{"id":3634,"date":"2023-06-05T11:01:29","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T15:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3634"},"modified":"2023-06-07T09:08:03","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T13:08:03","slug":"cover-story-angela-flynn-entrepreneur-wife-mother-of-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3634","title":{"rendered":"Cover Story – Angela Flynn: Entrepreneur, Wife, Mother of Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kate Hanzalik<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of energy. My mom will tell you that,\u201d says Angela Flynn. \u201cShe describes me as the child who walked through the door, but I didn\u2019t even make it in the door. I threw my backpack inside and I was back outside.\u201d As an entrepreneur, wife, and mother of four young children, she needs all the energy she can get. In fact, it\u2019s this vitality, and her ability to navigate her days, that has helped her to thrive. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A Typical Day <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A typical morning for Flynn starts before 6 a.m. Her kids, 12-year-old son, Levi, and 14-year-old daughter, Harper, are on the bus by 6:30 a.m. Then she has breakfast with her 10-year-old son, Gunnar, and helps him with his homework. The nanny comes at 8 a.m. to watch her 2-year-old son, Rocky, then she gets down to business. She owns and operates Airbnbs, rental properties, and the<\/span><\/span><\/span> dumpster rental company, Green Team Dumpster Rentals. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Flynn shares her home office with her husband, Mike Flynn, owner and founder of the successful residential roofing company, The Roofing Guys. Both she and her husband were born and raised in Syracuse and went to West Genesee High School. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband’s mom worked two jobs to provide for her four kids,\u201d she said. \u201cBoth of our moms were nurses. We both come from divorced families. Not from a lot of money. It was very difficult. Both of our moms worked very, very hard to provide for us.\u201d This shared history was motivating to the couple.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

They started dating in 2005. In 2006, they got married and he started The Roofing Guys. \u201cWe went to Jamaica [for a destination wedding]. We got married on December 30. On December 25 of that year, he was doing a roof, like on Christmas day. He is literally the hardest worker that you know,\u201d she says. \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span>When he started his business, we did not have a dollar to our name and now The Roofing Guys is the largest residential roofing company in the Northeast.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Over the years, he worked 80-hour weeks building the business, and she worked as a Spanish teacher at West Genesee High School. Eventually they had children and her perspective changed. \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span>I thought that [being a Spanish teacher] was going to be my end-all-be-all. Then when I had the kids, and he was working so much, it made the most sense for me to stay home with the kids and also help him with his business. I was out there with fliers, writing proposals for him, doing all that.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Officially resigning from teaching in 2011, she explored options for businesses and found many in the world of rentals and real estate. <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cThings fall in my lap. We bought a bunch of foreclosure properties in 2016, and we started flipping those, selling them or renting them out, and I really enjoy that. That was a lot of fun,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cI love a project, such as, bringing old, dilapidated farmhouses back to life.\u00a0[<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>I love] watching people love them again. And I love the befores and afters, and how everything comes together. We\u2019ve done about 10 of those houses. A couple we kept, a couple we rented out, a couple we sold off. Then I got into Florida Airbnb, and now, [as of] yesterday, we\u2019re converting to our third one down there. We have had two, I just sold one yesterday. I\u2019m buying a new one.\u201d She also started Green Team Dumpster Rentals in 2019, which has turned out to be very successful.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Her husband has been instrumental to her success. \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span>I saw him working from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. and [leading] a business-owner life. That\u2019s not easy. It\u2019s cut-throat, it\u2019s hard, there\u2019s a lot of time and energy and commitment and you have to take risks, and I\u2019m not a big risk taker. So I never thought that was something I was ever going to do, but he really motivated me to go out and do things.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She has learned so much from stepping outside of her comfort zone. \u201cStarting a business from nothing, to learning it all, and doing every part of the business\u2013selling the jobs, doing the advertisement, creating the business plan\u2013I mean it\u2019s really hard work,\u201d she said. \u201cThe dumpster company is no frills. You\u2019re working with waste management. But it has allowed me to do other things that I also love. Like, I love doing the Airbnbs, that\u2019s great. I love creating them, I love building them up and I love hosting people, and I\u2019m always in constant communication with my tenants and my guests, and I have hosted people from all over the world. The rentals, same thing. I love flipping something, making something ugly into something beautiful.