How to Organize a Garage Sale
This article is posted under Business ideas
Having a garage sale is a great way to make a little money off the things that you no longer have a use for. It can be difficult to plan and carry out a garage sale, especially if it’s your first time to organize a garage sale. Here are some simple and easy-to-follow steps on organizing your garage sale:
Step 1: Gather the things you want to sell
You may want to start out by going through your stock rooms and closets. If you really want to get a good amount of things to sell, you may want to do a general cleaning of your entire home, collecting items to sell along the way. Remember that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” so don’t count something out just because you wouldn’t buy it yourself. Instead, put them in a box or set them aside in a room that will be field with items you’ll have on sale.
Step 2: Get the prices right
Price the goods that you want to sell. When pricing, be sure to set your prices low, so people can’t refuse your deals. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should sell a perfectly good table for a few quarters, but price reasonably, based on its style and quality, among other things. Your main goal is to get rid of the old and make room for the new. Try to keep in mind that most people shopping at garage sales are there for the bargain, so keep your prices flexible and negotiable.
Step 3: Plan and advertise
To organize your garage sale, you need to plan and advertise. Plan out a good time for your garage sale, maybe a weekend when you and your family are free to look over the garage sale and play salesperson. You may even want to have some snacks, such as hotdogs and drinks to attract people to your garage sale and to make a little extra money on the side. Always remember that advertising is the key to attracting more customers and making a good sale. Print out some bright and easy to read signs with the date, time, and address of your garage sale. Remember to include a short list of some of things you are selling, such as books, clothes, furniture, toys, food and drinks. You also add photos if you can.
Photo Credit : John Beagle
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Before undertaking a garage sale, one needs to think what the target consumer’s needs and wants are. In this case, the local neighborhood. To get things started, sort out things that you plan on selling based on their quality, durability, and estimated demand. Don’t price too low and ready yourself for haggling, do not be carried away too much by sentimental talks of people or their compliments as to allow yourself to lower prices into something that is unreasonable. And to add in extra cash, a food or juice stand right by the entrance could earn you some extra money.
Garage sales are a great activity for family or friends. You can go through things you may not have seen or used in years and bring back lots and lots of memories. It’s also a great way to get some spring (or any other season) cleaning in gear. Everyone has the tendency to forget about things stores all the way in the back, and by clearing out what you don’t need anymore you can make space for the new. When going through stuff to sell, a good rule to follow is that if you have not used it in the past few months (or in the past year if it’s a seasonal item) then chances are you’re not going to use it all all no matter how much you like it, how cute it is or what it reminds you off.
Setting up a garage sale requires preparation, proper pricing of your items and the marketability of your items for sale. First you must see to it that all the things you have in your garage are all for sale, never display items that you don’t intend to sell. Ask your family members to help you arrange and sort out the things that you will be selling. Make sure that the items you are selling are presentable and not worn out or damaged at all. The next thing to do is to properly price your items. Always consider your target market when thinking of a proper price for an item. You can offer sales and discounts if your customers will buy two or more items from you, this will boost your sales and attract more customers to your store.
I have tried to set up a garage sale once and most of the things that I have put into garage sale are toys. I have 2 kids, and believe me, they really have so many toys, both given to them as a gift and those which we bought ourselves. However, it was quite difficult to “ask permission” from them to sell their precious stuff. There was even a time when I have already put a tag price onto the toy and then suddenly they will pick up the toy from the box in the garage sale. So what I did was to let the kids themselves “sell” their toys. I told them that their toys’ proceeds would also be used to buy them new toys or books, or whatever they like. Thus, I had them look over the garage sale one weekend and when someone buys their toy, I hand them over the money. After the garage sale (and after they got enough money), they agreed to buy ice cream!
Do not limit your consumers to your neighbors only. I’m sure you would want to end the garage sale as early as possible. It would be nice if you would be able to sell everything in a day. So, send flyers as far as you can. The best places to send flyers to are public places like malls, outside the church after a mass, or simply handing out flyers to by passers. Make sure you spread the garage sale by word of mouth, too. Call out friends and ask them to tell their officemates about your upcoming garage sale. Make sure you have enough people to man your garage sale to avoid theft. Do the garage sale on a weekend so each and everyone in your family can help you man the garage sale. If possible ask the help of some really close friends to man for a few hours.
Know what products you should sell, place the right prices on your products, identify whether there are brand new products or surplus items in your sale. Advertise your garage sale, tell your friends and officemates that you are going to have the sale, this would help you increase your sales. It would better to set the garage sale on the weekends and set a date that is 2 or 3 days after pay day or better set it on a 15 or 30th of the month. It would actually make your customers buy because they have money on hand.