The Side Hustle

The Great and wise Gary Vaynerchuk has drilled it into us over and over again, the side hustle is out there! With claims that just selling other people’s junk from thrift shops, yard sales can turn us into millionaires. There are a lot of us who have taken the bait! Only to get the hook and a bang to the head.

Last year I decided to give the same side hustle a try for a 3 month period, would I really be able to make a killing selling junk on eBay? My curiosity got the best of me, I knew that it is possible to make money reselling old furniture and antiques it’s how my father had earned money for as long as I can remember! I felt that I already have an advantage, watching him work for so many years, I had this in the bag!

Firstly I signed up to my local online auction site John Pye to up my chances of buying junk in mass to sell. I decided my niche would be toys, sticking with children’s items I would be more likely to sell faster and turn over stock faster equaling more money! Well so I thought, The market it turns out is saturated! So what I ended up with a year on is A large number of Disney figurines that I have failed to sell still living under the stairs! I followed the rules, “Disney always sells!” Those were the claims by all the side hustlers, well I am happy to send them all of my unsold stock!

That’s not to say that I didn’t Sell! I sold quite a bit, I decided to sell job lots as this was the best way to get rid of it quickly to buy more stock. But selling in bundles and lots comes with added expenses, more packaging and expensive delivery costs. This meant that my profit really wasn’t the greatest, and when you add into the money and time spent altogether, there really are better ways of making money.

I had to change my strategy, my luck took a turn for the better when I started to sell shoes! The shoes weren’t exactly Rock star brands either, but shoes sell Well on eBay! Again the profit was small and the delivery cost a little higher because of the weight but they sold more frequently than toys and a lot easier to package up! But the time spent was still not adding up, I could be a lot more productive and make more money with a second job.

So now I was frustrated and could feel burn out kicking in! I’m spending all my time and petrol I might add, Driving around to all these places buying junk that is selling in dribs and drabs on eBay! I have completely lost the drive and motivation to buy and sell. I decide to try a new strategy.

Boot sales! (A type of yard sale for my American friends) It’s easy to sell junk at the the old car boot sale. I talked my sister into coming with me and selling some of her junk to make the trip worthwhile, I payed my selling fee £8 on the door! We were in! Strategically set up the table lay out the crap and watch it all leave, I was finally going to make some money. I could not have been more wrong, I actually lost money at the car boot sale! What had I been doing so wrong? Over three months of hard work I made about two hundred pounds profit, I could make the same amount shooting one photography session at my local park.

So is the side hustle really worth it? Here is my answer, I made a lot of mistakes! Number one buying and selling is not my niche, it’s that simple. I found it exciting and fun but did not have a clue about market trends, when to buy when to sell, retail arbitrage so on and so forth! So for me that particular side hustle 100 percent not worth it, but my side hustles are different. I write freelance, take photographs freelance and I make YouTube videos. All of those things I have an interest in and a passion for, Those are the things that I know I can successfully achieve something in! The moral of this story is this. Don’t do what others are doing, find your side hustle and perfect it so that the time and energy spent is worth the pay out in the end for you!

Time

Energy

Money

If all three things are in a happy balance for you and your life, then the side hustle is totally worth it!