Do you have what it takes to market your fish directly?

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The following list of questions is adapted from the Fishermen’s Direct Marketing Manual, published by Washington Sea Grant, edited by Terry Johnson of the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program.

  • Am I good at bookkeeping and paperwork?
  • How do I feel about being a salesman, either on the phone or in person?
  • Do I enjoy meeting and talking to people?
  • Am I good at taking care of details?
  • Do I need to be paid immediately or can I wait to collect my money?
  • How demanding or persuasive can I be at making people pay what they owe me, or otherwise do what they have agreed to do?
  • Can I stick with one task, week after week, year after year, or do I quickly become bored and need frequent change?
  • Am I willing and physically able to do the extra work and commit the additional time to run a direct marketing operation? Or do I prefer to put the boat away and forget about fish at the end of the day or the season?
  • Is my family supportive of this change, and can they make any necessary adjustments so that I can spend the additional time and money on the business?
  • Do you have the equipment and a boat big enough to properly handle the product?
  • Do you have, or have access to, ice or chilling machinery?
  • Is there regular, reliable, affordable transportation from your point of landing to the location of your potential customers?
  • Is the timing and volume of your catch conducive to taking the time out to handle and transport fish and to meeting the volume and delivery frequency demands of your customers?
  • Is the species mix and intrinsic quality of your catch appropriate to the market? (see intrinsic vs. extrinsic quality explanation in the Fishermen’s Direct Marketing Manual)
  • Do you have a plan for the roe (if your product is salmon) and for fish that your customers don’t want because of species, size, condition or other factors?
  • Do you have customers already lined up, or do you have a plan for selling your product?
  • Do you have available cash for up-front operating expenses and to cover cash flow in case some customers don’t pay or if, for some other reason, the operation is not immediately profitable?
  • Do you have a good credit score, in order to get credit terms with vendors?
By | 2017-04-03T18:06:40-07:00 March 25th, 2015|0 Comments

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