With new research showing that younger Australians are feeling the stress of the ongoing cost of living crisis most of all, it’s no surprise many are looking for ways to add to their income.
And one young Sydney resident is leading the way, turning a side hustle into a six-figure income.
Alex Munao, 24, joined the burgeoning car-sharing movement several years ago when his grandmother, who could no longer drive, gave him her 2006 Toyota Corolla.
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This planted a seed that bore further fruit late last year, when in November Munao decided to take a new plunge into the industry as a way of getting together some extra cash.
In less than a year, his fleet, which he rents out through Turo, has grown to 16, and he has no plans to stop.
“Demand has been really, really high,” Munao said.
High enough that, with a projected income of $160,000 this year, he was able to wave goodbye to his full-time sales job and take a part-time gig selling furniture.
“It was a lightning-strike moment,” Munao said of the moment when, poring through spreadsheets, he realised that if he scaled his fleet up he could turn his fledgling car rental empire into a full-time job.
“I think there will be at least 40 cars by the end of 2025.”
Like many entrepreneurs, one of the secrets to Munao’s success was his ability to spot a trend and hop on top of it.
“A lot of people in Sydney don’t want to own a car,” he said.
“The past seven or eight years, particularly, more people are relying on car-sharing.”
This is particularly true for Munao’s target market, as Turo tends to advertise itself to out-of-town tourists, or to locals looking for a longer road trip, such as out to the Blue Mountains or the Hunter Valley.
Munao said there were a lot of younger people getting into the car-sharing app, but middle-aged people were also growing their fleets.
“It’s great to see,” he said.
But he’s adamant about the work involved. Not only does it require meticulous planning – see the aforementioned spreadsheets – but there’s a lot of due diligence involved.
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For those looking to get started, Munao recommended they look for a reliable car ideally costing $10,000 or less – and one they can pay for in cash.
When the time comes to expand, he said, people should make sure they have a mechanic with them going over prospective purchases, to ensure they’re worth the money.
And it’s worth investing if possible in vehicles of similar make and manufacture, which adds to ease of management and if nothing else, provides a useful pool of interchangeable parts.
The next stage of Munao’s plan is to upgrade his storage facility.
Currently he stocks his fleet at a carpark in Chippendale, but it’s nearing capacity.
He said hoped next to get hold of a warehouse near the airport – offsetting the cost by renting the space to other car-share vendors.
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