If there is one thing I’ve learned over the past four years of coaching, fear can stop people from moving forward in life. I realize starting anything without experience can be scary. I’ve been there!
But to be honest, I believe flipping is the most amazing way to live life (I’m just a little biased!) I love every aspect of it!
But for some, it can be daunting to think of starting something like flipping if they’ve never done it before.
On a regular basis, we have people writing in expressing how much they would love to start flipping, but because they have no experience with flipping, fear holds them back from even starting.
That’s sad to think of all of the great things they missed out on life because they were scared to even start.
Fear is a funny thing. It can stop you from being successful if you let it. If you never start because you are afraid, you will never get experience.
It’s that simple.
People have expressed fear of:
- Shipping
- Failure
- Taxes
- Selling on Ebay
- Sourcing
I heard a quote once that said, “Having courage doesn’t mean you aren’t afraid. It means you are afraid and do it anyway!” Well said and could not be more true!
Today we have a registered nurse, Brandon, who joined our flipping community in order to replace his wife’s income so she could leave her stressful job.
Brandon had no experience flipping items other than selling two items on Ebay years ago. He didn’t know one thing about sourcing items, making a good listing, shipping larger items, or freight shipping.
Having no experience didn’t hold him back. He jumped in with both feet and figured it out as he went along!
In recent months, we have had quite a few nurses join our coaching group to learn how to flip. We think this is the perfect side hustle for RN’s! There are a few consistent themes when it comes to nurses: They work hard, problem solve, and giving up isn’t even part of their thought process!
Brandon fits this narrative! He has been active in our coaching group and has been able to make $5,000 in his first 90 days of flipping – With no prior experience!
We are happy to see Brandon succeeding, conquering his fears, and learning lots of great lessons along the way.
Let’s hear from Brandon!
My name is Brandon. I have worked as a registered nurse for the past 12 years and am currently working as a home health RN. I am a motorcycle enthusiast and an outdoorsman who loves to fish and drink whiskey.
I’m married to my beautiful wife, Alison. I have two step children, Liam and Macy, who are 10 and 12. We also have a rescue German Shepherd, Duncan, who is like our third child.
Alison and I got on the Dave Ramsey bandwagon and have spent the last three years paying off $30K in personal debt (student loans, etc.). After we paid off $30K, we saved $14K emergency fund and a big down payment to purchase our first home.
We are happy to say, we just closed on our home together and we’re really excited!
For fun we love to ride our motorcycle, go to garage sales and flea markets, and drink coffee and whiskey together.
Searching For and Finding a Business to Enjoy
I’ve wanted to own a business for a long time but couldn’t find anything that interested me. I’m the type of person that, if I’m not interested in doing something, I’m not going to do it well. So I knew that I needed to start a business in something I enjoyed. Besides, life is too short to do something you don’t like for any extended period of time, especially just for the money.
I’m an avid Gary Vaynerchuck fan. One day while I was listening to him, I heard him say that you can make a full-time living flipping items on Ebay. It was kind of surprising to hear that and it got me thinking.
As a kid, I had always loved finding items like cards and coins. I would buy them cheap and sell them for a profit. Even though I had only two things on eBay in the past, I knew I could flip items on Ebay, but I just didn’t know where or how to get started.
In my search for information on the internet for other sellers who were flipping items on Ebay, I found Flea Market Flipper. I fell in love with their business model immediately because I didn’t want to sell a ton of small items at a smaller profit.
With the Flea Market Flipper business model, you can make larger profits per item and therefore work less by shipping less. This really appealed to me because of my limited schedule with full-time work. I knew with my job I would have less time for sourcing, listing, and shipping.
It made total sense to sell one item for $1,000 as opposed to selling 100 items for $10.
As I contemplated taking Flipper U, I remember promising my wife I’d make the money back within the first month if I purchased the course. I just knew Flipper U was the real deal.
I’m happy to report, I made back my initial investment within the first month! This made me super happy and kept me out of the doghouse with my wife! She now thinks it’s a really cool side hustle and has joined me in my flipping business.
Once I signed up for Flipper University, I went through the course in about four days! I was hooked! I soaked up all of the information and learned everything I could.
