Surviving Economic Collapse

In tough economic times, it behooves all of us to make the most out of what we have at hand.  And often times, people maintain a certain amount of “wasting assets.”  Basically, wasting assets are possessions which do not generate any income, but rather they require time and resources to maintain.  The perfect example would be an unused bedroom.  With the ever increasing power of the internet and social networking, new businesses that attempts to share these unused assets are popping up all over the place. By sharing these unused or infrequently used assets, we can turn a liability into a recurring stream of revenue.  Essentially many of our wasting assets can become valuable passive income streams!

Here are 6 unused assets that can become immediate sources of revenue:

 

1.  Lease out your living room, Storefront, Warehouse as Temporary Office Space

If you have a large and relatively under-utilized living space in an area of high population density( eg. in a city or the middle of town), you can “lease” this space out as a temporary “office” for people who needs a place to do work.  These leases are initiated and processed online, requiring little to no effort on your part.  Each lease period can span from hours or to weeks of regular use.  After the lease is done, you get paid automatically.  Some modifications to your living space would be necessary.  You would need lighting, basic furniture, and internet connectivity as a minimum.  Close access to a bathroom is also an important feature.  The following websites provide this service:

• Kodesk
• Loosecubes
• Liquid Space

 

2.  Turn your bedroom into a mini Bed and Breakfast

Many houses have an unused bedroom or two.  Such bedrooms can be rented out by individuals over the internet to various tourists and visitors from across the country and around the world who just happens to be visiting near the location of the house.  Such “peer-to-peer” rentals can be extremely lucrative, many people charge hundreds to even thousands of dollars a night, depending on the room.  A friend of mine is doing just this with an unused bedroom in her 3 bedroom apartment.  By renting out that room just 10 days out of the month, she makes enough money to cover her entire apartment’s rent.  The main website for this service is AirBnB, and to my understanding all renters from AirBnB has to undergo a degree of screening and background checks to ensure that they are legit.

 

3.  Be your own Hertz and rent out your unused car to people

If  you have an infrequently used spare car, chances are that you are paying oodles of money in terms of insurance and car maintenance.  Now lots of people might need the use of a car near your location.  With  GetAround you can find such people and offer them your car for a hefty price.   You set the rates of usage by the hour, day, week, and month.  What’s great about this service is that once you register your car to be leased, your vehicle will automatically be covered under GetAround‘s auto insurance plan.  So if you are truly not using that car, you could proceed to drop your own private insurance for that car and save even more money.

 

4.  Sell your spare parking spots

This is basically just like leasing out a spare bedroom, except with parking spots.  Depending on the location, extraordinary amounts of money can be made from ordinary parking spots.  Here are two companies that offer this service:

• Parkcirca
• AirBnb Parking

 

5.  Convert old photos into an online Microstock portfolio

If you or your family members are avid photographers, you might possess large numbers of digital photos.  Normally these photographs would just take up space on a computer’s hard-drive or USB key.  Nowadays however, there are various “Microstock” photography sites which allows you to license your photos to people who will then pay you a royalty fee (usually a few dollars per copy). Now keep in mind that all of the purchasing and payments are automated on the internet, so once you upload your photos, they become a truly passive source of income.  Now if you have a huge portfolio of photos, consider submitting these photos to such Microstock sites.  A friend of mine inherited several thousand such photos from a late relative, and being an enterprising fellow, he is now earning hundreds of dollars a month from his “portfolio.”  Here are some great Microstock Sites:

• Fotolia
• iStockPhotos
• Shutterstock
• PhotoDune

 

6.  Share your Bicycles

If you live in a major city and have old bicycles lying around, think about monetizing these assets.  There might be people in your neighborhood who would love to go for a bike ride.  The following websites can be leveraged to lease out your bikes.

• Velolet
• Spinlister

 

So there we have it, passive or near-passive income streams  from wasting assets.  As always, comments and feedback are welcomed and appreciated!

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