Can you ACTUALLY make money on Poshmark?

After earning over $100,000 on Poshmark, I feel confident in answering, YES! But I’ve learned a lot of lessons over 3.5 years of reselling as a hobby, reselling as a side hustle, and eventually reselling as a full-time job.

And these lessons have helped me make money faster. So if you’re curious what I’ve discovered on the journey to $100,000 and how I’ve now fast-tracked to earning over $25,000 in the last three months alone, keep reading!

What is Poshmark?

For those of y’all who are new here, I have been reselling 3.5 years & I’ve primarily been doing so on the Poshmark app.

If you don’t have the Poshmark app, you should get it & use my code: MOGIBETH when signing up to receive $10 off your first purchase.

You should also consider getting the app because you can make REAL money on there. Poshmark is an online marketplace where you can buy or sell new and used clothing (and now home goods!). It is super easy to use and so intuitive, which is why it has over 50 million users and is my favorite platform when it comes to making money online.

And to clarify–when I say $100,000, I’m talking about earnings, which is similar to gross profit. It’s after the Poshmark fee (which is 20% of the sales price for items sold over $15, $2.95 flat fee for items less than $15) but before COGS (Cost of Goods Sold).

So earnings is the money that was actually deposited into my bank account.

So how did I earn $100,000? Let’s dive into my reselling journey to see the ups and downs of how I got here. 

My Journey to $100k in Earnings

The best way to show you my journey to $100,000 is with this graph. It shows how much I’ve made each month over the last 3.5 years to earn $100,000. 

My reselling journey started in Wichita, Kansas. And my first full year of reselling on Poshmark was 2017.  During this year, I was reselling as a hobby. I sold a lot of my own clothes from my personal wardrobe. And I started going to my nearby Goodwill on the weekends when I had time. I made a few hundred bucks a month, which helped me pay some of my bills! But I wasn’t spending too much time on it.

My second year of reselling was 2018. During this year, I started treating reselling as a bonafide side hustle. I kept track of my inventory, had a shelf in my bedroom dedicated to all my clothes, and frequented thrift stores. Near the end of 2018, I was making about $1,300 per month in profit, which felt great! But I was still full-time pursuing other ventures.

However, in October of 2018, I attended Poshfest in Dallas, TX and decided that I wanted to pursue reselling Full Time!

So in 2019, I filed for an LLC, opened up a business bank account, found a small office space, hired a high school student to work for me after school and started growing.

But then, in June of 2019, I had to close up shop to move cross-country to Portland, Oregon (inventory and all).

After getting settled in Portland, I found an office space in August and moved in. But to be honest, it took some time to adjust and regain momentum.

During September 2019, after undergoing such a massive transition, I dealt with some heavy mental health struggles. But eventually, I got the support I needed, found my bearings, and started growing once again.

In 2020, my boyfriend, Matt, decided to come join my business (although he quickly discovered he did not enjoy reselling and decided to help with other aspects of the business). And in March of 2020, I hired my first part-time employee in Portland.

Quickly, after that, I broke through the $100,000 earnings threshold! And now, I feel confident that I can earn another $100,000 much faster!

So, lots of ups and downs! And that’s the beautiful thing about reselling as a job–you have the flexibility and freedom to take time off if you need it. Don’t get me wrong, if your business slows down, your earnings will slow down. But you get to make the call that is best for you. You don’t have to ask your boss for a mental health day! And then, when you’re ready to go full force again, it’s there waiting for you. 

And in February 2019, I actually realized that just because I slow down, doesn’t mean my business has to!

February 2019 was a record breaking month for me at the time–I made $9,173.75 in sales! And guess what–I also took a full week off vacationing in Mexico!

The difference this time was that I had asked a friend to do my shipping for me. And I had drafted a bunch of listings that I could publish while I was on the beach 🙂

Lesson learned: I don’t have to be physically present in my business to make money from it! How cool is that?

That being said, I want to also talk about three other lessons that I’ve learned over the years. And then, I want to tell you three ways I am shifting my mindset now in order to achiever my next $100,000 in earnings faster!

Lesson 1: Prioritize Net Profit over Profit Margin

It took me a while to learn this lesson, but I’m glad I did!

