/diy/ - Do It Yourself

You know, thinking it over the 3.5k month was about 20 hours total for the month.

Here's my situation and what happened. My wife recently gave birth to a darling baby girl. I was laid off about 6 months before she was born, and I knew I had to get my ass in gear and make some money.

Then we ran the numbers on child care. Oh boy. For decent child care we're talking about $24-30k a year, with long waiting lists. You can find it cheaper but it's always, always hit or miss with the locals/independents, not something you want to do with yourtalented /diy/er

So, I set out to find something I could do with the baby. You guys are probably mostly single but I was able to claw my way up the food chain, so to speak. I took a couple months off to get used to being primary caretaker (sounds manlier than "Mr Mom") but now I'm back to it.

My wife has a good job and was able to support us but we didn't have a ton of breathing room, so my rules were:

- Up front investment had to be $50 or less
- Could not take money out of the checking account to pay expenses for this at any time

Here's what I did, going from $50 in my pocket and a small truck to a largish storage unit (10x30') full of product and an expanding business with semi-regular workers, clients and (hopefully within the next couple months) a website + web campaign.

>>300677
Anticipation grows.

So I had a truck to start with, again. I took my $50 and went to craigslist and searched for garage sales. Depending on where you live there will be more or less, I live in Colorado and there are plenty during the summer months, and enough during the winter months but very "weather dependent" which is fine.

Take your $50 and look for big pieces of furniture, particularly dressers. Dressers in good condition, made of wood and not particle board (unless small,) sell faster and better than anything else in my experience. Avoid couches unless you have storage space and are willing to wait and learn and lose some money in the process; tastes in couches vary and I had no fashion sense so I swung and missed on a lot of these.

>>300677
It makes it sound like a scam anytime someone starts off describing the high-profit and low-cost before disclosing the actual work.

Avoid painted pieces of furniture. The paint jobs tend to be atrocious, and even good ones reduce the market significantly. Just about everyone is okay with a wood dresser, and if you're looking for a used one the finish isn't that big a deal; in any event, "cherry dresser" attracts a lot more people than "horribly painted blue dresser" (I learned this the hard way too, don't learn it the hard way.)

Don't buy stuff with the finish flaking off, thinking you'll refinish it yourself. Unless you already do that for fun, you won't, and it costs money to learn if you don't know how to do it already. You WILL fuck anything up you do it the first time and possibly the 2nd and 3rd time too, so keep that in mind.

So, you have to be a bit picky. Stuff has to be in good condition and above all CHEAP. At first I never bought anything for more than $10, preferably $5 or so, but I relaxed that to $25 after I learned the ropes a little.

The big thing is you need FAST turnaround (pref less than 1 week) and BIG markup (I aimed for 10x+, but this was pure cushion; again, you are going to SUCK at guessing what something will sell for, even if you do a little research beforehand. That "It'll probably sell for $50 if I pay $5 for it" leaves you breathing room so if you literally think it's worth twice as much as it is, you're still looking at a 500% markup.)

>>300685
A writer's 'hooker'.

>>300685

Well I'm not selling fucking franchises here, if you don't think I'm legit then just don't try what I'm saying.

This doesn't take a lot in terms of hours spent hoofing it, it DOES take a lot of thinking and you can't be half-ass when you do work like at an office job; you are going 100%.

The hours are minimal and it allows me to work with a toddler attached to me (literally) but I would not call it super easy.

>>300690
What are your methods of finding customers?

Will your website allow buyers and sellers?

How will you personally expand?

More of >>300692
Will you get into office furniture?

What about restaurant furniture?

>>300692
>>300694

Patience, sir. I will cover all this soon.

>>300688

Okay, so you grab a couple dressers and they're in the back of your truck, let's say. You've spent $20-30, less than $50 even with gas. Grab a tarp (if you don't have one factor that into your expense) and put it over your stuff in case of rain, snow or whatever. You don't have storage space so this is where your stuff will live until your profits pay for expansion.

Now, take NICE individual pictures of these pieces. In fact a great time to do that is right when you buy them. People who do garage sales don't have the time or (often) proficiency to take decent pics of their shit, but you do.

Now go right back on CL or the equivalent site for your area and put those dressers (or other piece of furniture) up for that 5-10x markup. Look around at dressers for sale and compare.

