← The Side Hustle Show
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- [00:01]
Nick Loper
Here's a business in a box, side hustle, that's got the potential, the possibility to turn into a full time income stream. Let's call it reselling return items, but not like the treasure hunt of liquidation pallets or something like that. This is a little more systematic. It's got lower transaction volume and hopefully a higher profit per item. And it's got the ability to get inventory for free, which is pretty cool. The catch is that these items are big, they're bulky, they're furniture, they're mattresses, they're exercise equipment. So you gotta have a way to transport them, you gotta have a way to store them. Today's guests have been doing this for the last eight years, the last three of which has been a full time income flipping anywhere between 40 and 60 items per month. Matt and Hannah, welcome to the Side Hustle show.
- [00:44]
Hannah
Thanks for having us.
- [00:46]
Nick Loper
Yeah. So this is all facilitated through a side hustle app called Sharetown, which we've covered before. But my hope is this will be the deep dive because you guys have been in it since almost the Hannah you mentioned. You found out your brother had a friend who was doing it. But Matt, what's your reaction when you hear about this random side hustle? You can make money reselling semi used mattresses, mattress returns. What's your gut reaction here?
- [01:11]
Matt
Just one of those things where I was like, is this a joke? Like, it just sounded kind of out there and it sounded too good to be true. And I think when I got started, before we got started, it also was like, well, how is this logistically possible? Because, like, you think about a mattress and it's pretty big and it's like, how am I going to be able to do this? So I think I went through all of the ways it wouldn't work. And then it was like, well, let's just give it a shot, kind of. That was the decision process. But I had a full time job, you know, it was busy already. We had little kids and I had a career. And so it was like. But at the same time, we also had debt. And so it was like, let's figure out ways to pay that off. I was game to try it out because we needed it, and then it just worked out.
- [01:55]
Hannah
So it's funny, I think that I remember we were going to Southern California like within a month or two. And I remember being like, what if we just try it? We could just pay for our Disneyland tickets. Like, if we do this, we could, like trying to make it like some incentive, you know, anyway. But I do think I remember you laughing at me just a little bit.
- [02:13]
Nick Loper
Yeah, it's funny. It's definitely one of those things where when it first came across my desk had the same thing. I was like, is this for real? Like, how does this work? Because it's just there's a lot of moving parts to it. And I'll give you my high level understanding and you can correct it. You can kind of fill in the gaps. So these direct to consumer mattress brands and furniture brands and exercise equipment brands to a certain extent, like they've. Sharetown as a company has expanded into different product categories by my understanding, started with mattresses. And so all these Companies have their 100 night better sleepworts free guarantee. And so customer buys the mattress and we've actually returned a mattress through a Sharetown rep. Like under where you get it, you try it out, you're like, it's not for me. And you feel kind of bad. But it's like, hey, that was the risk reversal that led us to pull the trigger on the purchase in the first place. You or hey, mattress company. I didn't love it. Sorry, we need to return this. The mattress company is like, we can't really take it back. We can't really resell it as a new mattress because it's not new anymore. And so this is where Sharetown comes in to facilitate these returns and either get those donated or get those resold because the company probably can't resell them. But as an individual contractor, as an individual reseller, like, hey, I've got this like new or almost new mattress. It's still in really good shape and we can put that out into the marketplace.
- [03:27]
Hannah
Pretty spot on. The logistics for a mat company just is not easy for them to finish that end. And they started out eight years ago before this was like really a common, well known thing. I think people are kind of more familiar with it now, but they suggested donating them. So if you don't like it, donate it, give us a receipt. And I think that they just found that wasn't. Customers were frustrated because they couldn't actually get them picked up. You know, there weren't very many companies or charities that could come pick him up anyway. So now people like us come pick him up, help make sure that they're like new and then we help to resell them so that they stay out of landfills so that the original customer gets their money back. And so that lots of people in our communities are getting killer deals on a basically new mattress.
- [04:10]
Nick Loper
Yeah, so that's the revenue flow. So you pick it up, you go list it for resale on Facebook Marketplace for a decent discount off of the retail price, and the customer gets their money back. And you take the proceeds from that sale and you give some back to Sharetown. Do they share some of it back with the original company? And then they take their cut? And then you take a cut. It's like the revenue gets messed up in a bunch of different ways.
- [04:33]
Matt
Yeah. We don't see their end of it, so we're not sure what the split is there, but we get a cut and then share time gets a cut, and then we assume that they distribute some back there or something happens on that end.
- [04:44]
Hannah
And they have different contracts with each company.
- [04:46]
Matt
Yeah. So it just probably looks different for each partner of theirs.
- [04:49]
Unknown
Is there a target profit per item.
- [04:52]
Nick Loper
That you guys aim for?
- [04:53]
Hannah
We found over the years that about $200 is kind of a good average. Some certainly can be more, which is awesome. The majority, I would say aren't. But there are some here and there that are kind of the unicorn items that you're just like, oh, that was awesome. You know, and then there are plenty.
- [05:09]
Matt
That are less, but average is 2 to 250ish.
- [05:13]
Hannah
Yeah, I'd say.
- [05:14]
Unknown
And still around that ballpark, or is that.
- [05:16]
Nick Loper
Has there been some downward pressure on that?
- [05:17]
Hannah
I do think that it's decreased a little bit. We used to kind of have a little bit of a monopoly on the markets that we've lived in in the Bay Area just because we were new. The whole thing was new, you know, so we are kind of the guinea pigs. And so I do think that we had a little bit more leeway back then with pricing and stuff like that. Yeah. We were one of the only people that did it in the Bay Area. We went all over the place again, kind of the guinea pigs. Just like, we don't even know how to pick these up. We don't even know how to package these. We don't know how to market them. Nobody did. We didn't have shared resources. We just. Kind of.