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Her life is hectic, but she takes time to workout every day. \u201cI\u2019m 40 minutes at the gym. I do 20 minutes cardio, 20 minutes strength training. I diversify that a little bit but that\u2019s my super important time that I have to get done for myself that I really enjoy. It keeps me sane. It gets some of my energy out.\u201d In 2020, she started using Peloton. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy motivational. Jess Sims, Robin Arz\u00f3n, Kirsten Ferguson. I do a 20-minute run, I throw on my headphones. They are the most motivational people in the world. They\u2019re like, \u2018Whatever does not serve you, get rid of it!\u2019 And I\u2019ve taken that to heart.\u201d Now at 39, Flynn says, \u201cI\u2019ve never felt as good as this past year. \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A Typical Night<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Work stops \u2013 at least for a moment \u2013 when the kids get home at 4:30 p.m. \u201cDinner is cooked at 4 o\u2019clock. We\u2019re eating dinner at 4:30. We\u2019re out the door at sports by 5. It\u2019s a divide-and-conquer approach. My husband does, right now, track pick up, soccer practice. I do baseball practice and taking the toddler to the park. And then we\u2019re home at 8, 8:30. Maybe a little bit of a second dinner and then we\u2019re done and in bed by 10.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Family is everything to her. At first, it was three kids, Harper, Levi, and Gunnar. Then she learned she was pregnant. \u201cI took some years off and had my little surprise baby. He completed our family. He is the cutest little thing. It\u2019s actually really fun having one after the rest of them. When I had three under 5, life was so crazy. Things were chaotic. They were crazy. They\u2019re so cute.\u201d Now that the kids are older, the family dynamics have changed. \u201cIt was really amazing to see the older kids be so involved. They\u2019re so super helpful. And [Rocky\u2019s] just doted on . . . It\u2019s so much fun.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When the fun is over at the end of the day, she is open for business again. \u201cI usually do a lot of my work after the kids go to bed. Between 9 and 10, I will get on the computer and finish emails. I put my schedule together for the next day, text myself my driver\u2019s schedule for my dumpster company, so that way when I wake up in the morning it\u2019s a text, send, go.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Looking Back, Looking Ahead <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She sees the world differently now after all that she has accomplished. \u201cI\u2019ve done both worlds. I\u2019ve done the working mom. I\u2019ve done the stay-at-home mom . . . And now that they\u2019re older, and I\u2019ve thrown myself in to all these new businesses, I have a very good balance where I\u2019m at right now, where they don\u2019t need me so much, but I still am at the point in my life where I can spend a lot of time with them when they need things.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the future, after her 10 year old graduates high school, the couple wants to spend the majority of the year living in Florida and the summers in Syracuse. But for right now, she\u2019s completely content. \u201cI love where we\u2019re at right now. We\u2019re in such a wonderful routine, and I know what I want in the future, and the steps we need to take to get there.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As of recently, Angela has been focusing her efforts on opening day festivities for Mike\u2019s new business, FlynnStoned Cannabis Company, where she will take on the lead role of event coordinator and will be holding a block party for the grand opening in Armory Square on June 16th and 17th. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kate Hanzalik \u201cI have a lot of energy. My mom will tell you that,\u201d says Angela Flynn. \u201cShe describes me as the child who walked through the door, but I didn\u2019t even make it in the door. I threw my backpack inside and I was back outside.\u201d As an entrepreneur, wife, and mother of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[1423,1426,1425,1424,1422,1329],"class_list":["post-3634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover-story","tag-airbnb","tag-armory-square","tag-cannabis","tag-flynnstoned","tag-june-2023","tag-woman-owned-business"],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Angela-Flynn-June-2023-Syracuse-Woman-Magazine-0001.jpg?fit=2560%2C1708&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2209,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=2209","url_meta":{"origin":3634,"position":0},"title":"\u2018Live like you\u2019re living:\u2019 Remembering Ann Marie Bick","author":"Sarah Hall","date":"December 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Plenty of people talk about making the world a better place. 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