Memoir Monday - It all started with Two Small Sparks

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Small Decision #1 ♥

The year was 2015, around six months before I became of ^retirement age, and when it was time to say goodbye to the working world.

My son suggested that I should consider turning our garden cottage where Oupa Malan and Ouma Lily used to live, into an Airbnb.

He explained briefly, and I did a little research.

Even though we're on the outskirts of Durban, which not only was a great tourism destination, we're also central to many lively business, industrial, and commercial areas, as well as sports stadia.

I put the idea to Arthur, flippantly saying all we needed were bookings of at least four nights per month, which would be close to what we would earn if we had a tenant who could possibly become troublesome.
The Squatter's Act in SA is a big headache for many landlords, a nightmare my late brother had to endure the last few months of his life; he was only 42!

We were both working, hubby had a lucrative career, we had nothing to lose, so why not give it a go, even if it was just for a couple of months?

The cottage was well-maintained, with quaint furniture, so all we had to initially invest in was good linen, and revamp the decor. I took a couple of photos, registered on Airbnb, working in the evenings to set up our listing on their website before going live.

We I've never looked back; what started as an Airbnb eventually turned into a registered BnB, thanks to a local BnB owner who 'kindly' warned me that I needed special consent from our local authority.

Our bookings exceeded my expectations by far, and we certainly did not want to face having to pay a fine, so we complied!

The envious lady unknowingly did us a favour, as I then registered on other online booking sites, and our average occupancy rate increased.

This spur-of-the-moment decision made a huge positive impact on our lives after retiring, not just financially, but also enriched our lives with fabulous guests, many of whom return year after year.

Lily's Cottage has maintained the highest online rating in our area for the last couple of years and is now the preferred provider for some of the big motoring companies who send their staff to a local training centre.

I will always be thankful for Airbnb which was the springboard for our 'side-hustle', but most of our guests now are returning guests who book directly.

Not a bad outcome for a spur-of-the-moment decision!

I am very proud of our Lily's Cottage, which also has become an absolute lifesaver since losing my Arthur.

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(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Small Decision #2 ♥

The same son, who knows I enjoy talking writing, again nudged me to join a blogging site where I could write about any topic under the sun, and earn Crypto, which sounded really exciting, but I knew nothing about it. I finally had the chance to become part of this new exciting world of Crypto;)

I joined Steemit in July 2017, jumped in with gusto, had no strategy, just blogged on impulse. I then moved over to Hive in March 2020.

This Crypto was something that just sat in my wallet, until we had a harsh Covid lockdown, and we had to close our BnB doors for around six weeks.

We were both in retirement, but still had the same big overheads,

That is when the reality dawned that this Crypto was not just Monopoly money, it was for real, and it saved us during that difficult period.

Hive also has been a lifesaver since losing my Arthur, as I've been able to deal with my loss through writing, and for that, I am immensely thankful!

I hope you enjoyed reading about these two small decisions that changed my life in a big way, my response to @ericvancewalton's question for Memoir Monday - Week 4 (3/31 to 4/6):

What’s a small decision you made in your life that ended up having a big impact on your life?

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