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How to Start a Roadside Produce Stand: $1,000 a Weekend Flipping Peaches (Greatest Hits)
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- [00:00]
Podcast Host (Ad Read)
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- [00:50]
Shannon Houchen
Shannon Houchen here with Roadside Republic. I took a load of peaches this past weekend for Memorial Day and we generated $5,000 in gross sales and what that means at the end of the weekend we have a net profit of three grand.
- [01:07]
Nick Loper
This is the Side Hustle show, the business podcast you can actually apply. I'm your host Nick Loper, and today we're going to learn about roadside produce stands. Yes, you just heard From Shannon from roadsiderepublic.com she reached out to me. She said, nick, you've got episodes on flipping books and mattresses and clearance products and domain names and flea market fines and a ton of other stuff, but have I got a side Hustle for you. I flip peaches. So of course I had to call her up to learn more. Turns out she's been doing this for 10 years, eventually operating up to 100 roadside stands at once. But whether you're looking for a way to make extra money on the weekend or scale up to something larger, stick around in this one because we're going to cover your pricing and supplier relationships, the best places to set up your stand, and some of the common mistakes to avoid. Your free listener bonus this week is my list of the 20 plus best other items to flip for a profit. Your you can download that for free at the Show Notes page for this episode@sidehustlenation.com Peaches Once again, that big list of the best items to flip for a profit is at Sidehustlenation.com peaches or just follow the Show Notes link in the episode description of your podcast app. I'll be back after this chat with Shannon. Ready? Let's do it.
- [02:21]
Shannon Houchen
The reason I chose Peaches is because it makes people happy and it honestly doesn't matter what you charge for that product. If you can make the customer happy with that peach, and it's sugary and sweet and it smells good, and they go home with just this level of satisfaction that they can't get anywhere else. Like in a grocery store environment. It is the easiest thing in the world to sell. And I do teach people and I do sell other hard goods, but I find that nothing puts a smile on a consumer's face quicker than a good peach. It sounds silly, but it's legitimate.
- [02:57]
Nick Loper
That's fair. Now, I don't know if I have any peach orchards near me, and people may be listening in from all over the country, all over the world. So I'm in Washington, which is, like the apple capital of, really, the world. And it reminds me of my parents who have. Who they call their apple crisp dealer who sets up shop in the summer. And I don't know if she's there every day, but certainly on the weekends. And selling these honeycrisp apples, like the best apple that you can get. But it's still, like, probably a couple hundred miles from where they're at to the orchards in eastern Washington. It's like, are these. Does it have to be local? Does it have to be nearby? I'm trying to think of what might work for people, trying to get this set up.
- [03:37]
Shannon Houchen
So, no, the product does not have to be local. Let's say local is within 100 miles. The answer is no, the product doesn't have to be. I would consider myself a peach curator, you know, a peach broker, you know, buying peaches and then reselling them. And I bring peaches in from all over the US Because I've spent my time really sampling peaches from all over the country. And the peaches do have different flavor profiles. I mean, as odd as that sounds, peaches have different flavor profiles, and that's dependent upon the climate that they're grown in, you know, the soil, the amount of water that they get, et cetera. And now I know where the best peaches in the country are. So when I can curate a product like that and bring it direct to a consumer who's in my vicinity, say, within 100 miles of me, that then is one more element in my sales toolbox, you know, to make really high, frequent, good sales and create these raving customers. So I'll bring in peaches from Colorado. I'll bring in peaches from Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, some California stuff. Peaches are even grown in Florida and New Jersey. They're grown Everywhere. And again, it's, it's having that ability to know what's really good and fresh and having the education and the expertise to bring them in and then, and then resell them to the customer and provide that education direct to them. So then they become an authority. Right. Not only do they have this amazing tasting peach, but then they can become authority and tell all of their friends, well, this is, you know, a Colorado Palisades peach and you normally can't get those, but the peach dealer down the street, which would be me, you know, brought these from, had these shipped in from Colorado. It's a little more costly for sure. Especially today, this summer. Right. With inflation, the cost of shipping and trucking is more expensive. So the price of peaches have gone up. But it doesn't matter. If I can provide this level of expertise and authority and education to the consumer and a superior product, they will roll with the price increase.
- [05:52]
Nick Loper
What was it like setting up relationships with these orchards and suppliers?
- [05:58]
Shannon Houchen
It is a very personal connection. It's a very personal relationship. It's not faceless at all. All of the orchards, I would say, yeah, pretty much all of them are still family owned, even the big ones in South Carolina. So they're owned by real people. And you, me brokers, go and meet with the owners of the orchard and you develop a very personal relationship with them. And it's a, it's a long term commitment because it is hard to get in with the growers and get that commitment to, you know, part of their harvest. Because peaches start harvesting in Memorial Day and then they stop typically around Labor Day. And so the season is over the course of the summer and there's a limited amount of harvest. Right. And so developing that very personal relationship where you can commit to, I'll take this much of an inventory, right. Of your, of your, your harvest and then be able to resell it. So knowing meeting the growers, knowing the other brokers who are in the business, knowing the wholesalers, it's all a very personal relationship. And the health of that relationship is really based on one, on one connection and conversation, you know, doing what you say you're going to do and kind of having a passion about produce. Yeah, you got to have a passion for the produce business in order to be moving this level of product.
