We recently connected with Carolyn Busa and have shared our conversation below.

Carolyn, appreciate you joining us today. One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?

I’ve always loved shopping secondhand. I love the excitement of making something old new again and feeling like you got away with a good deal. So with my store, Peak Secondhand, even though I’m not the one clothes shopping, I like to put the energy from my past experiences onto theirs.

Peak Secondhand was born out of themes of self-love, excitement for life and striving to be your ‘peak’ self. When I see customers having that “OMG. Look what I just found!” moment, I give it right back to them. “I know, right!?” When they try something on, I’m like “Get out here and let me see it!” because I want them to know as much as they do that they, and who they are, are going to give that piece another great life.

Then, when customers are happy with something they purchase, I ask permission to take their photo to eventually post on my social media. Yes, it’s another avenue for me to market my business, but they get to show off a little themselves too. Some go back in the dressing room and put it back on, some hold their purchase proudly. However they choose to show off, I make sure they know this potentially vulnerable moment they are sharing themselves with me is appreciated.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I moved back to the South Jersey area after spending nearly 8 years living in Brooklyn, NY and working as a stand-up comedian. I had spent the last few years honing a routine about the concept of ‘peaking.’ To ‘peak’ is to love yourself, love your body and love showing that off to the world. Basically, self-appreciation punchlines instead of self-deprecating.

While not the stage, Peak Secondhand is my new way of performing for my community. The store is a welcoming atmosphere because I want customers to spend as long as they like browsing clothes, enjoying the music, or hopefully chatting it up with me. I loved comedy because by sharing my own stories and insecurities, it made people feel safe sharing theirs. I want to bring that same energy to the store. And make you look good too.

Peak Secondhand is a clothing store whose mission is to show you your best self through our unique inventory, fun atmosphere and low prices. We encourage our shoppers to either continue embracing their unique style or discover a fun, new one. The clothes may be worn but they haven’t peaked until they’ve met you.

Have you ever had to pivot?

On the night when it was announced Tom Hanks had COVID, I was performing a stand-up set in Brooklyn where I had my weekly show, Side Ponytail. I knew it would be my last set for a while.

As someone who had performed stand-up nearly every day for the last 8 years, I realized I was enjoying not going out and performing. I was around my dog 24/7 and pretty ok. I was fortunate to have a steady job that provided the availability to work from home, so I went back to South Jersey during the early stages of the pandemic until coming to the realization, I needed to make a big change.

Leaving New York wasn’t easy but coming back to South Jersey provided me the opportunity to open up Peak Secondhand. The store is an ode to my comedy career. My material was about sexually peaking, feeling your best self, so I try to bring aspects of that to the store with books and images about body positivity. I sprinkled the store with funky books, and pictures of bodies just so people can understand the message I want to send.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

Never having a background in business or finance, I was overwhelmed thinking about determining dollars needed for something that didn’t exist yet. This was an idea in my head. How does that translate to dollar bills?

I tried to think in the future versus the right now. If a year after opening my business I made zero dollars, how much could I afford to be in the red? What did that look like monthly?

Contact Info:

• Website: www.peaksecondhand.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peaksecondhand/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peaksecondhand