The world has changed in a big way, and to put this into perspective, consider that today, you can rent a friend to hang out with you, chat, attend events, and do anything a friend would normally do with you.
It it possible to make passive income with rent-a-friend? You actually can make passive income by joining a rent-a-friend service. This is a lucrative way to make some easy money. According to rentafriend.com, you can get paid up to $50/hour. At only 20h per week, you can make $1,000 per week if that was your hourly rate.
This doesn’t necessarily mean the person paying for these services has poor social skills – they can be travellers looking for someone to show them around a new town, or elderly people looking to socialise with others. Still, many people are genuinely surprised at the number of folks willing to pay to have a friend by their side during various moments in their lives. So, welcome to the world of friendship by the hour.
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You get to decide how much you will charge for your services based on the time you will spend with the potential ‘friend.’ Obviously, your rates will also depend on the sort of activities you will do while with your new bestie. Generally, you can charge as much as $50 an hour for your services.
How to Make a Income through Rent a Friend Services
Renting a friend might be a relatively new concept in the U.S. and other Western countries. However, in a country like Japan, people find nothing unusual about the concept. Check out the video below if you are intrigued by this concept. It talks about how a young man paid a Rent a Friend service to come out to his mother, in a country where being gay is taboo. The video below is about a Japanese man who used a rent a friend service to help him come out to his mother.
But for the last decade or so, America has gotten in on the trend, and it’s growing fast. What began a single site that let people rent friends about a decade ago has become something of an industry that makes it easy for people like you to hire out your friendship.
Decide on What Kind of Friend to Be
Obviously, friends come in all forms. The friends you take to the gym are not necessarily the friends you attend concerts with. Your drinking buddies might be very different from the friends you would take to a hiking adventure. Therefore, you need to know what kind of friend you will be. And, more importantly, know what your limits are. For instance, if you don’t like clubbing, then make sure that the person hiring you knows this beforehand. The last thing you want is feeling compelled to do unpleasant activities with your ‘friend’ just because you are getting paid for it.
If you have a specific or special skills like dancing, singing, or animating a crowd, you might find someone who is willing to pay more for your company. For example, looking to pay his rent with only side hustles, in the video below, Will from Vice was paid $150 to impersonate a Game of Thrones character in an attempt to pay off a month of NY rent with only Craigslist jobs.
Therefore, if you are being hired to go hiking, and are somewhat of an expert in that area, you will be truly unique to the person paying for your services and that can make you more money. The activity will also be way more fun if you are both participating in activities you actually enjoy.
So, be as detailed as you possibly can as you describe your friendship qualities so that you find perfect matches. Actually state what you want to do and what you don’t want to do in your profile. People in search of these kinds of friends would certainly appreciate finding someone who will enjoy all the diverse activities they enjoy well, and who is upfront about their limits. Remember that even though they are paying for your company, their greatest satisfaction will come from feeling that you are truly a friend and that their money and time was well-spent with you.
Being a Good Friend to Those Who Hire You
There are some universal qualities that can tell if you are a good friend or not. You need these qualities even if you are not getting paid for your friendship.
Kindness & Empathy
Since you have turned your friendliness into a business, you obviously have to make sure you take care of your end as the service provider. You have to be cheerful and friendly, even when doing things you would not particularly enjoy, to ensure that your ‘friend’ actually enjoys your company. If they are into the long story they are telling you, and you think that it is the most boring thing in the world, just play along and be supportive, as a real friend would. You are not obliged to continue working with that person in the future if there isn’t a fit.
Being Considerate & Reasonable
Obviously, some people will even give you an opportunity to make some of the decisions during your time together. For instance, if your friend wants to go to a bar for drinks, and ask what you would like, be reasonable in your requests. Clearly, they might find you boring if you fail to join them in their drinking, but that does not mean you should go overboard either. Be reasonable. If you can take what they are having, well and good. But if you prefer something else, then you can try and order something of equal or less value (out of respect).
There is also nothing stopping you from spending a few bucks on your friend if you feel you are actually having a good time and truly enjoying yourself. It would be a good gesture as it would show them that you are enjoying yourself and feeling the connection just as much as they are. But also remember that you are offering your services for money. It makes no sense to spend all your time with a stranger for money and then spend it all on them. That is certainly not a sustainable business model.
Setting Your Limits
Keep in mind that these people actually have friends, and they might be hiring you to do things that their friends would not enjoy. That said, don’t agree to do anything illegal or inappropriate. Be very clear with your limits and do not hesitate to report people who are not respecting the rules if you are using a peer-to-peer platform.
