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Figuring out which side hustle business to start can be overwhelming.

There are so many options, and they all promise easy money fast. While some of them are legit, the reality of most of the side hustle businesses out there is that they either require a lot of money to get started or they take quite a bit of time before actually start making money. 

That’s why I love to recommend reselling as side hustle for busy working moms. 

When I was looking for a side hustle business to start, I tried a bunch of different options. Reselling really appealed to my goals and the time commitment I could put into it. 

In this article, I wanted to share with you the reasons I loved reselling for my side hustle business and why I chose it to help me quit my full-time job and become a work at home mom. 

The reasons a reselling business is a great starter business option for busy working moms. 

Make money quickly

A lot of the other side hustles I tried felt like they took forever to earn money. With reselling, it’s definitely possible to buy items and sell them for a profit within the month (or sooner).

Of course, there are a variety of factors that will influence the amount of profit you can make and the speed at which something sells, like the condition of the item and how desirable it is. Good news is that you can learn how to buy better items and increase the chance of them selling. 

As a 6-month pregnant mom starting a side hustle, this was probably the biggest thing that got my attention with a reselling business.

I was really feeling the need to figure out how I could work from home so I wouldn’t have to go back to work after maternity leave. This was my first child and the thought of leaving a tiny baby with someone else was breaking my heart.

So I took $37 to the thrift store and used the little knowledge I had about what might be worth something and I got my first few items. I listed them over the next few weeks, and within a week, my first item sold.

I will never forget it. It was a vintage doll with an ice cream cone. She sold for $10 and I had only paid $1 for her! For the first time ever, I had bought something and resold it.

It felt different than just selling random stuff around the house.

If I could do this with one item, then I could scale this up and make as much money as I needed. I was hooked. 

 

Lower risk

With some businesses, you could buy the software it needs and get everything set up only to find out a few months later that it’s not as lucrative as you’d expected. 

With reselling, you can literally check the price that items have sold for before you buy an item. So while you are spending money to buy items, you have data at your fingertips to give you a good indication of whether that item is actually going to sell and for how much. 

Just the other day, I saw a teddy bear at a yard sale for $5. That’s pretty expensive for a teddy bear, but I saw he had German tags. I was able to quickly look him up and verify that he can sell for at least $150. Having the ebay app on my phone allowed me to assess the risk of my purchase pretty quickly and determine it wasn’t much of a risk at all if I can make that kind of a profit. 

Low start-up funds needed

A great place to start with reselling is items around your house. This is really helpful if you don’t have a budget for your business, and it also helps you declutter. Win-win. Check out this list of items you might have lying around the house that would be good to get started with. 

When I wanted to test out ebay for myself, I found an old Nintendo DS in a drawer that my sister had left behind when she had stayed with me for a bit. She said I could just have it.

I had heard that video games did really well on ebay so I thought I would give it a shot. It sold within the week. The coolest thing about that sale is that it didn’t even work. Someone bought it for parts. 

I was able to take that $15 and apply that to my new business and buy inventory to get started. 

Uses skills you may already have

As a reseller, there are actually a lot skills at play you maybe haven’t considered.

A reselling business involves shopping, bargain hunting, photography, computer work, a little customer service and marketing. 

Maybe you’ve been a bargain shopper your whole life. Then reselling will come easier for you. Or if you love taking pictures of your family, then your eye for beauty can help you find items that are good to sell and help you take good photos of those items. 

For me, reselling made sense because I love photography, am good with computers and love bargain shopping. Going shopping for items and finding what feels like treasures hiding in the thrift stores is a lot of fun to me. 

Semi-passive income

The really nice thing about reselling is that it has the potential to be semi-passive. I say potential because at first it honestly might not feel that semi-passive.

It can be a lot of work to learn everything about how to successfully start your business, which items to buy and how to get consistent sales (for help with starting a reselling business, check this site out). But once you have the hang of it and implement systems in your business, you can batch your tasks together and only work a few hours a week.  

Being an entrepreneur is all about managing your time well and being a good steward of your time. That means being intentional so you can get your work in while also spending time with your family. 

For example, you can shop for your items on the weekends, photograph them all in a few hours and then list them all while scheduling them out for each day of the week.

Doing it this way can allow you to put the work in up front and then the sales will happen later.

That’s what I mean by semi-passive.

You can’t just sit back and expect money to come in (is that even a real thing anyway?), but you actually put in the work at one point and then the money comes later.

This is nice if you’re going to be on vacation or your child is sick. If you’re ahead a little bit, then literally not doing anything on your business won’t affect you immediately. Sales will still happen. 

 

It’s Fun! 

There are lots of ways to make money from home and online, but if you’re not enjoying it, then what’s the point? Maybe it’s the idealist in me, but I really believe we should love what we’re doing for money. 

That’s part of the reason I left my job. I wanted to get out of bed in the morning excited to get started with my work, and that’s what I do now. 

There’s a concept in the reselling world called “the thrill of the hunt”. Once you get into it, you’ll start feeling like you’re hunting for treasure out there. Maybe that next thrift store will have that $5 item that’s worth $500. You just never know what you’ll find. 

Now, of course, there are aspects of reselling that you’re not going to like. That’s going to be true of any business. But overall, it’s fun to shop and get paid for doing that. And there’s something really fun about buying an item that someone else has been looking for and then having them actually pay you for doing the work of finding it for them. It’s a unique way to be your own boss, but having control of your money like that is awesome.  

Final Thoughts

I love reselling, but ultimately, I know that I desire a business that helps people and allows me to use my love of teaching. So while I used reselling on ebay to quit my full-time job and work from home, my ultimate passion is this blog and helping moms do the same. Ebay is a means to an end for me and that’s ok. 

While reselling isn’t for everyone, it can be a great starter business. Even though we’d all love to have a side hustle business that’s our dream job that we do forever, sometimes, finding that option doesn’t happen fast enough. 

Maybe you’re expecting a baby and would like to make money sooner than later or maybe you’re just really wanting to finally be home with your babies and stop missing out on so much of their lives. 

A reselling business is a great way to get there faster. 

 

5 Comments on Why Reselling is a Great Side Hustle for Busy Working Moms

  1. Great job site admin! You have made it look so easy talking about that topic, providing your readers some vital information. I would love to see more helpful articles like this, so please keep posting! I also have great posts about Cosmetics, check out my weblog at QH7

  2. Hello! Did you start out with reselling on eBay only? Did you try other places like Facebook marketplace? Trying to decide what platform to start with!

    • Hi! I started with eBay and then did poshmark for a bit as well. Facebook marketplace wasn’t as big then as it is now. It depends on your area and if a lot of people us facebook . Also if you want to meet up with people or not.

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