- [07:29]
Nick Loper
I remember talking with Peter Askew from Vidaliaonions.com and he mentioned a lot of the same things, like showing up in person to the growers association, connecting with the farmers one on one. And then something that he said Was funny because he started with the domain name, having no background in agriculture or anything, just I thought it'd be cool to sell onions on the Internet. Ended up setting this drop shipping business that was really creative. But he was like, what if you're talking to the grower or talking to the farmer? What happens if this thing blows up? Are you going to have enough onions? And he's like, sir, we supply all of these grocery stores. You are a small fraction of our overall business. That's cute that you thought that, but we're going to be fine. I'm thinking because we had cherries and it was. It was even more seasonal, right? It was just like May in Brentwood, you know, near Livermore, where we used to live. And, you know, you go up there and you go do the you pick thing with the kids. And it was a ton of fun. We did it for years. But you'd see other people, you know, with buckets and buckets and buckets of cherries. And then you'd see people setting up the roadside stands back in town and, you know, with a little bit of an upcharge. And so do you try and negotiate, you know, a wholesale price, even if you are kind of that like solo how to do that? I'm going to start super low risk. I'm going to start like, I'll go do the you pick thing. Maybe it's like blue bear berries near you, or maybe it's apples or peaches or cherries or something near you, and then bring those back into town and set up shop. But you try and negotiate that pricing beforehand or just say, whatever, I'll pay the you pick retail.
- [08:57]
Shannon Houchen
I don't ever go to the you pick places because nothing wrong with them. That's just more labor involved. My preference is to always, always negotiate directly with the grower, the farmer, the orchard first, because you'll get the best price there. And a little hack, a little secret that a lot of people don'. Know about produce is there's actually. It's becoming more prevalent now. You will see subscription boxes that offer ugly fruit or ugly produce or seconds.
- [09:29]
Nick Loper
Oh, yeah, imperfect produce.
- [09:30]
Shannon Houchen
Imperfect produce. And those are what's called in the produce business as seconds. So growers and farmers will have produce that's really beautiful and pretty and appealing and the right color and smooth skin that's sold to the grocery stores. The stuff that's modeled or pitted or discolored, that's called second seconds. And those go to wholesalers and brokers. So you can get, you can get the same produce, it's just not as pretty. And the prices are drastically lower on the seconds than they are on the firsts. Now the seconds, those are kind of reserved. There's you know, limited quantities of those typically are consumed with local wholesalers or brokers within proximity to the orchards. For example, like way out here in Texas, I can't get seconds from Georgia or South Carolina because it's not affordable or practical to ship seconds as far out. So they'll just send firsts out here. So the cost is higher to me, but the superiority is great. The freshness is good and it's packaged really well. So that's what we get here in Texas. From all over the country we could get seconds. Locally we do have orchards in Texas. Not, not as many because it's so dry here. But seconds are available to us in Texas. So that's a, that's a local hack for people who are running roadside stands and dealing with produce. And that can increase your margin. Right, because you're getting your products for such more cost effective prices.
- [11:03]
Nick Loper
Yeah. Is there a rule of thumb in terms of pricing to the eventual retail price that you want to charge? Like what do you want the margin to be?
- [11:13]
Shannon Houchen
My comfort zone legitimately dealing with produce is three times what I'm paying at wholesale. That's the target for me because that puts in enough padding for anything that comes up. Say I don't know, half the batch of peaches go bad. Well, if I'm at least doing three times what wholesale is, I've got some padding built in where I'm not going to be hit quite as hard. But, but at the end of the day the, the what I tell, what I tell people when they're looking at how do you price what your, what your products are, how do you price what your peaches are? It does pay to go do your consumer research. So looking at the price ranges between Walmart for example, because a lot of times Walmart will be below wholesale cost on things, isn't that crazy? Right. On things like watermelon. But they're doing it as loss leaders. Right. They're getting you in the store to buy a four dollar watermelon when it wholesale it's costing me $6.50. So I cannot compete with Walmart. However, it's smart to know what their prices are. So we want to go from the, the bottom of the price range, which would be Walmart, to the highest which would be maybe Whole Foods or Wegmans or Central Market, depending on what part of the country you're in. So you want to know what that price range is. Just to be able to acknowledge a protest or an obstacle or any kind of argument from a consumer. And then at the end of the day, we price it for what it's worth. And what I tell people is never, never underestimate the power of creating a good story around what you sell. Because if you have the story, the background, and the history behind the peaches, for example, you can basically charge whatever you want. And so we cultivate this practice of storytelling, selling in all of our roadside stands. And that's where we develop like a whole cheat sheet around what type of varietal of peach is this? Where was it grown? What's the name of the farm? Who are the owners of the farm? What's the soil like? What's the varietal name? What's the flavor? I mean, we know everything about it. And when you do that for your customer, they do not fuss about price. So for sure, we are the highest anywhere, maybe in the state of Texas for what we charge on our peaches. But people leave happy and they come back over and over again. On our Facebook business page, the comments are just constant. Best peaches I've ever had. Most delicious watermelon. Oh my gosh, you guys know what you're talking about. So it's that level of expertise and service that will enable you to charge more. So we never compete with Walmart or Costco or anybody like that.