- [05:48]
Nick Loper
Funny. I wonder if you guys were the ones that come to our house. Should go find our little paperwork. The pilot with a little pull behind utility trailer type of thing.
- [05:58]
Hannah
Maybe not.
- [05:58]
Matt
We had a dish of a lot of big mattresses into a small crv.
- [06:02]
Nick Loper
Okay. Wow. That's another piece of the pie is like the. The logistics of like, well, you need a truck or a bigger car to be able to. Okay. Even if you fold it in half, is it really going to fit and bag it up. These people who came were clearly not their first time. Real quick, get it down the stairs, fold it in half, bag it, boom, off to the next one. It's like. Because that's out of a $200 expected profit on. It's like, you got to account for the drive time and the storage and the real estate and all this stuff.
- [06:28]
Hannah
Yes. Well, yeah, I guess we're not taking that into account. It's hard to say exactly what we're spending per mattress because it depends on how long it sits in our storage unit and how much space does it take up in our storage unit. So I'll say our 200 to 250 profit is what we're making. It's not really accounting for the gas that we used or the packaging or the cleaning products. Just because, like I said, it can be really hard to monetize accurately the price per item.
- [06:56]
Nick Loper
All right, let's walk through a typical transaction. And so maybe either a memorable one of yours or the first pickup, or maybe a typical pickup. You get a ping request. Does it come to your phone through the app and say, okay, it's 20 minutes away. Do you want it? Do you claim it? Like, what's this process like?
- [07:14]
Hannah
Now we have an app. When we began, we didn't, but now we have an app, and it's really awesome and great. And you don't get a pick and choose. It's just kind of assigned to you. You have a radius that you're willing to go. Ours is about 60 miles. And that's pretty typical. If you really want to be able to get stuff. You kind of can't just say, I'll just get anything that's down the street, you know, so we do have some decent, like, traveling that we do.
- [07:38]
Nick Loper
They give you a window within the next three, four days. Like, you make your make an appointment.
- [07:43]
Matt
To get out there, they expect you to contact them right away, but it's up to us and the customer to schedule it within whatever time frame works for both parties.
- [07:51]
Hannah
Yeah, typically we try to have it scheduled within about seven days, but again, sometimes there are circumstances that keep that from happening. And as long as we're both on the same page, then it's usually fine. But we go ahead and reach out and schedule it, and we do that all through this app.
- [08:09]
Matt
And then I am the one who goes and picks up the item. So we usually. I just have an F150 truck, the Ford F150. And so we always try to get about four mattresses per run? Yeah, if it's local. If it's like in our town or really close, then we're a lot more willing to say let's go get one or two because it fits with their schedule or whatever. But if I'm going into Seattle, I want to get four just to make the most of the day traffic. And it's just way more efficient that way. So when we first started, I just had either a CRV or Acura mdx. So just one mattress at a time. So after I'd say a year, maybe a little less than a year, we upgraded to a truck because it, we started to realize that it made sense to, to scale up. But anyway, so then I'll go pick up four mattresses at a time and then bring them home and then we clean them and eventually Hannah finds customers who want to buy them.
- [09:05]
Nick Loper
You're able to do the pickup on your own?
- [09:08]
Matt
Yeah, we utilize help for a lot just because they are either too thick to fold on my own or too heavy to do that.
- [09:18]
Hannah
But yeah, and just so that we can protect customers homes. So generally Sharetown really wants you to have a reliable helper that you can pay or work that out amongst yourselves, whatever. But generally they want you to have a helper so that you're not banging up walls or knocking off picture frames or this.
- [09:38]
Nick Loper
Yeah, exactly. And it's not a great customer experience on the return side.
- [09:42]
Matt
Yeah.
- [09:42]
Hannah
Yes.
- [09:43]
Nick Loper
So who's, who's helping you then? Just a part time employee or part time contractor helper person.
- [09:48]
Matt
Yeah. I've utilized a lot of just family, friends and people that we know through church or neighborhoods or whatever. So people that I don't love to just do it, just anybody because I'm.
- [09:58]
Nick Loper
Driving around a couple hours in the car.
- [10:01]
Matt
Small talk gets a pretty, pretty soon if you don't, you know, get along with the person. But try to just like high school aged or you know, late high school, early college aged kids that want some money and you know, or have flexible hours. It works out really well.
- [10:14]
Hannah
Yeah, you can manage most of it on your own. So you really just need an extra set of hands. I don't feel like they like we've been able to get away with a lot of 18 year olds that are wanting some side work.
- [10:25]
Matt
Yeah. In the beginning eight years ago, everything was new and everything was overwhelming. Okay, how are we going to do this? And now a lot of it is just so second nature. I've done it a million times. I just like Hannah said, I just need a second set of hands. In the beginning it was like, all right, let's figure out how to package this, let's figure out how to lift this, let's figure out how to put it in the back of the car, whatever. Now it's just, let's make sure we're not knocking over the urn, you know, on the nightstand. Yeah, on the man.
- [10:51]
Nick Loper
You got it all dialed in now.
- [10:53]
Unknown
Side hustlenation.com Sharetown is my direct referral link if you want to learn more. I'll be right back with Matt and Hannah with some of their marketing best practices. Hey, we got this inventory, but if we want to get paid now, we.
- [11:04]
Nick Loper
Got to sell it.
- [11:05]
Unknown
That's coming up right after this.
- [11:07]
Darina Coolia
For such an important channel like phone, the software powering this important channel was super outdated and clunky. We wanted to make it delightful and make it very easy for businesses to connect with their customers through voice and text.
