Launching Glorious Gluten Free Foods

It's June 2012, three months after I retired from full-time employment to set up Glorious Gluten Free Foods. It's been an interesting and exhausting 12 weeks with the Derbyshire Food Festival being a key event for me. http://www.derbyshirefoodfestival.co.uk/ I have had stalls before at small local events and always done well, sold out of baked goods and come away feeling good about my products. The Derbyshire Food Festival was in a different league and I take my hat off to all those people who use such events as their main market place. It was hot, very hot; the only spell of summer we've had so far. Ice-cream and cold drink sellers did extremely well; those of us inside the marquee less so; experienced stall holders said sales were very slow which was strangely reassuring. I was lucky enough to be right beside an entrance from the grassy area outside where there were cookery demonstrations and lots of family friendly activities happening. As a showplace for my gluten-free cakes it was very successful; I gave out hundreds of leaflets and while most of them may be binned, some will get through to a new or potential customer. I baked far too much - the first time this has happened to me. I managed to sell some of it locally in the following few days but inevitably some had to be thrown away which I found difficult. On the upside I covered my costs and more importantly have had two orders since and several enquiries which I am waiting to turn into firm orders. One order was from a local hotel which is a very good contact to have made. A few more like that and all the work that went into preparing for the Festival will definitely have been worth it. Would I do it again? Yes, probably, but I would concentrate on it being a marketing opportunity rather than trying to make a profit from selling.