I Made $200,000 Last Year Selling Shoes on Poshmark With My Husband

• Lindsay Esbjerg is a full-time shoe reseller on Poshmark together with her husband, Ryan.
• They love engaged on their very own schedule and have offered $775,000 price of sneakers since 2017.
• On common, they make 4 instances the cash they spend on every pair after charges and delivery prices.

This as-told-to essay relies on a dialog with Lindsay Esbjerg, a 32-year-old Poshmark reseller in Portland, Maine. It has been edited for size and readability.

I resell sneakers on Poshmark full time below the closet identify “RNZY,” which is my husband, Ryan’s, and my identify mixed. We presently have greater than 150,000 followers on the platform, 2,200 energetic listings, and we common 500 gross sales a month on Poshmark. We make a revenue of six figures a 12 months and have made nearly 19,000 whole gross sales.

From 2013 to 2015, I labored as a Bathtub & Physique Works retailer supervisor in Burlington, Vermont. After transferring to Maine in 2015, I started managing gross sales and advertising and marketing for a small family-run enterprise repurposing used sails into purses.

In June 2017, I parted methods with the household enterprise and commenced my reselling journey with Ryan. I might offered a couple of home items on the time, however nothing vital. I used to be searching for a technique to earn money alone schedule. Ryan left his job on the Marriott in Portland to take this on with me full time.

We spent the primary few months promoting something we might discover in our home on Fb Market

We offered garments, sneakers, espresso makers, candles, and extra, hand-delivering items inside 50 miles of Portland.

In September 2017, we began promoting on Poshmark. We might seen folks on Instagram utilizing it and thought it could be an important market to strive. We offered sneakers and clothes, however we rapidly niched right down to solely sneakers. We each realized that we loved the complete means of promoting sneakers — sourcing, cleansing, photographing, itemizing, and delivery. All the opposite objects we offered have been worthwhile, however we simply did not benefit from the course of as a lot.

We discover sneakers to promote in thrift shops like Goodwill, Savers, Salvation Military, and Plato’s Closet throughout New England. Ninety p.c of the sneakers we promote are gently used, however sometimes we do discover some unworn pairs at thrift shops.

Poshmark is straightforward to arrange and simple to make use of, and inside a few months it turned our No. 1 grossing platform. In 2021, we made $218,000 in gross sales on Poshmark. Our whole gross sales since we began are greater than $775,000. Poshmark does take a payment of $2.95 for gross sales below $15 and 20% of gross sales over $15. Fb Market additionally takes a 5% payment. On common, we make 4 instances the cash we spent on every pair after charges and delivery prices.

At first, we have been making sufficient to pay our payments and slowly develop

We put aside the cash we wanted for payments and reinvested every part else. This allowed us to develop rapidly whereas additionally overlaying all our bills. When beginning out, one of many largest challenges was budgeting how a lot to spend on stock and the way a lot to save lots of for residing bills.

Ryan and I rapidly discovered which components of the enterprise we every excelled at. We each journey round New England buying sneakers at thrift shops, however Ryan primarily handles the cleansing and images whereas I do the itemizing and accounting. We each package deal and ship the sneakers collectively each morning, and we work out of our residence in our basement and storage.

We now have 4 workers who clear the sneakers and {photograph} them. We employed our first worker three years in the past. None of our workers work for us full time — all of them work on their very own schedule a couple of days per week.

We share different customers’ listings sometimes, however we do not be a part of Posh Events. We do not do any further advertising and marketing apart from sharing our personal listings and sourcing sneakers that individuals need. One side of Poshmark we want we might enhance is having to share all our listings to the feed each single day to get extra eyes on them.

I benefit from the instruments Poshmark presents, like bundling objects collectively so the customer can save on delivery prices. One other instrument I like is that patrons can “like” pairs of sneakers by pushing a button on the itemizing, which lets me know to ship a reduced supply to the patrons who’ve chosen to “like” every pair. We do that weekly.

We started reselling as a technique to have extra time and freedom

We did not wish to must ask somebody for day without work or have anybody else scheduling our days. We work once we wish to work.

On a median day, we get up, maintain our daughter, and stroll the canine. Then we each package deal orders from the earlier night time. I will get some pairs listed whereas Ryan prepares sneakers to drop off to our workers, who clear and {photograph} them.

We then go for an extended stroll round a neighborhood bike path. That is the kind of exercise that makes us love reselling. We will stand up from no matter we’re doing through the day and get exterior. Within the afternoons, Ryan and I do a dropoff and pickup with our workers and our workday sometimes wraps up by 4 p.m.

Here is my greatest recommendation for promoting on the platform

One piece of recommendation I might supply to a brand new Posher is to actually give attention to the standard of your itemizing. Make sure that to take well-lit images of things, write thorough descriptions, and use market-value pricing. We glance up what the sneakers have offered for beforehand on Poshmark. (We seek for the pair of sneakers on Poshmark and choose “offered objects.” Then we are able to see what the latest sale costs have been.) The worth we record has nothing to do with retail. Some pairs get listed over retail, some below — it is all about what the worth for that particular pair is, which is straightforward to determine by earlier gross sales.

It is vital to make use of a photograph of your self in your Poshmark profile. You wish to construct belief with patrons so that they know precisely who they’re buying from. We get optimistic critiques by being trustworthy with our listings, rigorously packaging every pair, and delivery quickly. I personally love utilizing Poshmark for the vendor safety they provide and the transparency with the promoting charges. If there are any points with the delivery, like packages getting misplaced, Poshmark handles the price so neither the customer nor the vendor is penalized. Poshmark additionally ensures that patrons cannot return objects for points which can be out of the vendor’s management, like sneakers not becoming the customer.

Maintain monitor of every part so what’s working and what is not inside your small business. When Poshmark launched the “Closet Insights” instrument, which offers a complete breakdown of gross sales and stock information, it made this a lot simpler. We have been utilizing Google Sheets since day one, and we log each pair of sneakers in it, together with model, dimension, fashion, shade, and purchase value. Moreover, we use Quickbooks to trace mileage, our bills, and our earnings.

Final, however not least, put aside cash for taxes because the 12 months goes on so your small business would not get shocked when tax season rolls round. Self-employment tax is usually between 15% and 20%.

Are you a profitable Poshmark reseller and wish to share your story? E-mail Lauryn Haas at lhaas@insider.com.