price is, there will be people who pay, and there will be people who complain. For the event, I was selling 3 dumplings for 65 pesos. Nobody complained about the price or said anything about it being expensive. The day after the event, I dropped the price to 50 pesos for 3 dumplings to move more product. At this lower price, I had someone say it was really expensive.
Never underestimate the power of an invitation. About half the time I made a sale, it was because I made the invitation to try some dumplings. Sending private messages, posting on social media, and even simply saying “hello! would you like to try some dumplings?” opens up the conversation and people are more often curious but hesitant to ask or try — until they have an invitation.
I’ll wrap up my reflections here — this has been a whirlwind, the past few weeks. I feel like I need a week to decompress (and maybe a massage).
But I’ve also got to take advantage of the momentum this event has generated and keep going?
Guess I’m in my food business era for now?
Lolloll a lot of unanswered questions here. I don’t have answers, really. But it’s been interesting so far.
In any case, I’m here for the ride. Let’s see where this takes me. :)
If nothing else, that’s one thing I’m good at — going along for the ride.
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P.S. If you’re wondering how many days in a row I can eat dumplings, the count is now 4.