242.From $60K in Debt to $250K/Year Flipping Furniture

0:00April 1st, 2020. Kara's husband walks in and he lost his job. They've got a brand new mortgage, $60 ,000 in medical debt, and a bedroom dresser that was falling apart. No money to replace it, so she dragged it into her backyard, painted it with leftover wall paint, and posted a blurry photo to Facebook just to show her friends. The messages started flooding in. Fast forward two years, that broken dresser turned into an$80 ,000 year in year one in revenue, a paid off$60 ,000 in debt, a YouTube channel, and a six-figure business built entirely from other people's furniture. Oh, and she'll be the first to tell you she has zero artistic ability.

0:41I'm Ryan Atkinson, and you're listening to Self-Thud Podcast, where we interview entrepreneurs on their actual advice so you can start a business too. And today, Kara is going to show us exactly how she does furniture flipping while creating some amazing content. So Kara, thank you so much for being here. So, so excited to have you on.

0:57Kara Ward:Thank you, Ryan. I'm so excited to be here. It's going to be great. You have a phenomenal content game. This is such a fun topic. For the people that aren't catching on, though, give us a baseline. What exactly do you do? Who is Kara Ward? What do you work on? So I'm a furniture flipping mom who spends a lot of time out in my garage. It's a side hustle that turned into a full-time gig sort of overnight and took me by surprise, but it's been a fun adventure. I like it. And what are you doing in revenue? How big is this? Tell us in terms of your YouTube content alongside with like just the furniture flipping.

1:29Kara Ward:Sure. So I average about 250k a year. I've been doing this for five years and I've been out that number for probably the last two years we've been around that area. But by the time I was in my second year ramping up to the third, we were easily clearing like about 150k. It's so cool. So I'm so excited for this. Before we dive into all that though, let's talk about the origin story. April 1st, 2020, probably a day you remember well. Take us back. What happened? What were the feelings? Yeah, so it was a bad day. I always say it's like the worst April Fool's joke ever. My husband came in first thing in the morning.

2:06Kara Ward:He had his dream job. He worked in events. So he was like one of the first ones that were cut when lockdown happened. So he came in in that morning and just said, I lost my job. And it was over. There was no severance. There was no nothing. It was Friday's your last paycheck. You're done. It was very scary. There was no safety net. My son was diagnosed with autism when he was three and a half. And so we had about$60 ,000 worth of medical debt still hanging over our heads. And we just didn't know what we were going to do. I mean, we just had no idea what we were going to do. And so, yeah, like you had mentioned, you know, a few days go by.

2:41Kara Ward:And at this point, everybody's locked down in their homes. And we started watching YouTube and we fell on a channel of a furniture flipper. And we were like, well, you know, we're kind of bored. We're sitting in our house. And we had been we've been married for 23 years and we had furniture that we've had that was like a gift when we got married. And so we were like, this is really ugly and it's outdated. We can't afford anything new. And so we're like, well, let's try to paint it. I think we could do this. And so we did that on a weekend. And like you said, I posted some pictures just on my Facebook page with my friends.

3:13Kara Ward:And we had five or six people that responded in my inbox and said, will you flip our furniture? Whoa. And it was pretty crazy because I, you know, I responded back because we kind of laughed about it at first. We were like, no. But then when we thought about it, we were like, well, we have to eat. so we need to eat and we really can't say no to this and so we just told our friends like look we don't really know what we're doing we just did this on a whim but like we're happy to try but know that like we really don't know what we're doing yeah that's crazy so what what was that alignment like hey take my furniture flip it and like take a cut or what did what was the alignment there yeah so there was a definitely a learning curve right because we really did it we had no idea.

3:57Kara Ward:We just kind of guessed at what we thought we should be charging. And then, of course, like covered our supplies. And then we scheduled everybody out. I feel like those five people really did schedule with us. And so we scheduled everybody out and, you know, they dropped their furniture off in the driveway six feet apart. And I just remember them dropping it off and like waving and we would get the dolly and haul it into the garage. And then a few days later, we'd call them and tell them it was done. And it just started like that. And so it started from, you know, then we'd post more pictures of what their furniture looked like.

4:26Kara Ward:And then it just kept snowballing. And then they would tell their friends and their then their friends started calling. It really just snowballed and took on a life of its own. And then sort of in between those pieces, I started finding furniture on the side of the street. I started, you know, looking at Facebook marketplace for people that were giving things away. I was asking family members, do you have any furniture that you want to give away? And just cultivating pieces that way, because I was figuring out, well, not only can we do the commission pieces, but I can also start doing some pieces of my own and see how that goes.

