Your Summer Just Gave You a Business Plan: 5 Things to Learn Before Fall

I hope you had an amazing summer.

Whether you spent your weekends at farmers markets, festivals, art shows, community events, or maybe took a little time away from markets altogether, I hope the last few months were good for you and your business. And if your summer was a little more unpredictable than you hoped? I hope there were still some wins mixed in there, too.

As we head into September, we're entering one of my favorite times of year. Summer markets are beginning to wind down, fall craft fairs are starting up, and before we know it, holiday shopping will be in full swing.

But before we race into the next season, I think there's something really valuable about taking just a little time to look backward. Because if you've spent the summer selling face-to-face with customers, you have been collecting an incredible amount of information about your business, whether you realized it or not.

Every item someone picked up. Every product that sold out. Every question you answered fifteen times. Every item people admired but didn't purchase. Every customer who came back looking for you. Even those painfully slow market days gave you information.

Your summer just gave you a whole lot of real-world market research.

I'm certainly not here to tell you how to run your business. You know your products, your customers and your goals better than anyone. But before you pack away the tent and start loading up for fall craft fairs, here are five things I think are worth looking at.

1. What did your customers tell you without actually telling you?

Obviously, sales matter. But sometimes the most interesting information isn't just what sold. Think about the conversations you had this summer.

What did customers repeatedly ask you? Did they want another color? A different size? A personalized version? Something at a different price point? Did you hear, "Do you have a website?" or "Where will you be next?" over and over again?

What did people consistently pick up and look at? Was there something that drew them into your booth even if it wasn't ultimately what they purchased?

And what surprised you?

Sometimes the product we are convinced everyone will love just doesn't connect — and something we almost didn't bring becomes the thing everyone wants.

You don't necessarily need to change anything based on one customer's comment. But when you start hearing or seeing the same thing repeatedly, that's worth paying attention to.

Those little patterns can be incredibly valuable as you decide what comes with you into fall.

2. What were your true summer stars?

This one sounds obvious: What sold? But I'd take it one step further. Instead of simply looking at your highest-selling products, think about the products that really worked for your business.

Maybe something sold extremely well but takes so much time to produce that it isn't your most profitable item. Maybe another product is inexpensive and easy to make, but customers regularly add it to a larger purchase. Maybe you have one beautiful statement piece that doesn't sell constantly but stops people in their tracks and gets them into your booth.

Those products are doing different jobs for your business. As you start building fall and holiday inventory, knowing which products are your reliable sellers, which are great add-ons, which draw attention and which are worth the time you put into them can help you decide where you want to focus your energy.

And after a busy summer, you have actual customer behavior to work from rather than guessing.

3. What did you learn about your price points?

Fall and holiday shoppers can be very different from summer shoppers. Someone strolling through a farmers market on a Saturday morning may be treating herself. In November, that same woman might be shopping for her best friend, her child's teacher, her mom, three coworkers and herself, because obviously she deserves something too.

Take a look at where your summer sales naturally landed. Was there a price point where customers seemed to make an easy decision? Were customers frequently combining certain products? Did people love a higher-priced item but hesitate before purchasing it? Were there lower-priced products that regularly led to larger purchases?

You don't necessarily need to change your pricing. This is more about understanding how people are already shopping with you.

That information can be really useful as you think about giftable items, bundles, stocking stuffers, teacher gifts or premium pieces for the holidays. You may already have everything you need — you might simply present it a little differently for a holiday shopper.

4. What made a market successful for YOU?

Not every successful event looks the same. Obviously, we'd all love every market to end with empty bins and record-breaking sales. But sometimes an event gives you something else that's valuable.

Maybe you gained a ton of new social media followers. Maybe you met customers who later ordered online. Maybe you made a connection with another vendor that led to a collaboration. Maybe you discovered that a particular type of event is absolutely perfect for your customer.

And sometimes you learn the opposite. An event can have thousands of attendees and still not be the right audience for your products. As you look at your summer calendar, think about the markets where you felt like your business really connected with the people walking through the door. What did those events have in common?

That information can help you be more intentional about where you spend your time — because your weekends, your energy and your time away from family have value, too.

5. What do you want to carry forward, and what can you leave behind?

This might be my favorite question. You don't have to reinvent your business because the calendar says September.

There are probably things you did this summer that worked beautifully. Keep them. There may also be something that drove you absolutely crazy every single weekend. A display piece that was impossible to set up. A product that wasn't worth the production time. Packaging that slowed you down. Something you constantly forgot. A system that just didn't work. Maybe fall is the perfect opportunity to change one of those things. Not ten things. One.

Sometimes we're so focused on preparing more inventory, booking more events and getting ready for the next season that we forget we're allowed to make the business a little easier on ourselves, too.

Before You Jump Into Fall...

Here's my challenge for you — and I promise I'm not assigning homework!Grab your favorite drink and give yourself 15 quiet minutes sometime this week. Don't overthink it. Just jot down:

• Your five summer bestsellers

• Three things customers repeatedly asked about

• The price point that seemed to be your sweet spot

• One thing you'd like to do differently this fall

• One thing you're really proud of from this summer

That last one is important.

Running a small business is hard work. Showing up weekend after weekend is hard work. Creating inventory, packing cars, setting up booths, talking to customers all day, tearing everything down and then going home and starting all over again takes an incredible amount of time and energy.

So before you immediately move on to everything you need to accomplish for fall, give yourself a little credit for what you've already done.

And then take all that great information your summer customers gave you and decide what — if anything, you want to do with it.