- [14:09]
Nick Loper
Yeah, that's helpful because I think, yeah, if you were doing price comparison shopping, well, crap, I could just go to Walmart and get this stuff. I mean, is, is there such thing as flipping the peaches straight from Walmart or the water, you know, taking Those loss leader $4 watermelons straight from Walmart and coming and doing it? It's like that.
- [14:26]
Shannon Houchen
Yeah, you, I mean, it's a, it's a practical alternative. So if I were to get the watermelo. Walmart.
- [14:33]
Nick Loper
True.
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Shannon Houchen
Because they're lower than what I'm paying on my wholesale cost. The danger becomes in that you got to know where they're from. Right. So if you, if you can detect where Walmart's getting their watermelons.
- [14:47]
Nick Loper
Yeah, yeah.
- [14:47]
Shannon Houchen
You know, and you know how fresh they are. So they're two, they're two big pitfalls. They're just knowing where they're coming from, how fresh they are, like how long they've been in cold storage. For example, like watermelons, they do not ripen after they're picked. So the Level of sweetness they are when they're harvested is the level of sweetness they will always be. Peaches do ripen, really.
- [15:11]
Nick Loper
Okay. So there's no sense of just leaving it on the counter waiting for it to get better.
- [15:15]
Shannon Houchen
No, not watermelons. Not watermelons. You can do that with cantaloupe, but you can't do it with watermelons. And peaches will ripen after they're picked as well. So you just have to know, and that pays. So going back to the personal relationships with the growers, right, and the farmers and the wholesalers, if you can identify when it is harvested, that helps you out a lot because it gives you the lead time on your product. So when I get peaches, I know a pick date, and then from pick date, I know I have to move these peaches in five days before they're too overripe. And so if you're getting something from like Walmart, you won't have that luxury. You won't know what your lead time is before it starts to get too ripe.
- [16:00]
Nick Loper
Right. Okay, that's all very helpful. And as long as you can craft that story and the narrative. And it's the same thing in really any business, but especially in food and wine, it's like, oh, yeah, you can go get the bottle of Two Buck Chuck, or you can pay $100 a bottle for this Napa label with the story and the soil and everything that went into it.
- [16:21]
Shannon Houchen
Exactly.
- [16:22]
Nick Loper
Okay, so let's say I've got my orchard target. I've had a conversation. Do you have any special requirements to call yourself a wholesaler or I guess a reseller to say, can I get wholesale pricing in that initial phone call or email outreach or in person visit to say, I'm Nick, I would like to resell your peaches, Mr. And Mrs. Farmer. What? Just I think like, is there a template that you use or something?
- [16:52]
Shannon Houchen
Each state will have certifications and requirements for, you know, the sale of produce. Check with the state, of course, to see what requirements are. If you're just straight up going to flip, flip produce and not operate your own retail stores, check to see what those requirements are.
- [17:07]
Nick Loper
Would a roadside stand count as a retail store?
- [17:09]
Shannon Houchen
It technically is, but so business licensing, produce, any hard, any retail business is going to have requirements in the state and then in the city. And knowing what those requirements are in terms of business licensing and permitting is one of the first things people want to do. And especially around produce, you just have to know because then you start getting into health department requirements. So the first thing I tell people is go. If you're going to open roadside stands in your city, you go to the zoning department and you check with them to see what is required. And we call ourselves with roadside stands, we call ourselves seasonal vendors. Some municipalities or states will call us itinerant vendors because we're mobile peddlers, because again, it's mobile. So you want to check on those mobile licenses. And it really does depend on the city and state what is required. Some may require you to have a business license, some may not. Some may require you to have a permit, and some may not. For example, with us here in Texas, because it is whole produce and I'm not processing anything, I don't have to have a permit from the city because I'm just selling whole unaltered produce. So I do have to have. If I'm on another retail property, I just do have to have an agreement. It's, you know, your typical landlord, leasee type agreement, you know, for a spot, if it's not on my property. But some states I've been in, like North Carolina, South Carolina, the cities do require you to have permits, and they're fairly inexpensive. You know, $50, you know, 60, 75, a hundred dollars that will carry you across a season. Some places want you to renew a mobile itinerant peddler's license permit, like every 60 days. So you're just showing up to renew your permit. So that's kind of step one is just checking to see what might be required in your area. Oh, and then back to negotiating. So that's for selling retail, for retail purposes. Where I am, and when I start with the grower, when the orchard and the farmer, I know their primary question is going to be how much can I commit to their harvest. A lot of growers and farmers now are selling the majority, if not all of their harvest to wholesalers and brokers. So it's a little more challenging to get in. And the reason they do that is because they know that their whole harvest is committed. And it's committed for, you know, a certain price. So that's why it's so critical to have these personal relationships with the growers and farmers so that you can kind of edge your way in there and, and take a commitment. And it's possible to still do this and to get a, you know, as you grow from one stand, say, to 10 stands or 50 or 100, to increase your commitment, you know, for that harvest. That can still be done. It's just a little more challenging these days.
