<\/p>\n
Reed Farrar, 21, worked at a typical summer job during the three months away from college. He could easily recall the hot summer days spent working long hours in a non-air-conditioned warehouse lifting heavy boxes. The air was stuffy and uncomfortable, especially after hours of physical labor.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a job he enjoyed.<\/p>\n
Two summers ago, a friend introduced him to a new kind of hobby that turned into a business. \u201cHe kind of just showed me what he was doing for a hobby. He was going to yard sales and flipping things,\u201d Reed said. \u201cHe would buy them for like fifty cents or a dollar and sell them for like 10.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many people find a thrill in going to yard sales and garage sales and sifting through a collection of items someone had collected over the years. For Reed, it was more than just a treasure hunt. It wasn\u2019t about the dusty cassette in the corner. It was about the lightly used shoes waiting to be bought, posted and sold online for a higher price.<\/p>\n
It was also about the mission. Someone else\u2019s pair of Nike sneakers selling for a few bucks could be sold on eBay or Poshmark for $20.<\/p>\n
He and his friend went out that summer and bought miscellaneous things. Eventually, he started making friends on Instagram with other people in Maine who had a similar business or hobby.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt got me hooked with going to thrift stores and buying shoes,\u201d Reed said. \u201cSo mainly, I do used shoes and I flip them on Poshmark.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reed is a senior at the University of Maine at Presque Isle pursuing a degree in business. It\u2019s not every day that you find a 21-year-old who wakes up and goes to work for himself.<\/p>\n
Fenix Jourdan met Reed in the dormitories on campus their freshmen year. They became friends and have been since that day. Fenix found Reed to be very inspiring, especially as a young entrepreneur. \u201cLike we all have our own goals and aspirations and they are different from each other,\u201d Fenix said. \u00a0\u201cBut it can light a small fire for each of us to reach ours seeing him accomplishing his goals, even the small ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reed really began to enjoy flipping shoes. \u201cI started doing this and it was a lot of fun. I was successful at it too,\u201d he said. \u201cThere weren\u2019t a lot of people doing what I was doing at 19 years old. If you\u2019re able to just get up early and put in the time, it\u2019s easy to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t always like this, though. A different look appeared in Reed\u2019s eyes and he frowned a bit. \u201cThe first year I did it, it was kind of like a hobby and I had a summer job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reed\u2019s shifts usually ended early in the evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was one night they told us we were going to be working until 10 p.m. It was<\/p>\n
lunchtime and I just went to the managers and I was like, \u2018I\u2019m done.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Just like that, Reed left his job. He was 19 at the time and his parents were not<\/p>\n
impressed with the decision. \u201cI tried going to garage sales and selling stuff, but I didn\u2019t sell enough,\u201d Reed said. \u201cI kind of failed.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time, it almost seemed as if he had accepted his fate, convinced that he wasn\u2019t good enough. Despite his first failure, he decided to pursue it again this past summer. He spent a lot of time thrifting for used shoes and then flipping them on Poshmark and eBay. At first, before he would consider if something would sell, he would check it online to see how much it was selling for. As Reed delved deeper into the business, he began to build a mental database.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually helped my friend who was already successful in this. \u00a0I was kind of working for him, but also working on my own business. Now I think I know what I’m doing a little bit, but in the beginning, I just flopped.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a friend, Fenix has been able to watch Reed grow throughout the years. \u201cHe\u2019s very focused on his goals and does work hard to surpass them,\u201d Fenix said.<\/p>\n
Now that Reed is back at college in the county, he has found that business has slowed. It isn\u2019t easy buying items to flip in northern Maine, which is why he had to expand and improvise. Lately, Reed has been buying shoes and toys from the local Marden\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Reed isn\u2019t exactly sure where he wants his business to go just yet, but he\u2019d like to pursue it after graduation. He\u2019s hoping that his business degree with give him the skills and experience he needs to be successful. \u201cThere\u2019s no limit, there\u2019s no cap to what I can do. \u00a0So I hope I can just keep doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Reed Farrar, 21, worked at a typical summer job during the three months away from college. He could easily recall the hot summer days spent working long hours in a non-air-conditioned warehouse lifting heavy boxes. The air was stuffy and uncomfortable, especially after hours of physical labor. It wasn\u2019t a job he enjoyed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8542,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5699\/revisions\/8542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}