Free Inventory: The Sustainable Stuffed Animal Side Hustle

What if your next business idea was hiding in a pile of discarded stuffed animals?

Charlotte Liebling (@thefluffyCEO) noticed a problem while volunteering at a charity shop: donated stuffed animals were going straight into the bin or being sold as dog toys, despite the love and memories attached to them.

Charlotte saw an opportunity. She created Loved Before, what she calls a “sustainable soft toy adoption agency” that’s now facilitated over 10,000 sales and built partnerships with some of the world’s most prestigious retailers like Selfridges and Bloomingdale’s.

Charlotte runs it while still working another full-time job and grew the brand through powerful storytelling and a mission that resonated deeply, especially during the pandemic.

Tune in to Episode 679 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

• How to find profitable opportunities in waste streams
• Creative marketing strategies that cost zero dollars
• Building retail partnerships with luxury brands

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How Loved Before Makes Money

Charlotte’s business model is elegantly simple:

• take donated stuffed animals
• give them a “spa treatment” to clean them up
• create individual stories for each one
• sell them in beautiful packaging

Here’s the revenue breakdown:

Online Sales (50% of revenue):

• Individual toys: £15-25 ($20-35) each
• Weekly adoption “drops” of 150+ toys that sell out quickly
• Built-in scarcity (only one of each toy exists)

Retail Partnerships (50% of revenue):

• Permanent spots in 3 of 4 Selfridges UK locations
• Bloomingdale’s in the US
• Various other luxury retailers globally

The genius lies in the branding. These aren’t “used teddy bears” — they’re pre-loved toys with stories, getting a second chance at bringing joy.

Getting Started: From £5 to Retail Empire

Charlotte started with literally £5 in her bank account. Her first steps were masterful in their simplicity:

Step 1: Community First

Before selling anything, Charlotte created a separate Instagram account to test if others connected with the concept. She shared photos of toys with personalities and stories to see if people resonated with the idea.

Step 2: Solve the Sourcing Problem

Rather than buying inventory, Charlotte approached the very problem she was trying to solve:

• Partnered with the charity shop where she volunteered
• Put leaflets through neighborhood doors
• Approached other charity shops: “If you’ve got anything you’re throwing in the bin, then redirect it to me.”

Step 3: Validate with Sales

Her first big validation came at a local festival where she sold a rare bear for £350-400 ($450-500).

“It really gave me a kind of strength of validation,” Charlotte said, noting how people even paid up to $200 just to ship their beloved toys for rehoming. The demand was real, and the emotional connection ran deep.

The Marketing Strategy: Zero Ad Spend, Maximum Impact

Loved Before has grown to 160,000+ Instagram followers and 170,000+ TikTok followers with zero marketing spend. Here’s how:

Content Strategy

Charlotte focuses on storytelling over selling:

• Each toy gets an individual name and backstory
• Behind-the-scenes “spa day” content showing the cleaning process
• Stories often come from the previous owners, which adds emotional authenticity

“When someone comes across your profile, they should feel like they just met their new best friend,” Charlotte explained. You have to go beyond selling into the kind of depths of human connection.

Weekly Drops Create Urgency

Loved Before releases 150+ toys every week at 8 p.m. and it’s become an event.

• Customers wait on the website before drops
• Built-in scarcity drives immediate purchases

“We have some real, genuinely very upset people sometimes at drop time,” she shared.

SEO Dominance

Loved Before ranks #1 for key search terms like “donate soft toys” and “donate teddy bears” through:

• Consistent content creation
• Solving a real problem people search for
• Building authority in their niche

Breaking Into Luxury Retail

Getting into Selfridges started with a simple cold email. Here’s how she cracked into one of the UK’s most iconic department stores:

1. Found the right contact by persistently following up on website inquiries
2. Researched their goals around sustainability and aligned Loved Before’s mission
3. Came prepared with a complete package: design, storytelling, space planning
4. Started small with a Christmas pop-up to prove the concept
5. Delivered results that led to permanent spots in 3 locations

Pro tip: Don’t ask for everything upfront. Offer to prove what you can do.

