It is clear that rental terms are shorter. Where a contractor would rent for a full month (four weeks), they are now only renting for days or weeks and don’t understand how much time they have earned using these shorter periods. For example, rent for three days and most likely you can keep the unit for a week. With the way rental is changing, it pays to ask how much time you have earned and how much it would cost to add time to the rental contract. Most rental managers can spit out these numbers in their sleep.

Planning takes time and effort. Planning for 2012 should include determining your equipment needs; assessing potential changes to the equipment fleet; evaluating tax benefits available in 2011 and 2012; managing rental contracts; and determining how to find enough work at a workable price to get through the next 12 months. Most of all planning still means “cash is king.” ET

Garry Bartecki is the managing member of GB Financial Services LLP and VP Finance for the Associated Equipment Distributors. He can be reached at (708) 347-9109 or gbartecki@comcast.net.