421: Turn Your Empty Space into a Self-Storage Business

As soon as I finished training, I opened up a cosmetic surgery business. When I say business, I mean a business not practice.

From day one, it was my intention to create a brand that I could hand off or sell someday rather than to create a job for myself. I was also focused on cosmetics. Unlike the traditional way of growing a cosmetic practice, I wasn’t going to see insurance-based patients for 10 years and slowly build a referral base. Nope. I hit the airwaves and pounded the internet any true entrepreneurial business would do to make itself known.

It worked and though I didn’t make much money that first few months, within a year I was pulling in six figures per month. It was my first entrepreneurial success.

And while I rode that wave I felt invincible. It lasted for two years— right before the 2012 presidential election. At that time, I had just decided to buy a building for my business. That was shortly after buying a $2 million house which was a big deal for me just a couple of years out of training.

In short, I was suddenly cash-poor. However, things had been going great so I wasn’t worried about the short-term cash crunch. I assumed I would make it back in short order.

But something happened the October before that election. People stopped buying cosmetic surgery. It was weird—one day they just stopped.

I learned later that this phenomenon often occurs in the luxury sector right before elections. People don’t like to make big decisions when they feel like there is uncertainty of any kind in the air.

Whatever it was, it was killing me. Suddenly I had all these bills and mortgages and for a moment there, I was scared that I was going to lose it all.

Luckily the election came and went and things normalized but I promised myself that I would never let that happen to me again. From that day forward, I would never rely on a single source of income. 

And since that time… I have not. In fact, I don’t feel comfortable unless I have at least three solid sources of income. I think of my income sources like a three-legged stool. If there is a problem with one of them, I feel very unstable.

I may sound paranoid, But, the funny thing is that I don’t think most people realize how tenuous their financial circumstance is. If you have a job and you lose it, would you be ok? I don’t care if you are a doctor or a small business person. No one source of income is bulletproof. So you have to have a plan B.

If you listen to this podcast, you might already have this kind of mindset and you might already be looking for opportunities.

And I have to say that this week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast really got my wheels turning. If you have any extra space in your house or an empty lot somewhere, you could be sitting on a goldmine. 

Find out how you might be able to turn some useless space into some serious cash by listening to my interview with the co-founder and CEO of neighbor.com

Show Notes:

11:18 How to Make Money with Your Empty Space

15:51 How They Mitigate the Risks and Liabilities

22.43 Limitations and Law Restrictions

26:01 How Far Has neighbor.com Gone?

27:54 Have Multifamily Investors Tap Into This Space?