- 5 months ago
NYC, Entrepreneurship, & Healthy Living
Howdy, I'm Taylor. I'm a 20 something former management consultant and ivy-league grad from California turned solopreneur in New York City, and I love making videos that follow all of the above. Stick around 😊
Howdy, I'm Taylor. I'm a 20 something former management consultant and ivy-league grad from California turned solopreneur in New York City, and I love making videos that follow all of the above. Stick around 😊
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00:00You saw the title and thumbnail. Sounds clickbaity. Well, it's not. Yes, mom, $110 an hour.
00:06I swear, I'm not lying. Okay, bye. How do I make this much money reselling used clothes?
00:12Just some clothes, a computer, and a little bit of grade A organic elbow grease. If you want to
00:17learn how or potentially want to do this yourself, stick around. Real quick, please do not forget to
00:27obliterate the like button down below for the YouTube algorithm and subscribe to my channel if
00:30you're not already. It would really help me out a lot. Thank you guys. All right, you might be
00:34wondering, first impression, how do I even calculate this $110 profit an hour when the art of reselling
00:41is such an imperfect process run by humans and it's really drawn out. There's a lot of different
00:45steps. Let me tell you. The short answer is I Ford Model T'd my process. And what does T stand for?
00:51It stands for tailor. I model tailored my process. But let's start from the beginning. So five months
00:56ago, when I first started reselling just as a hobby, something fun to do to fill my time while
01:00I had this basically gap year, I was not efficient. I would take an item out of my closet, photograph
01:05it, model it, edit the photos, and then list it online. And then I would do another one. I just did
01:10it as a hobby. It wasn't really an efficient, systematized process at all. I was just doing
01:14it for fun. And at the time, that seemed totally fine. I was just learning the business. I was having
01:18fun with it, procrastinating a little bit here and there, but really just learning how to sell on
01:22Poshmark and eBay and kind of how the business worked. So I don't really care about being all that
01:26efficient in the beginning. However, when I started to make more sales and really scale
01:30my business, I wanted more of my time back because a lot of the time I would kind of do
01:34this inefficient process and really start to think, am I making like $5 an hour? Because
01:39I felt like I was procrastinating a lot and was really curious. Okay, what am I actually
01:43making per hour here? Am I just wasting my time? And when I thought about it, I realized,
01:47okay, I am procrastinating a lot. I'm being pretty lazy most of the time. So how can I be better?
01:52How can I make this more efficient? There must be a better way. So I Ford Model T'd my process.
01:58What does this mean? To better understand my process, here is a 30-second history lesson.
02:02Before 1913, Ford cars were made one at a time, meaning one crew of men would work on one car at
02:09a time, complete it, and then work on assembling another car. Ford realized that this was an
02:13inefficient way to produce these cars. And in 1913, he introduced the assembly line to produce the
02:19Ford Model T cars in the most efficient way yet. With this new assembly line, each worker would
02:24specialize in one task. The cars would move on a conveyor belt and the workers would stay stationary,
02:29performing their specialized task on each car as it moved on the conveyor belt in front of them.
02:34This helped to cut down on wasted time caused by switching in between processes.
02:38While it's of course not the same exact thing with reselling, I realized that I could still adopt
02:43some of Ford's principles and apply them to my own business.
02:45All right, so I was actually always fascinated at how this conveyor belt and batch working process
02:50really revolutionized manufacturing. That sounds very nerdy, but I always thought it was pretty
02:54cool. I remember learning about it in history class. And anyway, I wanted to incorporate this
02:58into my own business. So one night when I was feeling extra lazy, or not extra lazy, but where it really
03:04hit me that I was procrastinating a lot, and the fear dawned on me that I might be making $5 an hour
03:10without even knowing it. So after having this existential crisis, I decided to try to find a
03:15way to apply Ford's principles to my own business. The first thing I did in this one night was I wrote
03:19down every single step of the reselling process in a very granular fashion. And this sounds boring
03:25writing it all down, but I would argue that this step is arguably more important than the actions
03:31themselves. And let me explain why. So I sat down and wrote out all the steps exactly how I do it.
