Wouldn’t it be nice to relieve the financial stress of the off-season by creating year-round income?
If you own an office space, or even possibly if you rent one, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table if you’re not subletting or renting it out when you’re not using it.
How many hours each week is your office completely empty? If you reduce your hours during the off-season, and especially if you work from home more often, you should consider these options:
- Rent out your conference room. If you have a space large enough for meetings or small trainings, rent it out by the hour. Small businesses and networking groups are always looking for quiet places to host meetings, so this is a great way to get started (and bonus: it gives you an automatic connection with a lot of people who may need your services later!)
- Rent out extra desks. You can rent by the hour, by the day, or even by the week or month. People are constantly looking for a calm, quiet place to work for any number of reasons. Maybe they’re in town for just a few days and need a temporary space to conduct business, or maybe they just need the flexibility that comes with not being tied to a lease. Either way, these are your people.
Now, if you’re a renter, you’ll want to make sure that your lease allows you to sublet. But assuming it does, you’re in the clear to start making extra money! Once you’ve decided you’re ready to rent out your workspace, you’ll need to make a few decisions:
- Determine your rates: This will differ a lot depending on where you are, the size of the space, and what other accommodations you provide (complimentary coffee, mail service, etc.) so be sure and do some research and see what other people are charging in your area. You may be surprised to learn that here at CTC, we actually lease an office right next to a co-working space for female entrepreneurs. We see hundreds of them come in throughout the week, month after month, year after year. The demand is definitely there!
- Determine your schedule: Will you be using the office a couple days a week, for part of the day every day, not at all during certain months? Are you willing to have other people working at the same time as you (and do you have the space for that)? Will the office be available on weekends or before/after normal business hours? All of this should be decided beforehand.
- Determine how you’ll get a key to your renters: Unless you plan on being available to let people in and lock up when they’re done, you’ll need to come up with an alternative plan to get the key to your tenants.
- Determine how/where you’ll advertise. Of course, there are free online classifieds like Craigslist but there are also some great paid options (Sharedesk is one) that specialize in connecting people who need a workspace with people who have one available.
There are a lot of details to work out if you want to rent out your office space but it’s a really great way to earn some extra income.
