PrettiBone

Why Lavender

PrettiBone — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 00:39:10 +0000

Lavender is my take on an online thrift store BEFORE I actually embark on a physical one. This is not to say that this project is temporary; if we post consistent profits then Lavender will be around for good.

Lavender is NOT a reseller store, although if there's money to be made on the reselling of Lavender products, I'm not here to stop anyone. I want to make this clear because I don't want resellers to think this website is strictly for resellers. My primary goal is to have items at prices that will result in a quick sale while making a decent profit. The pricing of Lavender does not take into the reselling aspect of an item.

I had to build an entirely new platform for this project instead of using Poshmark (or any other platform) because I didn't want Lavender's pricing to affect other resellers. By doing so, I'll have almost autonomy to do as I please without having other resellers think I'm out to sabotage them and their business.

And yes, we're still going to be active on Poshmark, that's my first love.

I wrote this small post to answer a popular question I've been receiving about Lavender. I hope you stick around to see this project manifest.

- Dani

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It’s True: Some People Want You to Do Well…

PrettiBone — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 02:57:16 +0000

But Not Better Than Them

You've probably seen this quote before and so have I. It's only now that I truly realized what this means personally. This way of thinking is so detrimental for those that fall in this toxic mindset but that's just how some people are.

I came into reselling with 0 followers and 0 support from the reselling community but I don't blame anyone because, for the most part, you don't have a voice when first starting out. As my sales/operation/following grew, I started to gain support from so many random folks and I'm grateful. The funny thing is, as you get bigger relative to others that have this mindset, the light starts to get dimmer. People that were rooting for you before become a distant foe.

Here's an Example

Before I moved into my warehouse that I'm currently in, I told I was on the right track. I was told that I was setting a good example for those that aspire to either sell full-time. But when I decided to take the leap to put down the $6,360 deposit for my warehouse, things started to get blurry. This is not to say that I began to have doubts about my decision, this is to say the same supporters became critics. This makes no sense to me because the reselling community was supposed to be a place where support is everywhere and limitless. I'm not trying to sound sentimental or naive, but I truly thought the majority of us would rally behind progress no matter the source.

Here's a Doozy

If you don't know by now, I do a lot of giveaways for not just my clients but for the general public. These giveaways are not cheap (think $5,000+ at a time) and I'm always happy to pull off such giveaways as my way of giving back to my supporters. By now, I'm sure you're not surprised when I say that some people criticize me for doing these giveaways. Really?

I'm Not a Victim

I'm not saying any of this for anyone to feel any sympathy for me, trust me, I'm not a victim. I'm never the victim. I actually find it REALLY funny when some accuse me of playing the victim because of the support I get when someone has shaded me. I've said this before and this will make me sound narcissistic but my team and I are stronger than what we lead many to believe; the iceberg is real over here. Forget playing checkers and chess, we're inventing our own game, a game that we engineered for us to win. We don't need or ever needed a following to know what our team is capable of. The support we do get is just the cherry on top and I'm truly grateful for that support.

My only way of proving this is to keep moving forward and I advise anyone that empathize wish this post to do the same. Watch those around you, this includes not just people in the reselling community but also your friends and family. Read their love/hate and act accordingly.

Lastly

I find inspiration from resellers that are truly kicking ass no matter where we rank. It's OK to admire someone that's doing what you're striving to do; put your ego aside and you might find clues in their success. For me, Linda's Stuff has been my biggest inspiration since I've started. Even though I've expressed that my team is strong, I doubt I'll ever be on her level ($25,000,000+/year). This is not to say I'm not going to try, this is to say people like her keeps me humbled and grounded because there's always a beast out there that's bigger and badder than you. The fact that I'm still moving forward is proof to myself that this is not a competition, if it was, Linda is already the winner and I might as well hang my hat up. As far as clues in her success goes, you'll find some similarities between us that I've emulated thanks to her.

Leave the damn hate/jealousy behind. Carrying that kind of baggage is a direct violation of you trying to be your personal best.