Let’s take two examples…

Example 1: You find a Spell & The Gypsy dress that costs you $70. You sell it for $150 on Poshmark with $120 earned (after the Poshmark fee). This leaves you with a $50 net profit and a 33% profit margin.

Example 2: You find a Madewell tank top that costs you 50 cents. You sell it for $10 on Poshmark with $12 earned (after the Poshmark fee). This leaves you with a $11.50 net profit and a 77% profit margin.

So, which one is the better deal?

If you were basing your decision making strictly on profit margin, example 2 would be the better deal.

However, the profit margin formula does not take into account your most valuable asset: your time. And it takes the same amount of time, energy, effort and storage space to process Example 1 as it does Example 2.

I have to purchase, process, list, inventory, and ship 4 versions of Example 2 to make as much money as Example 1.

Example 1 is riskier and requires research, experience and knowledge. However, it’s a much better use of a solopreneur’s time because it results in a much higher net profit.

Also, if you focus on net profit, many more sourcing opportunities open up (think retail arbitrage, online arbitrage, etc)!

Lesson 2: Identify Less with Your Business

In the beginning of my reselling business, I would take every small business failure personally. I would interpret the failures as messages that I was a failure.

When a customer would leave a poor review or open up a return case, I would be devastated! And soon, I found myself going to extreme measures to prevent any mistakes from happening (although they inevitably did).

This really inhibited my business from growing. When there was so much emotion entangled with each and every transaction, it caused me to be on an emotional rollercoaster.

But over time, as I grew, I had to let go of this mindset–especially when I hired employees. Because my employees made mistakes too! It’s part of being human. And is going to happen no matter what.

Once I started realizing that this business was not a representation of my worth, but instead a skill set I was developing, a set of transactions that were taking place, and an entity I was help growing, it changed the game! 

Lesson 3: Wade Through Fear with Breakeven Analysis

Whenever I was about to start something that I had never done before (source in a new way, hire an employee, get an office space, etc), I would be filled with fear! And what I learned helped the most: a breakeven analysis!

A breakeven analysis answers the question: what are the bare minimum results required to make this investment worth it?

An example of this is when I hired an employee!

I did some quick math, jotting down a breakeven analysis.  I realized that one additional sale (on average) would generate the same amount of money that two employee hours would cost me. So, I asked myself, what do I expect two employee hours to result in? The answer: 10 additional listings. So assuming that the sell through rate of additional listings generated by an employee is greater than 10%, the employee will quickly pay for themselves!

It alleviated a lot of anxiety and fear surrounding such a decision because the calculations were on my side!

Okay, so now I want to go over the three mindset shifts I want to implement in order to make my next $100,000 in earnings.

Mindset Shift 1: Hustle is Overrated

Because my father grew up on a farm, he instilled in me a strong sense of work ethic.

However, this work ethic also translated into a self-limiting belief that in order to make lots of money, you have to grind it out and work really hard.

This is false!

To make money, you have to provide value. A transaction is an exchange of value. That’s it. And sometimes, this doesn’t mean physical labor and strenuous hours. Sometimes it can look like sitting on a beach and answering some emails.

Let go of the impulse to hustle and lean into the ways you can maximize value while minimizing time wasted.

Mindset Shift 2: Be Clear with What YOU Alone Can Do

What are the aspects of your business that only you could do? That’s the question on my mind while I high tail it to $200,000 in earnings.

Because most of my business can be delegated or outsourced! And frankly, by not delegating or outsourcing these tasks, I am limiting potential growth.

Mindset Shift 3: Risk it for the Biscuit

No one has ever gotten rich by playing it safe. And I want to get rich 🙂

And the saying is true–the higher the risk, the higher the reward.

So, I’m taking emotional risks by putting myself out there! Showing my reselling journey on YouTube, Instagram and here on this blog. It’s not always comfortable to be under the spotlight, but I think I can provide a lot of value.

Plus, we are taking monetary risks all the time. Whether it’s sourcing in a new, riskier way or hiring more employees, we’re committed to growth!!

Okay, so I hope that was helpful!

These three lessons and mindset shifts are invaluable to me as I continue to push forward in my reselling business. But I’m learning more and more every day and sharing it on here! So be sure to stick around, sign up for our newsletter and keep up to date on all that we are doing here at Mogi Beth!

Sending you love!

Mogi