Scaling Your Business With Equipment Rentals
Exploring the pivotal role of equipment rentals in business expansion, we gathered insights from business owners to presidents, focusing on their firsthand experiences. From allowing for business growth to managing seasonal production peaks, discover the diverse ways in which seven industry leaders have scaled their operations through strategic rental decisions.
- Allowing for Business Growth
- Boosting Event Services
- Enabling Quality Remote Work Resources
- Facilitating Scalable Moving Services
- Aiding Product Prototyping and Testing
- Streamlining Case Management
- Negotiating Software Leases for Business Agility
- Managing Seasonal Production Peaks
Allowing for Business Growth
I have a remodeling company, and in this industry, you can’t get anywhere without quality, reliable equipment, and it doesn’t come cheap. Especially at the beginning of my journey, when I was first starting out my company, I didn’t own every bit of equipment, but not having access to it would have prevented me from taking on certain jobs and projects.
So I relied a lot on renting equipment when and if I needed it. That’s just how a lot of industries work, even in manufacturing. Do you think every factory owns every piece of equipment? It would cost millions. You rent, you use it when you need it, or you buy it second hand. Slowly, you save up and start needing the equipment more often, so you eventually buy it—usually on credit.
Without renting major equipment, I simply would not have been able to grow because renting, not owning, allowed me the free capital to use for other aspects of my business. I couldn’t have done that if I had several monthly payments and a load of equipment sitting around gathering dust between projects.
Rick Berres
Owner, Honey-Doers
Boosting Event Services
I have witnessed firsthand how crucial equipment rentals have been to growing our business. They have provided us with flexibility without the high initial outlay associated with buying equipment.
For example, we could accommodate a large event that needed extra lighting and sound equipment by choosing to rent the equipment rather than breaking the bank. It all comes down to having access to excellent equipment when we need it, which frees us up to take on bigger projects and grow our services without having to worry about the cost of ownership.
Additionally, renting out equipment has changed the game when it comes to trying out new services and markets. Suppose our goal was to investigate providing various kinds of furnishings for events. We were able to assess consumer preferences and demand without having to make an upfront inventory purchase by renting a range of styles and patterns. It’s basically an agile strategy that reduces risks and increases our capacity to adjust to the ever-changing demands of the market.
Matt Little
Owner, Festoon House
Enabling Quality Remote Work Resources
For remote workers, having access to professional-grade equipment is essential for maintaining productivity and professionalism. Unfortunately, for many workers, bad equipment and downtime are major excuses for not performing.
In our business model, considering that we provide a monthly service and most of the time do not offer long-term contracts, the initial investment in top-tier equipment is often a risky financial move. If you have a great rental company you can rely on, it is often an excellent solution to mitigate the risk and commit to your remote workforce by providing quality resources.
Sharon Koifman
Founder and Remote President, DistantJob
Facilitating Scalable Moving Services
For the most part, we run our business incredibly lean. Most of our admin team is fully remote; we use as few apps as possible to keep our work environment simple and scalable, and we rely on freelancers for large batches of new content when we need them.
The one thing we can’t be lean with, though, is moving trucks. They’re our single biggest capital expense by a huge margin, and they’re also a hard limit on our growth. We can’t schedule moves if we don’t have the trucks.
We do own and maintain most of our own vehicles, but rental trucks are an essential part of the mix. They let us get started in new markets before we have a dispatch center in the area; they let us quickly scale up for busy seasons and scale down in the winter; and they let us meet our obligations if one or more of our own trucks are down for maintenance.
Nick Valentino
VP of Market Operations, Bellhop
Aiding Product Prototyping and Testing
Renting equipment played a crucial role in creating our products. Especially during the prototyping phase, we didn’t have the budget to purchase equipment that would allow us to produce different versions of our products and test their use. Renting the machinery meant that we could, for a limited time, test different nozzles on the O+ canisters, design different canister shapes, and fine-tune our products to benefit different customers.
Of course, when we grew large enough, we could invest in this equipment to give us more time to work on new variations of our products. But renting that equipment right in the beginning allowed us to put more money into other areas of our business that would help us grow, improve customer experience, and anything else that was valuable during those early stages.
Lauren Carlstrom
COO, Oxygen Plus
Streamlining Case Management
Scaling our operations also meant improving case management. In order to accomplish this, we rented software that is specifically designed for criminal defense cases. With this short-term adoption, we could try out several software solutions without committing to anything permanent or spending a ton of money.
The results were immediate: better-organized case files, improved collaboration, and improved document management. In a high-profile drug trafficking case, this software was critical in managing extensive evidence, contributing to a well-organized and successful defense strategy.
Tim Allen
Director, Oberheiden P.C.
Negotiating Software Leases for Business Agility
Equipment need not be physical, and in today’s climate, it’s more often not. Software is key to scaling one’s business operations, but with more programs available than ever, it’s hard to choose the one that meets your needs.
That’s where leasing comes in handy. Don’t be fooled by firms that don’t offer trial periods or rental terms. As a business owner, I know what’s offered on the website or in the brochure is just a jumping-off point.
By taking a little time out of my day to call around, I’ve been able to negotiate software trials that work for me, on my schedule. I don’t take no for an answer, and that’s allowed me to experiment with programs that would otherwise cost an arm and a leg. A great example is Datapeople. By speaking to their consumer team directly, I could build a temporary subscription that met my unique recruiting needs. Now, I use it primarily.
Rob Reeves
CEO and President, Redfish Technology
Managing Seasonal Production Peaks
Equipment rentals have been pivotal in navigating our seasonal production peaks. For instance, last summer, we faced an unexpected surge in orders for our thermal-insulation blankets. Our in-house resources were stretched thin. Renting additional machinery was a game-changer. It enabled us to ramp up production without the heavy investment in new equipment.
One memorable moment was when we managed to fulfill a large, urgent order within a tight deadline, thanks to the rented equipment. This saved us financially and solidified our reputation for reliability. Such experiences underscore the flexibility and efficiency that equipment rentals bring to our business.
Sandra Malouf
President, Eurolog Packing Group
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