This is a really cool story about a young entrepreneur that I wanted to share with everybody. Sarah Gehman, a good friend who I grew up knowing in high school, and ALSO my roommate’s sister, began this business in 2012. Sarah is a missionary with the world’s biggest Christian mission organization, YWAM. Her job title is “Social media/marketing manager and photographer for the Ekballo Project. She is currently based out of the YWAM base is Kona, Hawaii. Sarah raises all her own money and one of the biggest things that she did to do this was through Sweaters Anonymous. It all began with her love of shopping at thrift stores. One day she realized that that she should try to turn this small obsession into something practical and decided that this could be a way to raise money for her YWAM trips. How this business works is that Sarah travels to various thrift stores and purchases used and sometimes new sweaters. Instead of regularly pricing the sweaters, she lists them on her website; http://sweatersanonymous.com/ and instead of pricing each sweater individually, she asks for a donation, so whatever a person is willing to give she will take. It is definitely a unique way to run a business. Sarah has been extremely successful, and she gives all of the credit to the Lord. Sarah quotes: “God is such a good God, and he doesn’t call us to do something that he won’t provide for”. To give an example of Sarah’s success, she has sold over 100 sweaters and has made 3,000 thousand dollars. Sarah has her own personal website, as well as a facebook page that she advertises these sweaters on. Check out Sarah’s Sweaters!
I love this story! As a fellow thrifter myself, I can honestly say I envy Sarah and all of the fun that she definitely gets to have running this business. I go thrift shopping almost weekly, and many times I’ve had ideas of little businesses run through my mind. Sarah, made it happen! This is absolutely an inspiring story for me.
I have to admit, I would be slightly worried that people would be super cheap and only give me $1 for a nice sweater, but I guess that is the risk that is worth taking. You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you make profit, sometimes you take a loss.
In the end, if she loves what she’s doing, and she’s generating enough cash flow for herself to be successful, then she’s winning in my book.
Great post! I love the fact that Sarah took something that she loved to do and engage with and put an entrepreneurial spin on it. I think this is a really great idea and it’s great to hear that she’s doing it all for God’s glory. Sometimes that’s hard to find in the business world.
Seriously what a cool idea. Asking for donations instead of setting prices is an almost scary business move but I admire the trust that this puts in the customers. People like feeling trusted, and this post definitely makes me want to buy a sweater from her!
Wow I love this! Not only is raising money for a great cause, but it is allowing people to give what they want to and its being successful! This also cab help local thrift stores too.