
Olivia Hillier’s side hustle started with a $5 T-shirt she found at a thrift store.
Hillier, a medical student at Rochester, Michigan-based Oakland University, had some experience selling a few of her own old clothing items on resale app Poshmark. She never thought much of it. But during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, she noticed that other Poshmark sellers were profiting from “flipping” trendy thrift store finds.
Motivated by impending student loans – medical school tuition cost her approximately $220,000 over four years – she began studying their strategies and using them to create her own side hustle.
That first T-shirt sold for $20. Since then, Hillier’s side hustle has brought in more than $117,000 in total revenue, including $85,000 last year alone. It currently averages $6,000 to $7,000 of profit per month, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It, helping her recently buy a five-bedroom house.
“If I wouldn’t have had this business, I wouldn’t even have a savings account,” Hillier, 26, tells CNBC Make It. “And I’d have to take out loans to cover my living expenses, on top of tuition.”
Hillier graduates from medical school on Friday, and is immediately moving to Kansas with her husband to start a family medicine residency. She says her side hustle’s income helped them cover $25,000 in closing fees and a down payment on their new home, and it’ll more than cover their mortgage payments of $2,100 per month.
Of course, not everyone’s closets are fodder for such a lucrative endeavor. Here’s how Hillier built her side hustle:
Tailoring her business model
Hillier’s research began in August 2020, when she noticed that other Poshmark sellers were posting thousands of items that couldn’t have possibly been from their own closets. She learned that many were sourcing their inventories from thrift stores and retailers like Nordstrom Rack and TJ Maxx.
She spent the next couple months testing various sellers’ methods. She focused in on a style — vibrant vintage statement pieces — because those items sold the most quickly. Her store gained traction with a “young professional” audience primarily consisting of 25- to 40-year-old women, she says.
But she wasn’t making a ton of money. Initially, she charged $20 to $30 per item, regardless of each item’s source. After researching what similar pieces commonly sold for, both on Poshmark and at popular retailers, she adjusted. Now, her dresses – which she says are her most popular items – each sell for anywhere between $25 to $200, depending on their brand and retail value.
Hillier says high-quality photos matter: “Good lighting can mean the difference between a $5 and $100 sale.”
Olivia Hillier
Hillier’s side hustle didn’t really hit its stride, though, until she found a …….