03:36And when I started writing it out, I actually realized a lot of the places that I could cut
03:40out time and be more efficient. So when I wrote it all out, I thought about the steps in terms of
03:45steps that could be batch worked. So what I mean by that is same thing as for model T-ing it,
03:49model tailoring it. If I take 30 items of clothing, what is a step that I could do to all 30 items of
03:55clothing at once? And then another step I could do to all 30 and so on and so forth. So the list,
04:00at least how I do it, came down to eight steps. One is sourcing, two processing, three photographing,
04:05four cataloging, five editing the photos, six drafting the items, seven listing the items,
04:11and then eight shipping the items to the customers. So all of these steps were things that I could do
04:16all at once to let's say 30 items, except for shipping, because I'm not going to sell all 30
04:20items at once, but every other step really could be batch worked. And once I wrote these steps out,
04:24it was time to start timing myself to see how long each step of the process took me. So let's break it
04:29down by time spent per item. So beginning with sourcing, step number one, that really varies for me,
04:34but usually I'd say on average, I spend about three hours per sourcing trip. And I usually come
04:39home with an average of 60 items or so. If it's a dollar tag day, I'll come home with like a hundred
04:43items. And if it's a different kind of day, I'll come home with maybe 40, but about an average of 60
04:48items. So that's about three minutes per item on sourcing. The second step is processing. And what
04:53that means for me is one, taking a picture of the Goodwill tag, the price tag. So I know exactly how
04:57much each item costs me, cutting it off, and then throwing that article of clothing into a designated bin
05:02to categorize it. So I'll throw all tops or shirts into one bin, all bottoms and jeans into one bin,
05:08that kind of thing. So that way, when I get to the photographing step, I know I'm taking out,
05:11okay, we're going to do 30 tops today. We're going to do 10 bottoms today. So the processing step only
05:16takes about 10 seconds per item, because it's really just cutting a tag off and throwing it in a
05:20bin. It's easy. The third step is photographing. So here I combine the steps of me modeling the item,
05:25as well as taking actual photos of the item itself. And this process, combining those two,
05:29actually only takes about two minutes. And that includes me taking off the top and changing into
05:34another top. So I've really cut down a lot of time in this category. And in fact, I made a video
05:39on how I model my items. And in that video, you can kind of tell that I have the same five poses down
05:43for when I model items. So it really is a quick process for me. The fourth step is cataloging the
05:47item. So what that means for me is weighing each item, putting it into a bag with a number on it,
05:52and then inputting that into my Excel spreadsheet. And that takes about 44 seconds per item.
05:56The fifth step is editing. So I use Adobe Lightroom to edit my photos. I have created a preset myself
06:02that works really, really well for pretty much all the photos that I use. In fact, I'm going to have
06:06it up for sale very soon because people have been asking me about it. So I might even have it for
06:11sale by the time this video goes out. I'll let you know. But basically in Lightroom and using my
06:15preset, I can literally just copy and paste the same setting on every single photo. So that only takes
06:19about 10 seconds per item to edit the photos. Not bad. The sixth step is drafting. And what that means
06:24for me is taking all the photos and putting them into, I use Vendoo, which is a cross-listing
06:29platform. So from Vendoo, I can post on Poshmark, Mercari, and eBay all at once. In fact, I have a link
06:34down below for Vendoo if you want to use it. You can get 25% off your first month. And then during the
06:37drafting stage, I also input the weight as well as my cost of goods. So what I paid for the item.
06:42And that takes about 40 seconds per item to draft. Seventh step is listing. And of course, what that means
06:47is filling out the description, filling out the color, all the item specifics, and then listing it on
06:52Poshmark, Mercari, and eBay. And for me, that takes about two minutes and 30 seconds per item.
