DAY 21: Stage it like the Property Brothers, sell it Kyle style
Okay. So I sold a smattering of PerfectDreamer mattresses. Between me and my FurnitureBroker Amber, we have sold a grand total of $1900 in beds. I have proven that it can be done by someone with little–or in my case–no experience. Not bad for my first 21 DAYS in the business.
But $1900 ain’t much to live on, not to mention paying back the initial investment (incidentally, it is more than I made back in my first 21 DAYS writing books!). I know I can do more. Time to test the furniture market.
Staging the set
As you know, my wife and I are staging a million-dollar home in Tucson. We may not be as popular as the Property Brothers, but we stage using furniture from one of the same vendors the tantalizing twins use. And, what better way to actually sell the furniture while we wait for the house to flip than to use the house as our showroom!
Everything–including the house–is for sale. We can flip furniture for fast cash, flip the home for a bigger payout, and then help place others into the business model and build residual revenue.
Now, how to get the word out and how to set up a process so as to keep our home/showroom clean with a family of seven… More on that in another post (might take more than one).
Our first order of business is, well, to order. Looking through both print and online catalogs–featuring another vendor used by the Osmonds (my Latter-day Saint connection, Woot! Woot!)–we make a few selections, verify the order meets the $1,500 minimum, and place the order in an email to be sent to corporate.
“Wait!” I say before Denielle presses down on the send button. “What if we test the market first before we buy?”
“What do you mean?” she asks.
An idea begins to form.
Testing the market with a furniture co-op
The idea I share with Denielle is simple. As we don’t know what the market wants, and as asking folks directly isn’t always effective, Denielle and I could test the market by promoting the very furniture we were about to buy but before we buy it.
Each furniture order is an investment. And like all investments, a risk is involved. Will the customer want blue, red or white? What size? King, Queen or Full? What will sell and what will stagnate?
“It’s really a two-prong plan,” I say rather proudly. “We will sell what we stage and start Tucson’s first furniture co-op.”
Denielle raises an eyebrow (I really like it when she does that!).
“You’ve participated in food and even clothing co-ops before, right?” I continue. She nods her head Clint Eastwood-style. “You did so to save money by buying in bulk. The same principle applies to furniture. Not only can we save people money through our wholesale prices and minimal markup, but we can also save us and them on shipping.”
“Not to mention we will know what people want before we buy it!” Denielle says quickly catching on.
A note about shipping
Shipping can get us. But, we can save a few hundred dollars by purchasing $1,500 or more in wholesale product.
The cost to ship is 15% of the order PLUS an additional $100 if the $1,500 minimum isn’t met. That quickly can eat into your profit margin–especially when we have a tight margin already to beat out the competition.
The only way a competitor can beat us on price is when she buys containers. A container consists of a large number of the same item. But most mom and pop furniture shops buy in bulk, that is they buy a variety of items rather than investing in a single product.
Thus, the furniture co-op idea could save the day by both knowing what to sell before we buy it and meeting our minimum order to save on shipping costs.
Removing the risk… really?
So, today, I click away on the keyboard forming Tucson’s first ad for a furniture co-op. The ad will be placed for free on Facebook Marketplace. I decide to head the advice of my wife and promote headboards. The ad, in all its glory, reads as follows:
Title: Adult and Youth Bed Headboard Co-Op ~ choose size King Queen Full Twin and style
Text: My wife and I stage million-dollar homes with furniture from the same company as used by THE PROPERTY BROTHERS. Good stuff! We are bulk-ordering some HEADBOARDS next week for a showcase home (think co-op). We can get these at wholesale prices as low as $90 to $300 because of our network of 2500 furniture brokers and membership in the Furniture Chamber of Commerce. BUYING POWER! And we can offer that to you. Choose the headboard (or any other furniture) you like and we will add it to our order. that simple.
I then go on to list the specifications of the headboards and details on how the co-op works.
Viola! Tucson’s first furniture co-op is birthed. “Look, Hon! Twins!”
No, not the Property Brothers. But our new staging and selling processes. Now, to nurture them and make them take their first baby steps toward success.
Check back tomorrow to see how it goes as we continue our adventure in finding financial freedom in furniture.
