If you’re a woman, I bet you have a ton of formal gowns that you simply don’t wear anymore. You hate to throw them out or give them away because they are so beautiful, but you hardly ever find an occasion to wear them at this point in your life. My solution – Why not rent them out?
Renting Out Your Prom Dress
I think my wife has about 6 formal gowns (that I know of) that could be used as prom dresses. Rather than a young teen spending $200+ dollars for a brand new dress that she’ll probably never wear again, wouldn’t it be much wiser for her (and more-so, her parents) to rent a dress for $50? It serves exactly the same purpose, plus you won’t have to clutter up your closet with old dresses that have no use in the future.
Maybe I’m way off the mark, but I see this as a great passive income opportunity.
The Sites That Can Help You
You could, or course, list your dress rental on Craigslist, but if you’re not finding success with this, take a look at these helpful sites:
Surf the web a bit for a fair rental price. For prom dresses, it seems that the going rate is between $25-$40 per day. So, you could rent out your dress 5 times and get the full amount paid back out of it. Plus, the process is incredibly easy! The customer would either call you or rent the dress online (depending on where/how you post it), they pick up the dress, use it, then return it in the same shape that it was when they picked it up.
Get a Security Deposit
In order to cover yourself in the event that there’s some sort of issue with the dress when it’s returned (or if it’s never returned), it’s best to demand a deposit before allowing the customer to pick up the dress. You could either hold onto some collateral (jewelry, electronics, cash, etc.) until the item is returned. This way, it’s a win-win for you, and you won’t have to worry about the dress getting damaged or stolen.
Is It Worth It?
Without even crunching the numbers, I would say that this source of passive income is absolutely worth it! These dresses were taking up space in your closet and earning you nothing. Now, some teenage girl is looking beautiful at the prom, and you’re getting paid for helping out!
If my wife started renting out her dresses, I bet that she would be able to find renters for at least 4 of the dresses once a year, which would equate to an extra $100. Sure, it’s not big money, but it’s $100 more than you would have had before!
If you really wanted to pursue a passive income business with a much larger revenue, you would most likely need to own at least 20 dresses, and it would be wise to create a site of your own to handle the volume of rentals, as well as the dates each dress is rented. With a larger number of rentals, you’ll also need to factor in the cost of repair and dry cleaning of each dress. At this point, I would think that this method of passive income would turn into a very hands-on, non-profitable business. It’s best to just rent a few dresses out per year for some side cash.
What do you think? Would this work as a form of passive income?
I’ve said for years that men have an unfair advantage in formal wear because it’s so easy to rent a tux. Also, since renting a dress has definite advantages over buying one, I’m shocked that there aren’t more opportunities out there to rent one!
Yep, there are a couple sites that offer a place for women to rent out their dresses, but they definitely aren’t main stream. If you’ve already got some dresses, some extra cash could easily be found by renting them out.
Yes, i appreciate it. Really it’s a good idea.So, thanks for your fantastic information, which is inspired me.
No problem! Glad I could help you out with a few ideas.
That is very true man. Ladies have a very big advantage when it comes to renting a dress compared to men because it will be up for grabs. Men prefer wearing what is theirs.
Since women tend to only wear a dress once, it only makes sense, right?