"Commercial/Business Hacking" Instead of "House-Hacking"?

[Scott Trench]

I was just wondering today about the possibility of "business hacking" - whereby an entrepreneur that needs office/retail/commercial space to operate his/her business might buy a small office piece of commercial real estate, rent out other parts of the property, and operate the business from one of the units.

It seems to me like this approach might have much of the benefits of "house-hacking" in the sense that the owner gets to manage the property from right next door, and can more easily maintain a substantial piece of real estate without property management being needed.

Has anyone heard of entrepreneurs that operate in this way? I'd love to learn if this is something that successful investors do or if there are drawbacks to this approach that I am too inexperienced to see. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.