- [20:14]
Nick Loper
So it's so tricky with, with being seasonal and perishable and like trying to line everything up.
- [20:21]
Shannon Houchen
Yeah. And it pays to have backup relationships with other brokers and wholesalers. I have some really good relationships with wholesalers in Dallas who, they'll do the hard work for me. You know, they will truck in everything. So it's coming from South Carolina, it's coming from in the southern part of the, I mean Texas is so huge, it might as well be coming from a different state. You know, stuff is coming 9, 10 hours away up to Dallas. So the wholesalers will do the hard work. And when you trust them and they're reputable and you have a good relationship with them, they will let you know this is good or it's not good.
- [21:01]
Podcast Host (Ad Read)
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- [22:20]
Nick Loper
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- [22:20]
Podcast Host (Ad Read)
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- [23:26]
Nick Loper
is there such thing as a typical minimum order? Would it be feasible for somebody who's working full time to say, sure, this sounds interesting? 2, 3, 500 bucks. Let's test this out. Is that reasonable or are you just going to kind of get laughed out the door?
- [23:42]
Shannon Houchen
No, it is reasonable. That is how a lot of people I work with. That is exactly how they start out. And I tell them, absolutely, you can start out with $200, $300, $500, and test it on the weekend before you make a huge commitment. And knowing those wholesalers in the area, it's very easy to buy those smaller quantities from them. So you can, that's definitely a plausible way to start. So you can go into, you know, a local wholesaler and get 200 worth of peaches and set up a roadside stand and probably sell those $200 worth of peaches, you know, the day of, and then you can go back. So you can, you can kind of. It's a snowball effect. Starting at a low investment level, like $200, you can snowball your way up to, you know, a much larger order until you feel comfortable and you're flipping a thousand dollars worth of worth of peaches, you know, every two days, for example, or on a weekend.
- [24:43]
Nick Loper
Yeah, talk to me about, and you mentioned this a little bit, but talk to me about the location of your stand and setting that up and getting the permissions and you know, what, like, you know, trying to find that prime spot, the busy intersection that everybody, you know, would love to be able to set up shop.
- [25:01]
Shannon Houchen
So my preferred place to locate a peach stand, for example, is in a busy convenience store parking lot. And the reason I like convenience stores is because they typically have a large amount of destination traffic. A convenience store is going to pull people in a surrounding neighborhood, say three to five miles. You know, everybody within three to five miles is going to visit that convenience store at one time or another. So they have just a constant dedicated stream of traffic, which means if you have a peach stand there, you're never going to want for a customer base.
- [25:34]
Nick Loper
And they probably don't sell peaches already.
- [25:36]
Shannon Houchen
Exactly. It's complementary to what the business does. So people are stopping there to get their beer, their smokes, their gas, their whatever, and they see a peach stand. Oh, you know, and then they come stop there, and then vice versa. People begin to search us out the peach stand, and then they stop to get gas and, you know, buy a lottery ticket or whatever they do. So it's a reciprocal relationship for the, you know, the brick and mortar business and us. And it's very cost effective to be in a parking lot like that because it's easy for consumers to get in and out, so it should be plenty of parking. There's an easy way for them to get into the convenience store parking lot. Right. And then back out. And convenience stores are usually high traffic, like I said, destination traffic and high visibility. So that's really what you want. Because even if you're just starting up, you haven't done much advertising. There are no billboards, there's no lighted signs. There's. There's nothing to let people know that, you know, you weren't there before. And all of a sudden, boom, on Memorial Day, you're. You're up and running. So you want that high visibility so that they can see line of sight, see what you're selling. And then if you have banners, which we always do that, just say peaches. You know, people, they'll do a U turn and come back around to stop. So, yeah, that's what it's. High visibility, high destination traffic, easy in and out for sure. And space for you to kind of spread out in a parking lot. Those are our big criteria that we look for.
- [27:15]
Nick Loper
Okay. And so you do walk in and talk to the manager on duty and say, I want to do this. Or you have to call like the convenience store corporate office if it's a 711 or something.
- [27:26]
Shannon Houchen
Yes. So it starts out with a personal conversation for the convenience store manager. I tend to choose, and this is my own personal belief, I like to work with mom and pop convenience stores. So the above criteria or the previous criteria we talked about with high visibility, high traffic, easy in and out, you know, parking, I then add another piece to that, which is, I want to work with mom and Pops. So I. The big chains are great, but I really try to focus on is this a locally owned convenience store? Because it helps them. As I said, it's reciprocal traffic. So they get the benefit of us being there and vice versa. And I get to pay them rent. Convenience stores in the US Are really getting squeezed out by all the big chains, you know, quit trips and stripes and I mean, they're just on and on. I've seen a huge loss in Texas of the independently owned convenience stores. So I really work to support them as much as I can and co locate with them just to have that reciprocal relationship where we both benefit. And if it's community based, that adds to my expertise and authority and my buy in. Everybody in my, you know, town knows that I'm committed to supporting local businesses. So that's an element that I add. Now I will say I've located in, in the South Kmart parking lots. I'm in the parking lot of a very busy pancake house right now in my town, which is independently owned. It's not a franchise pancake house, but it's an independently owned local pancake shop. And oh my gosh, destination traffic is huge there. I have had and do have peach stands that are out in the country. So I'm not in convenience store parking lots. I'm on grassy fields. But I'm at an extremely busy intersection with high visibility. So there's lots of variations you can do. But if you were to ask, you know, Shannon, where's the best place to go? Convenience store parking lots.
