Table of contents
Money, Honestly is a content series where business owners peel back the curtain to their finances. Entrepreneurs break down their investments, costs, and how those decisions affect revenue.
In this edition of Money, Honestly, Sabrina Abu-Hamdeh and her husband and business partner Joe Johnson reveal how $45,000 in staged investments helped them reach $1 million in revenue — and how they weathered a $17,500 roof emergency.
- Business: Vinteige
- Co-owners: Sabrina Abu-Hamdeh and Joe Johnson
- How long in business: 5 years
- Location: Walnut Creek, California
- Annual revenue: $1 million
- Description: Vintage furniture and home decor store with a collective of 24 vendors
Five years ago, Abu-Hamdeh discovered a passion (and an eye) for breathing new life into old furniture. She was helping her parents downsize their Walnut Creek, California, home by selling their things on Facebook Marketplace. As time went on, that passion only grew. Today, she and her husband co-own Vinteige, a vintage furniture and home decor store.
How a family heirloom sparked the idea for a business
The idea to turn vintage furniture into a business venture came when Abu-Hamdeh sold her great-great-great-grandmother’s Victorian-era lingerie chest. “The young woman who bought it was going to take it to her new apartment in San Francisco, which is where it had come from in the first place,” recalled Abu-Hamdeh. “That felt really good — to be able to find a new life for these pieces I couldn’t use.”
She began sourcing and collecting furniture, and rented a warehouse to hold all her treasures. She sold at pop-ups in the San Francisco Bay Area, including in Walnut Creek, and at the Oakland Vintage Market once a month. She even made sales at their warehouse on the weekends by-appointment-only. Soon, Johnson joined as co-owner in the business.
Growing the business footprint: Weekend warehouse to 5,000 square feet of retail space
Two and a half years later, the duo expanded into their own retail space — a converted 1960s car dealership in downtown Walnut Creek. “It was bare bones, but it had a really cool aesthetic,” said Johnson.
They rented out the front to an independent vintage vendor, while they occupied the 5,000 square feet in the back. But now it was squarely on their shoulders to fill that space with vintage finds.
To get the former dealership ready for prime time, Abu-Hamdeh and Johnson did the renovations themselves: They reconfigured the layout to be more retail-friendly, updated the finishes, and gave everything a refresh.
A $15,000 loan1 from Square helped them stock the space with more inventory and complete the updates over time. “We couldn’t afford to close to do all of the renovations at once — we had to plan things,” said Johnson.
Total cost: $5,000 to $10,000 (plus sweat equity) in savings; $15,000 loan from Square
Results: 4x more revenue than their days at the warehouse
Creating a collective business model (and an extra 1,700 square feet)
For their next phase, Abu-Hamdeh and Johnson took over the entire dealership, increasing their footprint to 6,700 total square feet. Through connections with other vintage store owners, they heard about the pros of running a collective business model. What is a collective business model? A collective brings together multiple vendors in a shared retail space. Members pay a fee to rent a booth, and benefit from lower overhead costs and shared customer foot traffic
“It gave us the idea that a collective would build community and, at the same time, lessen the burden on us, bring more in for the customer — all the good things,” explained Abu-Hamdeh.
With a vintage collective model, independent vendors each have their own space inside Vinteige. They pay rent plus a percentage of sales, and Abu-Hamdeh and Johnson cover all the overhead costs, processing fees, and even make sales for them. In turn, Abu-Hamdeh and Johnson aren’t solely responsible for stocking the entire store — each vendor sources their own inventory.
Vinteige started with 10 vendors in the collective, and is now up to 24.
The husband-and-wife team once again took on many renovations themselves, hanging swag lights and LED track lighting (on 14-foot ceilings!), installing large fans to beat the summer heat, and constructing moveable gallery walls from plywood.
Total cost: $20,000, funded by savings, credit cards, and cashing out stocks
Results: 10x more revenue compared with the warehouse
Finding the cash to fix a surprise leak
Just when all the renovations were done (and the $20,000 was spent), the rainy season hit. “The roof started leaking, pouring. [It] was shocking,” said Johnson.
Property taxes were due soon, so they had to get creative to find the funds for the repair. They ended up borrowing from their Square Savings2 sales tax folder.
Total cost: $17,500, borrowed from Square Savings
Vinteige’s Square Savings folders at a glance
Tip: Abu-Hamdeh and Johnson put all of their daily sales every few days into their third savings folder, which accrues an extra $25 to $50 at the end of every month. “It also keeps less money in the headline checking account,” noted Abu-Hamdeh, helping them keep their spending in check.
The breakdown
In under three years in business, Abu-Hamdeh and Johnson staged their investments to scale their retail business sustainably, funding each phase before moving to the next.
Timeline and total costs
Phase 1: Years 1 to 2
- Pop-ups, markets, and warehouse sales
Phase 2: Year 3
- First retail space (5,000 sq. ft.)
- Cost of renovations: $5,000 to $10,000
- Square loan: $15,000
- Result: 4x more revenue
Phase 3: Year 4
- Full retail expansion (6,700 sq. ft.)
- Cost of renovations: $20,000
- Cost of emergency roof repair: $17,500
- Result: 10x more revenue
The key to their sustainable growth? Strategic patience and creative cash management. By phasing their expansion, they completed renovations and improvement projects without having to close the store for an extended period and miss out on sales revenue. Plus, their savings strategy helped them build a financial safety net to manage unexpected costs.
What’s next for Vinteige?
An unexpected-yet-gratifying part of starting Vinteige has been the professional community they’ve created. “It’s been fun having all of these vendors, who’ve become friends, working with us and having shared goals,” said Abu-Hamdeh. “It’s very powerful when there are a lot of people working hard on shared goals in one place. You grow so much.”
And with the store’s physical growth behind them, Abu-Hamdeh and Johnson are now working on fine-tuning the business by redoing their website and getting all their inventory online with software designed for consignment and resale shops. It’ll take an initial time investment from the couple to customize the software and get all 24 vendors into the system, but it’ll free up their hands-on time in the long run.
“Having the store run smoothly without us would be huge,” said Abu-Hamdeh. “It would give us the capacity to think about bigger ideas.”
1. All loans are issued by Square Financial Services, Inc. Actual fees depend upon payment card processing history, loan amount and other eligibility factors. A minimum payment is required and you must repay your loan as specified in the loan terms. Loan eligibility is not guaranteed. All loans are subject to credit approval.
2. Savings accounts are provided by Square Financial Services, Inc. Member FDIC.
