A smart business owner makes an effort to get the work out to prospective buyers at sale time. That effort involves more than just slapping a sign or two in the window. Well, when you’ve made the decision to host a yard sale, you’ve also made the decision to become a business person—a purveyor, for at least a day or two, of pre-loved consumer goods from the comfort of your own front yard.
While you can advertise your yard sale online at venues such as Craigslist and local Facebook groups for free, you might want to shell out a few dollars for a newspaper ad. Newspaper ad rates have, unfortunately, have been going up while readership continues to go down. So, don’t feel it’s something you must do, but it is worth considering.
You may even want to “conspire” with neighbours for a multi-family yard sale. These definitely attract more attention and traffic and there’s an obvious cost-saving advantage to sharing the sale’s advertising cost in the newspaper. But there’s often a logistical challenge when it comes to such things as deciding the date of the sale and what other kinds of advertising and promotion you want to do collectively. Welcome to the yard sale committee!
Be bold, be seen. Lead the way.
Whether or not you choose to host a yard sale as part of a group or to go solo, make sure your signage is clearly visible, ideally from a speeding car from two or three blocks away. Some of your buyers are going to be the “impulse” type. They just happen to see your nice, bright sign and decide to have a looky-loo. The result: a quick twenty dollars moving from their pocket to yours in a short space. Do the math. Multiply that ten to twenty dollar transaction just a few times during the space of a four-to-six hour sale and it could mean hundreds of extra dollars in your pockets at the end of the day.
Colourful signs with cute butterflies and ladybugs are nice, but they are too cluttered to be easily readable. You only have two or three seconds to catch a drive-by eye. Turn it into a drive buy eye by being simple and bold. Black lettering on a neon or white background is the most eye-catching. Limit the butterflies and ladybugs artistic signs to your kids’ lemonade stand at the sale. And go ahead, let them make one or two for that purpose. They’ll want to be involved, too.
In short, make your signs bright, bold and readable: neither too junky (like from an old cardboard box) or so pretty as to lose the message on your prospective customers. And make lots of signs, especially if you’re current residence is tucked away in a cul-de-sac or otherwise a few turns off a main route.
Make your yard sale boldly announced and easily found. Think back to the last election campaign. Signs matter. Take your message to the street and make like you’re a determined political underdog running for office. Get the word out, bring in the traffic, and enjoy the sweet smell of yard sale success!
Just as yard and garage sales require careful planning and execution, so does moving, whether across town or across the country. At Kary Movers, we offer superior customer service, fully maintained and equipped trucks, and highly experienced crews and availability.
Kary Movers will help you plan your upcoming move with expertise and experience. At Kary, we’re here for you. We’ll do our part to make your next move even easier than organizing a yard sale. Call us at 1-877-687-1746, email us at info@karymovers.com or, you can make an online inquiry.