- [11:21]
Unknown
That's Darina Coolia, co founder of our sponsor, OpenPhone. Trusted by more than 60,000 customers, this is the number one business phone system that streamlines and scales your customer communications. I like to think of it like a centralized hub to receive and respond to calls and texts in your business. And I asked Darina about who's typically.
- [11:40]
Nick Loper
Signing up for this kind of service.
- [11:42]
Darina Coolia
We definitely have a lot of folks who come to us and their personal cell phone has become their company phone number and they've hired a team or they're starting to scale their business and they just find themselves as a business owner, as a founder being the bottleneck. So we see that all the time. And then we also see folks much further along where they're using some legacy, complicated tools that are just not really made for how communication happens these days. We also just recently launched Sona, which is our voice AI agent that can handle any missed calls. If you have clients calling outside of business hours, instead of them going to voicemail, it can go into Sona, which is capable to handle any replies and can also take a message. So you are capturing that lead information.
- [12:33]
Unknown
And it's like, and it's a robot.
- [12:34]
Nick Loper
Like, it responds on the fly with some pre programmed responses.
- [12:39]
Darina Coolia
It does such a great job. This way they can handle questions 24 7.
- [12:43]
Nick Loper
Now here's a scenario for you. So let's say I've committed to a certain business phone number and I've distributed flyers. It's printed on my business cards. It is on my local business listings.
- [12:55]
Unknown
On directories throughout the Internet.
- [12:57]
Nick Loper
Like what's the process to now have that ring Open Phone system versus the current system Totally.
- [13:03]
Darina Coolia
So we see this all the time, this process called phone number porting. We port numbers from all kinds of carriers. So basically no matter what provider you're using, we can take that number and move it over to openphone. It is free. We handle the whole thing. And if you want to try out OpenPhone, we have a free trial. You can try it out, see how you like it, and if you like it, you can then decide to port your existing number over and we handle the whole process.
- [13:29]
Unknown
Now openphone has automatic AI call summaries.
- [13:32]
Nick Loper
So you don't have to worry about.
- [13:33]
Unknown
Taking notes while you're on the call. But another cool feature is what arena called AI call tagging. Basically allowing you to quickly filter for the calls that were sales objections or customer complaints or requests for a discount so you can review those and see what worked, what didn't, and train team members on the most effective tactics and language in those cases.
- [13:55]
Nick Loper
And it's all in the name of.
- [13:56]
Unknown
Building a better, faster and friendlier customer experience.
- [13:59]
Darina Coolia
I want all OpenPhone customers to have five stars only.
- [14:03]
Unknown
Right now, OpenPhone is offering Side Hustle show listeners 20% off your first six months at openphone.com SideHustle that's O P E N P-H-O-N E.com SideHustle and like.
- [14:16]
Nick Loper
We talked about, if you've got an.
- [14:17]
Unknown
Existing phone number with another service, OpenPhone will port it over at no extra charge. Open Phone no missed calls, no missed customers Let me know if this sounds familiar. You've got more ideas than you've got hours in the day. And that to do list is never quite done. That's why finding the right tool to stay on top of everything and simplify things is such a game changer for millions of businesses, including dozens of side Hustle show guests. That tool is Shopify. One thing I love about our partner Shopify is you don't have to start from scratch. They've got hundreds of ready to use templates that help you build a beautiful online store to match your brand's style. Plus, Shopify makes it easy to create email and social media campaigns to capture customers wherever they're scrolling or strolling. And they're not sleeping on AI either. I'm talking tools to write product descriptions, page headlines, and even enhance your product photography. If you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify. Turn those dreams into and give them the best shot at success with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com sidehustle go to shopify.com sidehustlez shopify.com sidehustleen.
- [15:28]
Nick Loper
Okay, so you get them home three or four at a time, clean them up. You do you have to, like, do individual listing photographs or is it just like, this is the brand, this is the model number that we have, and we're going to throw up a generic listing for that piece of inventory.
- [15:44]
Hannah
Photos, I feel like, are one of the most important pieces of the puzzle because you can have a really nice mattress and it can be staged with terrible lighting and it's gonna sell for less or not quickly versus you could have a more used mattress, but if.
- [16:00]
Matt
It'S staged or just not as nice of a model or something. But the photo's awesome.
- [16:05]
Hannah
I mean, think about anytime that you're going on Facebook marketplace to look for an item, even the things that are around it. I'm like, oh, she has a cute home. She must be nice. And her house is clean.
- [16:14]
Nick Loper
Yeah. Very subtle positioning. Yeah.
- [16:17]
Hannah
Yes. But those things add up. I'm like, oh, I like the pictures that she has in her background. So I don't try to worry too much about those types of things because that can get very work heavy. But we try to stage them where we can. Some of them are in our own home. Some of them we've staged in a garage or a storage facility. And then we also do share some resources. The reps that are elsewhere in the country, it's gotten a little bit trickier because there are so many reps that I really don't want to be utilizing the same photos as anybody else that's in my area, because there are plenty of people, and I don't want it to look.
- [16:49]
Matt
It can look spammy. Yeah, it can look spammy if we're using the same photos as somebody or someone else is using the photos that we're using.
- [16:55]
Hannah
Yeah. So we try to stage as many as we can and take pictures of them as we can, and then we just kind of will reuse those same. So it's not like I'm taking a new picture for every single item we get, but I can pull from the previous one of the same model and list it again.
- [17:10]
Matt
But often people will ask, can I see photos of. Of the item? And then we'll just take pictures of it and send it over. So because we take. Because we do take pictures of everything. But as far as listing goes, sometimes we do use staged. Yeah, we use staged photos for the item, not the exact item.