Sign up With a Rent-a-Friend Platform
Now that you have figured out what you can offer as a friend, you can sign up with a platform like Rent-a-Friend and start getting appointments to meet friends for cash. After landing on the site, just click on Join Now, and choose to become a friend. After that, you should specify your availability, it could be anything from 10 hours to more than 50 hours if you want to make this a full-time gig. You can also tick the negotiable option if you are not sure about your availability. And that’s pretty much it – you won’t even have to pay a dime.
According to RentAFriend.com, you can earn up to $50 per hour. There might even be more in this for you than just the money, as you could end up attending great concerts, sporting events, comedy clubs, fancy restaurants, insanely good parties, and so forth before getting paid at the end of it all. Passive or not, that’s a pretty sweet deal, right?
Make Money Passively
To make money passively off rent-a-friend services, you can obviously turn the services into a business that can run without your constant intervention. That means starting your own rent-a-friend business. But that entails hiring people and could be very demanding (managing employees, legal implications, accounting etc). You could also create your own membership site and receive income from the subscription fees.
Maybe building a site and getting into this business, though a passive way to earn To make money passively off rent-a-friend services, you can obviously turn the services into a business that can run without your constant intervention. That means starting your own rent-a-friend business. But that entails hiring people and could be very demanding (managing employees, legal implications, accounting etc). You could also create your own membership site and receive income from the subscription fees.
Maybe building a site and getting into this business, though a passive way to earn some money, might be too much work for you as someone who has never built an online business before. Luckily, there is another option for you. After all, given the nature of this business, you can work out a plan that would help you make this cash without necessarily feeling like it’s taking extra effort.
Think about it, every weekend you go out and meet new people. How much difference would it make if these people paid you for the experience? Not much. If you do not change anything in your lifestyle, you can make passive income by inviting paying people (tourists for example) to join.
How Passive are Rent a Friend Services?
Rent a friend is more of a side hustle since it is very active and demands your physical presence, time and energy. But you can also offer such services with a passive subscription platform, or by going about your life as you would normally and just having new “friends” join your regular activities.
Scalability
A rent-a-friend operation is not very scalable if you are the only one offering it because you can only work so many hours. If you create a membership kind of business, your limits are much less restrained because having more members will mean earning more income. If you decide to go with a site membership model, you can increase your hours or focus on clients who will pay more by the hour (by choosing a focused niche) to boost your income.
Startup Costs
It’s free to join rent-a-friend. Once you have set up your account, you just have to promote your services and you will be good to go. Websites don’t cost much to start nowadays, and that should not be an expense you should particularly worry about if you decide to create your own site. If you decide to make a custom platform with a marketing company, costs will be much, much higher.
Time
It will take a lot of time and effort to create a website that you can use to earn money passively from. Like years of testing, building and marketing. However, if you can promote your services well enough as soon as you begin and start getting and converting enough traffic, then it should not take long before your first passive dollars start trickling in. But if you opt to join an existing platform instead, you can start making money very quickly.
Difficulty
There is nothing uniquely difficult about making a passive income by starting a rent-a-friend business. As with most online businesses, the process is easy and smooth. It is mostly a question of your dedication and skill, at least at the very beginning, to ensure that your business takes off. But even this is not particularly challenging to do. As far as joining an existing site goes, that’s even easier.
Risk
Yes, there are certainly some risks involved with this type of business, even if you join a peer-to-peer platform. You will have no idea as to the sort of stranger you are getting involved with. As you know, all sorts of people can be found on the web, and these ‘friends’ might not be all they claim to be. That is why you should have verys trong ground rules in place, such as letting them know that you will not visit their homes with them or do other things that might get you into trouble with authorities or violate your principles. Do not provide them too much of your personal information (address etc). Meet in public places. Be aware and consult legal aid if necessary.
Seasonality
Running this kind of business should not give you any seasonality concerns. After all, people need friends during all seasons of the year. At every time of the day, there will be someone who needs a friend to hang out, offer support during a tough moment, and so forth. Therefore, you can expect that your rent-a-friend business will stay active regardless of the time of the year.
ROI (Return On Investment)
The return on investment for this business is pretty good, generally speaking. Your costs will not be significant in comparison to the benefits you will get once the business is up and running. Some membership sites offering these services charge more than $20 a month for the paying members. So, you can imagine how much you would make if you could form a site with a considerable number of paying members. Additionally, as a friend on a rent-a-friend site, you can make several hundred dollars a month for zero sign up costs.
Related Questions
Can you offer rent-a-friend services from any place in the world? Yes, you can offer rent-a-friend services from anywhere. All around the world, there can be people who might be in need of friendship. Obviously, the closer you are to the friend in question, wherever they are in the world, the more appealing of an option you can be.
Are rented friends any different from real friends? Other than the fact that they are paying for your company, there are no other differences to speak of. You don’t have to bend over backwards to accommodate them and their unusual demands just because they are paying you.
