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Nobody wants to own an asset these days!
It’s true. Some of the world’s largest, billion-dollar companies don’t own an asset. Look at Airbnb, or Uber, marketplaces that facilitate users and service providers to transact and ‘hire services’ while charging a commission. Clearly, it’s the new era of hiring services, renting assets, and without the pressures of ownership.
With the world moving towards renting assets, there are a ton of opportunities and ideas that leverage the rental business model that entrepreneurs can take advantage of. This article will give you different types of rental businesses you can engage in!
Let’s look at a few concrete ideas you can get yourself into:
Rental Business Ideas
1: Car Rentals
Just like Airbnb is for hiring a room for travelers, Uber is for hiring a taxi service for commuters, there is an opportunity to lease out your car for others to use. You can list your car on a car sharing marketplace, so people can come, pick it up, use it, and return it to you when done.
Check out Turo, a car sharing marketplace connecting car renters with local car hosts. Their user-friendly interface allows people to pick the dates they want to use a car on, and get connected with hundreds of local hosts with all types of cars. If your car is in good shape, you can make it work for you to generate healthy cash flow each month.
Your costs are mainly in the form of maintaining your car so users can enjoy driving a good car. You’ll need to adhere to the rules of the marketplace to ensure you meet their quality standards. Apart from that, you need not spend any money on advertising your car, once you list it! The marketplace platform you use will take care of it, as long as you have a high-quality listing.
You’ll earn money depending on the number of hours, days or distance user’s travel for on your car, for as long as you have a working car. Just make sure it lasts as long as possible, and get a good insurance cover in case of accidents. You could easily make between $1000 – $5000 a month per car you list on Turo.
2: Camera Rentals
Camera technology is ever-changing, in the fast-paced tech world we live in. That’s why it makes so much more sense for photographers and filmmakers to rent cameras, rather than buying them. They get to capture moments using the latest technology, while not having to pay the high prices cutting edge cameras cost.
Clearly, you can start a business that leases out camera equipment to customers or lists your camera on a rental marketplace, depending on your risk appetite. Check out Lensrentals, a website that provides the best-branded cameras, and lenses for users to hire.
If you’re planning on starting this business, you’ll need to be prepared to invest in high-quality cameras, and rent them out frequently so you can recoup the cost of buying them. Other costs include the cost of ensuring your camera equipment, in case users steal or misuse it.
Profitability for this idea, like most rental business models, is dependent on the rental fee you charge, the number of times you lease out your equipment. Providing good quality camera equipment will enable you to charge premium prices.
3: Bike Rentals
The trend in urban areas is to rent bikes! People commuting around the city or exploring a new part of town love the idea of hiring a bike for a couple of hours, or days to know the place on their own terms.
The fact that a lot of bike rental businesses have sprouted up in all parts of the world is proof of the fact that this is a validated business model that works and makes commercial sense. If you have a bike, put it up on a bike rental marketplace like Spinlister, which allows users to rent a bike anywhere in the world.
You can make your bike work for you and earn some cash from it! Just grease the chain, make sure the brakes are working and the wheels are in great condition to make it rent-friendly!
4: Recreational Vehicles
People love traveling on road trips. And the most fun way to do it is on a recreational vehicle (RV). Caravans have space for travelers to live in comfortably! With the availability of caravan parking stations and camps, people can hire a caravan and vagabond their way to places of their interest.
If you have a caravan, leasing it out can be quite lucrative. And if you’ve got an interest in the travel space, and some startup capital in hand, you could start an RV rental business. Check out Cruise America for some really fancy Caravans travelers can hire.
The costs associated with such a business depend on whether you decide to lease out your own campervan or start a campervan business where you’ll need to own a fleet of caravans. You’ll need to buy one, maintain one, and make sure it’s in good condition for travelers to desire to use it!
You can make big bucks through this business since people who hire a caravan or campervan will usually hire one for a few days, even weeks at a time, unlike hiring a car, where people usually hire one for only a few days.
5: Vacation Rentals
If you have a spare room, or better, a spare house, you can use it as a vacation rental property to generate some cash flow. The best part is that its passive income! A recent survey by vacation rental online marketplace HomeAway found that the average owner who rents out their second property usually makes about $33,000 per year from it in rental income. Hosts on AirBnB make between $1000 – $10000 a month on average.
You can decide to lease out your current space to vacationers, or you can invest in a property specifically for producing vacation rental income. The costs associated with this business are property management related, or expenses related to advertising your property to potential customers.
How much money you can make from your vacation rental business is not easy to determine! We’d recommend using a service like AirDNA that gathers data and insights on vacation rental properties. You can use the information you gather through it to charge the right rental prices. Choose the right location for your vacation rental property, set the right price and you can’t really go wrong!
6: Parking Rental
This business is similar to any business that is based on providing ‘space’! In a parking rental business, you’re leasing out space to those that need a parking space. If you live in an apartment building with an allotted parking space, but don’t have a vehicle, this business is the perfect opportunity for you to monetize your parking space.
In this business, you need land, a parking space or garage and that’s about it! If you’re resourceful, you can also approach people with parking spaces, and become a ‘parking service agent’ helping them lease out their parking space to those who need it. Make sure the parking space is secure as vehicle break-ins are too common these days!
Your profits from this business are usually stable, and passive too. Renters will usually, but not always, rent out a parking space for a couple of days, weeks or months at a time. You can negotiate a rental agreement so you stabilise your expectations around the profits you’d make.