06:57And then finally shipping once the item actually sells, and then I pull it out of my inventory and
07:01then ship it to the customer. That only takes about 50 seconds per item. So the total adding up all these
07:06steps is 10 minutes and four seconds per item. For simplicity, let's call that 10 minutes. By the way,
07:12in case you're thinking about doing this, which I think you should, we'll get into pros and cons in just
07:15a little bit. But if you're thinking about doing this, I do not recommend timing yourself when you're doing
07:20it at robot speed. So all of these speeds that I just, and timing that I just explained to you guys
07:25was not me doing it at an unrealistic speed. I was sure to time myself when I was doing it at a,
07:30you know, a good speed, but a sustainable speed, because there's no point in like trying to race
07:35the clock when you're timing yourself for this, because you know, you're not realistically going
07:39to be able to work that fast all the time. So that's how long it took me in each of these steps.
07:42If I was working robot speed, I probably could have cut these times in half, but that's not realistic.
07:46I'm never going to work super fast. Now let's get into the fun stuff. So I average about $18.40
07:53profit per item that I sell. Profit, not sales. My average sales price is about $30. Average profit,
08:00$18.40. So if I can, from start to finish, source an item, photograph it, get it listed,
08:06ship it out, all that good stuff that I just explained in 10 minutes per item average, which
08:11means I can do six of those an hour because 10 minutes and then 60 minutes an hour, I can do six
08:17of those an hour. Then six items per hour times an average of $18.40 profit per item equals a little
08:24over $110 per hour. Yes, I realize this is assuming that all of my items will sell. So let's take a
08:30look at my sell-through rate. Technically speaking, your sell-through rate is the ratio of items that
08:34you sold over the items that you received from a manufacturer and business. And how it's used in
08:38reselling practically is pretty much the same. It's just, you know, the items that you sell over
08:42the amount of items in my case that I listed in a certain period of time. And for me, I'm looking
08:47at my sell-through rate in a 60 day window. So that's two months. You could use any amount of
08:50time for your sell-through rate. You can use one month, 30 days. That makes a lot of sense too.
08:54But for me, I'm using 60 days, a two month period. And for me, within a 60 day window, I sell about 80%
09:00of the items that I list within 60 days. So my sell-through rate within 60 days is about 80%. And that varies
09:07month to month, but about 80%. So if you take 80% of my average profit of $18.40, you get $14.72.
09:15So within the very moment that I list an item on Poshmark, eBay, Mercari, I could realistically say
09:21that I could expect $14.72 of profit within 60 days. However, I'm confident that eventually all
09:28of my items will sell. So that's why I'm using kind of this 100% sell-through rate and using my $18.40
09:33profit per item to arrive at that $110 per hour. I hope that makes sense. So what if I made this a
09:39full-time job? Well, $110 profit per hour times, let's say a 40 hour work week times, let's say 50
09:45weeks a year to account for two weeks of doing nothing. That equals $220,000 a year. Profit.
09:53All right. Is this realistic? Absolutely not. For one, personally, I would get burnt out AF if I was
09:58working eight hours a day on reselling. Personally, just personally, especially in this like very
10:03efficient and systematized fashion. Yeah, no, couldn't do it. It already takes a little bit
10:08of the magic and the fun out of reselling if you do it in this model-tailored, systematized fashion.
10:13So this kind of begs the question, what are the pros and cons of model tailoring your system?
10:17Spoiler alert though, I think there are more pros, but let's get into them. Pro number one,
10:21you can literally know exactly pretty much how much you're making and profiting per hour of your labor.
