Starting Up A Reselling Business And Pulling In $4K/Month Revenue

Shelby

•

Published: August 28th, 2023

save

Shelby

Founder, Rooted Drawers

$4K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Rooted Drawers

rootedinreselling.com

from Pittsburgh, PA, USA

started January 2017

$4,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools recommends to grow your business!

platform

Shopify

Etsy

eBay

MailChimp

G Suite

social media

Tiktok

accounting tool-icon

Google Sheets

productivity tool-icon

Google Suite tool-icon

Slack

payments

Paypal

Apple Pay

Venmo

blog

WordPress

design

Canva

stock images tool-icon

Pexels

Discover what books Shelby recommends to grow your business!

Want more updates on Rooted Drawers? Check out these stories:

Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

Hey there! My name is Shelby and I have created a reselling business that has since developed into so much more. Nowadays, I’m a full-time reseller, blogger, and business coach, and run a small service with my husband that helps clients in downsizing their homes. Next month we will be launching a second website all about the working-from-home lifestyle, and hope to dive into wholesaling next year!

We’re a long way from where we started, but it’s been such an incredible experience the entire way through. I’ve had times when I wanted to call it quits, times when I felt in over my head, and times when I felt on top of the world. Being invited to talk about my journey on Starter Story has been the highlight of my year and the most refreshing feeling that I am on the right path that’s unique to me.

It just goes to show that when you have a feeling about what you want to do with your life, you need to keep pushing through and making your dreams a reality, because you’re truly the only one that can make that dream come true. It’s going to be hard, really hard. But it will also be worth it.

Our main point of business is of course reselling. We started out with just a bridesmaid dress on Poshmark back in the day, only to realize the potential we could reach with additional products and other platforms. We’ve since moved to eBay as a “home base,” and like to cross-list products onto 6 other platforms from there. We sell primarily fashion, but like to keep our options open by including all sorts of hard goods and furniture as well.

This keeps our target audience vast and our opportunity to create new revenue always circulating. We used to work solely on niching down our market, but have since realized the potential of increasing our knowledge and listing as needed based on the incoming product category. Keep learning and increasing your reseller rolodex! The more you know, the more you can make friends.

As of late, we’re pulling in around $4,000/month. This may not seem like a substantial number to most sellers, but it’s a long way from that first bridesmaid dress. We pride ourselves on selling quantity (as well as quality), by keeping things moving and not creating a storage unit. Since we started, we’ve moved up from one laundry basket to nearly half of our home. (Which of course helped us to downsize as well!

You can bet that we flipped a lot of our items along the way to make new space!) The goal is to move into a larger space someday, to create a space away from our home that can be solely used for our business. As we’ve grown, we’ve also learned that keeping a valued work-life balance can be very beneficial for both mental and professional growth.

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

My backstory has absolutely nothing to do with reselling…that’s what I kept telling myself and everyone else for the longest time. Until I realized that actually, yes it does. Someone recently asked what prompted my entrepreneurial spirit. I took a moment to respond, before realizing it’s always been there. You could say it’s in my veins.

I come from a lot of entrepreneurial spirits within my family, and a lot of them have small businesses themselves. It never occurred to me until recently that I had been reselling my whole life. It started with candy, popcorn by the cup, and mudpies. (Yes, literal pies made from mud), that I would sell for change to my family and friends with a plastic toy cash register. The spirit was strong with this one, you may say!

I ventured into a long path of many different jobs and even a corporate career throughout my time working for other people. But somehow not one of those has felt quite right, and it pained me to continue dragging through each and every day thinking, “Is this really what I’m meant to do with my life?”

We need jobs to pay bills, I got that much. But I just kept feeling this nagging in my gut that kept telling me I could do something of my own, something better and something that I was passionate about. So I continued to brainstorm and daydream while I mopped floors and waited tables.

After I met my husband, we bought a home and settled in. I thought about having kids and wanting to still contribute from home once that happened but I didn’t want just another remote job. Many ideas came to me throughout this time that I thought would be the winner.

