Uptown Cheapskate is a resale store that specializes in buying and selling name brand apparel, shoes, and accessories for young adults. Founded in 2008 in Salt Lake City, Utah, by brother and sister Scott and Chelsea Sloan as a franchising operation, the company now has 35 locations in 13 states. Uptown Cheapskate is currently ranked #332 on the the Franchise 500 and #18 for top new franchises in 2013.
According to Chelsea, she and her brother (along with their four other siblings) share a "weird tendency" to think of ways to improve things. "We fix stuff," she says. "That's what helped us start Uptown." As kids, their mother got the family hooked on retail shopping. Their parents eventually went on to start a retail franchise for kids, KId to Kid, which now has over 100 store in the US and Portugal. "As some of the hardest working people I know, they instilled the value of work on us at an early age," says Scott. "I think these values are essential to being a successful entrepreneur because any success or failures you experience fall squarely on your shoulders."
The goal with Uptown Cheapskate was to improve upon the resale experience, to "provide an arena for like-new fashions to be bought and sold at amazing prices," a place where "customers can be frugal and still look fantastic... We're an upscale resale option for our fashion forward customers." say Chelsea who last year became the first-ever female recipient of the Entrepreneurs Organization's Global Student Entrepreneur Award, a competition encompassing 1,700 student entrepreneurs from 20 countries.
Both Chelsea and Scott were in college at the time they started their company. According to Scott, there was never really a point at which "we could equally balance work and school... you learn to make due with less personal and family time... We've both missed weddings and vacations." Chelsea certainly would concur, "..the thing you give up is leisure time. I always had 40-50 hours of work at least, and 30 hours of school. Hard? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely."
As part of Uptown Cheapskate's business model, Chelsea developed a software program to ensure that clients are receiving fair trades for their items. The IMAP program, as she calls it, recognizes 5,000 unique brands, many of which cannot otherwise be easily identified, and assigns a range of values to each according to type of item. It's "basically the Kelly Blue Book for resale clothing," she says. "The program is the cornerstone of our franchise system."
Apparently the determination and dedicati0n of Scott and Chelsea is paying off. Uptown Cheapskate is continuing to expand through its franchise operations, eventually hoping to reach as many 100 locations nationwide. Below you will find a link to the company's website as well as some images of the founders and the store.
According to Chelsea, she and her brother (along with their four other siblings) share a "weird tendency" to think of ways to improve things. "We fix stuff," she says. "That's what helped us start Uptown." As kids, their mother got the family hooked on retail shopping. Their parents eventually went on to start a retail franchise for kids, KId to Kid, which now has over 100 store in the US and Portugal. "As some of the hardest working people I know, they instilled the value of work on us at an early age," says Scott. "I think these values are essential to being a successful entrepreneur because any success or failures you experience fall squarely on your shoulders."
The goal with Uptown Cheapskate was to improve upon the resale experience, to "provide an arena for like-new fashions to be bought and sold at amazing prices," a place where "customers can be frugal and still look fantastic... We're an upscale resale option for our fashion forward customers." say Chelsea who last year became the first-ever female recipient of the Entrepreneurs Organization's Global Student Entrepreneur Award, a competition encompassing 1,700 student entrepreneurs from 20 countries.
Both Chelsea and Scott were in college at the time they started their company. According to Scott, there was never really a point at which "we could equally balance work and school... you learn to make due with less personal and family time... We've both missed weddings and vacations." Chelsea certainly would concur, "..the thing you give up is leisure time. I always had 40-50 hours of work at least, and 30 hours of school. Hard? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely."
As part of Uptown Cheapskate's business model, Chelsea developed a software program to ensure that clients are receiving fair trades for their items. The IMAP program, as she calls it, recognizes 5,000 unique brands, many of which cannot otherwise be easily identified, and assigns a range of values to each according to type of item. It's "basically the Kelly Blue Book for resale clothing," she says. "The program is the cornerstone of our franchise system."
Apparently the determination and dedicati0n of Scott and Chelsea is paying off. Uptown Cheapskate is continuing to expand through its franchise operations, eventually hoping to reach as many 100 locations nationwide. Below you will find a link to the company's website as well as some images of the founders and the store.
Click on the icon to learn more at uptowncheapskate.com.
Chelsea and Scott Sloan
As resellers, "we're the bottom feeders, but we don't have to look or feel like we're bottom feeders," Chelsea says.