Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about how to build stability in your flipping business so you have consistent income.
Flip It For Christmas Challenge: https://www.flipitforchristmas.com/
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fleamrktflipper/
Check out our FREE Workshop: https://courses.fleamarketflipper.com/flipper-university-workshop-webinar
You can find us at: https://fleamarketflipper.com/
Appliance Flipping Course: applianceflipping.com
Reseller Hangout Podcast - Building Stability In Your Flipping Business
Rob: What's up, guys? On today's episode, we are excited to talk about getting more stability in your flipping business.
Melissa: Yeah. A lot of times people are nervous to sell some higher dollar items because they're nervous about returns. So we are going to unpack that today.
Rob: All right guys, so today we are talking about stability, how to build a stable flipping resell business.
Melissa: Yeah. So we know that the money can ebb and flow in our business and it, it can be tied to our effort in work of what we're doing.
And so we kind of wanted to unpack a little bit about that and how you can increase some more stability in your flipping business
Rob: And give you a couple practical things that you can do if you're trying to get your flipping business. A lot of people start this as a side hustle. They want to get more consistent income.
We wanna try and give you guys some steps that you can move towards that if you implement them into your business and you will get more to a consistent income for sure.
Melissa: A big one that I wanted to talk about is a lot of people are nervous to sell higher value items because they're nervous about return.
So the, like, I could never sell something for a thousand dollars because what if they came back and returned it? Well, there are ways to prevent higher preventative ways of a return, but also a big one is to keep that money in reserve for at least 30 days and then, and not spend it. And that is harder to do when you're first starting out or you're younger, typically, like it's a little bit harder to do.
But if you can start to build that up to where you have that little pillow of money, that is just there for 30 days and then you can use it.
So.
Rob: Yeah, it's definitely a key. When I started out, I was young in this business and when I made a big sale, I went out and, you know, I had, I spent the money, I did right away.
Exactly. And it wasn't one of those things that I kept an account that I had that money in there, to where I could save it. If something did come up, something happened in shipping, whatever it was, I, I didn't have those funds. So definitely do that when you're starting off. Now, a lot of people that are starting this business, it is as a side hustle.
You have a full time gig that you're running, so you have money. Let this be that side income that you're sitting over there and building up that little cushion to, if something does happen, you do have the funds that you can do a return if you have to, but that is a really, really good key are.
Melissa: It's a good business practice.
Rob: Exactly.
Melissa: So that you're not pulling yourself thin. Really try to keep that, that cushion of money and know that you have a 30 day window that they could, and if you accept returns. So we don't accept returns, but that doesn't mean we can't get one, not described or it's damaged. Like typically anything that comes back to us is a something damaged and then it's a shipping claim, which is different than a return.
Rob: Yeah.
Melissa: So, but we still have to go through the process. They have to get their money back, and then we have to get the money from the, the shipping carrier. So it's, it's a different from a return, but we still wanna have that little cushion of money sitting there for any of those things that could possibly happen.
Rob: Yep.
Melissa: So I know the, one of the first ones that you learned that on. Was that, a Nordic track, right?
Yeah, the ski machine.
Rob: $1,700. I sold a Nordic track ski machine. It was a top of the line. I think it was an elite. I don't remember exactly which it was, but it was a top of the line, and I did that one actually as a bid.
Now we sell lot things. I did. Now we do a lot of things on, buy it nows, we don't typically list a seven or 10 day bid. But I did on this one because it was especially one, and I had two guys going back and forth with this thing until somebody got it for like $1,750. Ended up selling it, listing it as a mint condition, perfect condition, all that kind of stuff.
The stuff that you do not do. I did it. The guy got it, was disappointed with it, and wanted to return it, and I had to issue a refund on that. So that was one of the things, tons and tons of learning.
Melissa: Did you have the money to do it?
Rob: I did not. Tons and tons of learning things on that. So, yeah, they definitely don't do that.
Don't overpromise and underdeliver on your items. You want to make sure that you're under promising and overdelivering when you're, when you're selling items. So that's a big key in it. And keeping that money in the side, for at least 30 days somebody can come back and say, hey, this is not as described.
All that kind of stuff. But, there's a lot of other precautionary stuff that you can take to make sure that that doesn't happen. And the biggest thing is under promising and over-delivering on your item. So people are very pleasantly surprised and happy with the condition that your item is once they receive it.
Melissa: Yeah, we almost now in our listings, I don't know, like try to get the buyer not to buy, I don't know what like every last bit there could be scratches, or scuffs, we try to take pictures of anything that we see, but we still put that in the description in case we miss something cuz you don't wanna, you know, you miss a scratch or something, that the buyer sees and then you didn't say like, it says expect it. It's a used item. It's not new. Yeah. So we almost say that it's in worse condition than it really is so that the buyer is happy when they get the item.
Rob: So, and typically that's what happens with our sales, is the buyer is very, very happy with the item when they get it.
And they leave me good feedback on it, which is another plus in this business. You wanna build positive feedback. We have a hundred percent feedback on our name. Just because of those reasons, we under promise and we overdeliver on that.
Melissa: So, so keeping a little cushion of money ready to go, like if you just need it for incidentals and all that stuff, or whatever could happen, you just wanna try to keep that on the side.
