We had the good fortune of connecting with Kala Klink and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Kala, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Risks are kind of the way my life works – I would rather just do it and see how it goes then spend 10x the amount of time researching the decision, and then probably talking myself out of it anyways. Risk taking = experienced, hands on learning. This, in my opinion, is the best way to learn. Doing it yourself, finding the trials and errors, being under the pressure of having to quickly find the best solution; these are the key factors that implore someone to truly learn. Reading a book, a social media post, listening to a podcast, etc. does not help you learn. But risk taking helps you learn and forces you to learn in multiple aspects of your life. Many times the risk goes hand in hand with some sort of suffering, but the rewards given back many times from the risk make it worth it.
Taking risks is normal to me, so normal that often what I see is just working someone else views as a risk. Talking to people about owning businesses, explaining the process of flipping houses, the process of managing people throughout each company, etc. is all looked at as a risk and it comes very natural to me. I often say I do best in the middle of chaos! Probably not a good thing, but it is true! I know what I want and you don’t get that from a 9-5 salaried job… So really my only choice is to go out and do it – take the risk and keep going after that. You basically build risk on top of risk, on top of risk, until you’re on a pile of them at once you’re at the top it doesn’t seem so scary, but sometimes through the building process it is.
Risk is natural to me, and does not scare me. In the event everything crashed and burned, and we lost it all, we would still be better off than most of the worlds population. How sad is that to think about? I had the opportunity to go on a missions trip in 2008 to Nicaragua. I witnessed dead bodies freely laying throughout the city, I witnessed the 25′ tall concrete walls built to protect us where we were staying, I witnessed the lack of simplistic conveniences like running water, toilet paper, microwaves, laundry machines, etc., I witnessed women and children living in a dump, considered the poorest of the poor people, we witnessed fathers in this dump selling their little girls to the truck drivers so they could have first pickings out of the trash, we walked through these “homes” filled with stench of rotting food, rotting bodies, and trash water… just inches and inches of trash water you walked through. The last I’ll share is witnessing a mother and her three children (roughly 12 mos., 2yrs, and 4yrs), all very skinny, while she said her goodbyes to them as she surrender them to our orphanage. The 18 month old just held onto her pants looking up at her, surely he had no idea he was saying goodbye, but he just held onto her pants.
When you see what much of our world lives like outside of the US – taking risks that might fail in America is not a scary thing.
Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Niches are key in any industry – your industry does not need to be unique but what you do specifically should be.
Business #1: Quillz Ink – My business Quillz Ink sells printers and printing supplies. Boring – I know. But many businesses need to print. This industry in itself is kind of a niche, but you can just go on Amazon or Office Depot to order… We set ourselves apart by being a nationally certified Woman Owned Business, partner with the top brands while guaranteeing a lesser price, and are one of the only, possibly the only woman owned business licensed to sell HP on Amazon. Quillz services home offices, up to national corporate chains across the country; while also supporting Amazon orders and Government bidding opportunities for all government agencies. When you buy with Quillz you get modern day convenience, old school customer service, top tier quality brands, with the most competitive price.
Business #2: Red Beard Design and Installation – I design – he installs! This company is geared towards installing prefab cabinets only through national distributors. This was a customer gets the quality of custom cabinets (sold wood, soft closed hardware, dovetailed drawers) at a more affordable price. They might sacrifice certain custom things they want done, but generally, we can get them what they want through the prefab world. The niche is being able to offer these lesser prices with the design help, and the install all being done through the same company. This does bleed into remodel work, i.e. a customer wants their whole kitchen remodeled and we end up being the General Contractors on the job and sub out the additional work.
Business #3: Flippertat – Flippertat buys and flips houses. We started this in 2020 back in Oregon, and made a new LLC when moving to Texas in 2021. We just finished our 17th flip this last Summer (2023). So what’s the niche here? Our niche in flipping is finding the worst of the worst houses that are not desired by many other flippers. We have enough experience that very little scares us (we have even had a house condemned and had to tear it down and build a new construction – this was ONLY our second flip ever). We GC it ourselves, and Danny does a lot of the finish work himself.