-Dani

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Multiple Platforms, is it a Good Idea?

PrettiBone — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 21:06:55 +0000

This week, I received a question about selling on more than 1 platform, more specifically, eBay and Poshmark simultaneously. This question was asked because the person was not doing as well on eBay as they were on Poshmark. My take is on this is a pragmatic one.

Note: Since I'm in the business of selling clothes, this post will revolve around clothes.

Let's get something straight...it all comes down competence. If you're not doing well on one platform, it makes no sense jump onto another one until you get good at the first platform. Keyword here is "good" not "great". I'm not asking you to be a top 100 seller on any platform before embarking on the 2nd, 3rd and so on. I'm just asking you to be at least moving 1 item every day consistently first. While this threshold seems low, what's important here is that there's consistency on an everyday basis. You'd be surprised how many people are not selling at least 1 item a day.

Where to Start

When it comes to selling clothes, the easiest place to do business is on Poshmark due to its fair return policy (for both sellers and buyers), commission structure, numbers of potential buyers and ease of listing. Put differently, Poshmark should be the first platform you should sell on due to the high success rate. As long as you have the right fundamentals, e.g. good pictures, good/decent inventory, good descriptions, you should be on your way to your first sale.

Disclaimer: I have nothing to gain from what I've stated above

Let's Answer the Question

Yes, selling on multiple platforms is a good idea ONLY if you're already getting consistent sales on the first platform. While this might sound obvious, you'd be surprised how many people out there are spreading themselves thin by trying to fight on more than 1 front.

But more importantly, NO, selling on multiple platforms is not a good idea if you don't have your fundamentals down. Don't think for one second that just because you're on multiple platforms, the likelihood of you making more sales is going to increase. This is a common misconception that a lot of people spew but they're not mentioning the consistent sales they're already making on the first platform before moving onto the next.

To put things into perspective, I was on Poshmark for 1 year before I decided to jump onto eBay. This is not to say you should wait 1 year yourself, I'm just suggesting for you to make sure you're ready before you jump.

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Welp, This Needs to Be Addressed

PrettiBone — Sun, 29 Mar 2020 04:09:02 +0000

It's been brought up to my attention that some of us are not liking the fact that I'm still shipping and doing business during these times.

The problem with this is that NOBODY has asked me personally how I'm still able to make it happen because in their eyes, I'm putting my staff at risk. Again, NOBODY asked me. People just went ahead and made up their own assumptions about how I'm conducting my business during these hard times.

Let's Start From the Top

As you can see from my Instagram posts, I put almost everything on hold for almost 5 days to map out how I was going to make sure that EVERYONE that works for me was going to get paid (exhibit A). But I'm sure that wasn't even taken into consideration. We came up with the conclusion that everyone would have to list from home (even if they're not listers) to keep staff out of the office. This allowed for us to bump up our listings fairly quickly (I even made a post about this, exhibit B) since there were more listers. This method allowed for my guys to keep working remotely and for them to continue getting paid. I'm proud to say, NOBODY in from my warehouse staff has been laid off and everyone is still getting paid till this day using this method.

Currently, we do not ship on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (the box stack picture is posted today, Saturday the 28th, a.k.a. shipping day, exhibit C) because I'm trying to reduce the days my shipper has to be at the warehouse. This staggering of the days also allows for my shipper to have more time to ship orders without overworking himself since there's nobody to help. And who is my shipper you ask? My boyfriend that I live and share an apartment with is my only shipper at the moment, he is my current "crew". He's the same guy you've seen helping out in some of my videos. Due to my pregnancy (exhibit D), he had to step up and take over what manual labor is needed to be done because I can no longer lift 30-40lbs bins constantly. I'm mainly at home making random videos with my daughter or cooking (if you follow my personal account, you would know) and only come into the office on Wednesdays and Saturdays to make sure everything is in tip-top shape.

Again, NOBODY asked me how I was pulling this off but that's ok. What's not ok is for people to make assumptions when they're basing it off of an Instagram post. Seriously, must I run down my meeting minutes with my team and give the public a play-by-play on what we're about to do? Really?

