In our March issue, we reported on a panel discussion that took place at the IPAF Summit in Miami, where Dan Kaplan, industry veteran and CEO of Daniel Kaplan Associates, told attendees “We’ll see a severe reduction of independents” over the next 10 years, because “They won’t be able to compete with the national accounts, who offer pricing and service that nobody can match.”
We disagreed with that statement in this column space, and apparently it struck a chord with readers because we received numerous letters to the editor, some of which you can read on page 8 of this issue.
The consensus among those who responded was that there will always be a place in the industry for independents, despite the pricing advantages afforded to national chains from buying consortia. There’s no denying it will get tougher for independent businesses to succeed in the future, so what will separate the wheat from the chaff?
Tom Shay, a lifelong small business owner and author of 12 books on small business management, stresses being memorable, unique, experimental, proactive and nimble.
First and foremost, Shay emphasizes, is the need to stand out from corporate competitors. This might mean carrying highly niche products, even if their margin is low to nothing, he says, so that customers think of your store as the place to go for these hard-to-find items. He suggests visiting one of the nationals to take note of what they don’t have. “That’s what you need to stock,” he says.
Employee education is key - staff should be trained to be proactive with sales. Experimentation is also important, particularly with store layout, and we would add, with marketing. A smaller store can be a nimbler store, Shay says, because they can quickly leverage market opportunities that arise, even if they’re out of the normal inventory.
As one of our letter writers stated, “There are many changes we all have to make in the future for our businesses to survive, but what industry or business isn’t experiencing great change?” It’s a simple but wise statement. Yes, our industry is going through another round of reinvention, and it will take some hard work and innovation to keep up, but those things aren’t new to the rental industry or the small business people who are its foundation. We look forward to an industry future including the full scope of businesses, large and small.