- [29:35]
Nick Loper
Okay, that's helpful. I've already got, I've already got my location in mind. I just need to know if it's a, at least it's a local. If it's a franchise, it's at least a local franchise. I was like, okay, maybe you can have a conversation.
- [29:46]
Shannon Houchen
Yes. And back to your point about if they're, if they're franchised. Yes, you can. A lot of the franchise owners, sometimes it's a local, like oil and gas group who might own that regional chain and it could be national corporate chains. So you, sometimes you do have to go up that ladder, you know, that approval ladder to get in. Which is, yeah, is worth it. So if you, if you're in a regional oil and gas group, you might get every location in their, you know, in their portfolio, which if you're looking to expand your business, could be really beneficial because you just, you're dealing with one landlord, one owner, and you have blanket approval to locate in all of their locations. So if, if that is your business goal, to open, you know, 50 roadside stands or 25 stands, that could be a really good relationship.
- [30:40]
Nick Loper
You did mention paying rent to the convenience store for use of their parking lot or a couple stalls in their parking lot. What's a typical charge there?
- [30:49]
Shannon Houchen
That can be negotiated. Historically, I have always maintained a base rate of $25 a day to the landlord, which I find is very, it's very reasonable in landlords. Some places that's a lot of money. Some places it may not be be enough, but it's a good starting place to negotiate. A lot of people I've worked with have negotiated lower depending on, you know, the locality, I guess the city and town and what the cost of living is there. But $25 is a, is a good rate and don't be afraid to negotiate some. If it's a really prime location, some landlords may ask you to pay up front, pay two months, pay the whole season. My preference in what I teach people is try to defer your costs as much as possible because that keeps your startup low. So if you can pay rent right in arrears, that's your best way to go. That's the best way to negotiate. But if it's a really prime spot, I have paid upfront several months and the whole season and I don't mind doing that if I know I can make it back. But yes, yeah, that's kind of a shoe in for you. And the landlord is, you know, you're not asking for a handout, you're not asking for something for free. You're willing to pay for, you know, the opportunity to be there and have access to their customers.
- [32:12]
Nick Loper
Right. So I'm picturing, you know, folding card table, maybe a pop up tent. I like how you mentioned like the big old banner that says peaches which, you know, I've ordered these things online. They're pretty affordable too. Anything else on the structure or the marketing side of things to you know, attract, you know, the inflatable, you know, things with the arms waving, like try to get people to stop on by
- [32:39]
Shannon Houchen
you want to be visually as attractive as possible. And the deal with roadside stands is that they are an impulse stop pretty much. I would say 80% of the people who come to your stand, your roadside stand will do so on an impulse and that's because they saw you out of the corner of their eye and they did a quick U turn and came back around. So you want your tent, your, your structure to be as visible and eye catching as possible. So we do huge banners that do that do indicate what we sell. Peaches. And basically that's all we have to do is just say peaches. We don't have to say. We also have watermelon and cantaloupe and whatever.
- [33:20]
Nick Loper
Okay.
- [33:20]
Shannon Houchen
Peaches is. That's the premium product that everyone will stop for. We do fly a lot of flags at our stand and that's because they're very colorful and you know, the wind in the stands is visually appealing. And so people will look to see what is flapping and then they'll see our banners and stop. So we do a lot of American flags. We do a lot of flags that have peaches and watermelon and sweet corn.
- [33:46]
Nick Loper
Yeah. Just being grabbing attention, you know, taking a page out of the car dealership playbook and saying, well, here's what, here's what works to grab people's eyes.
- [33:56]
Shannon Houchen
Yes. And it. With this type of business model, we don't have to overthink it. It's really not that sophisticated because you're, you are legitimately on the side of the road and you're going to be eye catching and it's an impulse stop. So just whatever you can do to grab their attention and get them to turn around and come back, that's really what we're about.
- [34:18]
Nick Loper
Yeah. And I don't, I don't have any data on this, but you know, for a while where we used to live, there's this little a frame sign that they'd stick out on the sidewalk and. And it had the microbreweries logo and it listed all of their different brews that they were making. And eventually they replaced that because people are zooming by at 40 miles an hour. They replaced that with one that just said beer tasting in huge font. And I imagine that their traffic improved after that because the first one you couldn't see unless you were standing right next to it. What actually it was. So the big old thing. Peaches delivers what it promises. Appreciate you sharing that. Don't overcomplicate it. Just let people know what you've got.