I stayed up late every night after my day job to study the course. After I completed the course, I got heavily involved in the Flea Market Flipper Facebook community.
In the Facebook community page, I asked a ton of questions and paid a lot of attention to what everyone else was selling.
Because I was so new to flipping and it wasn’t natural for me to source because I’d never done it. I found so many answers to my questions in the community group. Having this resource was very valuable and essential for my success.
I found support from other sellers who are successful inside of that community. After going through the Flipper U and paying a lot of attention to what others were doing inside the members group, I just started searching online through selling apps for the same type of items that others were selling.
My wife and I also started going to garage sales and looking for those specific items we saw others selling. We went to flea markets and we started looking up Ebay comps for anything that caught our attention.
Learning and Growing in the Business
I’m still really new to flipping and it is still hard for me and not natural for me to source. But I am definitely picking some really amazing items and stepping out of my comfort zone.
Most recently, I have been selling a lot of exercise equipment. Due to Covid, the gyms are closed and people are looking for home gym equipment. I have done really well selling exercise equipment and continue to add new pieces to my inventory.
I also have learned a lot about sleep number bed parts, commercial equipment, and the like. I also learned from the course members group that selling cooktops is very lucrative and I’ve picked up several to flip!
After I finished the freight shipping portion of Flipper U, I was intrigued. It made perfect sense to sell items with higher value because the profit was definitely there.
I just recently sold my first item that was shipped freight. I picked up a high dollar stove for $100 and sold it for $1350. It was challenging, but I accomplished it and got my first freight shipment out safely!
Another really fun part of the business and one thing I learned from Flea Market Flipper is to keep my eye out for off the wall, random, fun items that we find. These are unique items that most people would just walk by. There’s a lot of money to be made in those unique items, as Rob would tell us!
For example, probably the two most fun items I’ve sold were a Vintage Garfield wall phone and a Tweety Bird and Sylvester the Cat talking Cuckoo clock. We bought the Garfield phone for $4 at a flea market and sold it for $80. We found the Cuckoo clock at a flea market as well for $50 and sold it for $250.
Most people walk by these items, but I have learned to have an eye for the unique. There are buyers out there who are looking for these unique, hard to find items and they are willing to buy them.
Change in Goals
My wife has a stressful job and I really want to see her do something else that she would enjoy more, like running our business. I am a registered nurse, which can be extremely stressful, and I wanted out of nursing as soon as possible. My original goal was to learn how to flip so we both could get out of our jobs.
As I continued with flipping, I started to realize that nursing is a lot less stressful when you have the skills to provide another stream of income. The better I get at flipping items, the more I’m realizing that depending on nursing for all of my income is more stressful for me than nursing itself. I will probably always be a nurse, but a part time nurse and a full time flipper sounds much more appealing!
My wife and I started thinking about what we had accomplished over the last year and a half. We dumped $30K of personal and saved another $14K for our emergency fund. On top of that, we saved a healthy downpayment for our first house together.
I tell people that when they go through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace, your mindset really changes. Instead of being in a hurry to leave our jobs, my wife and I started thinking about all of the freedom we could have if we were able to pay off our house.
With our unexpected flipping income, Alison and I sat down and were able to put together a plan to pay off our house in 3-5 years.
We both came to an agreement that we would stay at our jobs for the next 3-5 years and use our incomes and our flipping profits to get out from under our house payment. We already know exactly how much we need to pay ourselves from the business and we’re starting to work our numbers to figure out how to get there.
If we don’t have a house payment, the freedom and possibilities are endless! At that point, we both could leave our jobs or drop down to part time if we want to.
We know that being completely out of debt will give us so much freedom and we are willing to work for it and stay in our jobs to accomplish this.
Investing in Myself
I think it’s important to invest in yourself. Just like nursing school, I had to make that investment to get my license. I decided the same would be true if I wanted to learn how to be a flipper.
I came into the flipping business with no experience. The Facebook community that is part of Flipper U has been worth the price of Flipper University on its own. The support that I have gotten in the community is unbelievable.