- [17:26]
Nick Loper
Make it look Good. I feel like this is a story from the early days of Airbnb where people were throwing up just these dark, backlit, you know, real sketchy looking pictures and, hey, wondering why nobody is booking this place. And so they would send in the professional photographer to take like the wide angle, you know, brightly lit pictures. Oh, look at the difference that made in the bookings. So so far no money has changed hands. You didn't have to pay the customer that you went and picked the thing up from. Now you've got it listed. All the Facebook marketplace best practices like you mentioned, having really nice pictures and an accurate description of, you know, what it is, the brand, the model, all of this stuff. Anything else you're doing to make your listings stand out here?
- [18:05]
Matt
Well, I would say one of the big things is that we have a ton of reviews. So Hannah does a lot of work to request reviews and then to. Or ratings.
- [18:14]
Hannah
Yeah.
- [18:14]
Matt
And then also give ratings to people that buy from us. So it, you know, kind of inspires or spurs them to say, I'll, I'll rate you back. So Hannah has a lot of, you know, five star reviews on her page. That makes people say, oh my gosh, like used mattress might sound a little weird, but look at all these people who have said that it was a great experience. So that is a huge differentiator for us.
- [18:36]
Hannah
And I can't always pretend to understand the algorithms on Facebook because I think they change all the time. So it's always a guessing game. And I've learned over the years to try not to stress myself out trying to figure out what is going to get my view, my listings viewed the most, you know, but definitely in my head, if I can mark something as sold and get a good review and all that is going to tell Facebook that, hey, this is legit.
- [19:01]
Matt
Put our stuff up at the top.
- [19:02]
Hannah
Yes, keep showing my items. But I think something that I would say my number one tip, and I think this applies to a lot of side hustles, is just consistency. I post mattresses every single day and I've posted mattresses every single day for eight years.
- [19:18]
Nick Loper
They seem to reward like the recency of that listing.
- [19:21]
Hannah
So, yeah, and then it's just, I just think old stuff just becomes stale and stops getting views and stuff like that. If I've got something up that's getting lots of attention, I think that again, the way algorithms work, it's telling other people to keep clicking on it because, wow, look how many people have already clicked on it. But if something just like for whatever Reason didn't get any traction. I'll take it down. I might change the photo or change the ad a little bit and just repost it. And I just do it over and over. And I think that is a big difference because getting the item is hard work and time consuming, but relatively straightforward. I think that people can get discouraged because they aren't moving things. And I think that all has to do with.
- [20:07]
Matt
They're not selling things.
- [20:08]
Hannah
Yes, they're not selling things. They're like, man, I picked all these up. Everybody says it's great, but they're not selling. I think that the big difference maker is how much energy they're putting into that item.
- [20:19]
Nick Loper
You know, is it all Facebook Marketplace or are there other channels that you like for reselling?
- [20:24]
Hannah
We have some other ones. Facebook is definitely the most lucrative or the, you know, the biggest bang for our buck as far as time yields the most sales. Yeah, for sure. Offer up is pretty good. I've seen that kind of decline recently. I don't know why, but that we haven't. We used to get. There's a time there where we were getting quite a lot of interest there. We still get some every week from that, but. And then we used to use Craigslist, but I feel like the bigger the other ones get, the less people are utilizing something like Craigslist or whatever your local, you know, online.
- [20:56]
Nick Loper
10, 20 years ago, Craigslist was the only game in town and that was the place to go for all this furniture stuff.
- [21:01]
Hannah
Yeah. So I think it's kind of slowly dwindling out. I used to make a point to list there because again, that consistency mindset, I've always been like, I'm going to put some effort into every single avenue so that I have no reason then I know I did everything I could do, you know.
- [21:15]
Nick Loper
Does Sharetown give you a pricing guidance on. Well, this is the product that you have. This is like suggested list price or like anything like that or based on the condition of it, like maybe it's a sliding scale.
- [21:26]
Hannah
Every item has what we call a minimum ad price. So that's all based off of numbers that they found to be successful for that item. So you're able to listen above that price if you want to, but you can't list below that price. And that kind of helps so that we're not undercutting other people in our area or, you know, that type of things. And then they have a set price per item that we're required to pay once we sell it.
- [21:52]
Nick Loper
Okay. And so you have Some room because people are going to negotiate on Facebook Marketplace. So you kind of know your. You know, your floor and you're able to say, well, what if it hasn't moved for a while? Maybe it's worth it to take. Take a lower price and just. And clear it up.
- [22:06]
Hannah
Totally. Yeah, we can take less than that. We just can't advertise it for less. So if somebody comes in and offers us less, we can take that. But, yeah, we used to kind of have a little bit more room, but now that we're not the only people in our area doing this, there's quite a few. We can't get away with listing it much above minimum ad price anymore just because they can go somewhere else.
- [22:28]
Nick Loper
Yeah, yeah, okay, that makes sense. Talk to me about the payment logistics, because you're going to receive payment in cash. Venmo, who knows what else. Or maybe you, like, since you've done so many of these, do you have, like a little square reader or something like that?
- [22:43]
Matt
Yeah, so we use all of that. I would say that we try to steer people toward Venmo and cash more than anything else just because we're really comfortable with those.
- [22:52]
Hannah
Quick, reliable.
- [22:54]
Matt
Yeah. And we use Zelle. We do use the square reader, but, you know, it charges a fee. And so a lot of people don't want to do that just because it makes it end up costing a little bit more for them.
- [23:05]
Nick Loper
Let's say you take the payment, say it's $800, and now you have to report that sale to share to. Hey, we sold this one. We picked it up last week. We sold it, and now they're going to want their cut there, say 600. If we're going to aim for that $200 profit per average. And so is that sale what triggers that? Or you have to, like, manually report, you know, once a day, once a week, like, what moved.
