Rental businesses have been around for a while and are as trendy as ever. It is also an excellent side hustle to start for our 9-5ers like yours truly.
This income basically refers to assets you put up for rent and make income as people use it. This could include a wide variety of things, from your car to your wedding dress to even that extra room in your house.
There is a growing massive sharing economy across the world. This is largely fuelled by the rising cost of purchasing assets.
These are my very top 9 business ideas to make money renting your assets, plus 2 bonus ideas to get you started.
1. Houses - If you build houses or Estates, this is perfect for you. You build and rent out houses in areas where there is a high demand and capacity to pay, especially in the suburban areas. In this business model, you need to clearly know who you are targeting and build and rent likewise.
2. Sub-letting - You do not necessarily need to own a property to rent. You can sub-let an existing house or apartment. Just be sure you have the permission of the Landlord. This model comes in different styles:
a) rent a space in a prime location and sub-let for profit,
b) You can also sub-let to bring down or remove the cost of renting. You can list on Airbnb as hosts and begin to make huge income. You will need to focus on keeping the environment safe to use and maintain excellent customer service.
3. Spare rooms - If you have spare rooms not usually in use, you can turn it into a money spinner for you. You can package it up and make available as offices, rooms for students, transit tenants, etc.
It comes with its own recurring costs, you will need to maintain the room as well as ensure customer satisfaction.
4. Equipment/Tools (photography, Generators, Work tools, production plants, sewing machines, baking equipment, etc). You can basically rent out your equipment and tools to others. If you have idle equipment not in use for 24hrs of the day or you can set up the hub just for rentals.
Whatever your business model, ensuring uptime and safe environment is key. You need to consider how to adequately price your services to ensure you make as much as you can from the transaction.
This opportunity is massive, especially because one of the top three constraints of businesses, especially startups, is Equipment due to the huge cost involved.
5. Factory or hub space. You may as well let out your factory or hub for other business owners. Here, as a host, the businesses will make use of the spaces, and make payment for it.
6. Office Spaces - These are spaces set up for the purpose of sharing offices with others. It can be an extra space in your office or home that would do as a working space.
It may also be specially designed as a co-working space. Here people rent hot desks, private office space, meeting rooms, etc. You may choose to provide free wifi and some other assets like a central printer, etc. People typically rent daily, monthly, quarterly or annually.
7. Garments (Costumes, wedding gowns, etc). If you’re a person who owns clothes that are really expensive to buy or unique and hard to find, you can rent them out for some money. You see, not everyone can afford to buy clothes they will wear only once.
Bear in mind though, you’ll have to invest some amount into maintaining your clothes. This can be done by dry cleaning and ironing.
8. Spare Spaces (storage, photoshoots, small gathering, parking space, etc). You can rent out your extra storage space for people who need it. It’s an excellent option for people who don’t want guests around. If you have a terrace garden or a large backyard, you can rent them out for events. It sounds far-fetched, but people pay good money because formal event spaces are costly. You can also rent out your space for a photoshoot, meetings, and other events.
In addition, for people living in high-density areas and very busy cities, good parking or garage space can bring reasonable rent as well. Everyone wants a safe parking space for their vehicles. People living in apartments only have streets as their parking options most of the time.
9. Cars/Trucks (ride share, weddings, business meetings, etc). Let’s face it. Our cars are sitting around in the garage or in the parking lot at work most of the time. Why not rent them out to people who’re willing to pay to use them? It’s worth good money and can be a significant contribution to the environment as well.
This will probably not be an option for you if you use your vehicle frequently. If that’s the case, you can even buy another car to register on a car rental company and earn some steady, passive income.
You can also rent your truck out to other businesses. It can be for distribution, movement, etc.
So there you have it, my very top 9 ways to earn rental income. Here are two bonus ideas as well:
1. Run Ads on your car - you can rent the space on your car to be used for advertising. There’s absolutely nothing extra you have to do. You get your car wrapped, either entirely or partially, with an ad, and drive around. That’s it.Â
2. Guess what? You can actually build a sharing platform to provide any of these solutions (or combine some) to businesses and individuals in your locations. Charge a subscription on it and you are set to explode!
Want to schedule a free consultation with me, feel free to contact me ezinne.nwokafor@gmail.com
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My name is Ezinne Nwokafor, I am an entrepreneur, a banker and a business coach. I help entrepreneurs start and scale their businesses. I have been working with small and big brands for over 10 years.