Tori Gerbig, 35, was able to quit her corporate job and turn her side hustle into a multi-million dollar business empire. In doing this, Ms Gergbig went from a salary of $35,000 (£28,057.75) to making the equivalent of £113million in sales from her side business.
According to the entrepreneur, leaving corporate America for her side hustle-turned-business empire was “one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life”.
Alongside her husband Chris, she started Pink Lily on eBay as a way to generate supplementary income by selling women’s luxury boutique clothing.
Ms Gerbig decided to walk away from her insurance job where she was only making $35,000 (£28,057.75) a year.
Her initial investment for purchasing clothing items to sell on eBay came to around $300 (£240.50).
READ MORE: ISA alert as ‘early bird’ savers can avoid brutal ‘tax trap’
After spending time growing her online clothing business, the entrepreneur brought in over $141million (£113,032,650) in 2021.
Speaking to CNBC Make It, the businesswoman shared how her clothing side hustle originally came about.
She explained: “The moment I knew I was ready to quit my job was whenever I started making more in online sales in a day than I was earning with my paycheck and my corporate job.
“In 2009, I graduated from college right in the middle of a recession. The only job that I could find was selling insurance and I started out making $25,000 (£20,041.25) a year.
Don’t miss…
“After graduating college, my husband and I had over $70,000 (£56,115.50) in student loans, plus a mortgage in car loans. We were really barely getting by.”
When starting out, the couple would bring in between $300 ($240.50) to $1,000 (£801.65) every month.
Originally, when selling on eBay, Tori and Chris would sell any items on eBay that were going viral online.
While on maternity leave, Ms Gerbig created a Facebook group to sell various clothes and accessories.
READ MORE: State pensioners get £1k more tomorrow but incomes still shrink
Sales from the group far exceeded the original sales from eBay and “ignited the fire” in her to pursue this full-time.
Ms Gerbig added: “Once we launched the Facebook group and I went back to work full time after my maternity leave, my son was about four months old so I was getting very little sleep at night.
“I would work during the day, 8 am t to 4:30 pm, come home and cook dinner. Then I would do the fun bedtime routine with him and head to the Facebook group.
“Then I would post the products, PayPal invoice and ship products out until about 1am to 2am in the morning.”
By 2014, Pink Lily was launched online so the couple could reach as large an audience as possible.
Since then, the business has opened stores and employs 250 people to run operations as of April 2022.
Looking back at the business’ growth, the entrepreneur said: “I remember our goal for the first year was $50,000 (£40,082.50) in sales.
“To hit over $4million (£3.2million), our very first year in business was just phenomenal. We were so excited.
“In 2021, we ended the year with over $141million (£113,032,650) in revenue.”
Anyone interested in learning more about side hustle success stories can discover more on CNBC’s YouTube channel.