7: Formal Clothing Rentals
Buying formal clothing can be expensive, and, you don’t always need it regularly! Most people usually only wear a suit once in a blue moon, for a ceremony or a fancy corporate event.
That’s why there’s an opportunity to create a business by renting formal clothing. Again, you can choose to list it on a marketplace or, buy quality formal clothing for leasing it out. You need to have a passion for fashion trends if you’re going to run a business like this one.
An average tuxedo costs $1000, and a formal clothing rental business would usually charge about $150 – $250 per rental. So you can recoup the cost of buying a tuxedo in just 4-5 rentals! You’ll need to spend some money on dry cleaning the clothing you lease out, so it’s in great condition and lasts as long as possible.
8: Rent A Friend
This is where rental businesses get exciting! For those who are lonely, for those who want a friend to share special moments with, for those who just want someone to care for them for a while, this business provides them with a friend, on rent.
While it may sound exciting to start a business like this one at first, you need to take a few factors into consideration. This includes ensuring the ‘friends’ you’re providing are reliable, trustworthy and service oriented so your customers look forward to spending time with them. Recruiting well is the topmost priority in this business, while also looking for the right people who’ll value the services of a friend.
This business doesn’t really cost much to start! Essentially, you’re in the business of connecting people, which requires your time. You may need to invest in a website, and some advertising costs since this business is quite unique in nature. Not everyone knows about it, so spreading awareness is key to success.
Have a look at Rent A Friend to know what this model looks like. Sounds a bit odd… but it’s a money maker.
9: Rent A Host
If your creative juices have started flowing, this one will get them moving faster! You can choose to rent a host.
Whether it’s renting a host via AirBnB to look after you when you’re staying with them, or just renting a host for an event you’re organizing to help people feel comfortable, you can start a rental business that helps people feel comfortable, engaged and entertained.
Your costs are mainly in the form of the wages you’d pay your hosts for the experiences they’d provide. You’ll need to be very careful about selecting the right hosts for the right type of guests since they’ll be responsible for the experience they provide.
Your business will be reliant on the quality of the hosts you can provide!
Looking into who your ideal customers would be for this kind of business is the key to success.
Radio Jockeys, Disc Jockeys, Party Hosts, Event Anchors are all examples of the types of hosts you can provide, so pick your niche and get going.
10: Office/CoWorking Space Rentals
Just like you can lease out a home to travelers and other renters, you can lease out an office space or coworking space to freelancers, startups and small businesses. It can be an excellent way to connect people while they’re working and generate passive income.
Your costs include the cost of real estate, the cost of furniture, internet and other facilities you’ll need to provide to your tenants to ensure they have a good experience.
Your profits will depend on the number of tenants, and the prices you charge. As always, you can charge a premium rental price if you provide a premium experience!
Look at businesses like LiquidSpace or WeWork.
While LiquidSpace is like the “Airbnb of office space” where you can list your office space and monetize it, WeWork is more of a standardized coworking experience business that provides a consistent, high-quality workspace, no matter where in the world you are.
11: Talent Rentals
If you’re passionate about the creative or entertainment space, you can start a business to help film directors ‘rent’ or ‘hire’ actors.
If you like to interact with business owners, you can start a business that helps business owners hire talent on contract. If you like sports, you can help sports teams find talented athletes.
Costs include creating a platform to connect talent contractors with talent. If you don’t want to invest in a technological platform, you can run this business manually initially, until you reach a point of traction to automate your labor. Profits are usually a cut of the value you create for both parties. You’re essentially a talent agent!
Have a look at BackStage, a business connecting creative talent like actors, dancers, singers and others to people who want to hire them. You’ll get some ideas on the sort of business you’d like to create.
12: Book Rentals
If you love books, you can choose to be in a business that rents out books! Use a marketplace like eBay or Amazon to rent out books, or any other media advertising platform.
The best part is that your books don’t have to be in hard copy, you can choose to lease out books in an audio format or even video.
Anything is possible with technology, with education becoming an ‘experience’ not just a chore.
Your costs are usually low in the long term, once you’ve invested in books since they last a long time provided your users look after them. You can charge a penalty fee if they return your books late, which can be an excellent source of revenue in this business! Profits will depend on the volume of rentals, and the number of late returns to your business.
13: Electric Scooter Rentals
If you’re located in the hills and have access to adventurous, environment conscious travelers wanting to explore their surroundings, there couldn’t be a business better than electric scooter vehicle rentals!
But that’s not the only kind of electric scooter you can rent out. From electric wheelchairs to smart self-balancing scooters for the modern world, you can choose a range of scooters you’d like to provide.
Like any asset-based rental business, you’ll need to start by buying electric scooters so you can lease them out.
Check out businesses like Lime who’re revolutionizing the world of ‘modern movement’ with interesting, technologically smart electric scooters.
14: Furniture Rentals
Just bought a new house, but don’t have the money to buy furniture? No worries, just rent out furniture!
This is a booming business as people will lease out furniture for a period of time, and then shuffle it when they’re bored of it and want to modify their interior design.
Check out businesses like CORT that provide office and home furniture rentals. As the business owner of a furniture rental business, you need not buy all of the furniture, upfront. You can finance it on a loan, or refurbish old furniture so it’s in good condition to use. Get creative and resourceful so people love the furniture you provide.
To learn more, read this article that highlights a list of business opportunities including several interesting ones that are trending up.
Wrapping it up
If you like the idea of starting a rental business and being an asset owner, then make use of one of the opportunities above to get started. Being great at customer service, with a focus on providing high-quality assets for hire will go a long way in being successful in this business.