- [34:54]
Shannon Houchen
Yes, yes. And the roadside stand, it's an iconic symbol of American Midwest. Right. And even the west, for that matter. American stands have always had a special place in our hearts because it evokes the American dream and American farms. Right. American farmers and what food tastes like when it's fresh. And so people, consumers, people, us Americans, we already have this soft place in our heart, this warm, fuzzy spot for roadside stands. If anybody who's interested in this business, all they have to do is cater to that soft place, to that sentimentality for farm stands. You don't have to sell that hard. You don't have to try that hard. You don't have to make things over complicated. You know, you don't have to spend $2,000 on getting your roadside stand to look pristine and beautiful. It's just you're showing up and you're capturing somebody's attention and they're already primed for the experience. Nobody comes to the roadside stand in a bad mood. They just don't like. They don't come, like, expecting to get ripped off or being treated rudely. Everybody comes to the roadside stand and they're happy because they're already primed for the experience. And that's all based on memory and it's based on, you know, childhood and sentimentality. So I want to. I want to throw that out there so that people can understand kind of what they're dealing with and the uniqueness of this opportunity. Because I can't think of anything else, Nick, where people come already primed for the experience and they're happy.
- [36:40]
Nick Loper
Yes. I think that's a really important note to make, is, yeah, you feel good. You're supporting a small business. You know, you're probably going to pay a little bit more than you would at Walmart, but it feels better. So you're happy to do it. Yeah, yeah, I'm with you on that front. I wanted to ask what happens and maybe early on, you know, you haven't established yourself super well. People don't know to expect you in this space and you only sell through half your inventory. And now you got this bucket of peaches or whatever it is that you didn't sell, and you're like, I don't know if it's going to make it
- [37:11]
Podcast Host (Ad Read)
until next weekend before it goes bad.
- [37:13]
Nick Loper
What do you do when this stuff goes bad or other mistakes that you've seen either you know yourself over the last 10 years making or students of yours make it in this business.
- [37:23]
Podcast Host (Ad Read)
Shannon's response, plus the challenges that come with running a largely cash business and how to possibly turn a seasonal side hustle into something more. Coming up right after this. Scrappy side hustlers have an advantage over bigger competitors, and that's speed. The faster you can pick up the phone, the faster you can respond to customer messages, the better.
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Nick Loper
That's why today's episode is brought to
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- [39:42]
Shannon Houchen
So I think I have made every conceivable mistake that you could do with perishable produce. I've had warehouses full of peaches that have been on the verge of spoiling and you have to what we call cull through them. Which means you, like, you get your hands down into the cases of peaches and you pull out what we call water babies. And that's when a peachy yes. Yeah, that's when the peach is really going bad and it's just, just, you know, overripe and juicy. So anyway, we have to call those things out because they'll spoil the Rest of the case. So I've done everything conceivably that you can do with spoiled produce. I've learned just in time ordering, which is not over ordering for your business. And, and that really is an experience level issue. So you won't know that part until you like get at your stand. And that's why I advocate for kind of that snowball effect. So starting smaller is okay because then you can snowball your inventory order up day after day after day until you figure out, oh, my customer level is here, so here's what I need to order. If you do get to the point where you have more produce than you have customers, I fall back on like old marketing tactics. So I will do a scratch and dent section of my produce stand. And that's where peaches or whatever produce is on the verge. And I let people know, hey, this is a scratch and dent. And, and their thought is, oh, I know that this is not, you know, first level products. Okay, okay. And so people get it for a discount and they'll buy it in volume because, you know, at a produce stand they're probably going to can stuff, they're going to freeze it, they're going to bake with it so it doesn't have to look pristine or pretty, but they can get it in bulk at a discount. There are lots of people who will buy what we call peach mash and they will make other products with it. So the preference is to have peaches, for example, that are like almost bad but not quite bad. They're mushy. People will make ice cream and custard, people make moonshine with it. I'm not advocating that, but you see a little bit of everything. So there are ways that you can still flip produce on the verge and get your money back out of it. You may not get your full retail rate, but you can get your cost out of it.
- [42:12]
Nick Loper
Yeah, start small, scale your way up. Kind of like the day old donuts are half off and we can clearance these older ones out. And other people in physical products business in the E commerce space have said the same thing. Well, you're nervous about making that big order. It's like worst case scenario, reasonably confident. I can at least break even on it because it still has value. It's still a good as long as it's not like too far gone in this case. Any other mistakes or things that have surprised you over the last decade of doing this?
- [42:43]
Shannon Houchen
Inventory control. Inventory levels I think is probably the biggest factor with roadside stands. If you're doing perishable because you don't want to get caught out with produce that's rotting. So you want to have. That's why I really like just in time inventory. And that may be a little more work, you know, on us running a roadside stand, you know, you may have to resupply more frequently than you would with hard goods. Right. Because you can't keep peaches in the warehouse for three weeks before you sell down on that inventory. So it will require more turn, which I think is okay because the product stays really, really fresh. With roadside stands, cash is a big consideration. If you're running one stand, the majority of your sales are going to be cash. And just having your account procedures for a cash based business and how you reconcile everything at the end of the day, the month, the season, you know, executing your P and L sheets and then declaring your, you know, your income and your revenues for your, your yearly taxes. That, that's a big thing. So you want to have controls in place for cash. When we were running 100 stands, you know, we were generating a ton of cash. And so we really had to put procedures and policies in place for that much cash flow so that we could keep a handle on it and know what was going in and what was coming out.