It was only apparent to me after selling that first dress that I could do this thing called reselling. I had enough product lying around to start, all I had to do was learn how to list it. And in my opinion, if you want something bad enough, learning is the easy part.

As my reselling career developed over the years, I kept feeling like there was still more that I could be offering. Then one day my brain just shut down. I felt like a battery had died and I was on the outside looking in. I had increasingly higher anxiety and too many hats. I decided to take an entire week off of absolutely everything.

Business, personal, you name it.

I pushed the pause button for a solid week. Doing so opened up a whole other world. I discovered my passion for helping other people which I’ve been looking for my whole life was in a coaching career that I could launch to assist others in their passions as well.

I found that I was itching for a new challenge and that I wanted to launch something that focused on lifestyle as well since becoming a business owner had developed my work-life balance in a whole new way.

I put all of my focus into continuing on my path of learning new niches, new products, and new platforms to develop the mindset and knowledge that I now possess today. At this time, we’re making daily sales on our platforms in the teens to twenties, as well as helping other small business owners and entrepreneurs find the passion inside them to build their businesses the best way that they can online.

To see how empowered others can get because of the guidance that you’ve offered is a truly irreplaceable feeling.

Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.

Throughout the entire process, we touch every piece of clothing or product that comes our way. We make sure that each item is suitable to post online and follow our guidelines on where to post it from there.

At first, I would use what was left around my home or in my closet to list for sale. As I grew and learned more, however, I realized that I could begin going to thrift stores, yard sales, etc. to increase the amount of items that I had available. This was the most exciting part!

We tried purchasing wholesale for a while but discovered that we’d instead choose the items individually or help others clear out their homes and buy items in bulk to build up our inventory. This provided us with the most cost-effective option to offer while knowing that we could provide the best price and the best quality.

The first package that went out was incredibly different than the ones that go out today. The basics remain, such as ribbons, stickers, and thank you cards, but the quality has dramatically increased as we are now able to dedicate more investment back into the products that we use for these.

However! We don’t recommend spending a fortune on shipping supplies. Keep the bulk of your costs in your inventory and use what you’ve got first when it comes to shipping. We make sure that the package is presentable and fun, but reuse boxes, bubble wrap, and air packs.

Building the business on the backend is the most underrated and one of the most time-consuming pieces of the puzzle. It is rigorous and annoying at times, but it is part of the job nonetheless.

Many forget about registering your name so that it's uniquely yours and want to wait until tax season to go back and find their earnings on each item. Keep up with this as you go along, and you’ll have less of a headache in the long run!

If you are searching for a full-time income from your gig, then it’s simple, you have to put in full-time effort…and then a little more.

Describe the process of launching the business.

Launching my first store didn’t take much time at all. After finding out that I could likely sell on these platforms for more than taking things to Plato’s Closet or somewhere similar, I decided to learn how to list and got to work! Poshmark has such a user-friendly listing process, that it took me literally just a few minutes.

I kept sharing my item as I’d read would help, and interacting with each interested person, providing measurements and answering questions. Once I successfully sold my first piece, I started working on additional listings from items around my home. It didn’t take long to start gaining some traction once I realized that consistency was key!

Creating a website only came once I was a few years into reselling, and my husband and I kept seeing blogs and vlogs popping up everywhere. He mentioned something about starting a blog, so I decided to take the leap in doing so.

It’s been a long road to where we’ve come today, and lots of changes have been made along the way to continue perfecting each section of it. It’s helped gain some recognition in our stores, and one day we hope to continue writing for it while utilizing it as a form of passive income as well.

Financing the business as a whole didn’t take much out of the gate, we invested what we were making from reselling back into building the brand further out into the website, and eventually coaching, etc. We suggest however opting for a business credit card so that you can easily keep all expenses and such in one easy to find place.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned along the way is to not give up. Cliche, perhaps, but true! It has taken a lot of gumption to continue on some of the days, but alas here we are because we continued to persist during the uncomfortable times in the business.

There were days that we had zero sales, and we lost a lot of traction when I started focusing on other areas of my life instead of on the business. In reality, if you are searching for a full time income from your gig, then it’s simple, you have to put in full time effort…and then a little more.

