I’m Now The Sole 100% Owner Of 1404 Collective

Let’s take it back to 2020, when I first opened New Wave in Omaha, Nebraska. New Wave was a very very rewarding creative endeavor. I sold a variety of goods from vintage clothing to home decor to crystals to new beauty items. I absolutely loved the branding, uniqueness, and community that I built at New Wave from 2020-2022. It helped me learn so much about business and grow as an individual, but I could not maintain the momentum by myself.

The secondhand items sold extremely fast and it was a challenge to keep up with demand. Unfortunately, the profit margins can be super tight due to the labor involved in sourcing inventory, cleaning, researching, pricing and distributing it - which is why many vintage stores end up closing.

To help alleviate the pressure as a sole owner and operator, I added two additional secondhand vendors to my shop (Wandering Tiger and Chickpea). Yet, even with the 3 of us, we still couldn’t keep up with demand.

I knew if we were having this issue as secondhand / vintage resellers, that there must be other resellers in Omaha who face similar challenges - they love vintage, have a passion for sustainability but can’t maintain their business on their own, and don’t have the financial means to bring on help.

My plan was separate New Wave’s offerings into two distinct groups: new items vs secondhand items.

• I’d transition New Wave to solely new inventory, with a focus on carrying brands from small, sustainable and creative businesses (I still have yet to fulfill this half)

• I’d transition the secondhand inventory division to a collective model (ideally with the help of co-collaborators).

I started developing a secondhand store model that would be structured as a collective from the beginning (rather than an after thought), with equal contribution from all members to help share duties.

I organized an initial gathering with 6 other resellers in the Omaha area to brainstorm a collective model. My hope was that as word got out and the model evolved, we would be able to bring in at least 10 people total.

We worked tirelessly for months figuring out how to make it financially worthwhile and how a separation of duties could look. As challenges continued to rise and the financial payoff seemed to dwindle, people left the group. At this point, we were down to 3 people (myself and 2 others) who were willing to try getting this collective concept off the ground, put months of free labor in, and risk investing their own capital.

Even though I really wanted to enter this endeavor with a larger group because I knew I already didn’t have enough time with New Wave, Already Friends Podcast, maintaining my social media channels, and continuing with some freelance clients that we’re really helping pay the bills while I worked on all my passion projects - I decided to move forward with it.

The 3 original owners of 1404 Collective spent January 2023-February 2023 renovating the space, creating and refining branding, the initial business model and procedures. We opened for business on March 3, 2023. Thankfully, due to the momentum that I had already created with New Wave, plus the hype of the collective model on social media - we were busy with a loyal customer base right away.

Unfortunately, as time went on, the same issue of time-intensive-labor was still a huge factor. Even split three ways, the laundry list of duties to maintain operations was spreading all of us very thin - for not enough pay, and the hope of recouping our initial investment continuing to dwindle.

The shop was open four days a week so we were working hard on in-store operations those days, and then hustling on everything behind the scenes on the days the shop was closed. We were hosting events, onboarding more vendors, and super active on socials in order to increase sales and hopefully receive enough financial compensation for our efforts.

1404 Collective quickly took over my life and New Wave got put completely on the back burner (unfortunately, still true). This was an problem, because now I was back to facing the same issue as I was with New Wave - overworked and unable to meet demand. However, this time around, I had two actual co-owners and we still couldn’t keep up.

Rightfully so, one of my co-owners was growing increasingly frustrated by the amount of work required and not being compensated accordingly. However, there was no more pay to give as a vast majority of the sales went to our vendors for their inventory and the three of us were left to share the 15% margin (on top of operating expenses).

We tried many things to keep going as a trio but ultimately after a year of working together, we decided we didn’t want to continue as a group. We went back and forth, debating if we should all sell, close down, if one of us should buy out the others, or if we should get an investor to alleviate tension.

My roles at the shop were primarily digital because I have a background in graphic design, web design, social media and advertising. I created our branding, took the photos, created the website, managed instagram and tiktok, the google listing, creating graphics both for in-store and social media distribution, I designed our operations manual, created merchandising guidelines, and so on. I was also in charge of all the finances so I did our bookkeeping, weekly reports, tax filing, and weekly payroll.

Since my duties were primarily executed through my phone and laptop, I decided to relocate to Tulum, Mexico. At this time, I was nearly certain that one of the other co-owners would buy me out.

However, after months of deliberation, neither of them wanted full ownership so I decided to step up and buy them both out, granting me full 100% sole-ownership of 1404 Collective as of August 1st, 2024.

For me personally, the financial strain of the buyout, plus temporarily stopping New Wave operations to further focus on 1404 Collective, and relocating to a new country was… challenging. I worked immensely on my money mindset, talked to mentors, read books, listened to podcasts, lived as frugally as I could, and did what I needed to do to make it all possible!

We kept the transition pretty quiet for the first 6+ months. It was not that it was a secret - we just had a lot of tension amongst the three of us and it was already exhausting enough of a life change without involving additional people / opinions. I finished their buyout payments in December 2024. This was a quick buyout and transition timeline, but I really wanted to start 2025 on a fresh clean slate.

Looking back, I am really really proud of myself for trusting that I could handle it all. I flew back to Omaha about every 3 weeks from July 2024-March 2024 to work on the shop (everything from restructuring operations, onboarding new vendors, re-organizing, developing more efficient procedures, capturing social media content, processing inventory, hosting open buy events, and everything in-between). Even though it was hard to juggle that, plus my freelance clients, the podcast, and flying my dog back and forth with me… I managed and felt very fulfilled in the process knowing how important the shop is to my vendors and customers.

It’s almost been a year since and I am relieved to be on the other side. I expanded our hours and heightened the expectations for the staff. This led to the shop having it’s best month ever in May 2025 and our third best month ever in June 2025. I am grateful for my 13 vendors / staff who are rockstars and are a crucial aspect of the business. Everything about 1404 Collective is rooted in teamwork. The only way to succeed in this industry is working together, distributing the labor amongst a big group, ensuring everyone is on the same page, and has their heart invested in the mission.

As of July 2025, you can shop at 1404 Collective from Wednesday to Sunday. We have “new” secondhand arrivals daily. For sneak peeks, following the instagram stories. You can also visit our website 1404collective.com to learn more about the business. If you’re interested in joining our team as a reseller, visit: www.1404collective.com/resellers