Rental: How did you got into the rental industry?
My buddy's dad owned a rental equipment company. One of my friends needed to get a promotion, and the way you could get a promotion was to find somebody to take his spot, so they grabbed me. As soon as I got working in it, it immediately reminded me of my childhood because my grandfather drove a Peterbilt truck and had worked on cap dozers, and I immediately fell in love with the business.
I’ve been in this since 1988 now, and it's just been one of those situations where I started as a yard man from the very bottom up to the president of my own company now, which I started back in 2004.
Rental: Can you give us some insight on your current company?
We do everything from weed eaters, up to excavators and water trucks. We started in May 2004, so we’re about 18 years old now. We have 15 employees total.
Rental: What have been some of the challenges and successes that you've had within those 18 years in business?
We survived the recession in the 2007 to 2010 era, which was tough.
We don't have cashflow problems, we don't have problems with customers, we don't have problems with the federal government. If anything, COVID probably helped us because our numbers have gone up every year because people decided to stay home and invest in their homes. We’ve seen the numbers shoot through the roof for the rental business, helped by the fact that manufacturers are behind and can't produce stuff. It's been a combination for us to be very busy
In, we had just a record year from 2019. We were up 60 percent, which is that's not even healthy. And then in 2021, we beat that by 37 percent. This year, we’re already up 40 something percent compared to this time last year, so our growth is going out of control. We need to expand and open other yards, but the main thing preventing me from doing that is we can't find people on the lowest level, let alone management and stuff of that nature.
Rental: What would you say is your favorite part of the job?
My favorite part of the job right now is advertising our social media. We’ve gotten a lot of great reception from that stuff. We are trying to do the rental equipment business with some style kind of like a Gas Monkey Garage, like some of those kind of hotrod shops. We have old school neon signs, and we have a lot of hoodies and stickers and stuff.
It's really my fun thing. We try to do themed equipment. We did a big Evel Knievel one, and that was a massive hit for us. People come in and they want to rent that machine if it's there. We try to really spend some time on our image and what we're doing, and it has paid off.
Rental: With much experience in the industry, what advice might you give someone who's just starting out?
If you love this, this can be a really fulfilling and fun business. If you are just putting your toe in the bathtub, this is not going to be for you. If you love this business, though, you can build something, and it can go on with your family for generations.
We’re very proud of what we're doing. For somebody stepping into this, know that you're going to work long hours. I would keep as much money as close to you as possible. I see a lot of people wanting to spend all their money on certain things, and you're going to need that cash flow at some point. Use the manufacturer interest rates; usually they offer real good, low interest with different brands.
Rental: Switching to a personal level, what kind of things do you like to do outside of work?
My wife and I have a blended family, so we have five kids together, and I'm a family guy, to be honest. I have started to travel a little bit and enjoy some of the fruits of the labor, so to speak. I love sports, NFL, football and NASCAR, so we go to football games and races.
