35-Year-Old Mum Made N58.5bn in one Year Selling on Auction Site, Quit Full-time job

• A 35-year-old woman and mother has turned her side business into a full-time business that fetches her billions
• Tori Gerbig started by browsing sites that sell cheap clothing for women and when she could not find, started meeting the needs herself
• She and her husband launched their on cheap online business that bloomed with a store and about N250 employees

In 2011, Tory Gerbig was making N10.4 million annually working in an insurance company. But she always shopped online.

Love turned into a side business

Gerbig said she was 24 years old and loved surfing the internet for cheap clothes that were both trending and affordable. According to her, there were not many available at the time. That was how the idea to start a side business selling cheap women’s clothing on eBay was born.

Initially, it was just a fun hobby for Gerbig. 10 years down the line, her husband, Chris started running Pink Lily full-time. In 2021, their online clothing business generated over N58 billion in gross sales. And, today, their social media audience has grown to N3.6 million followers.

From an eBay side business to $141 million in sales

To begin their eBay store, her husband, Chris and her made an initial investment of N124,000 to buy clothes and accessories from a wholesale website.

Because she was not familiar with pricing strategies, she priced the items as if she would pay as a customer. They worked in their living room to avoid so much overhead except for delivery costs.

According to Gerbig, profits varied in the first few years but they made between N150,000 t0 N415,000 per month. They used the money to pay off loans and reinvest into the business.

Gerbig said she would fly to Los Angeles to meet with vendors and place product orders and eventually started attending trade shows in order to expand their line of selections.

In 2013, she began a Facebook group to market her clothes. They had loyal customers who showed an increasing demand for their products, especially in their local community in Kentucky.

By the end of the year, we had saved around N8.3 million from profits, which they used to launch her business, Pink Lily’s official website. She said that was when sales began to boom.

By May 2014, they surpassed N42 million in monthly revenue. She quit her full-time job after three years of running Pink Lilly as a side business to focus on the business. Her husband joined her a few months later to work on the company’s finances and operations. In that years, they made more than N1.6 billion in revenue.

After achieving N29 billion in total sales in 2019, they received a stake investment to support the business’ fast growth. It helped them expand their business and employ more people.

Gerbig says they sell more than 11,000 products on their site every day, have a store and 250 full-time staff. They are the biggest employers in their town, Bowling Green.

Tips for new entrepreneurs

She said for entrepreneurs to succeed, they have to find a gap in the market, reinvest their profits, find fun ways to engage their customers on social media, empower their local brand ambassadors, and find something they can truly own.

26-year-old Lady Left Engineering Job to Become an Influencer

Legit.ng has reported that Gabby Beckford said she first heard of the word entrepreneur when she was in the university where she studied biomedical engineering. She said she never thought she would become one.

But in 2018 after starting her engineering career at 23, she found that writing Packs Light, her travel blog was what she looked forward to doing every day.

She said she realised she also wanted to travel the world after writing about so many places.

Source: Legit.ng