Crafter Fashions Upcycled Chairs Into Six-Figure Shop

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

[Music]

In today's story, a Texas crafter turns cast offs into whimsical works of art, earning a full-time income and building a sustainable business. Hey, what's up? Welcome to Silasill School. My name's Chris Guillebeau. Did you know that upcycled chairs can sell for $1,000 or more?

And not just as a one-off, you can actually sell a lot of them. That's what this woman in Texas discovered. If you're gonna hear all the details in this story, I actually did not know that fact before working on this episode, that upcycled chairs can sell for so much. And now I have a lot more appreciation for people who create that kind of value through their handy work and marketing. Lots of our listeners out there are crafty and handy.

I wonder if you could make not just a small amount of money, but something that's pretty good, something that's pretty sustainable and perhaps even a full-time income. As you're gonna hear in this story, take a seat, get ready. Texan fashions chairs into six-figure side hustle. [Music]

In 2012, Wendy Conklin was working as an educational consultant when she took a couple of upholstery classes. She'd already tried doing it using instructions from a book, but wanted hands-on guidance from a pro.

In the first class, she learned how to fix up vintage and antique chairs and reupholster them with new fabric. Toward the end of the second class, she decided to open an Etsy shop to see if the chairs she'd worked on would sell. Starting up didn't cost a lot of money. Wendy had sourced her chairs from Craigslist and was conscious of choosing affordable yet beautiful fabric. Within two weeks of opening chair whimsy, she got her first order.

But then panic set in because Wendy realized she had to figure out how to ship the chair from her home in Texas to the customer in New York City. She used way too much packing material, but it got there safely and the customer was happy. After that first sale, Wendy began reupholstering and selling more. As she improved her craft and realized how much demand there was, especially for custom orders, she also upped her prices. That first chair had sold for $150, but most of her chairs now sell for $1,000 or more.

She also offers new antique-inspired chairs on her website in addition to those she up cycles. During year one, she made about $500 a month from her Etsy shop, which is, of course, not a bad start. But how about now? Well, I hope you're sitting down on a chair because her average monthly profits are between $10,000 and $15,000 depending on the season. Now, interestingly, some Etsy sellers with high sales volume choose to shut down their Etsy shop and focus on selling through their own website.

We've had some stories like that before. They essentially use Etsy to build a business then move on, but not Wendy. She has her own website for chair whimsy, but sees the value in keeping both going. A lot of customers find her on Etsy and end up buying from her website or sometimes vice versa. Now, in retrospect, Wendy wishes she'd use Pinterest more strategically from the start.

She says if you have any kind of visual product, Pinterest is your BFF. She now uses the network to drive people to her shop by pinning every picture in every listing. And about half her traffic on the Etsy side of things comes from Pinterest. Wendy also blogs every week and emails her list to give them tips on things like chair upholstery ideas and favorite upholstery tools. The way she thinks about selling is forming a relationship with her followers, just being genuine with them and talking to them about what she's doing.

She responds to their comments and has even had customers tell her that they've been saving up for years to buy one of her chairs. As chair whimsy grew, it sometimes felt like Wendy had two full-time jobs. To keep up with orders, she worked weekends and nights in addition to her day job in consulting. Fortunately, about three and a half years in, she was able to quit that day job to do chairs full-time. The best part of the process has been the journey of proving to herself that she can figure things out, whether it's shipping chairs to New York City, pricing or whatever else.

And as a side note, she was 50 years old when she started this side hustle. So she says you're never too old to learn something new. Chair whimsy's creations have been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, Woman's World and Buzzfeed. And of course, this podcast. In addition to selling chairs, Wendy has begun offering online courses.

These include upholstery for beginners, how to find swoon-worthy fabrics and what she calls the business of chairs. [Music]

Amazing, congratulations to Wendy. I love the story of chair whimsy, so fun. I also love that it's a second act of sorts. I also love that she really figured out her pricing and went from $150 to $1,000.

Also, just one note about Etsy, and this is true for eBay as well, those platforms typically incentivize sellers to offer free shipping. So they really want every seller to offer free shipping. That's kind of the Amazon way that has infiltrated the rest of the marketplace. But of course, it's not cheap to ship a chair. So Wendy is able to charge 100 to $125 for shipping.

And her customers pretty much understand that, even though customers expect free shipping for lots of things. Chairs are bulky and expensive to ship. And so good news is the Etsy algorithm hasn't penalized her for that. So fun fact there, if you have an item that is expensive to ship, you don't always have to offer free shipping. So you can hold your ground and still be successful.

All right, that's it for today. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. To find the show notes for today's episode, including links to chair whimsy, anything else I mentioned, just go to www.sidehustleschool.com/17371737. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I hope you will subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts, tell your friends and come back tomorrow.

My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the Onward Project.