Re Wear Clothes

In 2018 I started buying 25kg sacks of clothes from cash for clothes traders. I sold on the clothes individually on Ebay and Vinted etc. I bought the sacks for £1.50 per kg (£37.50 a sack) and sold the clothes for £250-350 per sack. Great margins, right? I thought "aha!" this was the million pound business idea I was looking for.

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Late 2019 I was buying in 100kg a week. However, my big problem was I could not get enough clothes from the supplier. After spending months seeking a new supplier, in March 2020,

I managed to find someone up North about 5 hours drive from me. He agreed he could supply me with 3000kg. We made the deal.

 

The next day as I was planning to go collect the goods, Boris Johnston (UK Prime Minister 2020) announced the country would go into lockdown with essential travel only allowed! Was driving 5 hours to pick up 3000kg of second hand clothes essential? Well, at 20 years old and having paid the supplier, I thought it was. 

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I jumped in the van and set off. I was pulled over by police asking where I was going. I said to buy some second hand clothes. They gave me a funny look and said "is that essential?" I said "absolutely, officer". Apart from the pull over the drive was amazing - not a car in sight all the way up the motorway. 

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After uploading 3000kg of clothes to be sold on the internet (this took me 5 months working 80 hours a week over lockdown), I was selling £5000 per month on  Ebay, Vinted etc. At 20 years old I was over the moon with that! 

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I'm now going to explain why it didn't work. After paying all my expenses:

10% Ebay fee £500pm

3% PayPal fee £150pm

shipping bill to Royal Mail £1200pm 

storage fee £450pm 

utilities £300pm

mailing supplies £200pm 

other expenses, diesel, laptop, accounts etc £500pm

re invest in stock £500pm

labour (not accounted for ) 

I was left with £1200 per month for working 80 hours a week. 

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The big issue with this business was the labour was too high,  and it was hard to cut down as every item was different and required a tailored photo and description.

 

To remedy this I decided to change the business model to buying identical stock items, streamlining the upload process and reducing labour time. Being a Gen Z I didn't want to contribute to land fill, so I looked into bankrupt stock (bought at auction for pennies on the dollar) to reduce, reuse and recycle. To find out what happened next read my blog Poland 2021 and Wright Accessories. 

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From this business I learned: 

1. Work out all your costs, including labour, before committing to a business idea. 

2. Assess each step of the sales process to predict labour time. 

3. Avoid relying on one supplier. Try to have at least 5 or more.

4. Try not to start a business that requires travel during lockdown!