Barters Closet is creating an online marketplace where people can buy, sell, donate and barter their apparel. I am pursuing the creation of Barters Closet because I could not find an online trading site that would allow a person to upload their clothes (closet) for free and had an appealing interface.

My name is Connor Simpson; I am The President of Barters Closet.

The idea for Barters Closet came to me while I was staying at The St. Augustine’s House, a monastery/ retreat center in Michigan. I know that a monastery may seem like an odd place to write a business plan, but that is exactly what I did. I went to The St. Augustine’s House to figure out what to do with my life and whether or not I should go back to the college I had been attending, Whitworth University. I had been to the monastery before, and had a great experience living the monastic lifestyle. The clamor of the modern world is hard to hear yourself think through, which is why I retreated. I retreated to a still, silent place in the woods where I knew I would be able to hear the answers to my questions.

I did not go to the monastery to write the Barters Closet business plan, though when I got there, it seemed like the only thing I was supposed to do. Sometimes when I find myself in a place of doubt or confusion I think back to the clarity I had at the monastery when I first put fingers to keyboard. The companies name was originally, SocknSweater, and name is the only thing that I significantly changed after I left the monastery. I did not go back to Whitworth and I have been working on bringing Barters Closet to fruition ever since.

Barters Closet is set to launch in December. 

I commissioned this blog: http://bartersclosetblog.com/ to showcase the unique talents of the Barters Closet team, current members include:

Philip Glenn

Marcus Ford

Gary Garvin

Joseph Newell

Kaitlin Copenspire

Douglas Copenspire

Michael Tilley

Celeste Tilley