We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Caymielyn Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Caymielyn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

I began my fashion resale business on Poshmark in 2015 by first listing items I already had in my closet. My closet was big, so I had a lot of items to list, but I was pleasantly surprised when all my items sold within a month. I loved the excitement of making a sale, and I was quickly hooked and wanted to sell more.

To grow my business, I started sourcing items beyond my closet, searching high and low for pieces to sell – my cousin’s closet, thrift stores, estate sales, public liquidation warehouses, online, and yard sales. I have always been passionate about sustainability and secondhand fashion, and this was such a fun way to make money while doing something I love.

I figured out the trick to making continuous sales – listing new items everyday. Now I list five items a day, sometimes 10-20 on a really good day of sourcing. The quicker I can make the sale, the better. It is essential to find items that I can sell at a price that will make me a profit on top of the 20% Poshmark charges for each sale, plus the cost of discounted shipping that comes out of the seller’s pocket. The Goodwill bins are a great place to source inventory by the pound at a low cost.

One can easily spend 40 hours a week on shopping, laundry, steaming, photographing and listing inventory into the app. This is my small business. I set my own sales goals and decide how many hours I work in a day or week.

Caymielyn, 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 Caymie Johnson, and I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I am a reseller of pre-loved women’s clothing on Poshmark, an app to sell and shop secondhand fashion.

What sets my business apart is my involvement in the Southern California reseller community – cultivating community is very important to me and my business. Poshmark is unique because they host live events where resellers can meet IRL to network and exchange tips. I became so inspired that I started hosting my own events.

I shared everything I learned with other resellers who were like me – new to the app but wanting to sell. Beyond sharing tips from my own reselling experience, I also kept everyone updated about new features that could help them grow their business.

One of the big hurdles to building a resale business is finding things to sell once you’ve purged your closet. To help others learn how to source, I host a “Reseller Tour”, where secondhand fashion lovers share our best places and go source inventory together.

It can sometimes get lonely working remotely mostly at home, so I organize lunch dates and Happy Hours with my fellow Poshers so we can get to know each other. I take pride in these events, and take pleasure in the friendships I’ve forged along the way. We enjoy helping and encouraging each other in every success. I’m always available to anyone who wants to learn how to start their own resale business – I freely share my tips and advice to anyone who wants it.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Nine years ago, I was editing my resume online when a Poshmark ad popped-up, “Sell your clothes for cash.” At first, I was intimidated. I had no business skills, but Poshmark made it easy, low-risk, and fun to learn. Plus, it was a great way to make money from home while being able to take care of my family.

My side hustle has become more than anything I could have imagined. 9 years ago, I started off as a casual reseller before quickly scaling my closet to a full blown business. Along the way, I connected with other resale entrepreneurs and have made genuine friendships. It has been an amazing journey.

This year, I branched out from regular resale to try out live selling. Poshmark is always keeping up with technology, if not setting the trends. They recently launched Posh Shows, a new feature where sellers can go live on video and auction items they have for sale. This new feature has helped me earn the most money I have ever made in my life in the fastest way possible. Selling items in real time helps me move through inventory so quickly. The new Quick List feature eliminates the tedious and time consuming task of taking photographs, allowing me to create a listing while in the middle of my live show – making it that much easier and faster to sell. I enjoy all of it and have no plans on ever stopping.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I’ve tried other sites and cross listing onto other platforms like eBay and Mercari. What was the point? My items sold faster on Poshmark. Since Posh Shows launched, I’m making sales faster than ever. There was no need to continue cross listing or listing on any other site. Now, I only sell on Poshmark. The time it takes to learn, source, host a Posh Show and ship packages is all part of the process, and it’s worth it.

It has honestly become a challenge to keep up with consumers. I sell out of handbags during my $3 bag show every Saturday. If I am not sourcing for bags throughout the week, I have nothing to sell. It’s true when they say “You have to spend money to make money.”

Poshmark’s biggest pro is its best reseller community. Everything I’ve learned is from attending Poshmark live events, as well as hosting events myself to stay updated on all the updates and features. Learning is never ending with how fast technology is changing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.infinitelyposh.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infinitelyposh/
• Other: Poshmark Closet: https://poshmark.com/closet/infinitelyposh