Desdinova
Master Don Juan
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2004
- Messages
- 11,639
- Reaction score
- 4,717
Figured I'd post an update on the business I started. I opened a thrift store in my front yard. The property I bought has the original farmhouse at the front of my property with the house I live in about half an acre back. In other words, I own the building. I bought a set of P2P antennas to beam the internet from my house to my store so I don't need another internet connection. People who come to my store are surprised that I take debit and credit.
Donations... Holy fvcking hell, I'm absolutely blown away by how much junk gets dropped off at my store. Since I'm in a small town (but located on a main highway), I thought this was going to be a problem and I'd have to source my stuff which I was fully prepared to do. Stuff gets dropped off every week, sometimes becoming quite overwhelming. My donation bin is too fvcking small. I also made a business relationship with this chick who started her own cleaning and decluttering business. I pick up donations from her every 2nd weekend in exchange for giving her constant advertising in my store. I have a shed in the back of my property with overflow donations in it which has been very useful.
Profits... Well, it's been consistent. I'm not getting the level of profits that I want, at least not yet. The problem is I still need to pay bills, so I got myself a two day part-time job to help make up for what the store isn't yet bringing in. Anything valuable gets put on ebay which has saved my ass numerous times. Learning what people buy and collect has been extremely useful. I had an old vacuum cleaner from the 1960s donated to the store. I was ready to take it to e-waste, but stopped when I suddenly remembered reading about people who collect vacuum cleaners. I threw it up on ebay and got a hundred bucks for it.
Problems... The biggest one is that there has been constant construction on the highway that my store is located on. Apparently I picked the year that they were re-doing the entire fvcking highway. There have been days when I've had nobody in the store due to all the fvcking stops required to get there. The construction is now nearly complete which is a huge relief. I also had a bad lull in both store and online sales at the beginning of October which didn't do me any favours. However, profits have been mostly back to normal in the last couple of weeks. Another thing is that I knew nobody in the community, so I've been making appearances at community gatherings so people know who I am.
Positives... The crazy lady who's a spend-a-holic. She cleans my store out of inventory about once a month. I don't give a fvck if she can't walk around in her house because she drops a ton of cash in my store. I also end up with things I keep for myself that didn't cost me anything. I also really like the job itself. I get to interact with people, go through the treasures that show up in my front yard at odd hours, and sometimes I'll just sit there and fvck around on the internet when I'm all caught up on my tasks.
As a side note, I'm planning on selling my mother's house once the old bag croaks and buying a rental property closer to home. My mom's health isn't great, so it's just a matter of time. Despite the occasional dip in profits, I want to keep my store going. It's part of my goal of being independent from the a55hole bosses that I don't want to work for anymore.
Donations... Holy fvcking hell, I'm absolutely blown away by how much junk gets dropped off at my store. Since I'm in a small town (but located on a main highway), I thought this was going to be a problem and I'd have to source my stuff which I was fully prepared to do. Stuff gets dropped off every week, sometimes becoming quite overwhelming. My donation bin is too fvcking small. I also made a business relationship with this chick who started her own cleaning and decluttering business. I pick up donations from her every 2nd weekend in exchange for giving her constant advertising in my store. I have a shed in the back of my property with overflow donations in it which has been very useful.
Profits... Well, it's been consistent. I'm not getting the level of profits that I want, at least not yet. The problem is I still need to pay bills, so I got myself a two day part-time job to help make up for what the store isn't yet bringing in. Anything valuable gets put on ebay which has saved my ass numerous times. Learning what people buy and collect has been extremely useful. I had an old vacuum cleaner from the 1960s donated to the store. I was ready to take it to e-waste, but stopped when I suddenly remembered reading about people who collect vacuum cleaners. I threw it up on ebay and got a hundred bucks for it.
Problems... The biggest one is that there has been constant construction on the highway that my store is located on. Apparently I picked the year that they were re-doing the entire fvcking highway. There have been days when I've had nobody in the store due to all the fvcking stops required to get there. The construction is now nearly complete which is a huge relief. I also had a bad lull in both store and online sales at the beginning of October which didn't do me any favours. However, profits have been mostly back to normal in the last couple of weeks. Another thing is that I knew nobody in the community, so I've been making appearances at community gatherings so people know who I am.
Positives... The crazy lady who's a spend-a-holic. She cleans my store out of inventory about once a month. I don't give a fvck if she can't walk around in her house because she drops a ton of cash in my store. I also end up with things I keep for myself that didn't cost me anything. I also really like the job itself. I get to interact with people, go through the treasures that show up in my front yard at odd hours, and sometimes I'll just sit there and fvck around on the internet when I'm all caught up on my tasks.
As a side note, I'm planning on selling my mother's house once the old bag croaks and buying a rental property closer to home. My mom's health isn't great, so it's just a matter of time. Despite the occasional dip in profits, I want to keep my store going. It's part of my goal of being independent from the a55hole bosses that I don't want to work for anymore.
