I have a home bakery and am planning a day to set up at my aunts hair salon, which has a lot of traffic, to sell cupcakes. I have chosen some of my most popular frosting flavors along with some new flavors: strawberry, oreo, peanut butter, coffee, salted caramel, coconut (on pineapple cupcakes), kahula (on kahula cupcakes), vanilla and chocolate. I want have individual cupcakes of each flavor available as well as variety packs in 4 and 6 count. This is my first time doing anything like this and I have no idea how many to make of each flavor. I've posted about the event on my facebook page and have received a few orders. I haven't gotten much other feedback, though one person did show up at the salon asking for cupcakes earlier this week..apparently they didn't read my post well enough. Each cupcake will be sold for $1.50 and I have a couple deals as well: each person that places an order by a certain date is entered to win a cake I will have as a display and for every 1/2 dozen order they receive a free cupcake frosted with chocolate or vanilla buttercream. I'm just trying to create a good opportunity to really put my name out there in the community. 

Anyone have experience with farmers market-type sales, I assume this is essentially the same sort of thing. How many should I plan on making?

My mom and I started this bakery together just for a fun pass-time, she was good at the business part (as well as baking!) and I at the baking and decorating. She has since passed away and I really lack a person to reach out to regarding such advice.

I have absolutely no idea how many cupcakes you should prepare.  It depends upon the area, big city, small town, rural community??  Two observations, I personally think you are offering too many choices, maybe four max, and that your price is too low.  I would think the cupcakes should be at least $2.00 each.  Cupcakes do freeze well, so bake plenty and any left overs can be frozen for later.

I tend to agree with Sandra — get your price up  &cut down on the flavors   Not sure if you are thinking cho & van cupcakes w/different icing  or all those different cupcakes w/matching icings     Keep extras fzn that you can offer if someone really wants them they could have them the next day or even later that day 

Thanks for sharing your observations ladies. It is a lot of flavor choices. I have done variety packs in the past and had really nice results but people had to place orders in advance and I didn't offer single cupcakes. The bakery is just over a year old so I'm still drawing in customers and many people comment how they'd like to try different flavors but I have a 1 dozen minimum with regular orders. Making plenty and storing extra in the freezer is a great idea though, thank you! I freeze cupcakes occasionally but hadn't thought about doing that.

Best of luck, Jessica!

my little observation and i'm sure you are already doing this -- is to be sure everything is sealed well under domes and packaged tightly -- it's cool that your aunt is allowing this and at the same time it's not exactly the best place to display food -- hair can get into everything -- I hope you have a great time 

I fear that sometimes I may come across as someone who asks for advice but doesn't heed it. I'm sorry if I seem ungrateful for the advice. I am always so thankful for anyone who is willing to read and chime in to help me, it really means a lot to me. Perhaps I do have too many flavors but I decided to do that because it worked well in the past. I have already advertised so I can't change it now either. But I'll definitely keep it in mind for future sales.
K8 - it is nice of my aunt, she does a lot of advertisement for my bakery. When I bake cupcakes for holiday's she specifically asks that I make extra to bring up to her salon to sell. I am packaging all the cupcakes individually, I have to due to labeling anyway but definitely don't want to risk getting any hair on anything. I also bought a pretty cake stand to be able to display a cake without any risk.