- [23:27]
Hannah
Typically, you will mark it as sold upon the sale, and you can even send the customer a receipt through that app. So now Sharetown knows that you've sold that item. You write in how much you sold it for all of that, and then every Monday, it prompts you to pay for all of the ones that you've sold in the fall in the previous week.
- [23:46]
Nick Loper
Do you find people coming to pick this stuff up from the storage unit and, you know, open up the door and seeing, like a wall of mattresses and be like, oh, these guys are like dealers.
- [23:56]
Matt
Well, it's funny because people will ask what I do for work, and I'm like, well, how much time do you have? Because if I just say I sell used mattresses out of a garage or out of a storage unit, it sounds nefarious or weird, you know, so we do have people who are, like, unprepared, I think, for, like, what it is that we do. And I'll open up, you know, a storage unit, and they're like, what is going on? But, you know, you spend two minutes explaining what it is, and it just clicks. People get it.
- [24:23]
Hannah
When we first started doing it, I felt like people really, really skeptical, because I think even then, buying a mattress online and having it delivered to your door was a very new concept. But now I feel like people are aware. I feel like they've bought mattresses from these companies themselves or they know people that do. It's just become a lot more commonplace. And I think a large majority of people are like, oh, yeah, I think I'll get one this way, you know?
- [24:46]
Matt
Yeah.
- [24:46]
Hannah
At least relative to what it was before.
- [24:49]
Matt
And us having all those good reviews on Facebook really helps with that. But, like, literally yesterday, somebody came to look at a mat, was like, I'm a little skeptical about buying anything used. Like, can you please pitch me on why I shouldn't be? And I was able to talk through it and just gave them a good customer experience, and they walked away with a mattress.
- [25:08]
Hannah
So, like, I mean, they've been able to see my profile where I have dozens of mattresses listed. We've got over 700 reviews, you know, like. So it's not terribly surprising. Usually once they come show up.
- [25:20]
Nick Loper
Yeah, we had a guy years ago whose specialty is flipping. Specialty was appliances. So same thing. Open up the door to the garage, and it's, you know, wall to wall, washers and dryers. And so people would be like, yeah, you know, they pause for a second, and then it's like, well, I still want the thing, you know, even though you're clearly in the business. But this is. What is the storage unit cost on a monthly basis? I'm trying to break down some of the other too much.
- [25:45]
Hannah
And we have some pretty big units, and we have multiple. So but off the top of my head, I'd say about $300 a storage unit. Definitely depends on where you live. We've got a few of them, and they're, on average about $300 right now.
- [26:01]
Matt
We've got four storage units. We've had as many as seven. It just kind of depends on, wow, our inventory and the size of the units. Right now, it's good because we have four Big.
- [26:11]
Nick Loper
Okay. So is it at the same facility?
- [26:13]
Matt
Yeah. So we've got a really good relationship with our facility, which is great.
- [26:18]
Hannah
We just add and drop them when we.
- [26:20]
Matt
Because. Because our inventory size with how many we sell versus how many we're pick. We have friends and contacts that do the same thing we do out of state and they have a warehouse, which sounds great and I think it'd be great to have a warehouse. But you got a set price for a longer contract and often you don't need that much space. And so anyway, storage units works for us.
- [26:44]
Hannah
I will say though that for the majority of we do this on a larger scale than other people. We've been doing it so it's grown. A new rep these days would start probably in their garage and then would maybe move to a unit maybe eventually two.
- [27:00]
Matt
That was our experience. We started in our garage in our townhouse and it was one of those things where we just were running out of space. And so it was like Jenga in our garage. And so then we moved to a house with a three car garage and then we got a couple storage units. And every time we scaled up was great. You know, it meant life was easier as far as storage. But it also, you know, with more space it meant more inventory, which meant more sales.
- [27:24]
Nick Loper
So do you do any of the other inventory items or have you focused just on mattresses?
- [27:30]
Hannah
We'll take almost anything that we can get, but the majority really is just mattresses. They do. Sharetown has other partners that allow us to get some furniture items.
- [27:38]
Matt
We'll get couches and chairs and dressers and love sacks occasionally, you know, some exercise equipment too. But I'd say the vast majority of what we have is mattresses.
- [27:50]
Unknown
Is there a rule of thumb of.
- [27:52]
Nick Loper
How fast an item should turn? Where like we want to have, you know, we want to flip it every two weeks, like four weeks. Like what's typical? Like to sit on something.
- [27:59]
Hannah
The goal is to move something maybe within about six weeks, but just really depends. Sometimes we get three of the same item in one week and so then it's going to take a little bit longer for those items to move. Or particular models might be more of a niche. You know, it's an organic latex mattress, which is really perfect for an organic buyer, but not necessarily a crowd pleaser. So nearly everything we get we're pretty thrilled to sell. But it really can just depend on how much you have, the time of year, all that. But I would say that Sharetown's goal is to help us to Support people through selling it within about six weeks or so.
- [28:38]
Nick Loper
What happens if you come across something that no amount of cleaning is going to salvage, and you're like, no, no way. I can't in good conscious sell this as a. Even as a used mattress.
- [28:50]
Matt
That definitely happens. I mean, if that does, then we just. We request through Sharetown to say, hey, this is not sellable. And so then we just. We market as a dump item, and then we just go dump it. Take it to the dump. That could be because it's dirty or damaged, you know, sometimes. Yeah, defective. Sometimes mattresses, they sink, you know, because it wasn't manufactured the way it should have been, things like that. So any. Anything under those umbrellas of it, it's just not sellable. Then we just request to get it dumped, and then we dump it. But I will say we try hard not to, just because we do want to keep things out of landfills. But some things you just can't tell.
- [29:29]
Nick Loper
So do you ever have a situation where something just sat in inventory for 12 months, 24 months, and you're like, dude, this thing is a dog?
