Scaling for growth with The Market Folk
Happy Medium Services:
Process Design
Automate your Admin + Implementation Support
Where we started
The Market Folk had built something genuinely wonderful, curated markets full of unique, beautiful products, a community of stallholders who supported each other, and a loyal following that kept coming back.
Growth was the problem. Multiple venues were reaching out to host their markets, and the opportunities in front of them were bigger than the team could manage.
More markets meant more stallholders. More stallholders meant more of everything; applications, curation, invoicing, communications, bump-ins, bump-outs, cancellations, and bad weather contingencies. And all of that was being managed manually.
To grow without breaking, The Market Folk needed a solution that would automate the administration without sacrificing the careful curation that made their markets worth attending.
What we did
Mapped the full process before touching anything
Before recommending a single change, we mapped every step of the existing process from stallholder application through to market day — including where it broke down and why. The goal wasn't just to find the pain points, but to understand why the current system worked. Any solution that didn't replicate what the process did well would just create different problems.
Defined what the right solution actually needed to do
Rather than going software shopping without a brief, we built a detailed requirements list, framed as user stories from both the stallholder and organiser perspective. A stallholder-first approach was deliberate: a system that was efficient for the organisers but frustrating for stallholders to interact with would erode the very community TMF had spent years building.
The must-haves were clear: a payment portal, email automation, stallholder profiles, complex customer grouping by stall type and event requirements, and a customisable event dashboard. Budget for a custom build didn't exist — the solution had to be off-the-shelf, easy to manage without technical expertise, and easier to use than a spreadsheet.
Road-tested before committing
Rather than handing over a recommendation and stepping back, we actually set the system up in a trial environment and stress-tested it against the real process. Implementation is where most projects fall over and we stayed on through that stage to make sure the solution worked in practice, not just in theory.
Implemented end-to-end
We translated The Market Folk's entire existing process into the new platform which included a stallholder portal, automated bookings and payment collection, event communications, and a single dashboard to manage the full journey from application to market day. Stallholders could self-serve and the team could finally see everything in one place.
The Results
Significantly reduced administration time, empowering growth without adding headcount
Improved quality and accuracy across stallholder communications and invoicing
Stallholders empowered to self-serve, reducing back-and-forth
Owner able to invest time in building the community and launching new products
A system the whole team could manage — no technical expertise required
““It was a game-changer for TMF and it empowered us to grow significantly.
Since we implemented it nearly 6 years ago now, we’ve been able to expand and manage 4 locations, launch our furniture offering and host our seasonal pop ups.
None of this growth would have been possible if we were still managing stallholder applications in gmail and excel!”
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