Are you thinking about starting your own business or ditching the grind?
This article will share my personal tips for starting your first business. If you haven’t read the previous article yet, I recommend checking it out first!
After reading this, you’ll have a clear understanding of how to get your own business off the ground.
Contents
Reselling Second-Hand Clothing
My strage room
Buying Clothing on Weekends
I started my first business as a side hustle about two years after I joined my first company (I didn’t get a license for a side job from the company, by the way).
At first, I looked for second-hand clothing stores and recycle shops to buy my products.
I mainly focused on brands from the ’90s, including Nike, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Carhartt, and The North Face. These brands were popular in Japan and often sold at thrift stores.
My wife and I would drive every weekend to find these shops and buy clothes. Looking back, it seems like a very inefficient process, but it was a wonderful experience for me.
Even though the clothes didn’t sell easily at first, going to new places to buy clothes and eating McDonald’s hamburgers with one hand while driving on weekends made me feel free from my boring life.
Inventory when I first started
Selling on a Flea Market App
After buying all those clothes, I sold them on a popular flea market app in Japan called ‘Mercari.’ This app is widely used by many Japanese people for buying and selling unwanted items.
Of course, my products weren’t unwanted items, but the book I read taught me, “Let’s sell second-hand clothes you bought on this app!”
If you’re reading this outside of Japan, don’t worry—there are many similar platforms you can use in the world.
Some of the most popular apps for reselling clothing overseas include Depop, Vinted, and Poshmark. You can also sell on a larger, more general marketplace like eBay.
For readers in Asia, here are some other major platforms:
- China: Idle Fish (Xianyu) and Zhuan Zhuan are two of the largest second-hand marketplaces.
- South Korea: Danggeun Market (Karrot) and Bunjang are very popular for reselling.
- Singapore: Carousell is a leading app for reselling not just clothes but a wide variety of items.
The key is to find a platform that works for your location and the type of clothes you want to sell.
Finding a Wholesaler
After gaining experience buying and selling clothes, I started looking for wholesalers because I wanted to buy a large quantity of items at once.
Wholesale pricing structures vary widely, with prices set per item, prices varying by weight, or even large bales containing dozens to hundreds of items.
Even though I visited many wholesalers (with hamburgers in hand!), it wasn’t easy to buy profitable products.
I often see beginners who want to buy in bulk from the start, but that can be very risky. Buying more than your sales capacity can lead to a lot of unsold inventory.
Once you are comfortable buying your products in stores, I recommend trying a wholesaler as your next step.
The Work Was Simple
Buy, Take Photos, Sell, and Ship
Do you think starting your first business is too difficult? Of course, I was in your shoes before I started.
However, once I began my first business, I thought, “This is very simple.” All I did was buy clothes, take photos of them, list them on a flea market app, and ship them.
If you break down the process piece by piece, even a kid could do these things. It’s not that starting business is too hard—it’s that you believe it is.
You don’t need to borrow a lot of money from a bank. You only need a bit of seed money, a laptop, Wi-Fi, and a dash of courage.
Moved to secure storage space
Experiencing the Whole Business Cycle
Even though your business is small, it’s important to experience the entire business cycle.
In my case, I went through the following processes in the second-hand clothing business:
- Reserching profitable products
- Buying clothes(and washing them)
- Taking photos for product listings
- Writing product descriptions
- Deciding on product prices
- Listing the products
- Shipping products
- Managing inventory
When you work at a company, you are often only in charge of a single part of the business—for example, only responding to customers, only maintaining software, or only serving food and drinks.
If you want to start a business, you need to experience the full cycle. Doing a single part of the business within a company isn’t a “business”—it’s just a “job.”
Once you experience the entire business cycle, you can delegate certain tasks to others. Plus, you’ll feel confident enough to start any other small business.
You will finally own your business in the truest sense of the word.
Conclusion
Starting a business can seem intimidating, but my experience with reselling second-hand clothing proves it’s a simple, step-by-step process.
You don’t need a large investment or a complex plan—just the courage to take the first step.
By taking on the entire business cycle yourself, you’ll gain the confidence and experience needed to eventually delegate tasks to others.
This journey teaches you how to truly be the owner of a business, not just an employee with a job.
I truly hope this blog inspires you to change your life!
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