Let's not also forget that I made the announcement that everything would be on hold until further notice hours before the March 19th California "Stay at home order" was established (exhibit E). In other words, I took the necessary precautions to stop everything as soon as I can to adapt to the changes.

But I do want to raise a good question...Why is it ok for others to continue to sell on Poshmark when I'm doing the same thing yet I'm the one getting the flak for it. Is there some double-standard rule that I should be aware of? I wasn't aware that there was a mandatory Vacation Hold going on on Poshmark at the moment.

Simply put, people are basing my actions off of 1 post with no context. I'm just responding with proof that is timestamped. Please read that again...PROOF THAT IS TIMESTAMPED.

Will I get an apology, probably not, but please let me know where I'm wrong after you've heard my side of the story.

I'm sure with all the information coming at everyone nowadays, people will still take the first story and run with it as if it's the truth. Where I'm from, that's called Fake News.

Anyway, here are the exhibits with timestamps, enjoy:

Exhibit A: Note the date gap

Exhibit B: Note the date

Exhibit C: The post causing all this drama

Exhibit D: Yup, belly checks out

Exhibit E: This was a deleted post (posted on March 19th I believe) since it no longer had relevance. Remember this?

ONE LAST THING!

Here is a post (also timestamped) from my Facebook that tells you exactly where I stand with the Coronavirus situation. Today is the 28th of March for your reference. Thanks for hearing me out.

- Dani

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Making the Most of a Hard Time

PrettiBone — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 04:33:53 +0000

Well damn...I didn't know the world was going to come to the end in my lifetime.

I'm only kidding.

I know the COVID-19 situation has everyone on edge but don't lose focus on what you can do during these times to prepare for when life is normal again. My #1 advice of "Keep Listing" is now demoted to #2. The new champion is to take care of yourself and your loved ones first before anything else. Whether it's getting the supplies you need or staying in to quarantine, do what's right for everyone around you to stay healthy first and foremost. I know this sounds like common sense but let's not forget that many of us rely on reselling as our primary or sole source of income.

This situation puts those that rely on reselling for a living to make some tough decisions that can have long term effects. I'll be honest with you, PrettiBone is still making our usual sales and it's all because of our actions prior to the pandemic. Listing as much as we can as many days as you can have allowed us to literally take 2 years off from listing and still expect to make the same amount of sales that we're making before COVID-19. Every single person from my core team is still working and still getting paid and I'm really lucky to say we're doing fine on the business level. If you think I'm making this point to brag, you got it all wrong. I'm just pointing out how important it is for people in the reselling business to stick to the script during good and bad times. I've also made this point time and time again and I know I'm sounding like a broken record but there's a reason why this has always been my #1 (temporarily #2) point.

My point is a little scattered so allow me to rephrase it...

1. Worry about yours and your loved one's health and supplies first
2. If you rely on reselling as a primary or sole income, make it your second priority to continue listing

The short term benefits of #2 might be non-existent right now but it will make sense down the road.

I'm not saying any of this to instill fear into anyone. I know the human race will survive this and to be fair, a lot of information about COVID-19 has been blown out of proportion or is just simply false. This leads me to my final point...

Stay off of the TV and listen to the CDC instead.

Be safe out there everyone and remember, Humanity requires us to be Human.

Dani

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Where is the News Coming From?

PrettiBone — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 04:13:17 +0000

So I've been hearing that some people are out there are trying to slander myself and PrettiBone. I'll keep this short so my team and I can get back to work.

1. Ask yourself where and who are you getting your information from. Is it from a source that has a vested interest in an agenda that they're trying push or are they unbiased? More importantly, why are they pushing so hard? We hear about fake news in politics every day and I can assure you that this takes place even in a confined place like the Poshmark community.

2. It's easy for someone to take a shot at PrettiBone because of our reach and how many interactions we have with so many people. BUT it's difficult for me to take the same exact shot back because I will be deemed as a bully that's using my weight and influence to suppress someone that's smaller.