4:58Kara Ward:Because at that point, we were just in full blown, like, we need to pay our mortgage, we need to eat. Yeah, it was just like fight or flight, we need to pay bills. I can't even imagine like, as a mom, like what you were like going through or like thinking about, but I like absolutely like love the hustle for you to just like try stuff. So was your process as simple as like get furniture from street, whatever, make it look good, make it look pretty and then just resell it? Was that just like as simple as the process could be? Absolutely. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So it sounds like a lot of people like this is, this is a great like side hustle essentially.

5:33You have made it a full-time gig, but would you recommend people to start this as like a side hustle?

5:36Kara Ward:It's absolutely a wonderful side hustle. It took about a year, a year and two months, I think until he had another job. So we had to go just hardcore. Like this was the job But after he got a job and we could cool down a little bit, this turned in just the most amazing side hustle. I easily cleared$4 ,000 a month just part time working from home. I homeschool my kids. It allowed me so much freedom to just be here and be with them at the point we weren't in that like full on hustle mode. So it easily brings in a really good salary without having to do a nine to five job. Kara, I'm sure you've heard this a lot, but you are a phenomenal mom.

6:16I respect the heck out of this. What did the hustle look like? What did the hustle look like, though? Were you doing this 10 hours a day? Take me back to those early days when you're doing 4 ,000 a month.

6:26Kara Ward:It was rough. During the height of it, we had to flip about 45 pieces a week. That's a lot of pieces of furniture to flip a week. I don't know, looking back now, how we kept up with that pace. I think it was just pure adrenaline. We talked about, we had to do it. My husband and I are very big side hustlers. We've always had some sort of side hustle going on. And so when this emergency happened, we just kicked it into high gear. So I mean, yeah, that's a rough pace to go at. But like I said, we really didn't have a choice. And so we just we just went for it. So yeah, we worked around the clock.

6:58Kara Ward:But it was also really nice sort of looking back. I mean, not the grind of it per se, but, you know, we were able to be here with our kids. You know, I kept homeschooling the whole time. So they never missed a beat. They didn't know anything was, you know, really different besides the fact that we couldn't go anywhere. But, you know, mom and dad were always around and we had dinner on the table every night and we just had a lot of family time. And it just really allowed us to connect with each other during a really scary time in the world. I like it. We're getting actual for listeners on like finding inventory and like flipping it.

7:29But content's a big part of your game as well. What's like the content side look like for you now?

7:34Kara Ward:Well, the content side is really interesting. So I know we might get into this a little bit more. But once the pretty much of the full year was over of flipping furniture, I held up a little sign on my Instagram that said, you know, we had paid off$60 ,000 of debt and this much time. And I just posted it on Instagram, thinking nothing of it. And the next day, Dave Ramsey team ended up in my inbox. And they saw the post and they said, will you drive to Nashville and be on the show and tell us your story. And so I had no intention of being a content creator. I didn't know what it was. It was, you know, literally I'm flipping furniture to feed my kids and pay my mortgage.

8:13Kara Ward:And thinking about social media was the farthest thing from my mind. So of course we agreed and we're still sort of coming out of lockdown at this point. And so it took probably nine months from that initial contact to actually get to Nashville to be on the show. And during that time, you're speaking with them a lot and figuring things out. And one of the phone calls when I had with them, one of the guys said, you know, have you picked up a camera and started filming. And I was like, no, why would I do that? And he's like, you have literal gold in your garage. Like people want to see what you're doing.

8:45Kara Ward:They want to hear your story. I mean, this is absolutely so inspiring to people that are in so much debt. Like you've got to share this with the world. And so that's what we did. We started picking up the camera that weekend. I didn't know what I was doing. I don't know how to edit. I didn't understand any of this world. And lo and behold, about five months into it, our YouTube channel got monetized, which is crazy. It normally takes a YouTube channel about a year and a half on average to get monetized. So in five months, we started making money on YouTube and that just snowballed into a whole world of its own.

9:14Kara Ward:So it's very interesting. Are you working a nine to five, but dream of entrepreneurial freedom? Look no further than the Eflip Academy, the number one entrepreneurial platform with 20 plus step-by-step courses taught by active business owners, live workshops, hands-on skill training, a business idea database, and a thriving entrepreneur community to keep you accountable. Click the link in the description below to join the Uflop Academy today and make this the year you stopped dreaming and started building your business without guesswork. The moment that you paid off the debt, I feel like I should have hit on that like more like what was that feeling?