Doing the hard things always suck. But if you change your perspective and relish that you’re on the right path that’s unique to you, you can change your world.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

Consistency. If I could group my entire answer into one single word, that is what it would be. Every time I would slack a little, my sales and traffic showed it almost immediately. It’s crazy how close those things intertwine, so my best advice would be to keep pushing to stay consistent, and plan for days when you’re not feeling up to the task or if you have an upcoming vacation. (Which I highly recommend making time for!)

Some steps I’ve taken to increase my traffic, therefore resulting in more sales, would be creating a blog all about reselling of course, as well as highlighting the best and worst parts of my journey for others to learn from.

I truly feel that this is helpful and authentic information for small business owners like myself to learn from, so I try to share as much of it as I can along the way! Sales have become more organic as the brand has grown, which in part is also related to staying consistent in my listing and marketing strategies!

We were social media free for a long time so that we could focus on growing within what we had already. Recently however, we’ve branched out to TikTok, and continue to post frequently on our Pinterest page. Mailchimp is our friend when it comes to email marketing, and we focus highly on perfecting our SEO strategies. As we grow, we look forward to connecting with fellow business owners to engage in partnerships.

We love to entertain the idea of repeat buyers, so providing a customized and “feel good” experience is very important to us. We’re talking thank you cards, stickers, ribbon, it’s the works! Providing a perfect and memorable experience is how we retain over 99% 5 star ratings and gain additional followers and repeat buyers along the way. Who doesn’t enjoy opening gifts?! That’s our goal.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

We are in the green and doing well these days! We still have a long way to go to hit our end goals, but reselling along with the challenges, changes, and growth opportunities that have come along with it has been life-changing, to say the least. The future looks bright for Rooted Drawers! We have plenty of ideas and new ventures to lean into this year and next, which we’re very excited to drop when the time is right!

Since most of our growth has been organic, we have spent little to nothing on gaining customers. We’re able to retain most of them by providing an awesome experience and leaning heavily into our customer service. Monthly traffic continues to grow month over month, including the time spent on our site. Although we do not yet have a hefty subscriber list, we’re hopeful to continue showing that we’re worth subscribing to with each and every tip that hits the blog!

As of today, I work on Rooted Drawers full time, with the exception of waiting tables 2 days per week. My husband works full time, and helps out with multiple facets of the business throughout his time off, such as shipping, revamping listing prices, pulling sold items, and doing the heavy lifting in our new cleanout service!

He’s been a solid piece of this journey for me and I really couldn’t have done it without him. I’m a very driven individual on my own, but having an accountability partner there along the way has impacted the way that the business has flourished and I’m forever grateful for that.

Although a lot of online businesses eventually transition to a brick and mortar store, we have no plans of doing so. Working online has provided much more flexibility and freedom to work on it around life which was essentially the main goal at the beginning of it all. We’d like it to stay that way as we move forward and continue to grow.

Most of our sales come directly through eBay, Poshmark, or Mercari. We also sell more infrequently on platforms such as Depop, Etsy, and Kidizen, although these are not our main focus. Our goal is to eventually open a page on our website to shop directly, which will save on fees and gain more traffic to our blog.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

Starting a business was something I feel like I always had considered in the back of my mind. I never thought it would be reselling. Or blogging! But these days it makes complete sense and I’m loving every minute of it. There were a handful of not-so-great decisions, missed opportunities, and things that caught me off guard along the way, but I enjoy these experiences because I’ve learned so much from them all.

I had no idea how to do any of the things I am doing now when I started out, so it took thousands of hours of learning and planning and failing and trying again. That’s why I started a coaching program. So that others like me could spend less time failing and more time doing what they love.

Throughout my journey, I’ve made connections and friends, blocked others, and regretted not accepting offers, but each one provided a new understanding of how to be a better business owner and that’s essentially priceless. I wouldn’t change a thing.

