Tiny houses serve practical business purposes beyond personal housing, including guest accommodations for retreat centers, attention-generating marketing displays, and income-producing rental units. The Milarepa Center Buddhist retreat in Vermont built a tiny house for teacher and student housing, demonstrating how organizations use small structures cost-effectively.
Business Applications
- Guest Housing: Accommodations for teachers, students, or clients
- Retreat Cabins: Private spaces for meditation or wellness centers
- Marketing Attraction: Portable display units that draw attention to events
- Rental Income: Short or long-term rental units on existing property
- Employee Housing: On-site accommodations for staff
Milarepa Center Tiny House
Milarepa Center, Barnet, Vermont
Project Details
- Organization: Milarepa Center (Buddhist retreat)
- Location: Barnet, Vermont
- Budget: $17,000
- Capacity: Two occupants
- Use: Teacher housing and retreat accommodations
- Plans: Additional tiny houses for expanded capacity
Lessons from Business Use of Tiny Houses
- Low Construction Cost Enables Projects: $17,000 builds complete guest housing that would cost far more as traditional construction
- Portable Units Create Marketing Opportunities: Trailer-based tiny houses can travel to events and attract attention
- Multiple Units Scale Affordably: Organizations can add capacity incrementally as budgets allow
- Rental Income Offsets Investment: Tiny houses can generate ongoing revenue that recovers construction costs
- Unique Accommodations Attract Visitors: Tiny house stays appeal to guests seeking distinctive experiences
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Alex
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Alex, when I retire someday ( within the next 16 years) ;I plan on opening a very small coffee house on a trailer. The idea is to provide a good atmosphere for people to come and have coffee and maybe a light lunch. The fact that the coffee house will be very small, it will attract a certain client base, then if the response is good, the business could be expanded to a slightly larger venue. This way, the costs of starting a business will be minimal. If the coffee house was not successful, then I will use the trailer as a cottage for all the family to enjoy and the investment is not lost.
The good thing is that I can start building the coffee house / trailer in the near future, then take my time to locate the perfect location to set up shop and do something that I always wanted to do.
Cheers,
Mark Frost.
Already working toward setting up a couple for rentals, my county doesn’t really have restrictions or building codes. Have to build to MY standards and I can be tough on the poor schlep (me) who has to build where I hold sway.
Mark, I really like your idea. You can also easily find places where it will be successful. For example in my town there’s a few farmer’s markets that are really popular during the weekend. And the rental slots are minimal I hear.
I think that’s a great way to start a business nowadays. At least where I live it is.
Please keep me updated on your progress. I hope that you start soon… You never know, it could turn out to do well enough.
Haha, David. Can’t wait to hear about your progress too. Owning a couple of tiny but inexpensive to build rentals sure would be nice.
Alex, interesting you mentioned the farmer’s market; my intention is to find an organic farm and set the coffee house trailer near the farm. i would build my lunch menu around ingredients that were in season with produce from the farm. That way it keeps the food within a very tight radius…..well except for the coffee and that would need to be a “fair trade” product.
The coffee house design would probably be loosely based on a Jay Shafer design, something that would me rustic and inline with the rural setting.
Cheers,
Mark Frost.
Love the coffee house idea…
Great thing about tiny/mobile shops- (I talked about this with Jay Shafer in an interview that will be our next episode of “Tiny Yellow House” TV on youtube) is that if the economic status of a certain community dries up, or demand for your business or product drops, you can simple drive elsewhere!
-Deek
Relaxshacks.com
Good post Alex- sending you more info on the summer tiny house/shelter workshop in Massachusetts asap
Hi Mark and Alex and all,
Wow, I’m excited to hear that other people are thinking like I am. I am a roadside flower vendor. I am planning on building a tiny house (when I get my funds and my schedule organized) to use as a roadside flower vendor but I am going to make it a “tiny florist shoppe”!. I do arrangements also, but have only had mostly just loose flowers in buckets. I want to put a refrigerator in there and running water and a toilet and a work table. I tried a location for a couple of months and am now in the process of changing my permit to a better (I hope) location. All of the things everyone mentioned are the reasons why I want to build a little cottage type tiny house to use as my “tiny florist shoppe”. If it doesn’t work out, I can always use it to travel and live in as an extra bedroom or for art shows in case I ever make any of my art stuff. Thanks for all the great ideas!
Ps, I forgot to check the box to be notified of follow up comments via email. So, I just did and I hope I get notified!
Hi Karen – I checked out your website and some of your art – pretty cool! I hope you come back and let us know if what you end up doing, we’d all love to see/hear how it works out.