Bloomingdale’s and other retailers now approach them directly, using Selfridges as social proof.

The Operational Challenge: Scaling Individual Products

Every single product is unique — a one-of-a-kind stuffed animal with its own name, backstory, and photo. And while that uniqueness is the brand’s biggest selling point, it also makes operations incredibly complex.

• Individual photography and visual presentation
• A custom-written story or “bio” to bring it to life
• Thorough cleaning and quality checks to meet safety standards
• Precise tracking for inventory and fulfillment

To handle the growing scale, Charlotte and her partner Alex developed internal tools — primarily spreadsheet-based — to manage:

• Individual product tracking
• Photo uploads to website
• Story management
• Order fulfillment

As demand exploded, the bottleneck became the handwritten bio cards included with each adoption.

So they bought handwriting robots named Isaac and Margot that write each toy’s bio in Charlotte’s handwriting style. It’s a small touch, but one that preserves the warmth and character fans have come to love.

The Core Team

Charlotte’s first hire was her partner, Alex, who now oversees operations and manages their growing team.

From there, they added:

• “Junior Cuddle Coordinators” – for the team members handling fulfillment, packaging, and logistics.
• Customer Service Volunteers – Recruited through We Make Change, a platform connecting mission-driven ventures with skilled volunteers.

Charlotte still works another full-time job, having built Loved Before to run alongside her career.

“I’ve worked easily 20 hours a day. When one job has ended, the other has started.”

Tools and Tech Stack

Core Systems:

• Wix for the website
• Custom spreadsheets for inventory management
• Figma for design and collaboration
• Xero for accounting

Automation:

• Handwriting robots for bio cards (Isaac and Margot)
• Custom printer for card stock when volume demanded it

Marketing & Community:

• Instagram – primary social platform
• TikTok – secondary social platform
• Email list (40,000+ subscribers)

What’s Next: Fluffy World Domination

Charlotte’s vision extends far beyond the current business:

“Fluffy world domination for sure,” she told Nick. Her goal is to make Loved Before a household name—the brand people think of when it comes to buying, donating, caring for, or repurposing stuffed animals.

Here’s what’s in the pipeline:

Expansion Plans

• Spa Services – Customers will soon be able to send in their own toys for pampering and restoration.
• Own Stores – In addition to retail partnerships, Charlotte envisions standalone Loved Before stores around the world.
• Global Growth – After expanding into the U.S. with placements in Bloomingdale’s and Free People, she’s aiming for global retail presence.
• Theme Parks – She even floated the idea of repurposing used toys for claw machines at amusement parks.

Media and Brand Building

• Book in Progress – Charlotte’s writing a book in her spare time.
• Film Potential – She’s open to exploring film or media projects based on the brand.
• Total Brand Ownership – “I want to be everywhere in every touchpoint that exists, that a stuffed animal does,” she said.

It’s bold, ambitious, and — if the last 10,000 adoptions are any clue — absolutely achievable.

Key Takeaways for Side Hustlers

1. Find the Gray Space Loved Before exists “between spaces” — not a traditional toy brand, not a typical reseller. These blue ocean opportunities have less competition.

2. Community Before Commerce – Charlotte built an engaged audience before selling anything.

3. Solve Real Problems – The business succeeds because it solves multiple problems:

• Parents wanting meaningful ways to declutter
• Environmental waste reduction
• Children wanting toys with stories

4. Start Where You Are – With £5 and access to a charity shop, Charlotte built a business now sold in luxury stores.

5. Think Systems, Not Sales – The operational complexity behind Loved Before’s “simple” concept required building custom systems for every aspect of the business.

Charlotte’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“Build something that makes people feel something.”

Episode Links

• Loved Before
• Charlotte’s Instagram (@fluffyceo)
• Loved Before Instagram
• Figma
• Wix
• Xero Accounting
• We Make Change
• Make-A-Wish UK
• Selfridges
• Bloomingdale’s

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