Now, here's the important part. In your ad you must offer FREE DELIVERY. Caps or not; I've measured, it really doesn't add or subtract from how much inquiry you get.

People will begin to call, possibly wanting to look before they buy. Others will want higher res pictures; provide them. This is a huge selling point for you; people who don't have a bunch of spare time, or people who don't have a truck, will be your main customers. Your stuff will sell if you chose wisely and were conservative (I probably get 1-2 things every 5-8 garage sales I visited when I was at this stage.)

Do this for a couple weeks and you'll have enough money to buy a cheapish storage unit for a month. Go forth and do it. I recommend you start with a 10x10 or so, roomy enough to manuever without being super expensive (mine was like $100.)

>>300696

Maybe a month in if you're lucky or took to this well, or two months if you had a few whiffs you ended up needing to dispose of (the problem with a whiff is not the money you sink into it; $5-15 is not a huge deal, what IS a huge deal is your VERY limited space. Always remember that it's easier to dump a slow-moving $10 piece of furniture than buy additional space to store more shit) you will have a little money. Every week you will fill up your storage unit; every week you will empty at least half of it (your ideal place is 100% turnover every week, in which case you are making between $500-1000 per week after expenses, but in my experience this is a rare achievement, especially when you first start; so don't make any calculations where your month is DEPENDENT on you batting a thousand, PLEASE.) But this is just the start.

>>300701

At this point you can expand into other pieces of furniture. You WILL lose money at first when doing this, so keep that to a minority and/or when you find a stupid-good deal. Dining tables with chairs are another good money-maker, but you need to get a feel for the size; you're not servicing big timers with lots of room, so smaller tables are often best. Chairs are another hit and miss one; I once got a nice, gently used leather computer chair for 5 bucks and sold it for $75 (with delivery, of course, so after gas prices probably $50-55 profit for a couple hours of work.) Other chairs just sit there FOREVER. You have to be patient and experimental with these. Desks (like work desks, computer desks, etc.,) are also a place to expand to, but again, you need a feel. Cheap, flimsy looking shit won't sell, as a rule, or won't sell quickly, or won't sell for a profit that makes it worthwhile - remember, you can go mow lawns for 10 bucks an hour, the idea is to be independent and make more than that.

I forgot to mention this before, if you have a regular job during the week you can do this exclusively on the weekends too, which makes it a good advanage vs other DIY plans.

>>300702

So, here's where I'm at now. Once I found in the garage sale section of my local CL an ad for an "office liquidation." Okay I say.

Basically, what happened was there were 7 floors worth of office equipment, from cabinets to desks to cubicles, sitting there for about a month and a half until the lease was up and whatever was left was going to the trash / recycler.

This is where you can really excel, but you need a little bit of cash (just 200-500 to start with.)

Go there, explain who you are. There is no need - ever - to be shady, or vague, or whatever. You buy shit and you resell it with delivery offered. Give the guy your number and give him a price to deliver individual items (I suggest $100.) Also take pictures of everything good and put individualads up in the furniture section, double the price and again emphasize FREE DELIVERY of this thing.

When someone wants to buy something, always tell them you need to check to make sure we still have it, items are moving fast, etc. Then call your new best friend, the office liquidator, and ask if he has it. If he does and the customer is serious, tell him he has a sale.

In relatively little time and with very little money fronted, you will start making a lot more money. But you're not going to pocket it just yet.

>>300690
It's not a critique of your idea, it's a critique of your writing style. It *sounded* like this thread was going to be a scam until the 4th post. And the way threads are displayed, the 4th post will quickly be hidden on the main page leaving only the vague potentially-scam-like first post. A more to-the-point first post sounds more honest and works better on this board.

>>300708

Next step is make sure you have a tow package on your truck/SUV and buy a trailer. 6x12' is a good size. Again, CL is your friend, along with patience. I have a standard 6x12' that normally goes for $1600 or so. Someone was selling it, barely used. Guy did a lot of work on homes for a real estate investor who disappeared and never paid him. Go figure. He was asking $1200, I said $800 tonight, he said okay. You WILL get a lot of nos, and perhaps some verbal abuse for these lowball offers. Don't let it get to you. It never hurts to ask.

