In 2020, Jamie and Sarah McCauley filmed themselves ripping, repainting, and restoring frugal furniture. They resold the items, made over $1,000 in profit, and posted the results on YouTube.
Within a week, video received 20,000 views. The McCauley family, who lived off multiple side jobs while also racing, sensed an opportunity. They started posting more videos about their other sources of income, including rental properties, moving projects, and reselling returned pallets from Amazon and Target.
Teaching people how to build those kinds of hustles has proven lucrative: In the last year, the McCauleys have raised $102,000 from YouTube and their other social media channels, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. .
That averages up to $8,500 per month. For the best month of the year, they made $9,000.
The McCauleys say some of the ways to flip their furniture are as simple as staging and taking new product photos.
Jamie and Sarah McCauley
“We’re starting to realize: This is a great way for people to make extra money if they have bills, or they can’t pay their rent, or they want to have an enjoyable family vacation,” says Sarah. . . “Everybody can do it.”
But of all their sources of income, Jamie says their YouTube and social media presence is the hardest to manage.
Here’s how they built it and what it takes to maintain it.
How to build a social media career
Jamie and Sarah know the details of the social network after years of running a successful wedding photography business, which was making $150,000 a year at its peak, Jamie said.
But after having two children, the couple realized that they didn’t want to spend the weekends away from their families. So they began buying, renovating, and renting properties around western Michigan, hoping for a more passive source of income to encourage schedule flexibility.
It worked, and the extra time allowed them to take on a variety of side jobs. They came up with the idea of posting their stuff and possessions flipping adventures on YouTube in 2019 and immediately found it challenging.
At first, Jamie only worked 30 hours a week on the YouTube project, while Sarah worked another 10 hours — in addition to an effort to sell two overturned homes and manage their photography business.
It took them a full year to reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, making them eligible for Google AdSense, a feature that allows creators to monetize their YouTube videos with ads.
“We weren’t really sure where home design, flipping or photography or YouTube would lead us,” says Sarah. “But we knew if we put ourselves out there, it would open up more opportunities.”
Flip the pros and cons
There are some obvious benefits to reselling furniture and home decor online, says Sarah, especially during times of economic uncertainty.
For example, many people are more willing to hunt for deals on eBay and Facebook Marketplace when the going gets tough, instead of heading to their usual retail stores.
“When the recession hits, people don’t want to pay full price for everything,” she said. “Thrift stores thrive during a recession, and I think resellers do too, because people are trying to save money in any way they can.”
Unlike real estate, the gamble of buying and selling furniture is minimal in both price and risk, says McCauley. There are fewer financial investments and Sarah says she breaks even on every flip.
The McCauley family said they staged and resell the $50 wardrobe on Facebook Marketplace for $300.
Jamie and Sarah McCauley
The couple said one of their best flips was a mid-century wardrobe they bought for $50 on Facebook Marketplace. All they had to do was show off and take a good picture of the wardrobe before selling it back for $300.
Sometimes, after shopping for furniture, the couple realizes that the item has more defects than they thought. Often, this means investing more time and money in repairing the item, which can affect the final sale value of the item, they say.
In those cases, “we just got the money back instead of making a huge profit, but we never actually lost money from it,” says Sarah.
Cost and efficiency
The McCauley family says it’s hard to go through a year without making any money from YouTube. And simply qualifying for AdSense does not guarantee large sums.
“The slower growth and its inconsistencies make continuing to push and believe in the process all the more a mental struggle,” says Jamie. “We’re in a better position now, but during that two-year period the question was ‘Is this what we should be doing? Is this going to work?’ “
They say that in 2020, the couple feels a change. Their videos started going viral more often, and brands like Skillshare, Beyond Paint and HelloFresh contacted them with partnership opportunities.
Attention suddenly flooded and they didn’t immediately know which brand to trust. These days, the McCauleys work with a company that examines brands and sets up contracts for them, claiming 18% from some of those partnerships, they said.
Sarah says she often notices underpriced items at Goodwill, which she resells for a profit on sites like eBay.
Jamie and Sarah McCauley
Monetizing their YouTube presence allows them to shut down their photography business, which greatly reduces their weekly workload.
However, there is still a mental struggle that comes with an unstable income, Jamie said. When you depend on advertising and brand partnerships, your income depends on viewership and the algorithm is often beyond their control.
Jamie says: “There are times when it’s frustrating when not much is coming. “But there are also good months when there’s a lot of money. It’s about the long game and trying to keep going. It’s about perseverance.”
The couple said they have no plans to give up their social media business. In general, their income stream helps them earn a good living while spending more time with their family than in standard 9 to 5 jobs.
“We wanted it to fit into our lives and that’s why we wanted non-traditional jobs,” says Sarah. “So that we can choose what we do.”
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