We recently connected with Ali Arakawa and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ali, thanks for joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
I think the keys to being successful are staying true to yourself, trusting your gut, and not copying what other people are doing. You have to figure things out for yourself. The most important thing with owning a business is learning and adjusting along the way. There’s a lot of trial and error, and finding out what works for you. It’s all an essential part of the learning process. I believe that’s why I’ve been successful all these years, and why my business continues to grow. I only do what works for me and my business. I’m open to change and adjustment, and I’m not set in my ways when it comes to my business. I do things the best way that works for me until I find a better way to do the things. I’ve had my business for almost 14 years and I’m still learning and adjusting to this day. Persistence and consistency are important factors as well. It takes a lot of time and energy to build a following and be successful, but if you’re always growing, learning, and evolving, then all that time and energy is worth it. My advice is to stick with it, take risks, and try to not get discouraged. Being successful doesn’t mean you’re always at a high point, it’s 100% a rollercoaster of ups and downs. People assume my success means I have it all figured out, but that’s definitely not the case. The truth is that I still have those days where I question my entire small business existence.
Ali, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Ali Arakawa. I was born and raised in Queens, NY and have been living in Vermont for the last 4 years. I am the owner of a small business called Fare Well Trading where I sell a curated collection of vintage and antique decor, housewares, and jewelry. My background is in styling, propping and sourcing vintage, so transitioning into having my own vintage business was something that came naturally to me. Most of my career has been as a freelancer for retail brands doing creative direction, interior decorating, event production, store display and experiential pop ups. I’ve also done set design and propping for plays, movies and commercials. At first Fare Well Trading was my side hustle throughout all of that, it’s become something that I now do full time. I “retired” from my freelancing career in October 2021 after my Mom, Felice, passed away. At first I planned to take a hiatus to process the grief, and it just hasn’t felt right to return to it yet, and I don’t know if it ever will. I’ve been selling vintage full time since then. I mainly sell online at www.farewelltrading.com but I’ll do pop-ups and sell at local vintage markets from time to time. I mostly work from home and am by myself, so it’s a nice change when I do get to sell in-person. I’m used to only knowing my customers through internet interactions, so it’s great when I get to meet them in real life. One of my favorite things to do is travel and source for inventory. It’s the best part about being a reseller, the exploring and “treasure hunting”. Plus who doesn’t love shopping and buying things? What I love about the actual vintage and antiques is the quality, the design, the colors, and the typography. I appreciate it so much and certain items are so special to me. My hope is that people will buy vintage and second hand over newly made – mass produced when possible. Hit a local flea market or a garage sale, keep items out of landfills. Buy pieces that will become heirlooms.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I think staying true to myself/ my aesthetic, and being an honest seller has helped me build my reputation in the market. I only buy and sell what I like, and I think that has given me a loyal customer base that appreciates my aesthetic. I don’t follow or care about trends. I always say “your taste is never going to appeal to everyone, so you have to buy what YOU like and do makes YOU happy”. I truly believe success will follow that. Being an honest seller is so important to me. I sell vintage and antiques, and those things are rarely perfect. In my opinion it’s what makes them special. The patina to brass that can only come with age, the crazing to the glaze on a ceramic statue, the aging and fading of colors. I always point out any imperfections, make note of wear or damage, and try to describe my items as accurately as possible. I also put a lot of effort into my product photos. I make sure they’re styled and well lit. My goal is to give customers all of the details, and let them decide if they want an item or not. I’m not here to convince them to buy something.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
I actually do both! I have my own website that I launched in May of 2020, and I’ve been selling on Etsy since January of 2013. I link my social media and promotional items like business cards and stickers to my website. My thinking with this was, I shouldn’t have to pay Etsy all of these fees for the traffic that I’m driving to their site, so I might as well get my own website where I’m only paying a standard transaction fee. The struggle of having my own site is that I’m responsible for getting customers there. I put a lot of time and energy into driving traffic to my website. I mainly use instagram for this. I would say 40% of my time goes into creating content for social media, and as most of you know, sometimes all that time and energy doesn’t pay off when no-one is seeing your posts. It’s a gamble, and I guess it depends on the day, which can be frustrating. As discouraging as it can be sometimes, I think consistency is key with social media. Vintage is fun and I try not to take it too seriously. I find a lot of humor in the items I sell, and I try to make fun/ quirky reels with those items. I think that has helped me to drive traffic to my site and build a clientele. I currently don’t do any marketing like paid advertising, but it’s something I’ve been considering since instagram can be so inconsistent. I love having the Etsy shop as well because I feel like it runs itself at this point. I’ve been selling on the platform since the beginning of Fare Well Trading. There have been times when I’ve considered getting rid of it as the platform has gone through major corporate changes over the years, and I feel that the site has shifted to become more like Amazon or eBay, more geared towards the buyers with less regard for the sellers. This was another reason that pushed me into getting my own website. With that being said, I’m still extremely grateful for the platform and have to consider the loyal customer base I’ve built there, it would be silly of me to throw all of that away.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.farewelltrading.com
- Instagram: farewelltrading
