When I lost my business, I started renting out my indoor pool to earn money. Now, it’s my full-time job.

• Rick Neuhoff, whose business was down due to COVID, started renting out his indoor pool through an app.

• The Portland, Oregon, resident said he makes more money driving for Doordash than driving.

• He charges $75 an hour and says he can make up to $15,000 a month during peak times.

This as-told article is based on a conversation with Rick Neuhoff, 65, a homeowner in Portland, Oregon, who rents out his indoor pool using Swimply. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Before COVID got worse, I was doing marketing for law firms. COVID nearly destroyed my business as lawyers didn’t want to expand their portfolios because the courts were closed.

So I was at home and stuck.

Me too for a short while Driving for DoorDash. One day, my wife was accompanying me while I was giving birth, and we saw something left on our doorstep through our doorbell video camera. We assumed it was medicine, but it was a bag from Swimply. rent out your private pool.

The reason we wanted a pool in our house was so that my wife could do sports while at home. He had recently been diagnosed with diabetes and it became very important to exercise every day.

Obviously here in Portland your public records are pretty public, so Swimply knew we had an indoor swimming pool, and they left a welcome bag at our door with a beach ball and a bunch of information.

I convinced my wife to try it and we never looked back.

We charge $75 per hour to rent our indoor pool

I don’t think I drove for more than a year before giving Swimply a chance. I made more money in two days than I did driving all week.

Within a few months we were performing quite well. We started with a few hundred dollars a week, then grew to over $1,000 a week, and that continued to rise steadily.

We’ve been getting paid $75 an hour for about four years.

In my best months I made $12,000 to $15,000 gross, but we also had slow weeks.

Weekday mornings are our slowest time, and weekdays are slower than weekends, so we have a $60 discount per hour on weekdays. We usually take one or sometimes two reservations on weekdays, usually after school or after work.

I enjoy making other people’s events feel special

When we first started renting out our pool, we were a little worried that it would be weird to have people in our house.

We realized pretty quickly that we had to keep the pool house door locked because people would occasionally open the door and come in and start looking for the bathroom or something.

But the fun and joy you feel through the walls is truly contagious and It makes you smile even when you’re having a hard day.

We hosted a cinema shoots, photo shoots, any holiday party and anniversary you can think of.

We were contacted by several swim instructors who were looking for a home for their swim schools.

We hosted a scuba diving school for a short time. There was something wrong with their tank so they were here for a few weeks while it was being repaired. We’re not deep enough for scuba diving, but I think it’s better for them to continue their studies rather than hit the brakes.

We have had many large corporate events during the warm weather; There is a large grassy area behind our house. We have a semi-private walled courtyard and we also have a pool house. In cold weather, we can host up to 60 people in the pool house with limited seating and a DJ.

When outdoor pools close, our business increases. There are very few indoor pools in Portland, and among the indoor pools in our market, we are the only one with real space to party.

We still have a ton of things to do here, but we’ve made some really significant progress. Our pool house still has a shabby chic feel to it, but the pool itself is incredible and the environment we’ve created is as good as we could do with our budget.

Swimply allowed me to make money while my business was closed due to COVID. I have now changed my job and am more flexible after recognizing an opportunity.

I’m not doing exactly what I did when I worked at law firms – close to that – but my stress is much lower, which is priceless.

If you like this story, don’t forget to follow Business Content on Yahoo.