As I mentioned previously, I couldn’t have done it without the backing of my best friend and spouse. It takes a lot of ups and downs to keep pushing back into the wind of growing a business, and it’s really helpful to have someone there holding your hand along the way. Although everyone may not have the same opportunity, not everyone is on the same journey.

Each one of us faces new obstacles and new ways of learning each and every day, which we have to learn how to do alone when it comes down to the nitty gritty. The question is, I suppose how much are you willing to expand your knowledge and increase your time spent on it to get there?

I now possess many habits that I hadn’t in the past before becoming my own boss. Things like time management/time blocking, customer service levels I didn’t even know existed and learning to listen more often than to speak, are skills that I only could have learned throughout a process such as this one. I’ve learned how to use tools online and increase my writing skills to levels I didn’t know were possible. It’s been eye-opening how much you can learn if you’re only willing to make the moves.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

I have a lot of favorite tools that I now use for my business! A few of them would have to be Google Workspace and Slack. These two combined are used multiple times per day for multiple different things. Slack has helped immensely in organizing my team’s thoughts and to-do’s, and without Google Workspace I’d be eons behind in organizing *everything else!*

Typically, I’ll use the platforms for shipping since it’s already built in. However, there are several times when I will hop over to Pirate Ship since they have some pretty great prices on their shipping options if eBay or another platform is charging some crazy number.

Regarding keeping my productivity in line, I rely heavily on Google Calendar. It’s been the #1 key to keeping up with my to-do’s and making sure I don’t miss any in-person or online meetings. Even if a task seems meaningless to add to my calendar, I do it anyway. I often have a full day from start to finish and it keeps me on track and on top of getting all tasks accomplished.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

I’ve been an avid reader for the last several years…and it’s mainly books I never thought I’d read! Books that are business-focused, teaching leadership skills, and how to use proper keywords online, etc. I find that a lot of books such as these have helped me to hone in on succeeding in parts of my business that I didn’t realize was so important in the past. They’ve helped me to become more confident in my abilities and more knowledgeable about the pieces of my business as a whole.

I also have come to a great realization throughout this business building journey, and that is to take good care of your mind and body. A lot of times before becoming a business owner, I thought this was all make believe and woo woo. I have come to realize, however, that possessing the right mindset, understanding who you are, and checking in on your work-life balance are all very important to doing your job to your fullest and staying persistent on that road to success.

It can get rather hard sometimes, and having these skills in your backpocket is key to understanding how to come out better on the other side. Podcasts and books alike have helped me to get to this point. Here are a few books that are high on my list.

168 Hours
The Universe Has Your Back
Grit
Start With Why
Atomic Habits

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

To all my fellow resellers, entrepreneurs, and new small business owners. Just get started. If you’re thinking all day about your dream but not acting on it, what’s holding you back? If you want to find a way out of the everyday grind and want to do something that’s truly all yours, why are you waiting? Find your passion and find your freedom.

Now, we all know that any kind of business takes time and any kind of work is usually hard to some extent. But when work is what you get to decide and your schedule is freer to work around your family’s activities, where is the downside? We all are likely striving for the success of freedom within our schedules.

Sure, monetization of blogs, sales of online platforms, and coaching revenue can help to get us there, but freedom has ultimately always been my main goal and I’m willing to bet it’s probably yours too. If you can’t stand working for your day job any longer, stop, and start something new. If you need to work that day job and work at night on your business, do it. Don’t make excuses, just start working on your dream. You’ll be glad you did.

It’s going to be hard, and it’s probably going to take WAY longer than you originally planned. But in my opinion, that’s the best part. These parts that you get stuck on help you not only to develop a better business, but also help you grow into a new individual.

They help you to succeed and plan and understand new realms that never existed before. Doing the hard things always suck. But if you change your perspective and relish that you’re on the right path that’s unique to you, you can change your own world.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

At this time Rooted Drawers is not hiring. We have a small team of experts that have helped immensely in our growth and may look outwards again in the future. For now, though, we’re keeping it real as a 3.5 person team just doing our best to make things happen. Keep an eye out in the future if you feel like we’d be a good fit! We’d love to meet the next best team member when the timing is right.