\u201cI drop them off at nine o\u2019 clock every morning and pick them up at 3:30 every single day,\u201d says Nigel. \u201cThese are things we couldn\u2019t do before.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n By \u201cbefore,\u201d Nigel means before March 2020 when he left his job as a technical recruiter. When corporate structure and a rigid nine-to-five schedule started to become grating, he looked for ways to build passive income. He bought a triplex in Toronto in 2017 and rented out all three units. But his goal wasn\u2019t to get rich quick or even get rich at all. His goal was to simply cover his expenses, one revenue stream at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My largest expense was my mortgage. So the first thing I did was buy a rental property, rented out my home, and then I figured out how to house hack and live for free. And then I realized my second-largest expense was my car.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The timing was perfect. He had recently learned about Turo and all the benefits of becoming a host. After a little research, he put his Infiniti Q50 on the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll of a sudden my car was booked for three days and I was like, \u2018Oh, this is amazing.\u2019 And then it was gone again,\u201d recalls Nigel. \u201cI thought that I could have the car when I wanted to, and then because the car was booked so much, I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh no, this is a business. I should get another vehicle.\u2019\u2019\u2019 So within thirty days I went out and bought myself a Ford Focus in cash.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Becoming a Turo host was the perfect way to increase his participation in the sharing economy. While he rented out the triplex, he shared rooms in his own home as part of a house hacking strategy designed to cover his mortgage payments. He\u2019s also begun dabbling in cryptocurrency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve got these tentacles in this sharing economy world that I think is absolutely phenomenal if you dive into it,\u201d says Nigel. \u201cIt\u2019s been a phenomenal journey so far.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What started out as a hyper-focused approach to knocking off one expense at a time became Nigel\u2019s entry into a new way of thinking about work and life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt allows me to think about life differently. I can strategize about the future,\u201d explains Nigel. \u201c I\u2019m focusing on, \u2018What does the future look like?\u2019 I\u2019m planning for the future and getting ahead of the curve while most people are just trying to figure out managing work, getting home, getting dinner ready. I have the freedom to look at life differently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One thing that sets Nigel apart from many hosts is that while he wants to grow his portfolio on Turo, he has no grand ambitions of building a big company. While he enjoys creating a great experience for his guests and putting in the work to clean and maintain his cars, becoming a manager is akin to jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not interested in having employees. I\u2019m not interested in another job. A lot of people want to become entrepreneurs to set up these huge massive companies and go public. I don\u2019t want that. I don\u2019t want the corporate structure. I left that. What I want is freedom. I want the freedom to choose how to live my life. And that\u2019s where the sharing economy is different, because it gives you the freedom to choose. If I don\u2019t want my cars being booked, I just take them off Turo for a second. If I want them booked, I put them back on. If you call that entrepreneurial then it is, but I\u2019m not looking to set up a company and run it. I\u2019m looking to reduce the amount of stress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nigel may not want to manage people, but he has no problem interacting with people. In fact, he says the ability to connect with guests and deliver a great experience is a meaningful part of being on Turo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI enjoy interacting with guests. It adds some sort of dynamic to my day,\u201d says Nigel. \u201cI like to engage. If I\u2019m not going to be around, then I won\u2019t do a hand off. I\u2019ll just have somebody pick up the keys and go. And if I want to get out of my house for a bit, I\u2019ll book it for downtown Toronto and I\u2019ll drive to downtown Toronto or the airport. I love the flexibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enjoying flexibility and a steady revenue stream still requires work and Nigel invests time into making sure his Turo business is successful. He takes cars on and off the platform based on how many kilometers a car has racked up as well as the seasonal demands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs I approach the summer, I try to bring out the nicer cars. Get a Mercedes. Maybe look into getting a drop top convertible or something a little fancier in summer. And then in the winter, I downgrade to more economical stuff. It\u2019s winter, right? People are not really flossing and showing off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nigel also makes sure to give himself a bit of buffer time before the peak seasons start so he can collect good reviews on new cars and be an attractive host to book as demand picks up. He\u2019ll drop his prices in the lead up to the peak season to get the reviews and then raise them when things start to get busy. Nigel is the first to admit that he\u2019s not a car expert though. Much of what he\u2019s learned about this business has been through experimental education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was clueless. To this day, I\u2019m not a car expert. It\u2019s been trial and error. Some cars did work out, some cars didn\u2019t work out. You speak to your guests. You have conversations with them. Time is the greatest teacher, so after a while you pick it up. I don\u2019t do this blindly. I\u2019m actively figuring out, \u2018What can I do better? What can I improve?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking of improving, Nigel\u2019s got his sights set on how to future-proof his portfolio of vehicles. As soon as other car brands start making electric vehicles, he plans on swapping out his current vehicles for EVs until his portfolio is 100% electric. He\u2019s confident that that\u2019s the future of driving and car sharing. He\u2019s also confident about one other thing: that his approach to owning cars has completely changed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI can never own a car and let it sit anymore. It wouldn\u2019t make sense. Every car I buy, I\u2019ll put on Turo. I have no emotional attachment to any of the vehicles I put on Turo and I intend to keep that. What\u2019s also perfect is that your cars are always clean. I think I maintain my cars better using Turo than I ever have in my entire life. My cars are never dirty. Oil changes are done consistently. Everything\u2019s on the ball. It\u2019s perfect. You can\u2019t beat that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/turo.com\/blog\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/IMG_5530-scaled-e1639150775719-1024x512.webp\")
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nGetting the freedom to think about life differently<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nStrategies for managing his Turo business<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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