- [29:37]
Hannah
Yes. Yeah.
- [29:39]
Matt
Yes.
- [29:40]
Hannah
Probably something that was an organic California King kind of unique size, unique mattress. Doesn't happen very often. But there are some things that you're like, shoot, I am. There's things that come in, and I'm like, I know it's gonna sell right away, and so I give it lots of time and attention. And then there's other things that I'm like, I don't know if I want to list this tonight, because nobody's gonna mess with it.
- [30:00]
Nick Loper
Nobody wants it.
- [30:01]
Hannah
You know, unfortunately, that's not the norm. But there are things once in a while that you're just like, this is a weird one to buy.
- [30:08]
Nick Loper
Do they. Is there any support there? Is it just, like, just keep deleting and relisting like somebody. Eventually somebody's going to come along.
- [30:14]
Hannah
Yeah. They kind of have some practices in place now where it didn't quite used to be this way. It was a little bit more hands off. And we just, like, put our heads down and worked. And we could ask for help when we needed it. But now they have a lot of assistance. And so they'll kind of watch your ads and make sure that you're posting them. And then at that point, they can see, okay, you have given this a fair shake. We'll knock it down. You can list it a little bit lower. We'll take a small chunk out so that you can afford to sell it for less. So there's help there to help you because they want you to turn over items. Right. If we keep sitting on items, they want you to be successful. If we're sitting on items, then no one's winning. Then nobody's winning. Yeah, they're not making money. We're not making money. We're probably not going to be inclined to go pick up more items, you know, so.
- [30:57]
Matt
Yeah, so they'll. If that happens, then we can request an adjustment of like, minimum ad price and what we owe.
- [31:05]
Nick Loper
Okay. So it's helpful to hear some items obviously are going to be more popular than others, but don't expect it to be, you know, pick it up today, sold Tomorrow, boom, instant $200 in my pocket.
- [31:14]
Hannah
Yeah, not typically.
- [31:15]
Matt
Sometimes.
- [31:15]
Hannah
Yeah, sometimes there are some, you know, and the more your reputation builds, the more I'm like, I have somebody waiting for this one and we're getting it on Thursday. You know, I will. Will go in and list things that I know we're getting in a couple days just to kind of try to catch a little bit of a head start. But typically it's not that quick. So you do have to have some patience and consistency. But then, you know, then you're starting to sell the things that you picked up a week or two ago or whatever.
- [31:43]
Nick Loper
Yeah. And then the cash flow starts to be more. More consistent as the inventory grows. I think that makes sense. Another rep I talk to mentioned keeping kind of like their buyers list or, you know, everybody who messaged you about the thing but didn't end up, you know, maybe they weren't fast enough or they, you know, didn't end up getting it. Kind of keeping a Rolodex of those people for the next, next time that item comes back in. And so you can almost have it pre sold or have it at least have a warm marketing list to reach out to.
- [32:10]
Hannah
I used to do that. Some I'd have a list of, oh, this person's waiting for this, this person's waiting for this. Now I feel like not very many, when I come back to them are still looking because there are other reps in the area or there's a lot more mattresses on the market than there used to be. And so if they don't get it with me, they can probably go find it somewhere else. Unless they bought from me before and feel that loyalty and just want the experience with us, which certainly happens. We have a lot of people that are repeat buyers or come because their friends had a great experience again.
- [32:39]
Unknown
Side hustlenation.com Sharetown is my direct referral link.
- [32:43]
Nick Loper
If this sounds like a fit for.
- [32:45]
Unknown
You, you want to learn more, that's.
- [32:46]
Nick Loper
An easy way to support the show.
- [32:47]
Unknown
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- [35:07]
Nick Loper
What's your take on the competitive landscape? Because obviously Sharetan wants to have coverage. You know, if some, if a customer requests a pickup, they need to be able to have somebody go pick it up right away. But at the same time, you start eating each other's lunch. And it's kind of like when I looked at Ford, it was like, well, how many Ford dealers do we really need? Like if somebody. Is somebody willing to drive 45 minutes to save $5,000 on a new truck, probably like, do we need this? Do we need this deal right here? What's your take on that landscape? Does there become a point where it's. It's not a great side hustle anymore, it's just too saturated?
- [35:39]
Matt
I think it will always be a good side hustle. The adjustment for us is just that recognition that there are others doing what we're doing. And so we used to have people who would drive all the way from Seattle from us, and we still have that. But now there are other reps in between. And so like Hannah was saying, sometimes we get repeat buyers or referrals that will bypass all those people to come to us. But we are being impacted by that. We switched from side hustle to full time three years ago. So as far as it being a full time gig, it's less reliable than it was because of the saturation of the other reps, but it still makes sense for us to do it. I will have a very hard time walking away from doing this because it's pretty great for what it is.
- [36:24]
Hannah
Yeah, your Ford example is spot on where it's just, it has become saturated. They need all those reps though. So they need all those reps in order to keep these contracts and to be able to get new contracts. So they're bringing people in, but it definitely has affected ourselves, that's for sure. But we're still really grateful for what it is and we're just adjusting accordingly.
- [36:45]
Matt
Yeah, there's always going to be pickups to do. So it's like it's not the pickups. There's no lack in pickups, but it does affect the sales.
- [36:52]
Nick Loper
It's similar to you can't sell on Amazon anymore, it's too saturated. But at the same time, Amazon's market share as a percentage of total commerce continues to grow too. And so Sharetown continues to expand its partnerships, its brand partnerships. And so there's more and more pickups coming on and trying to balance the volume of reps as well to go out and fulfill those pickups every area.
- [37:15]
Hannah
Is going to be a little bit different. But we had the luxury of being kind of in on the ground floor where we were kind of the only ones in our area. So we've watched the growth happen.