Business #4: KlinkBooks – My degrees are in business and finance, and overall, I am good with numbers. Back when I was 18-20, I did bookkeeping and tax prep on the side, for basically no money, just to get experience and some side cash. As I have done my own businesses for nearly a decade, I have learned everything there is to know about bookkeeping, how to fix things, how to set it up, etc. But most importantly I have learned what CPA’s look for and need. My services offer “clean up” projects to clients. This looks like someone who has not filed taxes for multiple years (or even 7…) needed me to manually enter and categorize everything, year by year, account by account, for their CPA. This can also look like a restaurant that operates on a cash basis just needing simple income and expenses sorted out so they can file taxes, so they can get preapproved for a house. This looks like the contractor who has done a gazillion jobs over the last two years but never accounted for any of it on his end, and now does not know who owes what. There are so many examples of “clean up” projects but those are a few. The niche is the clean up, most bookkeepers and CPA’s do not want to do this. Frankly, I don’t either! It is so much work, but I really enjoy getting to take the stress off of these other people and help them start fresh. if you have been in that position, you know how incredibly stressful it is.
Business #5: DKKM Rentals – We have rental properties we manage ourselves. Nothing really special or a niche with this one, I guess since we manage them ourselves that is kind of a niche.
Business #6: Flips Made Simple – My good friend and I started this business just last year in an effort to sell a class to people that want to flip. You will NEVER learn as best as when you go in and do something yourself, but this is my effort in helping people not make many basic learner mistakes. My goal is not that they will learn everything they need to know about flipping from this one Master Class, but that they will have some serious ground work laid out for them, be given multiples processes needed to start and complete a flip, and have a lot of do’s and don’t’s to follow. I wrote a 7 chapter master class, included some video tips, and then my buddy and I decided to hire a film crew to film us doing a real flip from beginning to end. This was important to do because it proves we walk the talk, and are not teachers from afar who have never actually done the thing we teach.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well with 6 companies and 2 kids I don’t get out much. But – I would take them to the Star, probably more than once for all the amazing food (yes, I am a huge foodie). Would have to go to Tupelo Honey for breakfast, The Glen for a Friday night experience with their unique and delicious cocktails and acrobatic shows, another night Legacy Hall for the thousand choices and we would get lots of things and share because…that’s what girls do! We would have to go a night there was live music, and sit on the patio – and get my fave drink there which is a cucumber mint something! Another day we would likely drive through downtown Celina to see the adorable small town charm it still exhibits, and eventually get over to Sherman to go shark tooth hunting with the kids!
Most of our adventures involve kids, so I am not the most fun with these answers!
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are many to dedicate my shoutout to… Just sitting here at least 15 people came to mind, because in that moment I needed their leadership and guidance and without it, that part of my life would be lost. Choosing one would have to go to God. Yes I know, this is viewed cliché. But no one else could have orchestrated so perfectly putting together the puzzles of my life to bring me to this point. God brought people in when they needed to be there, until it was time to go onto the next puzzle piece, and there, would be a new guide and/or mentor for me. From police officers, to teachers, to counselors, life coaches, my mother in law, etc. God made such an intricate plan and if I was to literally draw it on paper for the last 10 years, the connections would likely be incredible to follow.
The constant that God has kept in my life, is my mom. She has always supported what I have done, rarely questioning the risks I go take, and there to love me when I fall down. She will talk sense into me when I am dramatic or unrealistic, and speak grace and love to me when I am too hard on myself. She is one of my biggest motivators aside from my kids, and I hope one day to pay her back for all the support and love she has given me my whole life.
Website: kala@quillzink.com
Image Credits
Illuminated by Lanay for my headshot