ORMOND BEACH -- Stan Shirah built houses here for more than 40 years, including the Tymber Creek subdivision, before the economy tanked and home construction all but disappeared.

Knowing so many people were losing jobs, the 67-year-old builder refused to sit back in retirement. Instead, he transformed his nine-room office on West State Road 40 into the home of a new business, Itlldo Outlet, selling cloths online through eBay.

"We had to reinvent ourselves. I could not start another building business; that was going down the tube," Shirah said. "We needed to get something started quickly and make jobs and create income. We needed a broad-based market to draw from and the Internet was the perfect place."

After a couple of misfires, the group of four people settled on selling discounted new clothes for men, women and children online at Itlldooutlet.com. After 10 months, the company employs 16 "family and friends" and looks to turn its first profit this month or next.

"Everyone has the need; we just created the opportunity," Shirah said.

Josh Wallace, 27, was one of those in need when he lost his job last year at a cement block plant in South Daytona while also going to school and raising a 4-year-old son with a pregnant wife.

Shirah offered Wallace a job producing spreadsheets for the startup company. Wallace's mom, Marla, who also works for Shirah's small water/wastewater utility that serves Tymber Creek, is involved in the new venture, too.

"I jumped on the idea," Josh Wallace said. "Stan has been a good friend to me in other ways, and this was a way to pay him back as well as have some kind of income."

The company buys new clothes from major department stores and catalogue businesses for about 10 cents on the dollar and sells them on eBay for 15 to 20 cents on the dollar, Shirah said. The clothes are not returns, but those new items the stores could not sell the previous season. Much of the merchandise is brand names, including Calvin Klein, Liz Claiborne, Old Navy, Polo and Ralph Lauren.

Business principles are the same for building homes or selling clothes, Shirah said.

"Buy right, sell value and respect your customers no matter what," he said.

The company's online store draws about 4,000 to 5,000 daily visitors, who spend at least 30 minutes surfing the site, Josh Wallace said. About 138,000 visitors are expected in March with monthly growth averaging about 8 percent.

"I think Burdines (now Macy's) wishes they had that kind of traffic flow," Shirah said.

At the small company, merchandise is received, measured, tagged, steam pressed, photographed, uploaded for listing on the Internet and then stored. Eventually it's packaged and shipped. Part of the business, writing up the listing as seen on the Internet pages, is outsourced to contractors paid by the listing.

The business sells about 2,300 items a month, but can handle about 3,000 items a month with current staff. Shirah wants to grow to 15,000 items a month before looking for a larger facility.

Besides expanding the size, future business ideas also include adding accessory lines of merchandise and opening a local store, Shirah said. But, for now, it's about having created jobs for family, friends and friends of friends in a positive work environment.

"It beats getting up every day wondering what you are going to do that day," said 76-year-old Frank Stone, a retired golf club pro and insurance agency owner who began work in December as a measurer and tagger.

"The best thing is I can come here in shorts and have flexible hours," Stone said. "No one is going to get rich here, but the camaraderie is great, and at least I have some work, while there are Phi Beta Kappas out there in line for minimum-wage jobs."

bob.koslow@news-jrnl.com http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Business/Headlines/bizBIZ02032109.htm