My goal is to show you how to make extra money outside of your full-time job so you can live how you actually want to live. That is why I am going to share with you how my side hustle started.
My side hustle experiment started after being disappointed with my raise after a performance review.
I was a top performer, a hard worker, and well liked at the company … but it didn’t seem to matter.
I went home that night and said to myself, “I need to be able to control how much money I make … not a company that I work for.”
I wanted to find a way where I could make money almost instantly. But I didn’t want to do anything in those “30 ways to make extra money articles.” You know the articles that suggest you:
- Become a freelance writer (even though that probably would have made the most sense)
- Spend hours taking online survey
- Signing up for website to get a $5 gift card
- Call and haggle with your insurance company and cable company for a better rate
- Uber
- And all the other common ones we all know of
There’s nothing wrong with those ideas but I wanted to do something I enjoyed and turn it into a business.
I came across a video on Youtube of Gary Vaynerchuck going to garage sales and buying items for $0.50 and then selling them for $10 dollars on ebay.
I had always considered flipping items but I thought it was weird. But after seeing a multi-millionaire, successful business person, and someone I’ve respected for years do it, I decided to give it a try.
In November 2016, I started flipping furniture on local sites like OfferUp, Letgo, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.
My first flip was when I bought a side table from Pier-1 and LetGo for $20. Two days later someone paid $40 for the table.
Then I sold 4 chairs I bought for $10 and sold them for $30.
Then I sold some other smaller pieces of furniture that made me $50 profit.
Within a week I made $100 profit. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was a big deal for me. I was hooked and started looking for more items and places to buy cheap furniture.
By the end of 2017 I had sold $26,000 worth of used furniture with a profit of $12,000. That was about an extra $1,000 a month on top of what I was making at my full-time job.
I was pumped. But around November and December I started to run into a couple of problems:
People weren’t selling much furniture because they were focused on the holidays
I had to physically meet with people in order to make sales which meant If I was traveling my business basically shutdown
I mostly sold tables and chairs since they were the most profitable, but I could only get one at a time
Plus, I was running out of space in my apartment.
Because of the issues I was running into, I went to YouTube to do some research on other items I could possibly flip. I wanted to find items that were smaller so I could get more then one at a time, and something that was more scalable.
A video came up about selling items on Amazon. The video discussed how you find an item on sale at Walmart, Target, Khols and similar stores … then sell it for a higher price on Amazon. I was shocked how easy this seemed and didn’t really believe it at first.
After trying to find items to sell I was really struggling. Then I came across a video by Reezy Resells about selling used books on Amazon.
The basic idea was that you go to a thrift store and buy a book for $1, send it to Amazon, and then when a customer buys the book for $12, Amazon would pay the seller (me) $2-$3.
It sounded crazy to me, but I gave it a try. I bought book scouting software (I now use ScoutIQ) for $44 a month and went to a thrift store by my house and started scanning books. One of the first books I scanned was selling for $40 on Amazon.
I said to myself no one is going to pay that. But I bought it anyway. I sent it to Amazon and then waited. About a week later I had my first sale and was shocked the $40 book sold! I then went all in and started learning everything I could about selling books.
A year later after knowing absolutely nothing about selling books on Amazon I was able to do $65,000 in sales (net profit can be anywhere from 30-40%) in 12 months (while working a full-time job). After 18 months I hit $100,000 in sales.
This wasn’t easy to achieve. It took a lot of hard work and discipline. I utilized my nights and weekends and just did it as much as I could, which sometimes meant missing out on parties and other fun events.
As sales kept getting better, I made sure that 90% of the money I made from both the furniture and books was reinvested into the business to buy more inventory, better equipment and software. After that, whatever money was left I saved so I could quit my full time job.
I didn’t go on a crazy vacation, upgrade my lifestyle, buy a big tv or fancy electronics.
The extra money gave me something more valuable than anything money can buy. It gave me peace of mind.
- If I lost my job … it would suck, but i’d at least I have money coming in while I looked for another job
- No Christmas bonus this year … no problem I have been creating my own “bonus” outside of work
- I want to get back into shape and hire a trainer for $300 a month … sounds good to me
- Car needs new tires and it’s going to cost $800 … no problem. I can find items to buy and resell to cover the bill
- Company put a freeze on raises … no problem I’ll find some extra items to make up for it
- My friends want to go away for his bachelor party which is going to cost at least $500 … no problem
My goal is to document my journey as I continue to build my business and show you how you can make extra money that you can use to do anything you want with. Whether it’s paying off loans, putting a down payment on a house, going on a dream vacation or even leaving your full time job. I’ll show you what I have done and continue to do.
Let me know in the comments why you want to start a side hustle?