Missi Bowling, owner of the DealBusters Marketplace on Second Street in Byesville, recently told Byesville Rotary how she became a business owner.
Bowling grew up in Byesville and graduated from Meadowbrook High School. Currently, she and her family live in Marietta and operate three businesses in Byesville.
“This journey began because I wanted an air fryer,” Bowling recalled. During her internet search for a fryer at a good price, she discovered a woman selling appliances on Facebook. Bowling learned the woman stocked her business by buying pallets of goods.
“I bought a pallet. I sold the items on Facebook and doubled my money,” she said. Bowling explained she worked at her job during the week and, on weekends, her hobby was selling items from the pallets she purchased. She used the money she earned to buy more pallets.
The original group of 20 people who attended her online Facebook sales and auctions gradually expanded to several thousand. More sales meant more work. On Sundays, Bowling and her husband drove to Cambridge and used the old K-Mart parking lot as a delivery point for people. Bowling decided she needed a permanent location in Guernsey County. In 2016, she rented a space in Byesville and named it DealBusters. She continued to sell live on Facebook and used the Byesville location as her delivery point.
When her job was downsized, Bowling chose 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.
“I now had plenty of warehouse room in the back of the store and lots of space in the front of the store” Bowling said. She added a few vendors in the front of the store and discovered there was a demand for permanent vendor booths. By March of 2020, almost all the booths were rented.
Then COVID hit. Bowling had lots of online sales experience. She fell back on this skill and offered Facebook live sales for her vendors at no charge to them.
Currently, she has four employees in the DealBusters Marketplace with 76 vendors in more than 100 spaces. Her husband runs DealBusters Warehouse with two employees in the rear section of the building. He holds Facebook live sales and auctions Tuesdays and Thursdays, and sells pallets. Bowling is looking for more space for the DealBusters Warehouse so that she can convert the rear of the building to vendor space.
“I like helping other vendors realize they can start small and grow,” Bowling said. 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.”
For more inforamtion on Byesville Rotary visit www.Byesvillerotary.blogspot.com.