If you’ve been bitten by the Marie Kondo bug in the new year, you might be on a full-fledged cleaning spree throughout your home. Chances are everything from drawers and pantries to playrooms and closets have suffered your organizing frenzy. Before you load up your car to take everything to the nearest donation center, STOP! We have another idea for you: make a little extra cash while streamlining your closet with Poshmark.
Poshmark is a digital buying and selling marketplace for fashion that has more than 5,000 brands for sale from sellers just like you: women looking to clean out their closets to make room on hangers and in wallets for new purchases. We recently caught up with Jenna Naschek, a 33-year-old Atlantan who has turned her Poshmark reselling side hobby into a full-fledged, full-time, six-figure business. Jenna dishes on everything from how she got started to her tips for giving Poshmark a try for yourself.
It all began with a pair of Lululemon shorts. After sitting unworn in her closet for several years, Jenna listed them on Poshmark. “The shorts sold in one day, and I was hooked,” she says. “I remember being so excited. Now they were off to a new home, and I had some extra cash in my pocket.” The rest, as she says, is history.
Jenna, like many of us, had accumulated a lot of unworn clothes that just hung in her closet. After realizing many of the items she owned were worth something, she turned to where else? Google. “Poshmark was the first app that popped up, so I downloaded it. I loved how easy it was to list my items.”
Within the next few months, Jenna found herself devoting more time to Poshmark. Her sales continued to consistently grow, eventually becoming larger than her day job income. She even developed repeat customers. That’s when she knew she had a business on her hands. “Here I was only putting in partial effort since I had a full-time job, and I was having great results. I kept thinking about what could happen if I was able to focus and put full effort into my Poshmark business.” In February 2016, Jenna got her chance. She was presented with an opportunity to grow with her full-time company— or she could take the Poshmark leap. “I realized my heart wasn’t in it,” she explains of her day job. “I wanted to follow this exciting new world I had discovered and see if I could really create a business for myself. I turned down the full time, ‘safe,’ career opportunity and went full time with Poshmark two weeks later.” She hasn’t looked back since.
For Jenna, each day as a Poshmark superstar seller looks a little bit different than the previous one. One day she might be sourcing new items from area thrift stores or photographing inventory while another day she might be filming and editing videos for her budding YouTube channel, her latest marketing venture now 30,000 subscribers deep. “What I like best about working for myself is the freedom, but I don’t think a lot of people realize the self-discipline and motivation it takes. I work more than I ever worked at a 9-to-5 job, but I can’t imagine doing anything else!”
If all of this sounds too good to be true, why not give it a try for yourself? Jenna offered us a few tips for getting started with Poshmark:
- Start with your own closet. “I definitely recommend starting with your own closet. You could also ask friends and family if they have any clothing they were thinking about donating that they would be willing to give to you,” she suggests. “I think it is a safe way to start by not having to invest excess money into inventory. It will also get you used to listing different items and figuring out how the app works. I did not invest anything when I first started my business. I took all the earnings from selling my clothes and used that to purchase thrifted inventory.”
- Make sure the items are in good condition. “When sourcing inventory, make sure it’s in top form, meaning no holes or stains. You also want to be sure the items are clean. There is a buyer out there for almost any type of clothing, so I think condition to start is the most important.”
- Take it slow. “You don’t want to overwhelm yourself,” Jenna recommends. “I think when I first started I was listing about five items at a time maybe every other day or so. Don’t feel like you have to list your whole closet at once.”
- When it comes to pricing, do your research. Jenna shares, “I like to look at the sold listings to see how much an item sells for. You can search the app by brand name and item type, and then look at the sold listings. I usually go off those numbers.”
- Be open to the journey. “The amount of friendships that have formed in my life with people I have met through Poshmark is by far the one thing I love the most that I was not expecting,” Jenna says. “There are people I talk to every day that I ‘met’ on the app. I also love attending Poshmark meetups and events, which has allowed me to meet these friends in real life.”
When asked why Poshmark should be your answer to closet clean-outs? Jenna says the answer is simple: “Poshmark can provide you with supplemental or, in my case, main income. It gives you financial freedom while being able to work on your own time table. It also gives items a new life.”
If you’re finding yourself with a mountain of clothes on your hands, look no further than Poshmark. With Jenna’s wisdom and your can-do attitude, there’s nothing stopping you from making 2019 the year of resale!
Thank you Jenna for sharing your incredible boss babe story and Poshmark tips! Follow along with Jenna on Instagram and YouTube, or shop her Poshmark finds yourself at poshmark.com/closet/emptyhanger.
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