Vintage Clothing Shop Sells Retro Jeans for Modern Money

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Oh, hey there, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is episode 454, 454 going strong. And today, by the way, is National Take a Walk in the Park Day.

That is correct. It's kind of self-explanatory. You're supposed to go and take a walk in the park. Maybe just a walk down the street. Make sure you've got your Fitbit or whatever you use to measure your steps.

It's good to have goals. And speaking of goals, we have often looked at projects on the show that come to be because of a problem that someone encounters and then sets out to solve. Or something they're frustrated by or annoyed by. Something they find to be inefficient or suboptimal. But what about something that you've wanted for yourself, like some kind of item you've always wanted to purchase, but you couldn't have because of your situation, your circumstances or resources, maybe even your beliefs and values.

Well, that's where the inspiration for today's featured story comes from. I'm gonna tell you about a first-generation Ukrainian-American living in Brooklyn who turns a love of shopping into an e-commerce shop selling one-of-a-kind vintage clothing. She's 24 years old and is earning at least $1,000 a month on the side through this project. Stay tuned and you'll hear all about it. [Music]

By day, Liz Zavoysky is the business development lead for an entertainment and media investment fund in New York City.

The rest of the time, nights, weekends, whenever she can fit it in, she runs Odessa Ray, an online shop that sells custom, one-of-a-kind vintage clothing. Liz didn't plan on opening a vintage clothing shop, but a series of events, including an accidental eBay purchase and the launch of a friend's blog, sent her down the fashion runway. Liz grew up in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of two immigrant parents from Odessa, Ukraine. She recalls the immense culture shock of being around some really wealthy people during her freshman year at NYU. The insecurity she felt about her wardrobe, at least in comparison to some of her peers, led her to the vintage shopping world of New York, where she could find special items of clothing, sometimes at a very special price, if she looked hard enough.

This search eventually morphed into a love of all things pre-owned. A few years later, in 2016, a friend was launching a blog and wanted a branded piece of clothing for a photo shoot. By this point, Liz had expanded her shopping to eBay, and she was really into 1970s era denim. She and a friend were looking at the site and they found a vintage Levi's denim jacket. But they didn't realize they had placed the winning bid until the jacket showed up at the door a week later.

Surprise, Liz offered to bling up this jacket before her friend's photo shoot. What does that mean? Well, she borrowed a sewing machine, spent most of a day watching YouTube videos, learning how to sew, and then delivered a jacket embroidered with a bunch of funky looking patches. The friend loved it so much that she posted a photo on social media mentioning that, "Hey, maybe you should ask her to make one for you." Within half an hour, Liz had her first request for a custom jacket from a stranger. This quick success made her think that maybe she could do it more than once.

Because custom jackets are a niche product, once she made a website, Liz got a lot of early attention in the form of organic press coverage. Her first press feature came a few months after that first custom jacket order, and her shop has since been featured on sites like Elle, InStyle, and E! News. Then a buyer at Topshop, an international retailer of clothing, shoes, makeup, and accessories, saw one of the features and reached out to Liz about doing a pop-up shop at their Soho New York store. That pop-up shop was supposed to last four days over a long holiday weekend, but it went so well that they extended it for more weeks.

Liz used the pop-up shop to explore which kinds of vintage items would sell. It also helped her organize and level up. She re-did her website, began hiring professional photographers on a freelance basis, and also learned how to use the camera herself. Now, what kind of profits can be made selling custom vintage clothing? Well, there are good months and bad months, it can be seasonal, but Liz usually makes at least $1,000 a month, if not more.

Her total startup costs were under $3,000, which included buying a sewing machine and setting up a website. The majority of her customers find her on Instagram or through those press articles. She updates Odessa Ray once or twice a month with new items, but does no paid marketing. So back to where we started, what did getting into vintage clothes shopping and then selling it online do about those insecurities she had over her personal wardrobe? Well, Liz says she realized as she shopped that the items didn't need to be designer for her to think they were cool or look good on her.

They just needed to be unique. In fact, it was the things that no one had seen before that were what people were complimenting her on. Liz is now just 24 years old, she's doing well, she loves her day job in addition to this online shop. Although at times it can feel like a challenge to balance her work at the music fund with her online clothing sales, she's also found synergy between the two. Soon she'll be hosting an all-female panel for her day job, which is all about creating a brand in the digital age.

She'll be using some of the women she's featured on the Odessa Ray blog on that same panel. Whatever happens next, Liz is not running away from opportunities. In fact, she's running toward them. Well, as Bo Derek tells it, whoever said that money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping. Okay, maybe that's true, maybe that's not, but I do like this one, self-confidence is the best outfit.

I don't quite know what source that's attributed to, but I appreciate the philosophy, self-confidence is the best outfit. And where does self-confidence come from? Well, one way or another, it comes from learning that you are enough and that other people are not better than you because they can afford nicer clothes or for pretty much any other reason. And I often talk about how one of the greatest reasons for starting a side hustle is not just the money, it is the self-confidence that comes from strangers purchasing your clothing items or hiring you for your service or whatever it is that you do. In this story, Liz loves her job, she's pretty young, she's just getting started with this new career.

But as she begins this career, she's also learning about entrepreneurship and she's learning all the aspects of running a little business in terms of buying and selling, in terms of the marketing, in terms of telling stories. And so for this real world education, instead of paying for an MBA or some other formal program, she's actually earning money, right? Which I think is a little bit better than paying money. Maybe there's another podcast that tells you how to spend your money, perhaps a fashion podcast, I have no idea. But here on this show, I'm all about helping you make money so that just like Liz, you'll have more self-confidence, you'll be able to make more choices and do what matters to you.

That is my hope, my mission, my intention every day. Don't forget inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. If you would like to check out the Odessa Ray Shop or her Instagram, all of that stuff will be linked up on today's show notes page. That page is sidehustleschool.com/454. Thank you for listening.

I'll be back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.