Her 'Junk' Side Hustle Soared to $10,000 in Monthly Sales Using a Simple Secret Every Business Owner Should Know Maddy Clements, founder of sustainable clothing business JUNK GOLD, reveals how social media — coupled with another important tool — helped her sales skyrocket.

Maddy Clements, owner of upcycled clothing company JUNK GOLD, "always had an obsession with fashion" and an eye for entrepreneurship — at just 11 years old, she was selling jewelry at a local boutique up the street from her house.

So perhaps it's no surprise that the now 29-year-old decided to get her BFA in fashion design and launch her own clothing business in the process. She started JUNK GOLD as a thrifted styling service, inspired by the act of giving old clothes new life and the desire to combat the fashion industry's massive waste problem.

"Where some may see an ugly old top at Goodwill, I see potential," Clements tells Entrepreneur. "While studying fashion design in school, I often thrifted old clothing and textiles to use for my projects instead of buying new fabric to save money. I started enjoying the process of taking something old and drab and figuring out ways to make it new and exciting."

Related: Retirees Earn Up to $20,000 Per Month With One Side Hustle

There's a higher need for repurposed fashion than ever before: People buy 60% more garments than they did 10 years ago, but they're only keeping those pieces half as long, Clements says. What's more, every second, the equivalent of a garbage truckload of clothes is burned or buried in a landfill.

"I knew I wanted my business to be part of the solution, not part of the problem," Clements recalls. "I wanted to use my love of taking 'junk' and turning it into 'gold.'"

She dove into building her business during the pandemic and ultimately "switched gears" from styling, expanding into clothing and accessories. Today, JUNK GOLD creates "one-of-a-kind, completely recycled clothing, bags and more" and is committed to sustainable, ethical and transparent production.

Like many young business owners today, Clements turned to social media to fuel her success. But the strategy didn't always come naturally. Clements admits she "felt silly" making TikToks at first, quipping that, at almost 30 years old, she's "ancient to the Gen Z crowd."

@maddy_clem Old prom dress thrift flip!! How'd I do? #thriftflip #thriffinds #upcycling ♬ So crazy rn - ????

It felt like she was "sharing content into a void" — until it didn't. "Then my hard work and consistency paid off," Clements says. "I had two TikToks get over one million views. All of a sudden, I was bombarded with potential customers asking where they could buy JUNK GOLD, where they could follow me, where they could see more content."

Clements was "extremely overwhelmed" — JUNK GOLD gained 5,000 new Instagram followers after its first viral video and sold out of everything on its website — but she also saw a huge opportunity to ride the wave of exposure.

Within just three months of its launch, sales soared from just $500 to $10,000. Clements had only invested $2,000 into the business to start, but by the end of that first year, JUNK GOLD did $50,000 in sales.

Clements credits Linktree, a "freemium" social media reference landing page, with much of her success.

When JUNK GOLD began to blow up, Clements remembered that all of her favorite creators used Linktree, so she added it to her own page to direct viewers to her website.

It paid off big time. "In my first year in business, 95% of my customers came to my website through Linktree via my social media accounts," Clements says.

Related: Her 'Shark Tank'-Inspired Side Hustle Brings in $100k Per Year

Clements says the best part of building JUNK GOLD is working for herself and feeling good about the impact she's making — and she looks forward to continuing to do so.