9:53I mean,$60 ,000 in medical debt is, that's a large bill to pay.

9:56Kara Ward:It's so freeing. We had been carrying that debt around for probably eight years. That's a, that's it for people who have never been in debt before to go. And at the height of it, we probably were close to a hundred thousand dollars in debt. Wow. So we had been chunking away at it before all of this happened, but you know, during the pandemic, you know, those credit card bills didn't stop coming. They still wanted their money. And so it was like, what in the world are we going to do? So yeah, it was, it's a huge amount of debt to carry around for anybody. And so when we had finally paid it out, obviously we had a huge celebration.

10:29Kara Ward:And then And of course, getting on the Dave Ramsey show and being able to do our debt-free scream was just really unreal. And after that, we worked just to being completely financially free. So we are financially free and no bills come anymore. No bills come anymore. Let's talk about how people can get actionable here. Finding inventory. So let's just say, holy smokes, this is super inspiring, super motivational. Like I know some listeners are thinking about right now. Let's talk about sourcing process. If someone's like, okay, I want to do this as a side hustle. I want to make$4 ,000 a month.

10:59Where should they look for first to get their furniture? And like, what are you searching for?

11:04Kara Ward:The easiest things I think are like most places have around here, they call them like dump days where you can find where they do bulk trash and you can drive around and see what people have put to the curb. You would be shocked at how many pieces of furniture people put out on the curb. So that's one way. Obviously that's totally free, which is a great way to start. I am a big believer in this business of keeping your inventory and your costs really, really low so that your margins are just awesome because it is so easy to find free or cheap furniture. I hit up a lot of estate sales on the weekends.

11:36Kara Ward:I love estate sales. Those work really well for me. Those have been really just my secret sauce because with the content creation part, there's so much involved in that, that it's easier for me to go to an estate sale, pick up four or five pieces right there. And that's pretty much that'll cover me for the entire month. So that's really nice to just have it all there and not be running around throughout the week. So that's a great tip. Obviously, there's Facebook marketplace when the big subdivisions have their big garage sales. That's another great thing to keep an eye on. Go hit up those big garage sales where, you know, the big family garage sales and there's a whole lot of people participating.

12:13Kara Ward:You can get some great deals there, too. And ask your friends if they're giving anything away. That's good. OK, so let's just say you go to an estate sale. Let's just do that. For example, what like exact furniture pieces are you looking for and do you avoid any furniture? Ah yes absolutely so the things you really want to avoid that don't sell well are things like and you're going to be surprised coffee tables are terrible to move they're really hard to move and tables are really hard to move pieces that look really really dated that you don't know how to update pass on those cedar chests like just things that really just scream old older days bed frames are really hard to move.

12:53Kara Ward:So things like that you want to you want to pass on things that you want to look at picking up are dressers, media cabinets, things that have multi purpose use. Dressers are great because they can be used in a variety of different functions, a bunch of different rooms, you can use a dresser as you know, a buffet, things like that. So it gives you a lot of different ways to sell it. So I always look for dressers nightstands are huge sellers in my market right now. So those are other things that I always pick up. I love and my little insider tip just for you guys is I love to pick up china hutches because they don't sell.

13:27Kara Ward:I can pick up china hutches all day for five dollars. Five dollars. And what would you like resell a china hutch for? I break them apart. I flip the bottom and then I flip the top and I can easily make twenty five hundred off of one five dollar China Hutch. What? No way. Where's like the best place to get these at? Because I'm going to go do that like right after. And where do you sell them at? Yeah. Where do you get them at? Where do you sell them at then? Facebook Marketplace is where I sell everything. But I am really fortunate. I do live in Dallas. I have a huge market draw. I have a lot of people moving in on the daily.

14:03Kara Ward:So I do have a lot of people, a lot of eyes looking at things. But yeah, estate sales is the number one place to get China Hutch's. They typically don't sell. I just went to one last weekend where the China Hutch didn't sell and they're desperate to get it out of the house. So basically, I mean, sometimes they're just giving it away because if they don't, that means they have to call a dump truck or something like that to give it to you. And a lot of times like the Goodwills and things like that have stopped taking China Hutch's because nobody wants them. So the little estate sale gold right there is usually they can't get rid of them.