3. Please don't for a one-second feel that I'm going to continuously sit back and take the badmouthing. So the day that I do respond, don't think that I'm overreacting in any way. I'm just defending a company that my team and I have spent so much time and effort building. I also want to say that my response will not be deemed fair because I will use what I have in my arsenal to issue a response.

Thanks for sticking with me and for those sending me information about what people are saying, thanks! I love collecting information on people that have smart things to say about me and PrettiBone.

I have nothing but love for everyone trying to make it, but when they're trying to tear down others to do so, I'm not going to stand for that.

That's just not how the game is played.

As for me and my team, we'll continue to make magic happen.

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Nordstrom and Others Getting into Second Hand

PrettiBone — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 00:03:53 +0000

Welp, this just got interesting!

The news came out not so long ago Nordstrom and other retailers (Macy's, JCPenny, Dillard's) are getting into the second-hand clothing market. You can read it here. At first, this just seems weird but as the times and markets are changing, companies have to shift their strategies. Although this will breed more competition for us small resellers, I for one welcome the new landscape.

This is Huge

The new players are not just your small mom and pop shops, these retailers have money and lots of it to see this strategy through. I don't think this is will be a flash in the pan change, this might play out for decades. Yes some of us smaller guys will get squeezed out, let's not even kid ourselves. Even though this market is big, it's not big enough for everyone to eat especially when these guys come to play.

However, this is not to say that EVERY small seller will lose. It all comes down to how you're going to position yourself in this new arena of second hand reselling. Sure you can get by with the same tactics you've been using but I for one am not here "just to get by." I'm here to get my portion of the market and I'm willing to put the time in doing so. With that said here's my biggest advice for everyone trying to get off on the right foot...

Brand Yourself

Branding comes down to finding your unique identity in a saturated market. Your identity needs to be remembered for you to get any relevance in any market.

Here's the Red Pill:
A majority of the accounts on social media don't have an identity. People might think that they do because they think they're naturally unique but that's far from reality. Your identity alone, for the most part, is not enough for you to gain relevance. You must bring to the market a unique one that resonates with the crowd you're trying to get the attention from.

I realized this truth when I first started out with the Prettibone Instagram page. Many of you might not know this but PrettiBone was not my first name choice, it was Round Red Rose. I tried for 3+ months to get Round Red Rose off of the ground and realized one day that what I was doing was not special in any way because I was just posting pictures of new inventory that I had thinking I was hot sh*t but soon realized that nobody gave a damn. This had to change...along with the name. This was the birth of PrettiBone.

Why Branding Matters

Branding has always been an important concept since forever but it matters so much more now because the new players are coming in with their own branding. With some of them having a brand that's 100+ years old in the making, this should tell you what juggernauts we're going against.

Branding matters because it represents trust and familiarity...2 attributes that come with time and effort on your end (sorry this isn't going to happen overnight). By having peoples' trust and recognition (familiarity), you can then shift things in your favor. For example, because people know the PrettiBone brand, this blog post will be read by 1,000+ people within 2-3 days. Without the branding, I would be lucky to even scrape 10.

Once branding is in place, you can venture out into new spaces with the support of those that trust and are familiar with your brand. I'm sure you know by now I have my sights set on a PrettiBone branded thrift store by the end of this year and there's no way in hell I would even attempt such a thing without a strong brand name. The thrift store along with other ideas I have up my sleeves will give me and my team a fighting chance in this new second-hand clothing arena.

This is why I've been building PrettiBone to what it is today and with it, I feel comfortable knowing that multi-billion dollar brands are coming for their piece of the pie. Hold up...scratch that...they're already here!

It's Not Too Late

Of course, the good news is that it's not too late for anyone to get their branding in motion. Since there are many ways you can go about this, I will not be explaining how you should brand yourself. Also, by doing so, I'm just taking the fun out of it and you should definitely find and forge your own path to branding.

Good luck, and happy BRANDING!

