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What It's About
A teacher flips furniture for future financial freedom.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
Danielle suggests to pull up a chair and learn from others, both in the entrepreneurial space and with your specific niche: “Connect with your local entrepreneurial community if possible. Be willing to play with ideas, talk about them, and get as much feedback as possible. Ask people a LOT of questions. Go to the experts. I have had meetings with lawyers, accountants, professional upholstery cleaners, antique shop owners, just to learn as much as I could about anything related to my side hustle.”
Fun Fact
The office chair was first invented by the famed naturalist Charles Darwin in the early 1840s. As he worked on his research, he became frustrated with how much he had to maneuver around his workspace, so he attached legs and wheels to an armchair to be able to better access his specimens. [source]
Notes from Chris
Episode 1688
When Danielle Winton bought her first home in November of 2020, she wanted it to look like it could be in a magazine. The problem was, she was starting with limited furniture, only owning a bedroom set, a desk, and two barstools. And, she didn’t even have a place for the barstools, so those didn’t really count. To make a little extra money, she decided to sell them. Danielle originally bought the barstools for $15 on Facebook Marketplace. Hoping to earn a little extra money, she listed them for $45. They sold without delay, and Danielle was surprised how fast she had made $30! She figured that she could do it again, and decided to buy more pieces. One of her favorite early finds was an old, outdated orange table. Danielle bought it for 25 cents, painted it white and grey, staged it, and sold it on Facebook Marketplace for $50. That’s a profit margin of 99.50%! From there, Danielle was hooked. It was like she had found Aladdin’s lamp. She loved the process of finding good deals, transforming pieces, and making sales, especially as she made more and more money from them. As she went along, she reinvested into her business to buy more furniture, restoration tools and even her own website, WintonFurnishing.com. She made the website about six months after starting, mainly as a source of credibility for her brand. She knew from personal experience that when people had a website, it meant that they were serious about providing a high quality product. The website links to her Facebook Marketplace, which is where she still spends the majority of her energy. However, she has also experimented with selling on other platforms including Craigslist, Ebay, Nextdoor, and something called Chairish. After starting in November, Danielle has already worked up to earning more than $5,000 a month from her business. She says that one of the main factors in building her income was investing in storage units for the furniture. That way, she was better able to acquire a larger pool of inventory, rather than be limited by the space she had in her home to store the pieces. Danielle focuses mainly on selling around her area, in mid-Missouri. Over time, she hopes to build a larger network of shoppers, drivers and virtual assistants all over the state! She still teaches a few ESL classes, but her focus is on furniture.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Learn more about Danielle and see her furniture listings at her website, WintonFurnishing.com.
- Family Business Connects Household Cardboard to Geometry Lessons: When a mom starts a furniture business, it inspires her kids to try their own hands at business from an early age.
- Couple Turn Unwanted Furniture Into $1,000 Per Month: A couple in Ottawa learn to “upcycle” unused furniture, working extra hours whenever they want and getting paid for something they’d do for free.
- Woodworker Proves Money Grows On Trees: When the owner of a lawn care business can’t find the earthy table of his dreams, he finds himself with a tree-mendous new business.
