Bargain Hunter Designs One-of-a-Kind Flea Market

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

A bargain hunter designs a one-of-a-kind flea market that is now becoming a flea empire. Obsessed with the thrill of the hunt, this journalist/weekend warrior finds more than she bargains for when she brings her love of vintage to the shopping malls of Texas. It starts as a hobby, then a passion project, then a side hustle, and now it's much, much more. She's bringing in more than half a million dollars a year, with multiple shows in different cities. Welcome to Side Hustle School, my name is Chris Guillebeau.

You might think that in this day and age, a local-based business, which of course a flea market is, would be at a disadvantage to the plethora of online stores. After all, anyone can start an online store today. We often have stories of people doing exactly that. But this side hustler-turned-business owner argues that because there is so much e-commerce saturation, the right kind of local sellers have advantages of their own, especially when it comes to selling vintage goods. I really enjoyed this story, big thanks to our content manager Whitney Karinek for working hard on it, and I will bring it to you in just a moment.

Although half of her life has been spent in Dallas, Texas, Brittany Cobb hails from a little city called Orange, appropriately located within Orange County, California. When much of the surrounding areas of LA were tearing down older establishments in lieu of building something modern and new, Orange had dedicated its time to restoring them. With their love of the old ways, there was never a shortage of open-air shops, swap meets, and flea markets in their old-timey city square. And since her mom ran a booth at many of them, Brittany spent most weekends rummaging through the stacks in pursuit of treasures while her mom was occupied with decorating her booth. One of her earliest memories involved convincing her mom to buy her a funky iron and crystal lamp that found a home in her bedroom until she went off to journalism school in Texas.

She ended up staying a few extra years there working for local publications before relocating to New York City. And there she began to feel a little bit of home. Living within walking distance from the Brooklyn flea market, she happily filled her home and closet with one-of-a-kind items. When it was time for her to relocate back to Dallas for work, she did so somewhat reluctantly. Though the city boasted plenty of shopping opportunities, a local flea market was conspicuously absent.

There was a serious lack of the vintage and teaky goodness that Brittany had come to know and love. At the time, she was working as a journalist for a company called Daily Candy, and her main focus was highlighting the unique work of artisans and creators local to the area. Each day presented a new opportunity for her to connect with bakers, crafters, and collectors. Before long, she had a well-rounded collection of potential vendors right under her fingertips. So in true maker form, Brittany decided to put together an event.

She cobbled together a simple vendor application using Microsoft Word, sent it out to her contact list and started looking for a venue. She found the right spot in the old Sears Roebuck building that had once served as a train station hub delivering goods to the rest of the country. There was enough space in the hall to hold 50-60 vendors, and when she had her 60th sign-up, she rolled up her sleeves and got down to logistics. She needed to ensure that she was able to pay for the venue while bringing in a healthy profit, but she also wanted to be sensitive to the vendors, many of whom couldn't afford high fees. After some research, she decided on a price of $300 a booth.

She also offered add-ons for additional fees, things like social media posts, a corner or front location, and so on. That way, those who just wanted to be involved could, and those who wanted something extra could get what they wanted as well. She also charged an entry fee of $5 for anyone coming in. That seemed like an immense undertaking was falling into place little by little. But then mere days before the launch of the show, disaster struck.

Or was it an opportunity? Daily Candy was bought by another company, and Brittany suddenly found herself without a job. What was going to be a fun project that would allow her to follow in her mom's footsteps suddenly became a lifeline. Luckily, that first show was a smashing success. It provided her with some support while she was transitioning into the role of a freelance journalist, and she planned to run three more shows the next year, one in March, one in June, and another in September.

Each show was successful, and each one presented new possibilities. A lot has changed since then. After running a handful of shows each year in Dallas that were starting to bring in out-of-state visitors, she saw an opportunity to expand to new cities. She'd already changed her name from the Dallas Flea to Flea style, allowing her to be more flexible, and then a call from the Dallas Cowboys set things in motion. They said that they loved what she was doing and wanted her to expand the show up to their headquarters in Frisco.

It was a no-brainer. They had over 12,000 shoppers come to that first show, and she now runs three of them each year as well. In addition to expanding to a new city and opening up a retail shop, Brittany also added a handful of makers' workshops out of her retail space that would allow the makers she partners with to share their skills with others. She then created an e-commerce shop so that people could purchase items from out-of-state and even started a podcast. When all the facets of Flea style come together, Brittany brings in over $500,000 a year.

At some point, she also stopped doing freelance work and now does flea style full-time. Aside from one troubling incident, when someone tried to put up an extremely similar show using the same venue and marketing to the same vendors, Brittany hasn't really worried about copycats or imitators because they generally end up fizzling out. As she puts it, this is a 100% relationship-based business. If you don't have a strong relationship with your vendors, there's no way to keep something like this going. So you have to really care about the people you work with and their success.

So if somebody out there wants to do something similar, in the right way, not just by imitating her, Brittany says that this is the key to making it work, forming a strong connection with your local creative community. Also, although the rise in online retail is undeniable, Brittany thinks that the abundance of online shops almost makes it more challenging to stand out and succeed. But if you can start a local shop with unique items, especially consignment-based, you might actually have a better chance of succeeding, even with the overhead fees of managing a brick-and-mortar establishment. Finally, another part of what makes her model work so well is that you really can't buy many of the things she sells anywhere else. A lot of the goods are vintage and one-of-a-kind, so you have to come directly to the show or the shop.

She knows that it's not going to be for everyone, and she's okay with that. Brittany has a lot in store of her flee style, there's another retail shop opening up in Frisco in August, and she's even introducing a restaurant to the empire. This hobby turned passion turned side hustle now employs more than a dozen people. Awesome, well I love the focus on the local small business and maker community. In this story, it's fantastic what she's doing, and it sounds like the flee style empire of Dallas, Texas is only going to continue to grow.

She's also growing it wisely in response to demand and the right opportunities. In these situations, it could be tempting to say, "Wow, this is going so great. Let's open these kinds of markets and expos in lots of different cities, and let's have a consignment shop everywhere, and let's do this and do that." It really seems like Brittany is being intentional, which of course is the right way to grow and the right way to scale. I also like the diversification of vendors in the sense that she's got 50 to 60 vendors, maybe more now, I don't know, at each one of these shows. That way if some of them drop out from time to time, she's still got this really strong base, and of course, more of them can come along to take their place.

And then as those shows become known, I imagine that generates repeat visitors season after season, including those out of state visitors who make the trek. So nothing is ever easy, but it does become easier. Season after season, as this show is known, a lot of the vendors are coming back, people are already used to the process of going and paying $5 or whatever the admission cost is. So well done on building such a standout, interesting, unique brand. Listeners, I hope you enjoyed this.

Maybe there's something you can take from it for yourself. Is there some kind of vintage good or handmade good that you could sell? Or perhaps are you good at coordinating people, which is a lot of what this job is about. I imagine, especially when she's pioneering and putting together those shows for the first time, coordinating all the different vendors and arranging the logistics. That's a real skill.

If you have that skill and perhaps some other profession or other job that you've done, maybe there's a way you could transfer it and apply it in a different way. All right. That's it for today. Our show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/879 episode 879. We are rolling along so much more coming up, including the launch of the 100 side hustles book.

Can't wait to share it with you very, very soon. Thanks so much, my friends. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.