We were lucky to catch up with Matthew Peters recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Matthew, thanks for joining us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today

If I were to start over today. (I’m going to try to summarize and not turn this into a novel) One of the biggest things that I would do is tell my old self to get out your own head and move forward.
I spent a very long time putting off certain aspects of my business. I always told myself it was because of limited time/mental bandwidth. But the reality was I wanted these next steps to be perfect. While I didn’t believe that I could pull off the final product and it hold up to my standards.
Once I finally buckled down and started just getting my hands dirty. I realized that I was completely correct in not being able to execute exactly how I had envisioned. But at the end of the day. Even if its not exactly what I had in mind. It could still be all that I actually needed.

Matthew, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

There has always been a running joke between my friends that I’m always working on “projects.” Whether it has been stuff with some of the many non-profits I have worked with over the years. Or when I decided, I was going to open up a bar. Then spent the better part of a year renovating an old warehouse. Or when I impulse bought a bus sight unseen and flew to Charlotte to drive it back. While never having driven anything similar before.
The idea for Garnet and Glam actually came about from creating a small business for a family member to make more money than minimum wage when they moved to Tallahassee to go to college. Eventually i just took over and built it into what it is now.
As far as what sets us apart. The biggest is price point. When I first started off with the concept. I initially struggled with how to price items. My philosophy of making sure that things are affordable enough to make sure inventory moves. Was colliding with the desire to make sure we were maximizing capturing the revenue value of what we were selling.
But after building my inventory up to a sizeable point. Eventually it just kind if hit me. That I can always get more.
Instead of spending unimaginable hours curating and cultivating some sort of “premium” resell idea or concept. And then compounding the stress by coming up with some crazy pricing scheme.
I finally settled on the $10 per item. Or 3 for $25. For absolutely everything.
By setting my price point at this level. It does countless things that make life easier.
1. People are driven to spend more when they feel like they are getting a “deal.” About 75% of the transactions, I do on any given sale day are the ‘3 for $25.”
2. Because of my inventory replenishment pipeline. My average cost per individual item is kept down to a point where it allows me to not stress about the individual cost of items.
3. Because my cost is so low across the board. i have the freedom to just go ahead and pay the sales taxes out of the sale amount. Making dealing with transactions and change and revenue accounting beautifully streamlined.
4. I do still pick up items whose value far exceeds where it reasonable to sell for $10. Or items that have higher values. But are not relevant to our market. Such as out of market college and professional athletic gear/merch. Which I sell via ecommerce.

My next step is going to do a better job with branding/marketing. I’m currently looking for a sorority or group to partner with to provide free clothes in exchange for wearing them and tagging us.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

ALWAYS have multiple revenue streams. Even if you simply have a 9-5 office job somewhere. That leaves plenty of time to something to make a few extra bucks here or there.
Of course, in a perfect world. So many people in the entrepreneurship circles focus on the term passive income.” However true “passive” is not reasonably attainable by most people.
Most of the people who espouse about passive income. Have a support base of employees or people who are doing the work to allow the income to be “passive” to one or two people.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My venture to open a bar in 2018 was certainly a textbook example of how important it is to vet any vendors or contractors that are handling major portions of your vision. Between my contractor underbidding the budget by several hundred thousand dollars. As well as taking almost a full year to get permits approved. To the marketing company that seemed absolutely terrified to really embrace the complete idea that we were trying to put together.
I won’t even get started on the craziness that was the actual location and property.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: Facebook.om/GarnetandGlam
• Linkedin: @Garnet_and_Glam