Alpaca Tribe

34 Planning a Farm Open Day

Listen Later

We ran our first Farm Open Day a few weeks after we had our alpacas arrive. Our faithful friends were interested in seeing them and we were happy to share our delightful new arrivals. We have learnt a lot over the years - mostly how to do it better - here Steve Heatherington shares some of that hard-won experience to hopefully help you get a good start, if you are thinking of having your own Open Day.

SCALE

  • What is the maximum number of people you can cope with at one time?
  • How many cars can park safely and get in/out?
  • Make sure you have enough helpers - and some spares
  • Limit numbers by having tickets - decide if, and how much you will charge

    • POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

    • Health and Safety - do your risk assessments and put things in place to keep visitors safe.
    • Insurance - you will need Public Liability insurance and keep within any restrictions they impose.
    • Security - house and workshops or stores

      • WELFARE

      • People - toilets, handwashing facilities; access for people with disabilities
      • Animal - as stress free as possible; no dogs

        • OFFERINGS

        • products
        • payments (cash or card)
        • selling animals - not easy to do on a farm open day; collect contact details and arrange for another time
        • refreshments - decide extent and price
        • demos
        • feeding the alpacas

          • MARKETING AND PROMOTION

          • social media (including paid adverts?)
          • signs to make you easy to find
          • banners and information signs

            • CONTINGENCIES

            • weather (too hot; too wet)
            • disasters and cancellation policy

              • PACKING UP

              • returning to normal
              • take signs down
              • feed yourself and the alpacas

                • LINKS

                https://www.eventbrite.co.uk

                Eventbrite - Discover Great Events or Create Your Own & Sell Tickets (NB other providers available)

                https://squareup.com

                Take card payments with Square and get fast deposits, low rates, simple to use point of sale software, dedicated support and powerful eCommerce tools.
                (Note: other providers available)

                https://farmsunday.org/

                Homepage - Open Farm Sunday

                OPEN FARM SUNDAY INFO PACK - very good resource

                https://farmsunday.org/uploads/homepage-slides/2019-LOFS-Information-Pack-FINAL.pdf



                This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

                OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
                ...more
                View all episodesView all episodes
                Download on the App Store
                Alpaca TribeBy Steve Heatherington
                • 4.9
                • 4.9
                • 4.9
                • 4.9
                • 4.9

                4.9

                23 ratings