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Unfreeze Your Money

PrettiBone — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 02:41:05 +0000

While it's OK to accumulate a huge collection of clothes to sell when it comes to reselling, you still have to know your limits. This can go south real fast when you finally realize how much money is just sitting dormant in your bins or shelves. This collection somehow just creeps up on you overnight it seems like.

Here's what I've done on a monthly basis to keep my inventory quantity in order.

Time to Put Money Back in Your Pocket

This technique is so simple it's almost obvious but I'm sure it has slipped the minds of many. I would suggest you use a desktop to try this.

1. Pull up and download your "My Inventory Report" by clicking on your Profile Dropdown button > Order Activity > My Inventory Report.

2. Open the file with your preferred spreadsheet program, I love Google Sheets because it's FREE!

3. On the spreadsheet, highlight and delete rows 1-6.

4. Sort column "A" in ascending or "A-Z" order.

5. From here, your items are in order of oldest to newest listed. This is a good starting point to see what items are sitting (these items are good candidates to pull)

6. Pull what you would like to get rid of but try to pull items that are the same size.

7. Bundle these items up by size and sell them as a bundle. You will not get what you want for them but this will not only put money back in your pockets to buy new items that would actually sell but this will also give your closet a fresher look.

Think of this as giving your hard-earned money a second chance at-bat.

I do this about once every 3 months and had amazing results doing so.

Again, know your limits, this will lead you to finally make the decision to cut the fat.

*Explore local options to sell off your unwanted stale inventory, you'll save a lot more time and probably get more money.

Enjoy.

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The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing Series: 2. The Law of Category

PrettiBone — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 02:08:05 +0000

This is Part 2 of my The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing Series.

The Law of Category

This law is easily one of my favorites from the book because of how it closely relates to my strong belief in differentiation.

Since starting a new category is difficult and time-consuming, it's more practical to ask yourself how can you do the same thing differently. Of course, being different for being different sake is not the goal here. This difference should be noticeable enough for you to stand out amongst the majority.

Everything is on Replay

When it comes to Poshmark, there's really nothing to it but to buy low and sell high...just like every other reselling platform. The trick here is to see what is missing in the game, but that's the easy part. The hard part is the actual execution of a good idea. I've seen many sellers on Poshmark get lost in the fray by saying or doing the same things. Here are some examples (please don't be offended):

1. Throwing around the Poshmark Ambassador title
2. Making flyers/banners on their closet that everyone scrolls past
3. Starting an Instagram account to post things up they have for sale (I did this one myself)
4. Watermarking their pictures (trust me, this is a time drain)

None of these things will make you different or put you in another category because they don't have a big enough impact to do so. This is coming from a person that has looked at more than 1,000 accounts but you can make your own decisions.

Let's stick on this topic a little longer by dissecting Poshmark Ambassador title. If we all know how easy it is to be a Poshmark Ambassador, why would you use up the valuable real estate on your profile to mention such a thing? Will it make more people buy from you? Probably not. Will it make you stand out amongst the other Poshmark Ambassadors? Definitely not. Or will it add more trust to your closet? Not even close. I would trust a closet with great photos/descriptions over a closet that is labeled "Poshmark Ambassador" any day of the week.

I guess what I'm saying is, please don't be another fly on the wall. Figure out what you can do to set yourself apart from the masses. Easier said than done, I know.

How Did We Leverage the Law of Category

While I will not get into details on how we stand apart from everyone else, I will, however, provide you with an on-the-surface version of it.

We started out with an Instagram that posted nothing but items that we had for sale on our Poshmark (this is #3 on the list earlier). Boy was that a bad idea. Sure our Instagram was getting "likes" here and there but that means nothing if we're not converting those likes into sales. This went on for about 2-3 months until we were honest with ourselves that the current tactic was not working. When we realized the content we're producing should hold a reader's attention in the long run, we knew we had to produce content that would do so. Once again, easier said than done.

