Insurance Manager Finds New Shelves for Old Antiques

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Let's talk today about turning a difficult time into something more positive. Somebody out there needs to hear this. I know a lot of us have experienced difficult times recently. This story in particular is about a woman who experiences a tremendous personal loss. And then as a consequence of that, which you'll hear about in the story, sells an unwanted collection of antiques.

This sale leads her to go on a hunt for more inventory. She is an insurance manager by day. And this business now provides at least $1,000 a month in extra income. And she reports she has successfully navigated the many challenges of 2020. In fact, according to her, she says, "This side hustle has turned a very difficult season "of my life into a period of growth.

"I've been able to find joy in the things I loved again "and share that with others." Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Life is not easy. Never wanna say that life is easy, nor would I say that starting your business is easy. What I would say is it's worth it.

But with life and starting your side hustle. So let's dive into that. Insurance manager finds new shelves for old antiques. That story is coming up after this short message from our sponsor. [Music]

When Kristy Farr first listed five of her products on Etsy, she didn't think it would be the start of a new business.

Her husband had recently passed away and she was left with a home filled with antiques that no longer held as much meaning. Not wanting to keep them, she decided she would find a way to sell them. She thought she would get the best prices by listing them on Etsy where people go to purchase craft and vintage items. As she started listing those items, Kristy found that she enjoyed the process. Much of the fun came at the product photography stage where she would think of creative ways to showcase the aesthetics of the item.

After several weeks of doing this, the process got easier and she developed a routine. Left her wondering if she could keep selling on the side even after she cleared out her own collection. Kristy worked as an insurance manager by day and wanted to use her free time productively. As she recalls, I figured it was a numbers game. And if I had enough products, I could get the sales to the place I wanted.

The first step was to head to thrift stores to purchase more items to sell. In the beginning, there was no process that she used to pick out her inventory. It was all just based on gut feel. But as she listed and sold more products, she developed a better sense of what customers wanted. For example, she learned that pink and green depression glass was in demand.

Any that she could sell on Etsy was sure to make a profit. On the other hand, there were also popular items that were unlikely to turn a profit because of the fierce competition from other sellers. She kept adding items to her store and conducting more research. She used what she learned to get more and more specific about what she'd buy at thrift stores and auctions. Even still, a lot of it boiled down to personal judgment.

She says, "If I think it's beautiful, "I figure someone else will too." This mix of market research and gut feel has worked well for Christy. She has learned to include relevant tags in each listing and write clear product descriptions. She's also had some luck with Etsy's programs to promote her listings on Google. On the other hand, while she has tried to build up a presence on Instagram and Pinterest, her posts there haven't translated to many sales. Another challenge, while finding unique items hasn't been too hard, shipping them out has been a whole other story.

Many of these antiques are made of glass and Christy worries a lot about the product breaking on the way to a customer. And these worries are not hypothetical. The first item that broke was a unique, antique British ironstone tray and the break caused significant distress to her customer. She now wraps each item in bubble wrap and then packs it into an oversized box with other packaging materials to ensure there is enough padding. In fact, she's recruited her family members in this endeavor by asking them to collect newspapers, paper, grocery bags, and boxes to help her keep packaging costs down.

While this has added weight to each box and increased shipping costs, the precautions give her peace of mind. Now, although she successfully solved one shipping challenge, 2020 has brought another one and this one's been a bit harder to control. When COVID-19 hit, there were immediate flight restrictions alongside the global economic slowdown. This caused the postal service to lose access to the commercial flights that enabled it to get items to their destinations more quickly. Christie had previously used priority mail exclusively, which guaranteed two to three day delivery and utilized smaller and lighter boxes.

But with the new restrictions, the postal service forced Christie to ship her items out in heavier boxes, leading to an increase in pieces arriving late and damaged. In turn, this led to horror stories, such as an item taking a month to arrive despite being shipped priority mail and even entire items being destroyed. Thankfully, the recipients of these items have been mostly understanding. Despite all the challenges, Christie has actually seen sales increase in 2020, a pleasant surprise. This year, she's brought in over $12,000 in profit and she certainly surpassed her initial goal of simply clearing out her collection.

By moving old antiques to new shelves, she now has the ability to move herself across continents for annual vacations. And that's her goal, at least when she's able to travel again. [Music]

How can you rework or reframe the challenges you're facing? Now listen, folks, I'm working on this too. I go through periods of depression from time to time, and this year has been rough.

I know it's been much harder for many other people. I do wanna say that and acknowledge that. My life is pretty good. But, you know, I also kind of go through these times of like, well, this sucks, you know, what can I do? You know, how can I reframe the challenges I'm facing?

And so that's my encouragement for you as well. If you're struggling this year, if you are struggling, you know, regardless of 2020, if you're listening in the future and you're struggling, it's always good to say, you know, this isn't the magic solution for everything, but is there another way to look at this? Is there some other perspective? And am I just kind of going through life doing the same things over and over, you know, without really thinking about the intention behind them and maybe there could be something better, even if it's just a small change. Christy's shop is called The Blue Break Front.

You can find that on Etsy. I'm gonna link it up in the show notes, of course. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Those notes for today are at sidehustleschool.com/1382. 1-3-8-2.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey. I hope you will continue to listen. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.

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From the Onward Project.