10:26Not that you should always be looking at reselling on an hourly wage basis, but I personally think
10:31it's really helpful to look at it that way, especially because that one night when I was
10:35worried about, oh my God, I'm procrastinating so much, I'm only making $5 an hour. This literally
10:40tells you how much you're making per hour. And it was more than $5. Two, and I think this is the
10:44coolest one. You can literally predict how much fruit you can reap from your labor when you sit down
10:49and actually do it. Meaning if you sit down and list 30 items and you know your average profit per item
10:54and your sell through rate, you can pretty confidently say, wow, I just sat down and listed
10:5830 items. Now within 60 days or 30 days or two days, I can expect X dollars of profit from the
11:04work that I just did. Sick. And this is especially useful in the business of reselling, which is a
11:08very delayed gratification focused business because you know, your items don't usually don't sell the
11:13next day. It usually takes a month or two months or whatever it is for you. It takes time for items
11:18to sell. So this delayed gratification, it's really nice to be able to kind of predict your profit
11:23from sitting down and doing work now, predicting your profit that you'll see within a month or
11:26within two months. So there is that delay. And this is a really helpful tool to have knowing that there
11:31is that delay, if that makes sense. It's also cool because if you're ever saying, oh, I don't feel
11:35like photographing. I don't feel like, I don't feel like it, which I get. I almost never feel like it.
11:40You can tell yourself, well, I could work for 10 minutes or I could work for an hour and make $110
11:45profit, or I could forego that and not make any money and be a potato. So that's a pretty big pro.
11:50Third, this is a little bit more of a flowery reason, but you really do learn about yourself,
11:54your business, and kind of how you run it as a person. Plus you can also identify bottlenecks
11:58and see where you could maybe outsource a certain step. A con is that, as I said before, it kills the
12:04magic just a little bit because, you know, reselling, at least for me, it started as a hobby. And when I
12:08started to really systematize and model tailor my process, it became more of a business for sure.
12:13I still have fun with it, but it definitely became more of a, okay, how can I look at this from a
12:16business and, you know, efficiency perspective? Because there is something kind of fun about
12:21listening to music and wasting a little bit of time here and there when you, you know, do your
12:24thing. And I still do plenty of that. Don't get me wrong, but that is a con. But personally, in case
12:29you can't tell yet, I think that this con pales in comparison to those big pros that I already
12:33mentioned. And I've learned a lot about myself as a business person and how I run my business and how
12:38I can outsource things and all that good stuff from doing this model tailoring process. So am I saying all
12:44this to brag, $110 profit per hour? Maybe a little bit. But I'm also making this video and saying this
12:49to you guys because I know seeing this video would have been very helpful to me when I first started
12:54reselling. Because like I said, I used to lollygag a lot. I mean, I still do. But when I actually feared
12:58that I was making $5 an hour, I needed this. I needed to systematize my process and really look at where I
13:04could cut out wasted time. So yes, I would recommend that you also go through this process. Even if you have
13:09your business model already really nailed down, I still think there's a lot of value to be gained by model
13:14tailoring your business. Not that you should be aiming for the same exact time or same exact profit
13:18per item that I'm getting. Yours might be a lot higher than mine. But I still, like I said, think
13:22it's very helpful to do this to learn more about yourself as a business person, but also to be able
13:26to know your expected profit when you sit down and actually list an item. I think that's a really
13:30powerful thing to know. Sounds cheesy. And is it realistic to always be working in a 100% efficient way?
13:36Of course not. I really don't time myself anymore because I already know my baseline from doing this
13:40experiment. And a lot of the time I still find myself going down a YouTube rabbit hole when I should
13:44be listing items. But it is helpful to know my potential and to know that when I actually buckle
13:49down and do the work, I'm profiting about $110 per hour of my labor. Like I said, please obliterate the
13:55like button down below for the YouTube algorithm. I'd really appreciate it. And subscribe to my channel
13:59if you're not already. Again, big thank you to all of you guys who are here from watching me on
14:04Graham Steffen's podcast, The Ice Coffee Hour. I'll link it above if you haven't seen it already. I had a really
14:08nice time with them. And it gave me a whole new audience, which is awesome. And as always, would love
14:13to hear from you guys in the comments. I respond to almost every single comment now. I'm getting a lot
14:17from my new audience members, which is so nice. But I love hearing from you guys. So leave me a comment
14:23down below as well. Whatever you want to say. Just say hi. I don't care. But anyway, I will see you guys
14:27next time. And thanks again for watching. Okay.
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