14:33One question I'm going to push back on a little bit. So Goodwill is having a hard time selling them so they won't take them. You're finding it for like$2 ,500. How do you do that then?

14:43Kara Ward:Right. So like I said, so when I get a China Hutch, you're obviously buying both pieces, the top and the bottom. And that's what everybody's seeing. And so that's what they don't want. Because in our younger culture, you've got people that move around a lot. They live in apartments. A lot of people don't even register for China anymore. So they're not things that are desired at this point. So what I will do is take the bottom part of it and turn it into a media cabinet or a buffet. I'll take the top part of it. I add legs to it and it looks like a curio cabinet. And so we're talking two different sellers.

15:16Kara Ward:I'll have one person that buys the hutch bottom and one person that buys the hutch top and they can go anywhere from a thousand to twelve hundred dollars for either piece. For everything that you buy, are you like refurbishing it or like making it look better? Yes. Everything that I buy, I am refurbishing it. Sometimes in the summer, you know, it gets so hot here, Ryan, in Texas. So hot. It's ridiculous. I don't want to be stuck in the garage. So sometimes I am looking for just those super easy couches that you can just run the stain steamer over and freshen them up. Or sometimes I flip a lot of chairs and things that just need a real simple, clean little restore finish maybe and restage them and they're in and out the door.

15:57Kara Ward:I do that sometimes on a weekend and I make an extra thousand dollars without having to pick up a sander. It's super, super simple to do. You just kind of need to know what your area is looking for. But that is a really, really fun thing to do. And also just a really great little side hustle. I mean, you're not going to make full-time income really doing that. But, you know, I made an extra thousand dollars and my husband and I went to Vegas. So it was like, you know. What more do you need? Those fun little things that you can do with this business. yeah that is uh that is fun how do you know how to upgrade something because like if i saw a dresser you know i'm a 27 year old 20 however old i am like i would have no idea what to do how do you know like how to like upgrade or like what to upgrade it for you like changing the style of it or like what does it look sometimes i mean now that i'm six years in things are a little different but when i started it simply was get it home get it painted update it and you're kind of following you got to follow the trends a little bit.

16:56Kara Ward:It will do you some good to go search on Pinterest and see what's trending, you know, get a Pottery Barn catalog, flip through it, see what things look like right now. And so that's the gist of what I do is I just look for what is trending right now. What are people buying? I don't paint bold colors, you know, that's going to sit for a while. You have a very specific audience for that. But, you know, paint things black, tan, white. You usually can find a buyer all day long. Nice. That is a great tip right there. Listeners, rewind that. Double click. That's really good. So it looks like you keep a total investment under 150 on pieces or like what's your like the max you'll spend on like something.

17:32Talk to us about that breakdown.

17:33Kara Ward:Oh, man. I feel like I'm pretty cheap when it comes to that compared to my other furniture flipper friends. I... Good for you. Yeah. It's just because of how we started. You know, I started off with so much free stuff that it's kind of like, oh, you want how much for that? But then I kind of I remember my margins and I'm like, yeah, I think I'm going to be OK. I really don't like to spend more than$80 on a piece. Wow. Period. Period. I really try to keep it at 50. I like a little challenge, as you might be able to tell. And so that's I love that. I love a good challenge. And if I can get it for free, even better.

18:06Kara Ward:I like to be somewhere in there. It is a rare day. And I mean, I could probably count it on one hand in five or six years that I spent more than$100 on a dresser. And that it's got to be real special for me to do that. It's got to be something that I know that I'm in the$1 ,200 range before I'm going to drop$100 on a dresser. What's your framework in your mind of like, how do you know this is going to sell for$1 ,200? It is a bit of experience. It's also, if I'm looking at a piece, it has good bones. It's made out of solid wood. A really good example would be right now, anything with arches or cathedral looking details is really hot.

18:40Kara Ward:The arch cabinets right now. I don't know if you've noticed, but arch cabinets are a big deal. I found a pair of them not too long ago. Again, they couldn't get rid of them. They looked pretty dated from just looking at them. They wanted like$10 a piece for them. And those easily were over $2 ,000 a piece to sell. So$4 ,000 on a$20 investment. So it's pretty crazy. But it's things like that. I mean, it does help to know what's trending, what people are buying. If you've got something with good bones, it has a shape that looks like it's in style, you probably do pretty well. Where's the content coming in all this?

19:15Are you like filming yourself like flipping this, designing this or what's the content piece that has made your business like really take off?