In the community, I have access to a ton of successful sellers who are ready to help me with whatever questions I have. It may be questions about sourcing, selling, shipping, problems with Ebay, etc. They have been amazing at helping me learn too.
Moving Past My Fears
When I jumped into Flipper U, I wanted to learn how to freight ship. It was easy to see that was how I was going to increase my flipping profits quickly. The course has been invaluable to help with the learning curve. I had the privilege of learning from someone who’s been doing it for years and I was able to skip a lot of the headaches and mistakes by following Rob’s coaching.
Once I joined Flipper U, I got a lot of clarity on how to make this business work and how to make solid profits.
Turning a Little Into A Lot
With my business schedule working as a nurse and the hours I put into my day job, it didn’t leave a lot of room for building a side hustle. I had to have a business where I could work smarter with limited hours.
I’ve found flipping to be a flexible business that I can do on the limited time I have. For me, flipping is something I love to do. I enjoy sourcing, listing, cleaning up an item, and shipping it!
I enjoy being able to work on a business that involves things that I love to do. I also love the fact that there is very little overhead with this business. My wife and I started our business with the purchase of Flipper University and then put aside $55 in cash for inventory.
I think anyone can come up with a few bucks to get started. In my experience, you can turn a few bucks into thousands.
We’ve been flipping for several months part time and I have turned that $55 into almost $5,000 in cash. As an added bonus, we have another $4K in inventory in our storage shed that we’re waiting to sell. Not a bad return on $55 investment!
Learning From My Mistakes
There definitely is a learning curve to the business. I hit the ground running and I’ve made a few mistakes along the way.
There is some cost to learning. The first couple of sales I made, I had returns and partial refunds. I hadn’t gotten the hang of creating good listings that gave all of the information needed. There were defects in my items that didn’t notice when selling. I had to make those things right with my buyers.
Although it was disappointing to make mistakes in the beginning, I’ve learned to communicate with buyers, to give a partial refund, and also to complete a return. I’ve been able to make a lot of changes to improve my business and those lessons have helped me in the long run. There will always be mistakes in this business. The sooner you can learn from it, the better.
Through these challenges in the beginning of my flipping business, I have had to learn to deal with PayPal’s and Ebay’s shenanigans, which happens from time to time. They are big businesses and sometimes, when you have a problem, it can be difficult to get someone’s attention for help.
Through the coaching group, I have learned how to deal with these issues and the support has helped me move past my fears and also mistakes I have made in the business.
Turning a Nice Profit
When I started flipping, I didn’t know it would take off the way it did. I have learned so much and picked some really great items to sell. I thought it would take me a bit to get going. I think my desire and “never give up” attitude has helped me to succeed. I just knew I could do it and I wouldn’t take no for an answer.
I had no clue I could pick up a nice stove from a local sale and turn around and sell it for $1,350 on eBay. I also have picked several cook tops, nordic tracks, and many other interesting items that have made me some really great money.
Overcoming Challenges
Working full-time (50 hours a week), plus having a family at home is always a challenge when it comes to running a business. Time is limited and I want to make the most of the time I have for this business.
I think the two most challenging aspects of flipping are sourcing and shipping freight. It takes me some time to source and I sometimes don’t find anything after several hours of searching.
However, I will say that I am much, much better at sourcing than I was just a few months ago. I think I just continued to learn and wouldn’t give up. Because of that perseverance, I think I have just stayed in it and learned how to get better at it.
Freight shipping is another challenge. Because I had never done it before, there was always a fear of failing at it. Learning from others in the coaching group has helped me overcome those fears and I have been able to accomplish my first freight shipment!
I was able to ask questions and have help along the way. I feel like the sky is the limit now that I have the first freight shipment accomplished. It will just keep getting better from here.
Thank you so much, Brandon, for sharing your success with us. Fear truly can hold you back if you let it. We are so thrilled that Brandon walked through the fear and has learned to flip items for profit.
Have you thought about flipping, but have been afraid to start? Has fear paralyzed you and kept you from accomplishing your goals? If you think flipping might be a great side hustle for you, check out our free flipping intro webinar today!
FURTHER RESOURCES
FREE Workshop How To Turn Your Passion of Flipping Items Into A Profitable Reselling Business
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