Now you have a 6x12' trailer which expands your options significantly. You can schedule multiple deliveries in the same day and load it all up in the morning. You can deliver bigger orders (several desks/cubicles.) Lots of options for you.

Like all good things your office liquidator friend paying to store all your inventory will come to an end. Take your profits and buy stuff that was selling good. Cubicles CAN be a HUGE moneymaker - before the baby came I went on a 3 month odessy of trying to make cubes work, but the bottom line is that they move SLOWLY but at a RIDICULOUS markup

cont field too long

>>300710

Well, if someone wants to rewrite it for me, I'm cool with it. I'm all about what works; I'm just not a regular /diy/ denizen.

>>300713

- ie $60 cube selling for $500-600, BUT you have to both take it down AND set the fucker up, and many cubicles DO NOT go together easily. Brands to glom onto: Herman-Miller, Knoll. Brands to avoid: Steelcase. NEVER PAY A DIME FOR STEELCASE, THEY ARE DESIGNED TO FALL APART WHEN TAKEN APART, YOU WILL END UP WITH A PISSED OFF CLIENT AND NO MONEY.

My recommendation is to not put all your eggs in one basket like I did (paid $2500 for about 35 cubes; had topay an additional $1000 or so for a crew and huge box truck to disassemble/transport them and then immediately hit a dry spell and was FUCKED for about a month before they started moving at a decent clip; am only now just BARELY recovering from that huge mistake)

Grab a cubicle or two if you can find a Herman-Miller (goes together like legos) or Knoll (super expensive normally, like literally a knoll cube goes for $1500+ new, but a little harder to put together/take apart.)

cont...

Sorry I didn't catch up what CL stands for.

What is it?

>>300717

Learn from my mistakes: I lost about $2500 installing Steelcase cubes, or rather trying to (separate from the $2500 I spent on the cubes in previous post). They are hard to put back together, and often get bent/fucked up when uninstalling, making it nearly impossible for them to get back together.

With 1-2 cubes you can do it yourself, when it starts getting more though you should start posting labor gig ads on your local CL or equivalent; emphasize the need for experience working with cubicles. Never take anyone without cube experience, you will spend too much time teaching them unless you get really lucky. Keep the number of anyone who makes a really good impression, and PAY ABOVE MARKET. I pay $15/hr for my workers; this means you will get a lot of interest in your ads, and people WANT to make a good impression so they work hard. Don't go for the false economy of a low wage. You will get people who don't care and who will slack off the second you aren't watching them, which is important because you might have to leave them on site and deal with something else.

>>300720

Craigslist.

>>300701
I think that's the key point that some people miss: avoid excess inventory because storage is expensive.

It's the same in retail. A friend of mine is a purchasing manager for a grocery store. If they buy too much of a seasonal product like winter salt or BBQ charcoal, they end up losing money on the warehousing expense.

You should think in terms of a monthly cost per pallet (or per square foot of a storage unit) for every item you have in inventory.

Hey OP I am somewhat of a self-starter, myself.
You mentioned you need a website, well I make websites for a living. I do it on a contract basis, and I also do some of what you do, but I do it slightly differently.
I go to garage sales and look for artsy hipster stuff and then sell it on etsy.com saying it's vintage or hand-made. It doesn't require a truck, but the money it produces isn't much also. Then again I've never devoted a ton of time to it, the website thing is my main gig. Anyway, email me if you're interested and willing to pay me.

>>300722

Crews with moving experience can be worth their weight in gold, too, once you have enough storage/product and schedule everything for one day. So, let's say you have 5 desks and 3 dressers for the day and you just don't want to fuck with it. You can hire two guys with moving experience; they will know how to pack the shit, where to put blankets to avoid scratching (oh god this is so worth it, I had no idea wtf I was doing and pissed off some clients this way once.) Now instead of a grunt sweating all day you are just driving the truck and directing your workers; it also allows you to keep working with clients as they work, answer your phone, post ads, etc. Heavily consider this.

>>300724

Yeah, I was/am super interested in business/management stuff so I was very familiar with how turnover is a crucial concept in retail. IE having something that sells 1/month and makes you $600 per sale is not nearly as good as having something that sells 1/day and makes you $60 per sale.

