As I am entering my 10th year of reselling on Poshmark this year (crazy, right?!), I’ve been doing quite a bit of reflecting on my business. Reselling started as a way for me to make extra money in college and over the years, transitioned into a part-time and now full-time business. There have been many highs and lows throughout the years and each of these periods has taught me a great deal about business, reselling, and most importantly, myself. Today, I wanted to share with you a 5 mistakes that I made during my part-time reselling days and how they have impacted me as a full-time reseller.
5 Mistakes I Made As a Part-Time Reseller:
Mistake #1: Not Being Consistent Month-to-Month
One of the biggest mistakes that I made as a part-time reseller was that I was not always being consistent from month-to-month. Since my reselling income was secondary income and I didn’t need it to pay bills, etc., I wasn’t consistent with my Poshmark activities. There were periods when I would not list or share my items and sales would come to an abrupt stop. (We’re really going back in time as this was before automation and everything had to be done manually.) This was most noticeable in my earlier days of reselling when I wasn’t committed to being a part-time reseller yet and was more of a hobby reseller. Once I decided to be more serious about reselling, it was a challenge to remain consistent, especially while trying to manage a full-time job. As my full-time job gradually made me miserable and stressed, reselling became an enjoyable outlet for me making it easier to commit to. It wasn’t until 3 years into my reselling journey, that I began to be serious about reselling and started to be consistent with it. Looking back on it now, I really wish that I had been committed from the start and remained consistent with it. I know that is easier said than done but forming these habits early in a reselling journey is important with consistent sales especially on apps such as Poshmark that rely on consistency.
Mistake #2: Not Having a Good Inventory Management System
When I originally started reselling in 2013, I had no idea that I would become a full-time reseller. Back then, I had a few bins worth of inventory and I thought that was a lot to manage. Fast forward 10 years and I now have over 50 bins of inventory along with a clothing rack and a few shelves. Within the past 2 years, I have worked really hard to develop a good inventory management system and it was no easy feat. I really wish that during my part-time reselling days, I had incorporated a better inventory management system that would transition more easily with a growing business. If I had I done that much earlier, it would have made full-time reselling much easier for me now.
Mistake #3: Not Trying More Platforms Earlier
As of 2023, I am currently selling on 4 reselling platforms and 2 consignment sites. When I first started reselling, there were only 2 reselling platforms available: Poshmark (which was brand new) and eBay (which was already pretty established at the time). Of these 2 platforms, I decided to take a chance on Poshmark, as the platform appeared more user friendly and the marketing was much more appealing to a college student like myself. As time went on, I grew increasing comfortable with the app and didn’t feel the need to branch out. This was especially true when I was working a full-time job and didn’t have much time to devote to anything outside of Poshmark (Note: This was back when automation was not available for Poshmark and cross-listing programs were nonexistent).
Once Poshmark automation programs and cross-listing platforms arose, it no longer made sense for me to place all of my eggs in one basket and I knew that I needed to branch out. Over the next few years, I started to cross-list my items to Mercari, Tradesy (now Vestaire Collective), and Kidizen. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to cross-list to multiple platforms in my earlier reselling days due to the circumstances of the time. If I could revisit that period in my life, I probably would have dabbled into eBay just to try it out and maximize my income. Nowadays, it is much easier to be a reseller on multiple platforms and have multiple income streams so I advise you to make the most of those opportunities if you can.
Mistake #4: Not Being Familiar with Reselling Taxes and Expenses Earlier
I will be the first to say that when it came to reselling taxes and expenses in my early reselling days, I had no clue what I was doing. Absolutely no clue. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to meet with a CPA who answered many of my general questions and gave me an overview of what would be required of me tax-wise as a part-time reseller. (Having this basic understanding of this information is really important and I highly recommend meeting with a CPA if you have any questions.) Before transitioning to full-time reselling, I began doing research on the IRS and state finance websites to see what additional financial responsibilities I would be responsible for so I could plan for them. As a full-time reseller, I have many more financial responsibilities that I need to plan and save for and as a part-time reseller, I wasn’t as educated on this topic as I should have been. If I could go back in time, I would have reached out to a CPA sooner and familiarized myself with all levels of being self-employed much earlier in my reselling journey.
Mistake #5: Focusing More on Social Media and Less on My Reselling Business
I know that I have briefly discussed this topic in other posts previously (HERE and HERE) but I do want to address it again in this post. During the time that I was a part-time seller and just starting full-time reselling, I had an Instagram following of around 18,000. Unfortunately, Instagram mistakenly disabled the account and ultimately deleted it after 6 months of trying to get it back. Up until that point, I spent the majority of my time trying to build a social media presence and let my business take the back seat. It wasn’t until after this happened that I realized that my priorities were reversed; I should have been spending that time on my business and not on my social media accounts. The truth of the matter was that my reselling business was paying my bills not my social media presence. Although I had a sizable following, most of my followers were not buying items from me. As a result, I realized that I needed to re-adjust my priorities and create a better balance for myself as what I had was unhealthy for me.
[Note: I just want to add that it is perfectly fine to have a social media presence that directly correlates with your business. I’m just sharing that for me, personally, I was unable to do it in a way that allowed me to have a healthy life balance.]
I hope that you find this post helpful! If you have any questions or just want to chat, please reach out!
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