Notes from Chris

Episode 1723

Afew years ago, JJ Haglund searched for stand-up paddle board (SUP) rentals and found a tech executive renting them out of his garage. It was a side business for him, and JJ thought it was also a brilliant way to expense all his toys! Eventually, the guy built it into a full-fledged rental shop.

Fast forward to 2020. JJ was living in Utah and working as a product marketer for a Fortune 500 tech company. He and his wife were brainstorming ideas for a side hustle that wouldn't cost a lot of money to start.

Then they remembered their experience renting paddleboards a few years earlier and thought, “Why couldn't we do that?" The couple lives close to a number of popular lakes, so maybe it would be a great way to help people get outside, make memories with their families, and put aside any pandemic stress.

To launch JJ’s Paddleboards, he spent less than $2,000 on the initial rental inventory of inflatable standup paddleboards and life jackets, plus lawyer fees on drafting up a good liability waiver. His digital marketing background came in handy. He built the website using Wix.com, optimized it for Google search, and created a Google My Business profile for Google Maps.

It was all fairly simple—and when they landed their first customer, JJ breathed a sigh of relief that it actually worked! However, it took a few weeks for it to pick up because it was an unusually cold June last year. But once the summer heated up, everything was smooth sailing … mostly. He was constantly selling out and getting more requests than he could handle. He celebrated by buying more and more paddleboards every time he made enough money to reinvest back into the business.

In the summer of 2020, he made around $7,000 but put all the profits into more boards. (Now he has a fleet of fifteen.) So far in the 2021 season, he’s brought in around $10,000—and most of it is straight profit.

The business has benefited the family in several ways. First, they get to meet all kinds of people, who tell them about new places in their home state. They’ve enjoyed exploring more of Utah because of awesome places renters tell him about.

JJ hires help when the family goes out of town. He can still coordinate everything remotely, including all the customer communications, but his part-time employee can be there for the customer to pick up the gear and then clean it when they drop it off.

Speaking of cleaning, it’s also been a great opportunity for him to employ his kids to wash the boards between rentals. (Really his oldest daughter, as the others aren’t interested yet.) This teaches them hard work and helps them earn some money. Never too early to learn the joys of working for yourself!

 

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  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Learn more about JJ and his rental service at his website, JJsPaddleboards.com.

SEE ALSO:

• Make $4,000/Month Renting Out Cars You Don’t Own: How a Los Angeles man leases a fleet of 16 cars and rents them out at a higher rate making over $4,000/month.
• Student Gets Paid to Help People Rent Adventures: After feeling jealous over a friend’s boat outing, a San Diego student creates a sharing economy platform to connect adventurers with gear.
• RV Renter Revs Up Recurring Revenue: This mom turns her recreational vehicle into a money-making machine.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work! Yours in the revolution,

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