At the drawing board, we started to jot down original topics that nobody was talking about. We picked the best ones and just started writing and posting even though nobody was reading them...yet. About 2 months after that, we were getting a steady flow of eyes that were not only reading our content, but we noticed that people were also engaging with it. When the questions and comments started to flow in along with the likes and sales, we knew we had something good. By simply asking ourselves what is not being done, we were able to narrow down how we can stand out.

It's Not a Beaten Path

I want to end this by stating and obvious observation. Going your own way is way harder than taking the path most traveled. You will make mistakes, miscalculations and or flat out be wrong about what you think will work. That's just the inherent risk that comes with the territory. Don't think that you're going to get everything right or that people will respond positively to what you're doing. Doing things differently to set yourself apart will not guarantee success, BUT you can mitigate the risk by thinking through your entire game plan.

Will the majority of us be able to execute the Law of Category successfully? No, I honestly don't think so. However, please don't let my pessimism stop you from trying. It worked for us, and we hope it works out for you too.

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The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing Series: 1. The Law of Leadership

PrettiBone — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 19:33:15 +0000

The Law of Leadership

You guys know how much I LOVE good non-fiction books. I know a lot of us either don't have the time or patience to finish a book from cover-to-cover, so I've decided to do something new.

In this series of blog posts, I will be breaking down one of my favorite books of all time by Al Ries and Jack Trout. It's called The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing and needless to say, it has served me well. I hope you enjoy, learn from and ultimately implement these 22 critical laws of marketing into your reselling endeavors.

This first law is what I base a majority of my decisions on. Whether I implement a new idea or not depends on how it will boost our position as a leader in our category.

Not a week goes by where my team and I don't discuss something new that we can bring to the reselling game. Doing what has been done already will only keep us stagnant and forgettable. This is not to say everything you do should be different, it's just to say that you should focus on doing the same things differently. This is how you stay relevant and be remembered.

The major downside of doing something different or doing something differently has 1 major drawback, but it comes with the territory. You can't consistently bring something new to the table without having your fair share of misses. That's just how life works, you WILL make mistakes when you're trying to be different. There's no other ways around it and I'm glad my team and I have come to this realization. These mistakes can be the result of poor timing, poor execution or the idea was just horrible to start off with. But with even with this major drawback, there is a major benefit with being the first to do something.

Getting in the minds of your customers is paramount. It's probably the biggest factor when it comes to marketing because if they don't know who you are, they won't buy from you. Making noise for the sake of making noise is not the idea here. The noise you're making has to resonate with your audience. I do want to warn you that you must first know who your audience are for this to work. This starts with you first understanding the product or service you're attempting to push and knowing where you stand with your audience. Let me explain.

Because we've built a solid reputation with our customer base, every calculated move we make will draw us attention from said customer base (audience). This reputation is important because it adds legitimacy to what we're about to do and people know we're not bluffing. Take for example the 10 iPhone giveaway we did with our Valet Clients. Because we have a history of pulling off a crazy giveaway before (the $1,000 closet buyout we did a few months back) our customers trust that we're not going to back out on our 10 iPhone giveaway. This has less to do with the 10 iPhones and has more to do with our initial push as being a company that's known to do some outlandish giveaways. In other words, the $1,000 closet buyout was our foot in the door with our customers and the 10 iPhones was the icing on top that cements PrettiBone as a leader in giveaways.

So how can you implement this in your business?

First start off by understanding your place in the game. Without this, you'll simply just get lost. Next, ask who are your audience base and their values. Lastly, think of an idea that will pique their attention but make sure you're the first to do it! Don't wait around for someone else to take the spotlight because you'll find yourself sharing that spotlight (if you're lucky) if you're anything but the first to do it.

Here are some other things that we're the first to do to get your minds going:

1. Sure, there are other VA providers, but we're the fist to provided Free Inventory, Vacation Mode payback and exclusive Giveaways for our clients

2. We're the first to provide a 100% money-back guarantee for our services

3. We're the first to push a fully customizable reseller box (although this idea proved to be too successful, you can read about it here).

I hope this first law put some things into perspective for you and I hope you move forward with this idea in mind at all times.

The next Law is coming soon so be on the lookout for it.

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