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Renting as a viable alternative to purchasing equipment

Contingent upon your particular business needs, and in addition the state of your business funds, renting your business hardware could be a solid investment. What's more, if yours is a new company that is strapped for money or on the off chance that you are thinking that it’s hard to secure the credit important to back your business, renting may be the perfect alternative for getting the business equipment that you need. 

Nonetheless, regardless of the possibility that you’re in a dire situation, you ought to view renting companies as potential suppliers for all your hardware needs and other substantial business resources. You won’t have a problem discovering organizations willing to rent just about anything for every major industry nowadays, that’s for sure.
The question becomes: are you able to benefit more from renting your equipment, rather than purchasing and owning it?

Leasing over Purchasing 

The primary favorable position of renting is that you can by and large pick up the advantage of having access to the equipment that you need with less of an upfront cost.  Rentals seldom require up front installments. At the end of the day, renting may adequately give the advantage of up to double the financing (in spite of the fact that a refundable security deposit may be needed in a few cases).

There are various preferences to renting your hardware and business resources, extending from affordability to adaptability in tending to the needs and suitability of hardware: 

Easy Access

You'll likely have a simpler time discovering somebody willing to rent you gear than somebody willing to offer you credit to buy the hardware. One reason is that with a lease, title to the property stays with the lessor so in the event that you miss a few installments, the lessor can immediately recover the investment. Moreover, under a lease you may have the capacity to arrange a more extended installment period (bringing about decreased installment sums) and/or a more adaptable installment timetable (bringing about a superior coordinating of your installment commitments with your income) than you would have the capacity to arrange under an advance. 

Equipment rented once in a while incorporates any procurements that limit your future budgetary operations. Interestingly, it is not out of the norm for an advance consent to incorporate limits on your capacity to buy extra hardware or to obtain extra finances without the bank's authorization. 

Feeding Your Growth

Renting may empower you to better keep pace with enhancing innovation. For computers, specialized electronics, and other gear that is liable to experience quick innovative change, you'll have a less demanding decision on persuading yourself to put resources into upgraded hardware on the off chance that you obtained your current gear under a lease that incorporates a hardware upgrade clause.

Renting your equipment offers you the flexibility that is often impossible to find when starting up a business.  Every decision you make can feel like choosing between the success and the failure of your business.  Equipment rentals offer that relief that you don’t have to make the perfect choice on which brand or model you’re going to use to get the best value and efficiency possible.

Lastly, renting your equipment allows for a tax advantage that makes rental fees fully deductible for your business.  This is no small factor to consider, whether you prefer to own all your equipment in-house, or lease everything to feed your rapidly growing business.

Using Instagram to showcase your equipment rental business

Looking for ways to increase exposure of your equipment rental business, but are on a limited marketing budget?  Instagram isn’t just a social media platform for selfies and pictures of food.  This could potentially be a powerful tool to get more eyes on your products or services.

Why Instagram?

With a user base of over 80 million, this fairly simple photo sharing platform has grown from a mobile app to a fully-fledged online database that is searchable and linkable across all platforms.  Pictures can be tagged, organized, and provide instant-feedback from anyone browsing them.

Sometimes browsing rental inventory or product catalogs on websites doesn’t always translate well to mobile devices, with Instagram, photos are easily swiped through, flipped, zoomed, liked, and shared with the familiar platform that everyone knows how to use, especially the younger demographics.  This is a very important audience for anyone in the rental industry.

For example, a wedding rentals company would be able to show off their entire catalogs of dresses, suits, and accessories and apply very evocative visuals, thanks to the beautiful presentation tools available on Instagram.  The wow-factor is much higher when everything is presented in a cohesive gallery, generating a natural buying interest for your business.

Inside Scoop on Products

When expanding your rental inventory, it can often take a while for new products to really take off, without an involved marketing campaign.  Instagram allows your rental business to update and share your new products or services with all members who have followed you and liked your products.  You can give these VIP members an inside look at upcoming products, or you can show them what goes on behind-the-scenes at your rental equipment business.

More Customer Feedback

Your Instagram account can demonstrate ways in which your inventory is used and allow for members to share their own experiences with their own Instagram photos.  You could hold a contest asking for users to submit the best photo of your rental gear to go on the front page of your website.

Your Instagram account isn’t just limited to posting photos of your inventory online like a pawn shop.  It can be personally tailored to add personality and likeability to your rental business.  Use it to upload pictures of company moves or trade expos where you can display exclusive unveilings of future products.  Get to know your customers and fans personally by holding meet-and-greets, charity events, and giveaways to get people excited about your products.

The best way to stand out from the competition is to stand up and broadcast who you are, what better way to do that than with one of the fastest growing social media platforms on the internet?  Expand your customer base and begin tapping into younger demographics who are much more visual and place much more importance on convenience and accessibility than all other metrics.

Finally, retain those customers with casual professional relationships and advice, thanks to Instagram’s easy-to-use app and web integration.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Equipment Rental

Every industry has at least a few of them - those unwritten rules that can make or break a fledgling business or even impact an established company.  When it comes to the do’s and don’ts of equipment rental, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to go ahead and write them down for you, so you won’t have to suffer through the pain of learning them the hard way.

Do stay focused on your customers and on customer service.

While this cardinal rule of business may seem obvious, too often owners and employees get so tied up in the logistics of running their equipment rental company, they actually forget all about the very people that should be their number one priority.  Keep in mind that if you aren’t working on building your customer base, you simply aren’t going to be making any money.  And at least as importantly, if you have an especially happy or unhappy customer, they’re going to be sure to let all of their friends, neighbors, relatives and business associates know about it, which is also going to have a big effect on your bottom line.  Let the tools that are available to you, like EquipCalendar, take care of the logistics so that you can spend your time making your customers smile. 

Do sell underutilized equipment.

If there’s one thing that you need to know about an equipment rental business, it’s that if a piece of equipment isn’t renting, then it’s not earning you money.  You can easily track which items you currently have that aren’t paying for the expense of keeping them around, whether it’s because of the routine maintenance they require or that they’re just taking up too much space.  It’s much better to bite the bullet and sell your underutilized equipment so that you can invest in something else that’s in higher demand.   

Don’t ever let them see you sweat.

The rental equipment biz can be stressful, there’s no two ways about it.  But it’s very important that you maintain professionalism at all times, in front of both your customers and your employees.  That’s because if you want to be taken seriously and inspire confidence in your abilities, you simply can’t be caught running around like a chicken with your head cut off.  Do whatever it takes for you to keep your cool in the moment and then, if you really, really need to, feel free to lose it the moment you get to your car.