- [44:10]
Nick Loper
Yeah. And have employees that you trust.
- [44:12]
Shannon Houchen
Yeah. And in this day and age with banking the way it is, you know, cash deposits can be an issue. And so banking relationships become important in this business, in the produce business. Because if you're, if you're depositing a large amount of cash, your bank's going to want to know what do you do?
- [44:29]
Nick Loper
They're going to raise some eyebrows.
- [44:32]
Shannon Houchen
Yeah.
- [44:32]
Nick Loper
When you walk up with $10,000.
- [44:34]
Shannon Houchen
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. No structured deposits, none of that stuff. So you got to have a good banking relationship and be able to work with your banker and let them know, hey, I run a cash based produce stand. Yeah, we will be doing cash deposits and you know, forecasting that sort of stuff. So cash and inventory. I think in the marketing part, I always ask people what their business goals are. So the cool thing about Peaches is it can be, you know, a one off side hustle. You can do it for a season and never come back to it. You can do it for 10 seasons in a row. Like we're doing it. You can just do it over a weekend. The business model can be tailored, customized to fit whatever your particular, you know, needs are, whatever that side hustler wants to do. And so you can be as small as you want or you can be as big as you want?
- [45:30]
Nick Loper
Yeah. And obviously you've gone really big with it, but yeah, it could be just a weekend thing. Do you mind me asking what you do the rest of the year? Or is it. Or is it like, I make enough selling peaches during the summer that I'm good, I don't have to work in the winter.
- [45:44]
Shannon Houchen
This has become my full time job over the last decade. I've done it seasonally, so that would be Memorial Day to Labor Day. I've sold real estate. I have a real estate license here in Texas and I do, I've been in marketing and advertising for 20 years. So I do a whole lot of freelance gigs with that. But the last two years, this has become my sole focus. And I realized after eight years of doing this, this roadside stands and doing one, doing a hundred roadside stands, that, that it's a really cool business model that nobody knows about. And what I was doing for eight years is just teaching people one on one on one. You know, like all my friends and family would say, oh, I want to sell peaches, I want to do this summer gig. I'd be like, great, come hang out with me, you know, for the summer, I'll show you what to do. And then you go off and do it on your own. And so I was teaching people how to do that, just a one on one basis. So I started putting together the bible, the blue book, the business blueprint of everything I've done the last decade, you know, from start to finish. So I documented everything and I have, you know, spreadsheets and like the little, what do I call it? Oh, business in a box. So a decade's worth of spreadsheets and specific accounting and policies and procedures for a roadside stand business.
- [47:05]
Nick Loper
Yeah. And this is all this is@roadsiderepublic.com this
- [47:08]
Shannon Houchen
has become my full time business now. Not only continuing to run roadside stands on my own, but now I've moved it to a year long business. So I'm teaching people, but I've also found other outlets for the roadside stand business. For example, I started doing coordinating fall festivals for local municipalities. So the Texas is just populated with all these little small towns and there are people fest. Texans love festivals. So there was a town about 45 miles from me who wanted to do a fall festival and they wanted to have a pumpkin patch. So I said, heck yeah, that sounds fun, let's do that. So organizing a fall festival for a town and putting on a festival and a pumpkin patch, you know, that can extend your business from Labor Day all the Way through December, what, November 1st. And then you can jump into Christmas trees and wreaths and greenery, you know, and swag. And so you can roll your business, your roadside stand business, from season to season. There are vehicles to take you through 12 months of the year. So that's really what I've started focusing on is, is taking the business 12 months instead of three or four.
- [48:27]
Nick Loper
Oh, very good. Roadsiderepublic.com where you can find more about Shannon and all of her learning resources from tons of experience in this business. Really cool stuff over there. Again. Roadsiderepublic.com Shannon, thanks for joining me. I want to wrap this thing up with your number one tip for side Hustle Nation.
- [48:47]
Shannon Houchen
Never be afraid to ask for what you want. If it suits your business goals and it suits your personal desires, ask for it. And what I mean by that is, is if we're trying to start a business from scratch and we're trying to start small, it's best to defer your costs if you can. And there are really creative ways that still exist, particularly in produce and peaches, where you can defer your costs until you have the capital outlay to, to meet those demands. So, for example, if we're talking about peaches, you know, if you're, if you're buying an inventory of peaches and it's going to cost you $200 or $1,500, there are creative ways working with wholesalers, brokers, growers, where you can do net 30, you can delay, you can pay in arrears rather than in advance for your produce. Same thing with landlords. If you're renting a spot, you can negotiate to pay in arrears. And the point I want to make is that as side hustlers, our considerations are how much does it cost to start the business, how much are we going to make, and how much time is it going to take, and is it going to meet my income, revenue, passion, mission, goals? And all of those things can still be tailored, I believe, to suit us rather than us, the business people, the entrepreneurs trying to conform to the models that are out there. And I am a huge proponent of those personal relationships that allow us to defer those costs until we have the cash in our pocket so that we aren't stressing ourselves out, right, to meet those obligations, but we're paying ourselves first and then paying everybody else.