This is a hard lesson I learned with cubicles, unfortunately, I was lured in with the promise of great per-unit profits but it's bitten me in the ass and cost thousands of dollars. I'm in the process of re-diversifying.

>>300724
Also, you should think in terms of a financing cost for unsold items. Every time you buy an item, you are essentially borrowing money from yourself, and that money isn't paid back to yourself until you sell that item. The last thing you want is for all your money to be tied up in inventory.

Okay, so after some hard lessons with cubicles - very high return, but guys, DO NOT LEAP INTO THE DEEP END, you will regret it, I 100% guarantee it - and some medical bills (BABIES BE EXPENSIVE) I was back to almost square 1. I have a single 10x30 storage unit (I used to have two) and $500, and some cubicles. Tomorrow I am going out to the garage sales and office liquidations to hunt for deals. So I'm back in the game and I hope to be back to expanding my inventory/profits instead of having them all sucked away by incidental expenses and bad business decisions.

The purpose of this thread was to give you guys a DIY method to make money. It's not "easy" but it does get the cash flow in, unless you invest a significant % into something that whiffs. I guess my #1 and #2 lessons is: turnover is more important than profit, and never invest more than 10% of what you have (after you've got a storage unit and at least a few hundred dollars in working capital) into an item that is not already sold. You WILL miss a couple good deal this way; you will ALSO avoid the multiple-thousands of dollars sinkhole that I've had to deal with a claw my way out of.

OP is a pic of 4 cubicles I set up a couple months ago; bought for $75 apiece, sold for $400 apiece (I was doing a firesale to try to get some cash in.) Hired a crew to do all the work, I didn't sweat a drop and profitted in this deal to the tune of $1100, after both the cost of the cubes and paying the crew and gas. That was 6 hours of work, and that was with a ridiculous (1.5 hour) drive.

You can get stuff like this going, the cubes will be your big-profit items, but your desks, dressers, etc, will be your bread and butter. Once you get a good feel for things you can start buying high-ticket items with a 1.5-2x markup (ie a $100 desk that will sell for $200 within days, and you have the experience to say this with confidence, is worth it.)

Here's a question for the OP:

How often do offices just buy 1-3 cubicles at a time? What's a typical quantity? Most offices I've seen have dozens of workers in identical cubicles. And they seem to draft up a layout and furnish an entire floor at once!

More of >>300694
Have you invested in credit card purchases, such as with Square or Stripe?

>>300732

Oh, forgot to mention another fringe benefit; if ou have a wife/girlfriend, you can grab peices of furniture that they'll like on the cheap. Pic in that post is related.

My total time from using the truck to using a storage unit was about 4 weeks. My total time until I got that trailer was another 4 weeks. After that it's all onwards and upwards.

My next step is a website and google ads campaign. You're going to have to research that yourself; I have nothin significant to say about google ads, I've done them but not been particularly successful at it.

Step after that is to sign a lease at a warehouse with a smalloffice space up front. Upgrade your square footage and also be a little more legit looking. After that the next step up is full time employees.

Pic related. Me feeding my daughter on a worksite. One of my guys took it; he was taking a break setting up cubicles. I bought them lunch and brought them mountain dew (the sonic cup is mine.) I supervised and chatted with the client, but otherwise played with my daughter and looked for new deals online. After that I got paid (after paying the guys/gas) $600.

Not bad for a Mr Mom gig.

>>300735

I mostly work with small businesses that want a deal (a new cube is literally like $1000-2000 delivered + installed, it's fucking ridiculous) so 1-4 is my typical quantity.

In office liquidations they will let you take extra panels, and after doing it a few times you will get the feel and be able to offer intelligent suggestions to clients about configurations.

The big guys will only work with bigger, established companies. I'm still just working under my own name; I have an LLC registered but prefer working in cash for now (I never give out my SSN/DL and cash checks at the client's bank rather than deposit them at my bank.)

The biggest job I've ever done was 12 cubicles at a downtown high rise, an up and coming IT company. But keeping 1-4 cubes on hand is what I'd recommend.

>>300736

No.

I work at Staples and I sell furniture.

Most people prefer an oak finish/white finish rather than cherry. What is your experience with this, OP? What type of finish do they normally want?

