The era of huge offices with lots of extra space for employees is over. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a trend that was already in place – a transition from everyone being in the office to many companies offering remote or hybrid work schedule options.
These days, lots of people work from home, but many business owners still have leases on their old office spaces. If you can’t sell your office space, you might still be able to make some money until your commercial lease is up.
Let’s take a closer look.
How Do I Make Money with Empty Office Space?
Empty office space doesn’t make you any money. Even worse, you likely have to make regular lease payments toward the office space until the end of your lease’s term, when you can finally get out of the agreement.
In the meantime, it’s a good idea to look into ways of using the office space. That way, your unused office can provide some value to your company (or just you personally).
Truth be told, there are dozens of different ways you can leverage empty office space to make some extra cash.
Rent it Out as Storage Space
For example, you can rent out your unused commercial space, like offices, warehouses, and more, as storage space. Peer-to-peer storage marketplaces like Neighbor allow leaseholders to rent out unused space quickly and easily, all without having to take out expensive ads or spend a lot of time finding someone to rent your space from you.
Think you’ll have trouble finding a renter? Think again. Many people would be happy to use your unused office space as a storage depot for their stuff, especially in metropolitan areas where garage space can be a bit scarce. Consider renting out your office as storage space before other ideas, as it’s one of the fastest ways to make some cash without too much effort on your part.
Alternatively, Rent the Space to Other Companies
If can’t repurpose your unused space into an opportunity that serves your company’s broader mission, you can also rent your empty office space to other companies.
While your brand might have gone remote, and while many of your employees might no longer commute into the office, it’s not necessarily the same for other brands.
Those companies might be in desperate need of affordable empty space, and you can provide it for a fair rental rate.
Do some market research in your local area to see what companies might be hunting for adequate office space for their in-office workers. You can potentially charge even more if your empty office space comes with the furniture and trappings needed to get work done, like desks, chairs, etc.
Sell the Space by the Hour to Photographers and Artists
If you have empty commercial space, like a totally empty office or a warehouse space, you could also sell it by the hour to photographers and artists.
These creative professionals oftentimes need expansive blank spaces to set up short-term studios. For instance, you might find a photographer who needs a studio for an upcoming photo shoot, and they might be willing to pay good money to rent out your office space for a few hours.
Depending on just how viable this market is, you could rent it on a recurring basis to the same few creative professionals – like artists in need of an art gallery – or advertise your office space as a short-term studio solution for photographers, painters, modelers, and so on. It’s a good way to make some extra bucks while waiting for your lease to end.
Other possible local businesses to advertise your empty office spaces to include:
- Life coaching service
- Smartphone repair service
- Laundry service
Advertise Your Empty Office for Event Bookings
People hosting events like parties, scavenger hunts, and wedding receptions always need affordable space (and usually quickly, at that). With that in mind, you can rent your empty office space to those who need a venue for event bookings.
For example, let’s say that you live in a place that’s a popular wedding destination for people around your state. In that case, you could set up an online listing for your unused commercial space for wedding receptions. This could be a great way to make consistent income, particularly if you dress up the space and clean it before your renters arrive.
Of course, you’ll need to spend a little money advertising the space to get sufficient traffic, but you could still end up with net profits in the long run. You’ll also need to examine the square footage of your empty offices to know whether it’ll be suitable for private events. This idea is most appropriate if you have control over an entire empty building, not just a commercial office or two.
Use Your Office Space as Room for Training and Professional Development
Alternatively, you can use your empty office space to make a profit by leveraging it for your business once again. Specifically, you can set it aside as a room for training and professional development seminars.
For instance, you can gather your company together for a private training sequence, where everyone learns to use a different tool or new process. Not only does your empty office space provide you with privacy, but it’s also guaranteed to be yours – you don’t need to worry about not being able to secure an event space in time for the upcoming training session, for example.
This doesn’t directly put money in your pocket, but it adds value to your brand and your team. In the years to come, it could more than pay for itself just from this benefit. Don’t forget, of course, you don’t need to spend any money to rent a separate space with this strategy, either!
Market Your Empty Space to Pop-Ups
“Pop-ups” are short-term retail stores or other businesses that are only in business for a short period of time throughout the year. These are typically seasonal businesses, like holiday markets or stores. As an example, a Christmas decoration store might look for unused office space or affordable retail space for a few months out of the year, then pack up shop in January.
Your unused office space could be just what these pop-up retail businesses are looking for. However, you’ll need to consider things like:
- Do you have parking? If not, you may have a difficult time advertising your space to pop-up retail brands
- Does your space have Wi-Fi or other conveniences that will help the business facilitate contactless or point-of-sale payments?
- How much foot traffic does your building accommodate?
By answering all of these questions, you’ll know whether your unused office space is a good fit for retail businesses that pop up time and again throughout your city.
Take Advantage of the Hot Desking Craze
In tandem with the remote work trend, many companies are leaning into so-called hot desking. Put simply, hot desking means employees share desks based on when they need a workspace in a shared working environment, rather than having private offices or private desks.
As a business owner, you might not have a completely empty office space, but you may have decent-sized sections of your commercial building left unused—now that all or some of your workforce is working remotely. You can rent out those desks to freelancers or even businesses that operate in the same building as you to ensure the space gets put to good use.
Simultaneously, you’ll make a profit since you can rent the desks by the hour, by the week, or even by the month. Hot desking is also quite flexible, as your employees can continue to use the desks as they need to without worrying about there not being enough space for everyone in the office.
Or Transform the Space Into a Co-Working Haven
Alternatively, consider transforming your unused office space into a co-working space. In a nutshell, a co-working space is a place for freelancers – such as writers, legal agents, programmers, and entrepreneurs – to buckle down and get to work in a professional environment without having a dedicated office to visit.
Your unused commercial space might already have all the necessary furniture for co-working spaces. These include desks, chairs, coffee stations, and much more. When you transform your office space into a co-working space, you can make a significantly higher income than you would otherwise, especially if you advertise successfully to your local market.
However, keep in mind that this strategy’s effectiveness is dependent on how long your lease is for. If your lease is due to expire within the next year, setting up a co-working space might not be the wisest idea, as this is essentially setting up a secondary business in addition to your primary brand or venture!
Wrap Up
Ultimately, any of these ideas could be just what you need to make money off your unused commercial space. If you have unused office space just sitting around, why not put it to work for you and generate some income?
Best of all, you can get started today with many of these ideas without having to spend too much cash. For instance, renting your office space to those in need of self-storage solutions is quick, simple, and cost-effective compared to setting up a secondary business in the same office. In any case, putting your empty office space to work for you is a far smarter idea than simply letting it linger until you no longer have to make lease payments.