- [50:31]
Nick Loper
That's right. If you've got net 30 on this, you know, first order of features, you go out and sell it on the weekend. You're kind of using your customers cash flow to pay for that inventory. That's a cool way to do it.
- [50:43]
Shannon Houchen
And there are still, there are still resources and opportunities out there to defer those types of costs until you have the cash to, to meet it.
- [50:51]
Nick Loper
Very good. Well, there you have it. Never be afraid to ask for what you want. And if you don't ask, the answer is always going to be no. So Shannon, appreciate you sharing that and thanks so much for joining me on the side Hustle show and we'll catch up with you soon. All right. Hope you enjoyed that chat with Shannon. A couple takeaways for me. Number one was to start small. I mean, this is a business you can test out for very low startup costs, very low risk. The challenge as I see it at least is lining everything up. Your supply in terms of the produce and your demand in terms of where you're going to be able to set up shop. I would probably start with the location negotiations first. If you can secure a spot to set up your stand, then you can go out and try and source some inventory. Turn that inventory over, reinvest in the business, multiply your money on that location front. Here's what's cool is you're just taking up space in a parking lot compared to the costs associated with starting a brick and mortar retail shop. You're so much leaner, you've got so much more flexibility if that location proves to be a dud. But the big takeaway there is one that's a recurring theme on the show and that's to go where the cash is already flowing. Find that high traffic, high visibility location. In Shannon's case, she mentioned it's an impulse buy. So it's just a matter of getting as many impressions as possible to bring it back to online business speak. And a certain number of those passersby are going to convert into customers. It's traffic and conversions whether you're online or offline. That basic formula remains true. I also liked Shannon's comment that in the peach business, customers are primed for a happy transaction. You're shopping the roadside stand, you're feeling good, you're supporting small business and and whether you're selling peaches or another product or service. That comment made me think of how else we can better prime our customers to have a smile on their face. Maybe that's through our website copy or our email newsletter language that we use, or the visuals that we use on our blog, or the gifts that we include, or some surprise and delight free bonus that's included with the purchase or maybe it's something else for your specific business or niche, but I thought that was interesting and maybe a unique advantage of the roadside stand business that you can try and apply elsewhere at Priming customers for a happy transaction. Notes and links for this episode are@side hustlenation.com Peaches while you're there, make sure to download your free Listener bonus this week. It's my list of the 20 plus best other items to flip for a profit. Once again, that's a big list. List of the best items to flip for a profit. It's at side hustlenation.com peaches or follow the Show Notes link in the episode description of your podcast app. If you're wondering what to listen to next and this Buy Low, Sell High business model appeals to you, check out my Spotify playlist called Flipping Profits. If you search Flipping Profits in Spotify, it'll pop right up. And it's got several really interesting case studies on how to make extra money in a low risk way, just like Shannon described. For example, I recently connected with Stacy alberto in episode 501 who resells bed in a Box mattress returns through a company called Sharetown. And what's most interesting is she doesn't even have to pay for her inventory until it sells.
- [54:12]
Flipping Profits Guest
We'll usually plan on two to three pickups per trip. Some need a little bit more TLC than others, but we'll clean and sanitize them and then we'll flip them. So Sharetown provides pictures for us, but we also are able to take our own. So I think that's a huge important part of selling is making sure it looks good. It's good lighting. So I'll have a conversation with the customer and let them know, answer their questions. Sometimes they want to come and check out the item or they're just like, hey, when can you deliver it? And so whatever happens, we'll go deliver that mattress or item and then once we get paid via Venmo or cash or you know, all the different options, you can receive payment nowadays. Once a week we will pay Sharetown for all of the items that we sold that week.
- [55:02]
Nick Loper
Okay, so it's on you to manage the profit margin or manage the spread there. So let's say so you go out, you've batched these things, you know, I'm going to this area, so I'm going to pick up two or three in the evening, you bring them home, you clean them up, photograph them, list them on Marketplace, on offerup on Craigslist.
- [55:24]
Podcast Host (Ad Read)
Like Whatever.
- [55:25]
Nick Loper
Is there a price floor that you know that you have to pay for this inventory once it sells, like, and so you have to kind of mind your markups on top of that.
- [55:37]
Flipping Profits Guest
So they've created a minimum list price that we are required to list in. And then you're provided with the amount that you owe to Sharetown. So you'll see the margin that you'll be able to make and you'll be able to say, okay, I want to make at least this much on this mattress or item. And I'll say, hey, if you come pick it up, I can take $50 off. My husband and I, we average about 250ish per item. We're higher inventory reps. And so if we're kind of building up to the max, then we'll be like, okay, let's just focus on turning over. We'll make 100 to 150 bucks per item and just get our inventory turned over again.
- [56:15]
Nick Loper
You can scroll down to episode 501 to find that one in your podcast app or check out the Flipping Profits playlist in Spotify. Big thanks to Shannon for sharing her insight in this episode.
- [56:25]
Podcast Host (Ad Read)
That is it for me.
- [56:26]
Nick Loper
Thank you so much for tuning in. Until next time, let's go out there and make something happen and I'll catch you in the next edition of the side Hustle show. Hustle on the.