Horwood Market
2 June 2018 marked Soul-ution’s 4th appearance at the popular Horwood Market, which is based at Horwood Farm in Edenvale, Johannesburg.
The market takes place on the first Sunday of every month and has been well attended to date, with between 8500 – 9500 people passing through the Horwood gates each Sunday.
I was always against doing markets and thought to myself that it just wasn’t for me and it’s not how I wanted to get the Soul-ution name out there. In my mind, I was going to sell online only. Until one day, a colleague said, “May I ask, why don’t you sell your stuff at markets?”
It was like a ton of bricks hit me and I was like, “Why the heck am I not doing markets?”
Shortly thereafter, I managed to secure a spot at the first Horwood market and will now present Soul-ution for the 5th time on 1 July 2018.
The one thing I didn’t realise, but was warned about, was how much hard work goes into prepping for market day.
Monday to Friday evenings before market day is spent frantically trying to finish off pieces to make sure my stand stands out. The Saturday before is an early wake up, with loads of coffee and tea throughout the day, dashing out to get final supplies and wondering if I will ever have fingerprints again from all the sanding.
Saturday evening doesn’t normally slow down, but by midnight, freshly varnished items are left to dry, trailers are packed, personal trinkets for display are boxed, rock roses are loaded, and bubble wrap is tucked nicely away, ready to transport home one of my beloved products.
Sunday wake up is around 06:30.
Final touches are added, and last-minute nails and a screw driver are shoved into one of the boxes somewhere…just in case 😊
The rest is kind of history.
For me, having a stall at a market is what I reckon it must be like to have a kid; it’s flippen hard work behind the scenes, that not most people get to see, but getting even the smallest form of love from a passer-by like “J, how cool is this!”, is enough to justify the hours and energy that goes into having a stall on market day.
I am so thankful for each of my customers to date, so if you are an existing buyer of Soul-ution products and you’re reading this, thank you for your business! And to future customers, I look forward to recognising you on market day!
Yours in Soul-utions,
Tanya
