I Quit My $35K Job To Grow My Side Hustle - Now It Brings In $141 Million

Introduction

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.

My name is Tori Gerbig, and I'm the founder and CEO of Pink Lily. In 2014, I walked away from my job making under $ 40,000 a year, and last year on my e-commerce site, we brought in over $ 141 million in revenue.

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 a year. After graduating college, my husband and I had over $ 70,000 in student loans plus a mortgage and car loans. We were really barely getting by, so we decided to start selling on eBay to help supplement our income.

We sold things from golf clubs to Halloween masks, just about anything that we could find going viral on the internet and could get for wholesale to sell at retail price on eBay.

I was posting items on there daily, and it was a huge increase based on the years prior on eBay. So the Facebook group really helped catapult the sales and really ignited the fire in this whole business.

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 worked during the day from 8 to 4:30, came home, cooked dinner, did the fun bedtime routine with him, and then headed to the Facebook page group to post the products, send PayPal invoices, and ship products until about 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. It was very little sleep I was getting around that time.

I do remember selling items out of the trunk of my car on my lunch breaks and asking to leave early here and there to go into town to meet people to sell my products.

It was time for us to launch this website so we could reach a larger audience, and it would also capture sales at any time during the day, versus only when I was on with the Facebook group.

It was pretty bad right out of the box, but it was an e-commerce store, and that's all we needed. Our goal was to bring in over $ 100,000 in sales in one month, so we hit that our fourth month in business, and at that time we decided that it would be better for me to focus on growing the business than to sell insurance.

So in April of 2014, I decided that it was time for me to walk away, and then in July of 2014, my husband left his corporate position as well. We did have an emergency fund of around $ 10,000 so we could get by for just a couple of months if things were to go wrong.

I remember our goal for the first year was $ 50,000 in sales, so to hit over $ 4 million our very first year in business was just phenomenal. We were so ecstatic. From 2014 to 2015, we grew from $ 4.1 million in revenue to over $ 12 million in revenue. In 2021, we ended the year with over $ 141 million in revenue from the site.

I do love having a retail store, and I don't think it's out of the question for the future, but it hasn't been the main focus only because online has grown so fast.

It is not the easiest thing in the world to have a business with your spouse. Luckily, we work very well together, and I think it's because we also worked together prior to starting a business. We did meet while working at a restaurant in college and were very familiar with the way that both of us work. We both have very hard-working personalities, and we go very well together because my husband is much more laid back and I am very high-strung, so we complement each other very well, which works for us very well.

I would say that this year is probably the first year where I can work a little bit less due to us hiring so many directors over the last two years. Prior to that, I was working anywhere from 60 to 70 hours a week.

My day-to-day changes every single day. A few days a week, I have a full calendar of Zoom meetings, touch bases with the directors, marketing team, buying team, and customer service team. One day a week, I still go to the buying meetings because I still have a very large input on the product that we carry for the customer, and I also still travel with the photo shoot team occasionally a few times a year, as well as the buying team to Los Angeles, Nashville, and markets around the country.

Leaving corporate America and starting Pink Lily was one of the very best decisions I've made in my life. It has opened up so many opportunities. I have gotten to meet amazing women and men throughout the whole country. I get to travel and spend more time with my kids. We are debt-free and have the financial freedom to do so many things in life. I honestly am much happier now that I get to work for myself.

I didn't grow up in a place where I was told that as a female, I could do anything I wanted to. Most of my family members were teachers or nurses, and that's what I thought I had to do. So for me to now be a CEO of an Inc 5000 brand that we started and to only be 35 years old, that was really something I want to instill in my girls, to know that just because you're a CEO, you don't have to be a male. You can be a female leader in any industry and be very successful.

Keywords

• Tori Gerbig
• Pink Lily
• E-commerce
• Online sales
• Side hustle
• Corporate job
• Financial freedom
• Entrepreneurship
• Revenue growth
• Female CEO

FAQ

Q1. Why did Tori Gerbig decide to quit her corporate job?
Tori Gerbig decided to quit her corporate job when she began making more in online sales in a day than she was earning from her paycheck.

Q2. How did Tori and her husband initially supplement their income?
They started selling various items on eBay, such as golf clubs and Halloween masks, to help pay off their student loans and other debts.

Q3. What role did Facebook groups play in their business growth?
The Facebook group helped increase their sales significantly and ignited their business, leading them to eventually start an e-commerce website.

Q4. How much did Pink Lily generate in its first year?
In its first year, Pink Lily surpassed its goal of $ 50,000 in sales and achieved over $ 4 million in revenue.

Q5. What are the current roles of Tori and her husband in the business?
Tori remains highly involved in product selection and strategic decisions, while her husband also plays a key role. Both have hired several directors to manage different aspects of the business.