>>300747

I don't have a large enough data set. To be frank to start with I didn't keep enough data; I suggest everyone have a big book where they keep details like this. Over a few months you'll see if oak or cherry or whatever moves faster or sells for more than the other.

But both oak and cherry stuff sells. Not enough of a difference to notice without measuring.

Oh,that's another piece of advice: measure EVERYTHING. Color, size, finish, price sold at and above all TIME IT TOOK TO SELL IT. After a few months start gravitating towards the stuff that sells faster and for more if you can.

That's my collected wisdom, guys. I mostly typed it out for me; getting this all out and typed has actually helped a lot with organizing my thoughts of what i have to do going forward. But I hope you guys find it useful and use it to make a little cash.

>>300751
Er, sorry. Headed to bed. I will answer any other questions in the morning.

>>300754
You're a great dad, OP. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and insight with us, especially your mistakes.

Oh, and screencap'd.

>>300691
Haha.

Morning, /diy/. I have to be out and about in a few hours but until then I'm still open to questions.

>>301012
I screencapped the thread last night, it was helpful

>>301015

Thanks, I appreciate it.

I really do know that feel of not making enough money or feeling stuck in a shitty ass job. I started looking for stuff to do. I have a few more /diy/ money threads of stuff I tried that didn't work out long term but did get me some cash and would be decent to supplement your income as well.

>>301016
Fuck OP, that was awesome!

Ever thought about bidding on storage units like they do on storage wars? I'm not saying it as something you would do now, but maybe later on?

>>301032

I thought about it, but every time I see it there are literally 12-25 people. Competition like that (and rules about not being able to dig into the storage unit) means you're facing pretty slim proft margins...which means you need to be really fucking good at it.

This seems to be a niche that not a lot of people have thought of, though, at least partially because it requires some social skill combined with some technical skill - photographs, a mastery of craigslist (which isn't a huge deal to anyone who grew up in the internet era but remember, lots of people haven't) combined with the ability to smile, haggle and be friendly on the phone / in person is apparently a skillset that not a lot of people have an interest in developing.

>>301034
Crap man, that's probably my weak point. I have a bit of social anxiety. But what you do seems so very doable. I have bought a couple of guitars off CL and I have set them up, and fixed cosmetic problems and I have been able to resell them for x3 what I paid, but it was a very slow process, and it's really easy to store guitars.

Too bad I don't know enough about automotive mechanics so that I could get a a cheap truck I can fix up. This is definitely something I see profit on.

So how do you make sure people don't steal the stuff from your truck when you start out? I live in a so-so neighborhood, but my neighbor had his tool van emptied out a bit ago..

Thanks for sharing man, you're a really nice guy to share this

>>301038

A tarp over it and the fact that very few people want to steal a 60lb dresser off the back of your truck. It's not exactly an easy item to run away with and then take to the pawn shop, yeah?

Just wanted to say congrats on finding this OP. I hope to find my niche one day. Until then I will continue with side projects till one takes off.

>>301038

Social anxiety is just a lack of experience in social situations (unless it's an actual pathology, in which case, go see a for-real therapist, it'll be worth it.)

It will be awkward and you will stutter and stumble over yourself the first few times. But you get used to it and after a while it's fun.

>>301041
>Social anxiety is just a lack of experience in social situations

Some people are wired differently and will never get over it. Most of /jp/ cannot make eye contact with other human beings, for example. They gesture inappropriately or are completely devoid of body language.

Some people also look "shady" and they seem incapable of correcting this problem.

Thankfully OP's business is fleamarket-tier so consumer expectations are low. Even then the lack of social skills can be detrimental for some people wanting to get into this line of work.

>Seller: "Um... T-this is the desk I have for sale."

>Buyer: "Why are you staring at my feet?"

>Seller: "I'M SORRY!" he yells, as he turns away in shame leaving his back facing the customer.

This kind of person could be a good hire for loading/unloading trucks though. They just keep their head down and work without socializing with their co-workers. They simply are not cut out for sales.

My mother's friend basically does this for a living. It's more work then you'd think.

