So in my last blog post, I dropped a little bomb and told you all I was starting my own consignment sale business. For some reason, that statement seems overwhelming now, now that it's all over. I've been preparing mentally for the last 6 months on how I can start this little investment and not break the bank, get it all organized, and follow through without a hitch! Ya know what? I think I did it!
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I really don't know how to explain it all in one blog post. So here goes.... I first mentioned my invested adventure in a blog post, back in January. Read it if you'd like. :) I've wanted to have my own sale for quite a while now. I was in our garage one day, this big space that houses all our "stuff".
And this garage had all this "stuff" in it!
Just as I mentioned in the January blog post. I had a thought, can I have a consignment sale in here? How in the world can I do this? Will anyone come or will it be a big flop?! Well, that's all it took for me to put my little pea brain to work this last 3 months.
I have a pretty awesome cousin named Matt. Hi Matt! :) He has a degree in Computer Science. Oh yeah? Awesome! So I emailed him and asked if he could set up a web site for me. Sure thing, notta problem! We emailed back and forth, he pointed me in certain directions, suggested ideas, and voila! Check it out! I LOVE my web site, and he made it seem so easy, which it is, for me! So, I have my own web site! Any time I need to make changes, I'll email him, and he gets to work. (Really I don't know how hard it is, but he makes it sound so easy to do.) Great job Matt !
Long story short, I just had my first sale last week and it was GGGRRRREAT!!! I hate to jinx myself but it really wan't that hard. I'm a true thinker, so much that I have to sleep to get away from the constant thinking, organizing, overboard, OCD brain of mine when I have an idea of something I really want to do! lol Remember, I've always wanted to do this, and I imagine I'd secretly worked out some details a while ago, all I had to do was really make them happen. Got the building - check, figured out where all the stuff can go - check. Thank goodness for my parents and their garage! They stored some cars, neighbors stored our motorcycles - thanks Frieda and David! :) And our other neighbor stored our law mowers, thanks Jerry! Then on to transforming our garage into a consignment sale shop.
I needed racks to hold clothes. I had bought 10 four sided racks, and I soon figured out, they were not going to work at all. I needed something better. So I asked for my dads help. He's a carpenter, plumber, electrician, mechanic, all rolled up into one! I showed him a picture of what I'd like my racks to look like, and of course he made them, no problem! Thanks dad! :)
They worked great! So I maximized the space I had to hold A LOT of clothes. Thanks to the hubs for hanging the pipe to hold the bigger clothes. And thank you Lowes, love me some Lowes! Mike, the hubs, figured out how to hang pipe from the ceiling to make a very long rack. It worked great also. I maximized space - loved it!
I advertised, advertised, ADVERTISED! I made signs and put them in the small towns on both sides of us. I put an ad in the local paper, and put fliers EVERYWHERE! Oh, and of course Facebook. Pretty soon my consignor list grew, but would I have enough? Still a little worried at this point. Then the consignor drop off appointments came, some didn't show up, some did. All their items were hung up, placed in their appropriate sections. I borrowed a few tables, had a lot of my own, figured out how to set them up and maximized the other end of the garage for all the items.
My consignors came through. Once I had all their items in the garage, it looked great!! I didn't have as many consignors as I'd liked, but the ones I did have were amazing ladies. They had the cutest items, I had to keep telling myself not to oooooo and ahhhhhh over all the baby stuff and keep working! But it was so hard when you're looking at all that cute stuff!
Sale day came Friday morning. By the end of the day, I was tired and my cash drawer was getting full! I had an even better response than I could have imagined. I had a sign up sheet for those who wanted to have a mailer sent out to them for a notice of our fall sale. All the comments were positive, "glad to have one in our area", "great to have one close to home", even had a few, "wish I'd known before hand, I would have signed up!". Wow! It was so awesome to hear all the great comments! Really helped ease my worry. And everyone was so nice.
So now the sale is over and I have to say, I did way better than I thought I would do. Lots of people came, lots commented on the set up in the garage, said it looked organized, neat, etc. So after it's all over, I can really say, "I can do this, I really can!"
Can't wait till the fall sale, I'm ready, bring it on! :)
Here's a shout out to the grandparents: Thanks mom and dad, Gale and Jimmy and Mike's mom and dad, Carolyn and Vernon!! Without all of you, this would not have been possible! Mike and I appreciate all you do to help us out with Tay and Aiden and the support. We are so thankful you're such a big part of our lives.