We had that one member that you talked with the other day. He had $30,000 saved up just cuz he said, I'm just doing this on the side to, and he just kept putting the money away and saved up $30,000. I don't know how long.
Rob: And he had full time income and this was just a side income that he was doing.
Melissa: It was funny and that was really cool to hear, like, okay, well he's just got this little cushion of money sitting there, which is really cool.
Rob: Absolutely. That's awesome.
Melissa: Yeah. And one thing I was gonna also tell, I know we talked about this, a couple episodes back. It was actually, 85, episode 85. I don't know if it would've helped you in the instance to have an extra income when they came and, arrested you for that money out that you didn't give out, but you had to go check out that episode.
When, he got arrested for one eBay sale. It was pretty interesting cuz it was, it was the bank's fault, but, anyway so it was episode 85, so go check it out. It was a fun story. It was a long time ago, and it wouldn't really happen, on these kind of days. So yeah.
Rob: We have a lot of stuff into play now that would not allow that stuff to happen.
So, but anyways, a second thing that you guys can actually do when you're trying to build a consistent business or a stable business is consistently listing. That is one of the things that you want to do. Yeah, it, it, the more consistent you treat this business, if it is a side hustle, right now, you're doing it part-time. The more consistent hours and time that you play into it is how you're gonna get paid on the business. So definitely listing consist consistently will help you bring consistent sales in.
Melissa: Yeah, you can't, I mean, you do, you are rewarded for the, the job, the amount of effort that you put into it.
It is better really to list, I would say more daily than like one time a month where you list 30 to 50. I mean, we do larger items, so it's not really, it's not as much volume, so that's probably a low number for a lot of you. But we'll list instead of one time or a week or one time a month, try to list more consistently on a daily basis cuz eBay likes that as their algorithm likes to see you time on platform activity.
And a lot of times it's interesting with our sales cuz you are not always consistent. We're doing a lot of coaching, a lot of videos, a lot of other things. But once you start getting back in the groove, then one hits, and then we got a couple that like, it's always like one to four, three or four items, bigger items sell right away.
Rob: Yeah.
Melissa: Which is pretty cool to see that consistent listing.
Rob: So yeah. It really doesn't matter if you're selling $5 items. It doesn't matter if you're selling $500 items. It doesn't matter if you're selling a thousand dollars items. Guys, the key is consistency, like Melissa said in our Flipping for profit group, our private group that we have, a ton of members in, sometimes we will.
Right now we're in the middle of a listing challenge that we have a constant listing challenge that you're listing every single day. And it could be one item a day, it could be 2, 3, 4, 5 items a day, but we're doing it as a consistency 30 day challenge that we're running through it and the sales will really start coming in when you do that.
So eBay is a platform that likes people on platform. They want people there listing, buying, selling, all that kind of stuff. They want people on platform and they reward you for that. Their algorithms totally reward you for being on platform. Like I said, that can be buying, it can be selling, whatever it is, they wanna see you there more and they will reward you for that. I should say, the algorithm should reward you more for doing that. So, and this is something that it's not, hey, this is a theory guys. We've done this for years and years and years, and every time we do it, even just a couple weeks ago, I hadn't listed in months, and I started listing a couple items a day, and then the sales started coming in.
I got four or five sales within a week's period. And it like $13,000 or $15,000, a ton of money came in just because I started listing in more consistently and then the stuff started selling. So.
Melissa: And your stuff is already priced right? So like the listings are already done correctly, they're priced competitively.
We have good pictures. So those do that, that does factor into that. Like you still have to be competitive in your pricing or you have, you know, the best item or whatever it is in your, in your area. So, but those things were in play. But then once you start, listing again, and getting again, than the sales coming back in.
Rob: So yeah.
Melissa: So those two things really are two things that can add more. I know as I think, I don't know if it's, people are just different, but I like to have some stability in finances. I know like that, and I think that's more of a female thing than a male thing, but it could go opposite too. But I like to have that stability and to know okay, so we have this little cushion of money if we need it for that. Like, it's a lot, makes me feel so much better. Just makes me feel like I can not stress about it if something were to happen. So it just, it's something that can just help ease your stress or ease your anxiety in your business and then being consistent to keep bringing in the sales.
Rob: So absolutely.
Melissa: Those are two, two big things to help your business.
Rob: So recap, definitely a consistent listing. And the first one, you definitely want to do is, okay?
Melissa: Keep that reserve of money.
Rob: That's it, cushion that Melissa talked about. So, guys, right now we're in the middle of, getting ready for the Flip it for Christmas challenge.
Melissa: Yeah.
Rob: If you guys, we would love to see you guys in there diving deeper into this stuff, helping people make more money consistently.
Melissa: Well, our goal for the, for Christmas challenge is to help you get $250, your first $250 from flipping.
Rob: At least.
Melissa: So yeah, at least. And that's kind of our baseline. By the end of four. It's a four week challenge. We go live weekly. So just yeah, flipitforchristmas.com. It's a free challenge. So if you wanna get the VIP and get some of the extra bonuses and replays, we'd love to see you in there too. But the challenge itself is free. And yeah, we wanna help you make an extra $250.
Rob: Go register now.
The link is below. Guys, we cannot wait to see you in the Flip It for Christmas challenge.
Melissa: See you there.