This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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I love a good reselling story. These stories are close to my heart because it's how I got my start many years ago, a couple of decades ago. In fact, reselling is also one of the easiest ways to get going in the world of side hustling. It's low risk. It doesn't take much investment.
You can gain experience almost immediately. And you can also do it for a while and then move on to something else. So this episode is called the clothes dryer that changed a family forever. It is in fact about a reseller who buys and sells washers and dryers, other household appliances. That seems like a difficult thing in some ways, just in terms of the logistics and the storage and so on.
But this guy figures it out. He finds a way to make it happen. And as alluded to in that headline, it does in fact change his family forever. He has a government employee who's let go from his job, stumbling upon this opportunity, helps his family ride out a recession, even earning six figures in a single year. Offer me side hustle, of course.
That's what we're all about. Side hustle school, stories, tips, actionable ideas, things you can do to create extra income without quitting your job or otherwise establish more financial security and wellbeing for yourself. Lots of different ways to do that. That's why we have lots of different stories. I'll bring you this one right after the break.
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LaJuan Stockstaldigs describes himself as a family man. He married the love of his life when he was 20. He had three kids a couple of years later and worked hard to provide for them. Finances were tight in those early years and they would soon become far more challenging. On a cusp of the 2008 recession, LaJuan was let go from his government job as the economy started to fold in on itself.
Over the next two months, he submitted two dozen job applications, but no one was hiring. Thankfully, LaJuan's brother owned a moving company and was able to give him some contract work every now and then. Even when times are tough, there's always someone willing to pay for manual labor. Clients were frequently offering excess furniture to LaJuan's brother, which he gladly accepted. On one gig, a client offered a clothes dryer to LaJuan's brother who then offered it to LaJuan.
He almost said no. He had a perfectly good dryer at home. Why would he need another one? It was just going to take up space. But then his brother said something that would change his life.
Why don't you just try to sell it? And you can keep the money. Being three months out of work, not expecting a job to come along anytime soon, LaJuan accepted. He didn't know if anything would come of it, but why not try? Now his first thought was to list the dryer for sale in the local newspaper.
Remember those? That would cost a small amount of money. It would also take a couple of days before it would come out. And LaJuan's wife had another idea. Why don't you try Craigslist?
Now LaJuan hadn't used Craigslist for much of anything before. He had poked around in the job section when he was looking for work, but he never thought of it as a marketplace to sell things on. Again, he wasn't certain if it would work, but it was free and instant. So why not? Well, within a few hours of listing the dryer, someone arrived at their home and gave him $75 for it.
LaJuan was ecstatic and also frustrated because it sold so fast, he realized he could have listed it for at least $50 more. His mind began turning over, just like the permanent press spin cycle on that dryer. He spent the rest of the night reading all the listings for washers and dryers. Within a couple of days, he was able to confirm his suspicion. People were selling used appliances for far cheaper than they were worth.
And if he could be quick to buy them, he could flip them for a profit. To test the idea, he called his family members around town and asked if anybody had any used appliances they wanted to sell. The next morning, he picked up two dryers, he paid $50 each, listed them both on Craigslist, and sold them for $120 each. It was the easiest money he'd ever made. More importantly, he gave him hope he could provide for his family through the recession.
Day after day, he scoured Craigslist pages for his local area. He searched for appliances that were under $100 with two criteria in mind. They looked like something he would use in his own home and he knew he could profit at least $50 from it. In under two weeks, LaJuan had made over $1,000. He couldn't believe it, but he wasn't about to stop and ask questions.
It was hustle time. He kept going. Most days he bought at least two appliances, loaded them up in his SUV, listed them at home, and resold them within 48 hours. It was working and a lot faster than he had expected. And the reason it was working is because he began to treat it like a full-time job.
Even though it was his side hustle, he refreshed his listings every few minutes, careful not to miss anything. His goal was to always be the first one to ask about an appliance. He quickly learned that by being the fastest, he didn't have to worry about competition or prices going up due to demand, and he always beat everyone else to the best deals. He refreshed the listings at 10 o'clock at night. He did it again at five in the morning.
Rain, snow, shine, he had to be first, and he had to be willing to go where others weren't. His family was relying on him. Now, when it came to selling, the process wasn't all that complicated. He just gave the appliances a good cleaning. He took better pictures.
He wrote up a clear information-packed description. That was pretty much it. And when it came time to list them, he would price it just a hair below the average price for similar models to help move the item quickly. About a year into the hustle, Luan had his first $5,000 month. And then, as the years went by, at this point, he's working another job, but he continues to side hustle.
He expands into flipping refrigerators, espresso machines, studio equipment, computers, and a variety of other items. There were even a few years he surpassed six figures in profit. That was more money than he'd ever made. And he expanded further, making YouTube tutorial videos, writing a handbook, explaining his process for newcomers to Craigslist flipping. It wasn't about creating an empire or trying to have a million-dollar business.
It was about providing for his family and helping others do the same. After all, there's more than one way to accomplish almost any goal. He just didn't expect to find his answer in a common household appliance. [Music]
Reselling is, in fact, the age-old, ultimately sustainable, never going anywhere side hustle. And even though washers and dryers are complicated in terms of their bulk and weight and where you're gonna store them, the basic process of selling is very simple.
Like Luan just kind of cleans them up. He takes better pictures, he writes a better description, and then he's able to profit just like that. He's the first one to buy something. He doesn't care if the pictures are bad. In fact, it's better if the pictures are bad in the listing he buys from, because that means other people aren't as interested.
He's gonna make things look better and he'll be able to profit. Variations of this are still possible in this day and age. Everybody's like, "What's new with AI?" Well, this is something that doesn't change, okay? So you're probably not gonna get rich, but as you see in this story, he was able to make six figures several of the years he was doing this. And if you need money soon, it still works.
So I'm gonna leave you with that today. We've got new stories coming up. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Get out there, folks. That's something you can do.
That's why we make the podcast. We're so grateful for you. Detailed show notes for all of our episodes. 3,200-plus are available in the archives at sidehustleschool.com. Download and stream to your heart's content.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
