What’s Mine Can be Yours – for an Hour, Day, Week, or…?

Remember the book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten?  We learned the importance of sharing. Who knew it could become an economy?

I am more and more intrigued by this approach to ownership and the ways it will alter how we live.  “They say” it is a $110 B economy and growing.  Maybe you won’t participate but to not at least be aware of this is akin to thinking the digital economy is a passing fad. In case you are not up to speed, the shared economy is where access to trumps ownership of and in my case, it’s access to cars (plural)  vs. ownership of a (singular) car. Hence,  #AtlantaWIthOutaCar!

Think about it. Take the car, for example.  And in Atlanta plenty of people do! If you commute from OP (Atlanta speak for outside the Perimeter) you drive approximately thirty minutes to work each way on average, according to a recent Atlanta Business Chronicle article. (‘Really?’ I ask because those times I am in a car it takes me thirty minutes to go three miles sometimes. But I digress.)  Then you get to work and do what? Park your car where you pay for it to be stored for  8-10 or 12 hours.  What if your car made money for you while you worked?  What if someone, fully licensed, insured, vetted to the 9s,  and maybe even worked in your office, could use your car? Let’s do the math…3 hours @ $10.00 per = $30.00 per day * 5 days= $150.00 per week * 50 weeks…$ 750.00 annually. “What’s in your wallet?”

And now for the supporting data.

Airbnb reports 11 million users, operates in 34,000 cities and is reported to be valued at 10B, more than a lot of four star hotel chains.  UBER is reportedly worth 17B,   but the growth of the shared economy  doesn’t come without obstacles. “Disruptive’ is the new business buzz word and these and others are certainly contributing to doing just that for transportation and hospitality industries.

What’s in your closet, garage, driveway or…and what are you planning to share? Selfishly,  I hope it’s your car because it’s Year 5 of Going AWOC – AtlantaWithOutaCar!