Buy a pallet, build a business

Pictured: Missi Bowling, owner of DealBusters Marketplace, and Lisa Groh, Byesville Rotary President.

 Missi Bowling, owner of the DealBusters Marketplace located on 2^nd Street in Byesville, told Byesville Rotary her story of how she became a business owner. Missi grew up in Byesville and graduated from Meadow Brook. Currently, she and her family live in Marietta. She and her husband now operate three businesses located in Byesville.

 “This journey began because I wanted an air fryer,” Missi related. During her internet search for an air fryer at a good price, Missi discovered a woman selling appliances on Facebook. Missi learned the woman stocked her business by buying pallets of goods.

 “I bought a pallet,” Missi stated, “I sold the items on Facebook and doubled my money.” Missi explained that during the week she worked at her job, and on weekends, her hobby was selling items from the pallets she purchased. She used the money she earned to buy more pallets.

 Gradually, the original group of 20 people who attended her on-line Facebook sales and auctions expanded to several thousand. More sales meant more work. On Sundays, Missi and her husband drove to the Cambridge and used the K-Mart parking lot as a delivery point for people in Cambridge. Missi needed a permanent location in Guernsey County. In 2016, she rented space in Byesville named DealBusters. She continued to sell live on Facebook and used the Byesville location as a delivery point.

 When her job was downsized, Missi choose to go into business for herself and grow DealBusters. She needed more warehouse space and was fortunate enough to lease the building formerly occupied by Byesville Furniture.

 Missi stated, “I now had plenty of warehouse room in the back of the store and lots of empty space in the front of the store.” She added a few vendors in the front of the store. She discovered there was a demand for permanent vendor booths. By March of 2020, almost all the booths were rented.

 And then COVID hit. No problem. Missi had lots of on-line sales experience. She fell back on this skill and offered Facebook live sales for her vendors at no charge to her vendors.

 Currently, she has 4 employees in the DealBusters Marketplace with 76 vendors in 100 plus spaces. Her husband runs DealBusters Warehouse with 2 employees in the rear section of the building. He holds Facebook live sales and auctions Tuesdays and Thursdays as well as sells pallets. Missi is looking for more space for the DealBusters Warehouse so that she can convert the rear of the building to vendor space.

Missi enjoys what she is doing. She stated, “I like helping other vendors realize they can start small and grow. Her advice is, “If you treat your business like a hobby, it will pay like a hobby. If you treat your business like a business, it will pay like a business.”

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