If you have invested your money in a boat of any kind, you will understand how expensive it is to own a boat. A houseboat is a different kind of boat. This boat is built to save a dual function of a home and a sea boat. While it is easier to think that your boat is a money pit than a business center, and you are more likely to lose your money in it than to gain some money. But if you are looking for means to make money from your houseboat, or to even start a business with it and make back some of the money that you have spent in buying and maintaining the boat, this article contains 5 tips to help you make money from your houseboat business.
- Start A Boat Rental Service
You can start a peer-to-peer (also known as P2P) rental of your houseboat. This is one of the commonest ways houseboat owners recoup some money from the boat. Although P2P is more common with assets such as vacation homes and cars, it is also possible with a houseboat and is becoming more common. A service such as Boatbound already gives you the marketing, insurance, and platform to make money with your boat, all you need to do is to release your boat for use.
The amount of money that you can make from this is dependent on a number of factors such as type, size, and age of the boat, the level of its availability for rent and your own level of availability in becoming a member of the P2P community. Your success in this business will be dependent on how the people that have rented your boat initially feel about your boat and you too. The customer reviews that you get from your early users will go a long way in determining if you will be successful in your P2P or not.
One of the disadvantages of this is the fact that you are handing over the keys to your boat to an absolute or relative stranger. Although most P2P services ensure that you make the final decision on who you are giving your boat out to.
- Become A Licensed Captain and Run Charters.
Chartering is a very profitable way of using your boat. Since you want to make money from your boat, then you must make it available for charter. You would need to get a license in order to operate in certain waters. In some states for example, if you want to run a fishing charter, then you have to get the guide’s license. As long as you are willing to go through the problems and numerous hurdles that might come with getting a license, then you might just be ready to make some huge bucks from your boat. This ensures that you can make hundreds of dollars from home every day. This is, however, a very risky thing to do because of numerous factors such as the bite of the fish, weather condition, and mechanical breakdown. Many people that run charter with their boats also have another source of income and use this as an extra source of money. While some of them are even retirees with just another steady means of income.
- Consider Waterborne Peddling
The area where your boat is an important factor for you in this case. To sell stuff there, you might need some license as well. But many boaters would be more than willing to be able to serve their hungry boaters some food while on the waters. So, providing some ice cream or grills might do them some good. For instance, Bay Ice Cream sells ice cream around the beach at Panama City Beach, Florida. Other vendors like this include Nauti Foods which sells different snacks and beverages just right at the Potomac River and Lake Dogs which used their pontoon boat for a concession stand at Michigan’s Lobdell Lake. There are many other people that have set up enterprises off their boats and have been able to sell to anglers and others, making some money for themselves.
According to content creators at twiftnews, waterborne vending is not a very lucrative business to do. But it definitely is not part something you can live with. it has more limitations and more expenses that when using a cart or truck or other land-based vehicle and the regulations and restrictions that come with it can be tiring but it does offer that extra cash that you need and you also get to have fun while making money.
- Run Eco-Tours
Eco-tours are becoming a very popular thing for practitioners who are willing to see nature in a whole different light. You can easily turn the normal daily boating into a cash venture by taking people (vacationers, for instance) on photography tours (to get unusual wildlife views), cruise to the marsh or watch the dolphins and whales.
The amount of profit that you can make doing this business is largely dependent on the area you live in. you are unlikely to get the locals in that area to pay you constantly for this. So, it is important that it is an area where vacationers visit very often. That is how you can get that steady flow of money from this houseboat business model. Your boat also plays a big role. You have to ensure that your maintenance cost is as low as possible, e.g. fuel cost and other factors.
- Start To Boat Write
I do not know how this sounds to you, but you can make some cash with writing service by becoming a member of an editorial team into boating and boating writing. Since you are a boater, you have first-hand experience of boats, boating, maintenance, etc. this knowledge would come in handy with an ability to pen things down. If you can’t write, you can make videos. The point is your knowledge is important for boating blogs that need content to put out to their readers and also to generate some traffic to their site and make money.
You could even decide to go on your own and start a blog for yourself and put out the information with you in different articles and content and make money for yourself. Your knowledge is needed.