We're having our second try at our outdoor rummage in May. Our flyer is on line at the following link and has most of the approved School legal-ese on it:
www.southmilwaukee.org/lakeview/2003Rummage.pdf
I would try and hold this event when something else going on near your school or if there is a community festival week in your town that you can draw customers from.
In our case, it's Little League Opening Day and our school is only two blocks from the park. LOTs of customers! The only glitch may be the weather - as we have it outside - and in the Upper Midwest it could actually snow!!
Our biggest obstacle (and expense) has been advertising. 2002 was our first year. I hand made rummage signs and paid for a column ad in our local paper (total costs $100). We only made $250 in profit, but for a first time, that was fine with me. All the booth renters had great profits and had more than good things to say about our event because we had tons of customers due to the LL opening day.
THIS YEAR - Since newspaper ads in our city are mega-bucks, and only 15% of our community subscribes, we opted to take our profits from last year and spend it on 50 quality signs on aluminum wires, (the kind used during elections) that will be put around town 1 week prior to the rummage. ($200).
This year, we're adding a concession stand (hopefully more profit for us), and I'm trying to focus on more crafters to come and sell. I have been contacted by a bee keeper - who wants to sell her award winning honey and a girl scout troop who is buying two booths to sell household items for their projects. I have also gone to local craft fairs to "pitch" this idea to crafters and handed them a flyer.
I have also let the local Chamber of Commerce know about this and any small business owner who will listen, to come and sell their wares at our rummage. I'm trying to get our local lawn & garden center owner to come rent a booth and give live consultations on lawn care.
To entice volunteers to help, we give them free booth IF they will work a two our commitment in any aspect of the rummage (set up, concession, tear down, etc).
One problem we encountered this year - THREE tupperware reps wanted booths. We installed the policy that school volunteers get first shot, then the community on a first come-first serve basis.
(whew) is that enough ideas to get you going? If not, my e-mail is on the flyer.
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