I've posted about this project before, there have been several developments and my plan and service has evolved. Here is my current plan:
We are FI. My husband still works full time making good money.
We have a lot on our plate with 4 young kids (2, 4, 6, 8) and an old home requiring lots of home projects/renovation.
I strongly desire meaningful, purposeful, creative work.
1) Purchase commercial building for $325 (don't release yet, but get your fist ready)
2) Full apartment upstairs is short-term rental bringing in $1500/mo initially but could easily move to $3,000/mo.
3) Lease the downstairs to myself for $3,000/mo.
Business = co-working space with onsite/flexible/highly educational (I homeschool)/drop-in childcare.
1) stay and play (indoor play space is comfortable and pleasing for both parents and children)
2) coworking (separate rooms for parents to work/spend time focused and uninterrupted, kids remain in staffed kid area)
3) small element of drop-off care....only 4-6 spots, designed for parents to utilize 2-3 hours at a time)
So you see I envision having two businesses running alongside and complementing each other.
Commercial real estate ownership + business leasing from myself to myself.
My commercial landlord piece numbers:
expenses = $37,000/annually including mortgage
income = $60,000 - $75,000 ($60k first year)
Need about $75k cash up front. I have that cash. I'd get a loan for the rest.
The building shares a parking lot with a high end spa/salon, high end boutique workout place, CPA, lawyer, high end restaurant, dentist....all the places you need to go for an hour or two without your kids.
Business numbers:
Income streams:
1) stay and play
2) coworking
3) drop-off care
4) up to 8 small summer camps/year (small groups, not always in summer, willing to do 1 per quarter, 2 age groups)
5) unstaffed space rental
6) programming (not much, a little yoga, occasional classes/workshops)
^^I am only offering what I am willing to spend my time thinking about and spend my time doing. For example I want nothing to do with 185 kids at 12 weeks of summer camp.
I have run numbers a thousand times in a thousand different ways.
Year One income $176,000 and Year One Expenses $179, 000
My numbers include 3 well paid part time employees. Me being onsite 60 hours/week is a dealbreaker for me and I won't do it if that is required. Though I will commit to that willingly for the first 12-18 months to make sure it all grows the way I want it to.
The culture of the town we live in is ABSOLUTELY set up for something like this and there is nothing else like it. There is actually nowhere to go and be with your family indoors except for bars and restaurants. Except the library. 75% of homeowners in our town are second/third homeowners. We are flooded with tourists through winter and summer and on weekends all year long. We have 3,000 full time residents.
My entire heart and soul wants to do this. I want to support other families and parents so badly. A lot of indoor play spaces are designed for kids. And while I'll do that, my true focus is to unburden parents in any way I can think of. My kids could be onsite with me when I needed/wanted to be there virtually at any time. It would attract the kind of people I want to be around - both on the part-time employee side and the customer side. My previous soloprenuer gig was professional organizing - I love to organize and plan space for families (especially with an enriching/educational mindset) and I am really good at it. I also like to think of programming ideas/education offerings for all ages, and I thoroughly enjoy planning with other "ideas people" - collaborating with other local business owners is part of what is attractive to me about my plan.
Ok. Fire away. I can take it.