Meet Kimberly Cross of The Mom Made Market

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimberly Cross.

Kimberly, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We hosted our first in-person market in 2015 in a parking lot in Dana Point, Ca. We have since grown to 6 markets on the West Coast and one in Hawaii. We started the market to specifically support local moms who have businesses that are run from home (but we do host anyone who would like to join us as long as they do not mind being around mostly mothers!).

We discovered that thousands of women work from home running Etsy shops, representing brands, making homemade goods etc and many did not have opportunities to sell their items in person. The majority sell online which is convenient for daily work life, but having an in-person selling experience allows for the shops to gather feedback, see peoples reactions, meet customers face to face etc.

Being moms, many find it difficult to commit to local weekly farmers markets and joining bigger name craft/trade shows were costly and risky. We wanted to create a market where moms could feel comfortable committing to one weekend a year, be surrounded with others in similar situations and have the chance to network, make new friends and have the opportunity to sell to REAL live people vs online.

We bring the community out once a year to support these local mom shops and so far it’s been both successful for our vendors and a really FUN weekend for everyone!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
NO WAY. It is hard to please 200+ mom vendors AND shoppers at the same time. We are constantly trying to make the experience better/smoother for vendors all while giving the shoppers the experience they desire. Returning vendors become part of our family and we have grown over the years together but this also makes it difficult for us when we have to make changes, our costs increase etc.

We love our vendors and want nothing more than to give them an AMAZING experience. The hardest thing we deal with is keeping the event affordable so that vendors can join us without feeling like they’re risking a lot financially. With our costs continuing to rise, we have to raise our vendor fees and vendors don’t typically like that. 😉

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Mom Made Market story. Tell us more about the business.
Our business is helping moms grow their businesses by connecting them with one another and the community.

We are best known for the personal attention we give our vendors and the effort we put into making our event successful for them.

I am personally most proud of our amazing staff. I have “territory managers” in each location that are amazing. They go above and beyond just organizing the event. They care about each vendor and do their best to represent what our market stands for with each interaction.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
We originally started the company as “Fueling Moms” and we were creating our own line of coffee to sell at events. After a few events as vendors, we realized we enjoyed them so much we wanted to come up with our own event, just for moms. I wouldn’t say it was good or bad luck, just part of the process.

Contact Info:

• Address: 13717 Sw 175th Ave
• Website: themommademarket.com
• Phone: 9499103478
• Email: themommademarket@gmail.com
• Instagram: @themommademarket
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themommademarket/

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