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Founder@ Interview
Interview with Sarah Flynn
“Maximum effort + unwavering faith = huge success….just give it time!.” – Sarah Flynn
Today we feature Sarah:Flynn, the founder at KAF Properties. We hear their story in their own words, their successes, their challenges and their insights.
Let’s start by getting to know you. Can you please tell us a little bit about you and what you do?
I am a successful business owner, property investor and entrepreneur. I currently devote the majority of my time to helping others to achieve their goals and ambitions through public speaking and private mentoring.
I have a portfolio of various properties across West Yorkshire, run a property investment business that helps others to achieve high returns on their capital, as well as trading and investing in stocks, shares, and commodities. I firmly believe that everyone deserves to live the life they choose, and that everyone is capable of achieving this.
A great introduction and start to this interview. Can you please tell us, how did you start, from what age, and what made you decide to change direction and start?
Born in Leeds in 1990, I started life in a regular working class household, with an excellent work ethic, instilled by her parents. After leading a fairly ordinary existence; leaving school with good grades, working for various banks and securing multiple promotions – things seemed to be going well.
However in March 2016, my younger brother and only sibling – Kyle – who was 19 at the time, passed away from Cancer. After an extremely turbulent period, experiencing severe PTSD, and undergoing extensive counselling; the death of my brother simultaneously ignited a profound shift in my mindset, and a new found spark to make the most of life.
In late 2016 I quit work, and made it my mission to live the life I had always dreamt of – one with an abundance of wealth, happiness, time, exhilarating experiences and fulfilment.
I have achieved this through investing an huge amount of my own time and money to educate myself on how to create sustained wealth, to ultimately live a life I choose to lead, and not be bound by a 9-5 job.
Thank you for that insight. So can you tell us…What does your business do and where is your company based?
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KAF Properties is an award-winning investment company based in Leeds, that uses property as a tool to provide strong returns on client capital. With over 6 years of experience in the property industry, working with our dedicated team of specialists, we are able to provide our clients with long-term, sustainable capital growth. We welcome all investors from across the globe, who want to join part of the UK’s ever growing property market and who want to receive passive income, and equally who would like more involvement in projects.
What’s the story behind your success? What led to your aha moment? how did you get to where you are now?
The death of my 19 year old brother to cancer in 2016. This event, completely shaped by existence, having a profound impact on me and driving me into action. It forced me to look at my life and really ask myself who am and want I wanted from life. When you realise your own mortality, its very difficult to settle for anything less than exactly what you want your life to become. The company I founded is named after my brother, his courage and bravery throughout his illness, is what drives me forward everyday. If you’re alive, you’ve got a chance – so you should take it.
Thank you for sharing that. What’s been your life’s biggest lesson so far?
Finding and raising money consistently. Property investing is probably the most capital intensive business there is, and there pressure is always on when you need to raise money for deposits/ refurbishments etc – any part that the bank won’t lend you, you need to find. It’s incredibly pressured, thinking you might have to find £100,000 in a week for example. It causes your emotions to go all over the place. Over time I’ve had to learn to let it go, and accept the fate of the deal – I can’t change the situation, and I have to trust in the process, and that if the money doesn’t materialise, then the deal obviously wasn’t meant to be. It’s taken me years to master the skill of ‘switching off’ and not getting emotionally involved in business – meditation, mentors and mantras definitely help!
That making your own money and starting a business is single handed one of the most difficult things you can do; people try and sell you the dream, but the reality is for a long time its absolutely awful and you don’t make any profit. No one speaks about this and therefore you spend alot of the early days in business feeling like you’re failing because no one tells you the bad stuff.
If you were to go back in time, what piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
1. Be patient. Wealth takes time.
2. Stop comparing yourself to others, stay in your own lane – you can only win at being you.
3. Go slow to go fast – Slow everything down, long term, sustainable businesses are built strategically over time. Being the fastest only causes mistakes
A link to a youtube video of mine and showcasing my other property videos I’ve produced to help others can be found here:
We’re nearly halfway through our interview so it’s a great time to ask how does your business run. What three tools make your business run better?
Property data software has helped us massively in finding/ sourcing properties, understanding demand for strategies and getting to know an area before we decide to purchase a property.
Websites such as Nimbus Maps, Propertydata.co.uk and AirDNA have greatly increased the productively of our business – without them we would have to travel to each individual area, conduct on the ground research and speak to estate agents etc which could take a week.
With all the property technology out there now, we can do the same research in about 30 mins.
What do you know now that you wished you had known before?
That making your own money and starting a business is single handed one of the most difficult things you can do; people try and sell you the dream, but the reality is for a long time its absolutely awful and you don’t make any profit. No one speaks about this and therefore you spend alot of the early days in business feeling like you’re failing because no one tells you the bad stuff.
What has been your greatest or proudest achievement or moment?
Getting my first printed article published in the BlueBricks Property Magazine – weirdly it made me feel like I was doing well with my business if someone wanted to publish something about me!
What future life goals do you want to achieve and why?
To set up 2 charities.
1. A charity thats provides free accommodation to families of young people with cancer who are staying in hospital – alot of the time the specialist cancer units are far away from families homes, but there is no where close by for families and loved ones to stay whilst the young person is undergoing treatment in hospital
2. Set up a foundation that provides free financial education to primary school children upwards
To finish our inspire questions…”We believe that sharing inspiring words can inspire others.” If there was one positive thing you would say to someone to inspire and empower them what would it be and why?
maximum effort + unwavering faith = huge success….just give it time!
“Thank you it has been great learning more about your founder story and KAF Properties”
To learn more about KAF Properties Visit www.sarahflynnofficial.co.uk / www.kafproperties.co.uk
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