- [37:25]
Nick Loper
You know, aside from the storage unit and obviously gas and wear and tear on the car. Anything other expenses that new reps need to know about?
- [37:33]
Matt
I mean, like I said, eventually we did scale up and get a truck. If you're going to do this seriously, I think it makes sense to do that. That's a huge expense, right?
- [37:41]
Nick Loper
Big business write off, I suppose.
- [37:42]
Matt
Right? Yeah, true. The other things that I think make a big difference for me is the materials that I use. When we first got started, I used big rolls of plastic sheeting, like painters plastic sheeting. And eventually decided that it was worth the added cost to get mattress bags for every pickup. Also, like the right tape, like things that I never knew I'd care about is like the quality of the tape gun, the quality of the tape, the quality of the plastic, the quality of the hand truck. Those are all things that impact the pickup side and the resale side. Because use a mattress bag, it's so much easier to pop that sucker open and show it. And people lay on plastic rather than an exposed mattress. So those are kind of the intricacies of that side that I deal with that I think have a little bit of an added cost to some cheaper alternatives, but I think make a big.
- [38:38]
Hannah
Difference on relative to other gigs. Your price per item, material wise, is and can be pretty low. So you kind of listed the expensive ones, the storage unit, the gas, the truck. But per mattress, those materials.
- [38:54]
Nick Loper
Yeah, five or ten bucks. Or a mattress bag maybe.
- [38:56]
Hannah
Yeah, yeah, a few bucks a pop. Or can be as low as a few bucks a pop. We use some cleaning supplies. We use a product called Sterifab. And then we have like an upholstery, I mean like a Bissell, like not some industrial size anything, but an upholstery cleaner. An upholstery cleaner. Yeah, sorry. That we can lint rollers.
- [39:14]
Matt
You know, getting good, high quality lint rollers. See, these are the things that some of your listeners are going to be like, interesting. And everyone else is going to be like, what is this guy talking about?
- [39:22]
Nick Loper
No, this is. I love the details surrounding this because it's like, why is somebody going to buy from you, from somebody else? Because we use the right mattress bags. Because we have this, you know, cleaning process. So we've done dozens of times. Like, you know, it all makes Sense.
- [39:34]
Matt
Yeah.
- [39:35]
Nick Loper
I did have a comment on a YouTube video about insurance. Like, do you need commercial insurance to start selling this, to start driving for these pickups while you're, you know, clocked in on the app, Anything like that?
- [39:45]
Hannah
You're required to have a certain level of extended insurance. And off the top of my head, I can't remember what all those details are. So we do pay a little bit more in insurance than we would if we do this for the truck, but we don't have an individual insurance, if that makes sense. So we just have higher coverage with the vehicle that we use already.
- [40:04]
Nick Loper
Yeah. Versus, you know, product liability. It's like, well, not really my product. You know, maybe it's still right.
- [40:09]
Hannah
Yeah.
- [40:10]
Matt
We want to work for Sharetown as long as it makes sense to do so. But one of the reasons that we went full time three years ago because that my career, my background is in human resources. I worked for a big manufacturing company for years. And one of the big driving factors of me quitting and doing mattresses full time is so that I could also go back to school and so that I could also, like, create a. An HR consulting company. And so, like, the principles that we've learned through doing this has helped inform me on, like, the decisions that I make. I've made in creating another side hustle that I hope to turn full time.
- [40:47]
Unknown
Are there any surprises that come to.
- [40:48]
Nick Loper
Mind or something you might do differently related to Sharetown?
- [40:52]
Hannah
I don't know if I quite understood the potential. You know, this kind of started as something that was going to help us pay off some med. We had a baby, and we'd had some medical debt, and we had just a little bit of student loans, and we lived in an expensive area, and we wanted to save for a house, and all those things seemed really out of reach. And so I feel like maybe the biggest surprise was, and I think that that can be true for a lot of side hustles, is just that you don't ever know what it could evolve to. You know, we thought that it was a side hustle, and it was something that, I mean, Matt worked 9 to 5 and even traveled for work, and then in the evenings, drove into San Francisco. And I just feel like we were willing to do something different because we had some goals. And it's not that I'm, like, crazy passionate about selling mattresses. I have learned, like, ever since you.
- [41:39]
Matt
Were a little girl, you want them to sell mattresses.
- [41:42]
Hannah
It's not that I'm crazy passionate about selling mattresses. I have Learned to really enjoy the interactions and those sales and get a lot of satisfaction out of helping people that way. And it makes it hard to ever consider working for somebody again because we work together and we have flexibility. And I think that that can be the beauty of a side hustle is it helps you to achieve your goals and it gives you the flexibility to kind of live life on your own terms, you know, the way an extra source of income does.
- [42:11]
Nick Loper
Yeah, that's really powerful. That line of. We were willing to do something different to get out of this situation.
- [42:16]
Hannah
People that are willing to do something different and work at it even when it's hard or even when it's not yielding results. Fortunately, Sharetown, I feel like is a pretty results driven gig. It's hard to fail at, I feel like, but I feel like it's that willing to work hard and willing to.
- [42:31]
Matt
Fail, you know, willing to try, willing for things to not work out and then willing to pick yourself back up and, and keep trying until it does.
- [42:38]
Hannah
And that's what we found with your, you know, business too is just trial. A lot of trial and error and not giving up.
- [42:45]
Nick Loper
Matt, can we plug the HR company? Do you have a site for it?
- [42:48]
Matt
Sure. I mean it's called Circle Consulting. So it's like fractional HR support.
- [42:53]
Nick Loper
Circle, like the shape.