First, saying "hey, I bought it for 5 bux and sold for 50. That's 45 bux profit" is doing it wrong. How much time did you spend earning that 45 $? Say getting to the garage sale, negociating, loading, taking pic, posting on CL, negociating, selling, etc is going to be over an hour. So that's less then 45 $ for over an hours work. Now 45$/hr is good wages, but only if you are doing 20-40 hours a week, every week.

Also, what with CL, Kijiji and eBay, people are realising that their junk is actually worth something. Good luck finding a good wood dresser for 5 bux.

>>301088

Op here. On the road, picked this up for 5 bux.

WOW! All I can say is WOW OP. That is a great Idea, I'm going to take advantage of this idea to a great extent. There is a good combination of people with money and people without it, enough to turn a good profit (also lots of college students and "new families").

Also, let me take a second to thank the OP and congratulate him on his successful business! I wish you the very best in your 100% self made business! God Bless.

>>301148
oh and btw, I'm WGET and archiving this thread.

>mfw some black guy did a video series on this on youtube years ago

>>300722
>PAY ABOVE MARKET
>Don't go for the false economy of a low wage

This times one million. It doesn't matter what the work is, if you pay above market you will get motivated workers, and anyone that doesn't work out can be replaced by a willing pool of candidates.

bamping this motherfucking thread. Errybody needs to see it.

>>301159
haha I could write volumes on this. This is actually one of the reasons why I left my retail job. The only people you get for $7.50 an hour are either people who are fuck ups, or willing to be taken advantage of. Mostly the latter.

>>301158

Link? I would be fascinated to read it!

I wish there were more topics like this here, a lot of the other threads seem like workshop and electric/computer tinkering threads (which is fine but above my head, lol)

neat thread. Thanks DIY-Dad!

A question: Aside from staying away from painting or serious refinishing (which would be a can of worms) do you ever do small things?

A little polish here to make a slightly scratched surface shine, a little glue and clamping here to make the wobbly-chair good enough to sell with its set?

>>301159
backing this up as well.
minimum wage is functionally code for "i wish to hire a mindless meat-drone" in many situations.

>>301541
>>301159
>>300722
pay above market sound great, but in my case is te opposite, sometimes you have to pay workers as little as possible. In my experience some of them just grab the money they need for that week, then stop going.

Example, if you pay a guy lets say $400 at week, and its a very good worker, so you give him a raise, $600 he is wort it, suddenly he stops going fridays or mondays. He only needs $400 for his expenses and have no ambitions in life, so he doesnt need the $600 so he can take a day off. Its a shame that you have to fire people that you just promote.

This may be something cultural, this happens to me with mexicans, mainly becouse i live in Mexico

>>301557
It sounds like the idea was to lock them in golden handcuffs. If you pay them $600 and they leave, then you're doing it wrong, it's also their loss as long as they weren't lazy workers in the first place.

>>301570
no they dont leave, they just go the days they need to get the same $400 they used to get, if you pay them $800, they go half of the week.

And the idea of golden hadcuffs is not viable, since the jobs are temporary, 2 or 6 months, and i alwas tell them if they find a job, have interview or something like that, they should take the opportunity, since they wont work with me forever, its just for a season.

>>301575
That's why you fire them, you should have a wider selection of candidates if you're paying them above market.

yea i fired when they stop being as good as they used to be. One would think you can have a wider selection of candidates, but people is fucked in the head, i have had 10 guys coming for 1 position i tell them all of them, "you are hired come tomorrow" only 2 come the next day, and another 3 come the next week to see if they still have the job. Fuck, and then people wonder why Mexico is so fucked, sometimes i had wifes coming and asking for jobs for their husbands or sons, i always tell them, "well if your man cant come here to apply for the job, he cant have it" they come the next day with the man and make them apply.

>>301587
That happens everywhere bro. Just treat it as a filter, you wouldn't want to hire them anyway.

>>301587
It's like a nation of NEETs!

I skimmed over this thread, and am inspired. I'm gonna get out next weekend and look for yard sales.

OP, have you thought about auctions? My dad used to do that before ebay, and it got me and my sister raised for years.

>>301587
yeah, bro, it's that way in America. It's just the lower working class who are teetering on the edge of going on welfare. They work that little extra bit for crack money but have no ambitions in life.

Thanks for the well typed out tutorial. I must say though I think it's hilarious how many anons seem shocked by the very idea of this working.
This works for just about everything guys.