I have a 2800sqft building attached to my house. It was commercial until the 1980s, but now its zoned residential. I am going to try to fight that, but in the meantime, lets assume it won’t be zoned commercial. I’m quiting my job january 1 to fly solo and utilizing this space is an important part of the plan.
Ive thought about an Airbnb. I already have utilities and waste lines in there. I estimate I could build something for 75k and probably get 3k in gross.
Things like 3d printing, bitcoin mining, use it as a warehouse to buy and sell things from alibaba, all cross my mind but I have no experience with anything like that. So, I’m hoping for some guidance from some smart folks. If you had 2800sqft and 100k to invest, what business would you start?
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Use all that space to grow some wheat so you can feed cows. I hear cows like wheat.
Cabinet shop, automotive, some kind of light manufacturing.
Bitcoin mining, 3d printing, all seem like bubbles. What are you 3d printing? If you have viable product, just injection mold it. Bitcoin, really? Airbnb? Nope. Good old fashioned stable businesses.
Build trailers. Build stuff, that you can put on skids, wrap and wholesale, then work on making more and more. Or fix cars for $150/hour. Or build high end cabinets with CNC equipment and human input that go into high end kitchens.
Carpentry
Suggesting carpentry to someone who is not a carpenter is equal value as suggesting to do programming there to someone who is not a programmer.
Presuming somebody who speaks of utilities, waste lines, square footage and building out a garage into an Airbnb has no carpentry knowledge is about as useful as making a stupid comment hours later that has no value to OP.
Mate it sounds like the entirety of the plan here is to quit your job and do something that has to do with an empty space. That’s a shit plan. Don’t follow that plan.
Based on his ideas, I Was thinking he was looking for a way to not be bored in retirement…
Also, a 2800 sq ft empty building attached to a home. How big is this home?
Haha it definitely isn’t the best plan, but at this point I have the house split into a 1 bedroom basement apartment and then a 5 bedroom home. I’ll be moving into the 1 bedroom and rent the house and that should keep the roof over my head with a cash flow of 1k. That is a slow enough bleed that I could spend a year or two building a business and survive
If you’re business plan is just renting out property - why would you quit your job? Also don’t try to start a business unless you have something in mind that you know with years of industry experience. You’ll fail and lose all your startup cost.
Commercial space rents at $1/sf/mo most places. Rent it out, let someone else gamble on starting a new business, walk away with 36k/yr.
I would start now. Call it “Santa’s Workshop”
See, most people don’t want to construct their kids’ “Santa” presents at their own house, and they need tools and time to build these toys to perfection. They will need to store and transport the completed toys. And, they will need waste disposal of the packaging materials. These parents may even need handyman help assembling toys. All of the above is available for a fee.
Start collecting antiques and junk, and do a side hustle having garage sales 3 -4 times a year. Also you can sell on Facebook marketplace and eBay. No need to rezone to commercial. That’s what we do. And it’s an all cash business. And if anyone asks about your inventory it’s just your collection.
What was the precious use? It may be allowed to continue in the residential zone as a “grandfathered” or legal non-confirming, assuming the space wasn’t converted to a residential use with a building permit.
Talk to a planner
You could invest 10k and make a small storage unit and rent out storage spaces and utilize the 90k in establising your online business, I’d recomment dropshipping instead of having your own inventory.
Things like 3d printing, bitcoin mining, use it as a warehouse to buy and sell things from alibaba, all cross my mind but I have no experience with anything like that. So, I’m hoping for some guidance from some smart folks. If you had 2800sqft and 100k to invest, what business would you start?
You need experience or someone who has experience. E.g. You need a bulletproof contract form if you want to rent it out or else the renter can blow up the whole house and you will be the responsible.
I dont know how strict are the rules there but e.g. in europe you cant do anything anywhere so if you want to work with food you need to prepare the place according to that if you want to work with chemicals you need specific type of floor to prevent leak etc. If you find what you would like check if you have rules like these before you start your business.
The most simple is to use it as a base or office like if you would start to flip things on amazon you have place to buy big bulks for cheap and sell them in small parts for profit. Or you can store something that is cheap in one season but can go really expensive in other season like AC.
if you have a big open space and proper parking then start a specialty gym.
fitness trainers and martial arts teachers are always looking for spaces to use.
you can easily bring in $5k a month if you’re charging personal trainers and other people.
“If I only had an original idea, I’d start my own business” is something I have heard over-and-over.
You don’t need an original or unique idea. You need an idea that you will follow through on and do better than most others who are doing it.
OP, what are you doing now for a living? What other things have you done? What hobbies are interests do you already know about? Can you already identify some kind of business where you think “I could do that better?”.
Pickleball courts! Especially if you are in a cold weather area.
Here is a simple fall back plan: Rent the garage to someone who needs it. And create a fixed deposit on the 100k you have.
I am not saying you should follow it. But you can find out the returns on this risk free plan and then compare the risk and return potential of all other plans you come up with.
Now, don’t pick any plan that is not substantially better this default.
Grow weed
In this market?
That’s my dream garage. Machine shop.