- [42:55]
Matt
Yeah, so spelled normally, you know, Circle Consulting. So I kind of specialize in culture and providing fractional HR to like small to mid sized companies and then also like project based stuff too. Going and doing culture checks for helping.
- [43:12]
Hannah
Make sure people are in the right.
- [43:13]
Matt
Positions and organizational effectiveness.
- [43:17]
Nick Loper
Kind of very cool. Well, Circle Consulting, we'll link that up in the show notes. This is like something else that you got going on. Lots of side hustles here. Anything else that you're excited about coming.
- [43:26]
Unknown
Up through the rest of this year?
- [43:28]
Hannah
We have some financial goals and that's what drives are. Side hustles is the desire to accomplish these goals and to grow and to evolve and to do that on our own terms where we can spend a lot of time with our family. We have four young kids and having the flexibility to kind of tag team both work and play and parenting and all the things is really exciting.
- [43:50]
Nick Loper
One of the things that's cool about it is you can bring in this money and it's not like you're locked into an cubicle 9 to 5. Like there's a lot of flexibility in when you schedule these pickups and when you go meet with. Meet with buyers and stuff for that. So do you have an Example of the next financial goal. Is it a net worth milestone? Is it an income target? Is it we're going to save up for that trip to Disneyland with the family.
- [44:11]
Matt
We've got just like some house projects that we really want to get done. As you can see, a couple years ago, we're in and we're in an open loft and so we'd love to close this off or turn it into an office. You know, we have some space above our garage that could be turned into like a mother in law suite. We'd love to do that down the road. So, like, doesn't sound very expensive. Yeah, I know, but I love the.
- [44:33]
Nick Loper
Idea of having like a specific target and then using a side hustle, using some extra income to like erase that.
- [44:41]
Matt
That's what got us started with it was, hey, we had this amount of, you know, debt that we wanted to pay off and we achieved it and we were like, holy crap. Like, well, and I think that happened, you know, and so it's something that's continued to drive us is, okay, look at what we can unlock by working hard. I loved the safety of a 9 to 5 job, but you can't always say, all right, I'm just going to work this X amount harder to get to where I want to go financially with a 9 to 5 job because you're locked into that salary. And so there's a lot of benefits that come with that type of salary. But we love the side hustle allowed.
- [45:18]
Hannah
Us to say, hey, if I want to work harder for this season of life, it's going to pay off. You know, nobody's going to keep me from that.
- [45:27]
Nick Loper
Yeah, you front load that earning power. Let's, you know, get the compound interest working in your favor instead of against you and paying off that debt. Really powerful move and I'm excited. I'm rooting for you guys. We'll get this tick off the next goals here and get those house projects taken care of.
- [45:41]
Matt
Yeah.
- [45:41]
Nick Loper
Side hustlenation.com Sharetown is my referral link for Sharetown if you want to learn more and submit your application there. So let's wrap this thing up with your number one tips for side hustle Nation. Hannah. Ladies first.
- [45:53]
Hannah
Consistency and the willingness to work hard and being willing to try things and have them fail and pivot and just keep going until you find something that sticks. You know, I feel like that's kind of what's going to lead anybody to a successful side hustle is just the willingness. I mean, I would love to, to sit and Play from five to nine every night. But some nights we are doing things other people aren't doing because we, you know, are trying to accomplish these goals that we have.
- [46:24]
Nick Loper
So the opening tagline on the show for, I don't know, eight, 10 years was, you know, your nine to five makes you a living, but your five to nine makes you alive. And it was from five, you know, to the next nine coming around. But it's the same thing, you know, evening or the rest one. So, Matt, what about you?
- [46:38]
Matt
I just want to echo what Hannah said, which is consistency. So like, Hannah, I used to tease her when we were on vacation because she would be on a beach in Hawaii posting mattresses.
- [46:48]
Hannah
So it sounds depressing. I also enjoyed the time.
- [46:51]
Matt
I know, but like, but that's what I mean is like, I used to tease her for it and I just don't anymore because like, that's what, that's.
- [46:57]
Nick Loper
What keeps things driving.
- [46:58]
Matt
When I say tease, like, it really is like, really light hearted. I'm not, you know, some shirt husband, but like, I would just be like, hey, that can wait, like, it's okay. And she's like, trust me, it makes a difference. And I think that's applicable to, you know, to everything else is like, no, we have to be willing to say yes to things. Yeah. Say yes to sales. Say yes to the, you know, hard work of doing it so that we can. So that, that opens up those doors to some momentum. Yeah, it just keeps that momentum going rather than, you know, ebbing and flowing. But yeah, I would just say consistency with, like, with the work, you know, with the work and the willingness to do the hard things.
- [47:34]
Nick Loper
Yeah, I'm with you. It's building that, that hustle habit almost. And it's like, this is just something that I do. It's hard to imagine not doing it. It doesn't matter if I'm on vacation. Only takes a few minutes.
- [47:45]
Hannah
Oftentimes they're small things. You know, it's five minutes here, it's 10 minutes there. It's not always, you know, big.
- [47:51]
Nick Loper
Yeah. Super cool. Well, I love this low risk side hustle. I like the. We were willing to do something different. I love the idea of having a goal to shoot for versus something more nebulous. I want a side hustle to make extra money. No, I gotta make 20 grand to pay off this loan or what? I gotta, you know, have something, have a target, have a finish line, have something to shoot for again. Side hustlenation.com Sharetown is our referral link. If you would like to learn more about becoming a Sharetown rep yourself. Big thanks to Hannah and Matt for sharing their insight. Big thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone. As always, side hustlenation.comdeals is where to go to find all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place. Thank you for supporting the advertisers that support the show. That is it for me. Thank you so much for tuning in. Until next time, let's go out there and make something happen and I'll catch you in the next edition of the side Hustle Show. Hustle on the.