While there are several different kinds of rental businesses out there, they all share a similar goal – increasing profits. As you focus on making money, make sure your company should also find ways to save money. Every rental business should have an emergency fund, but many don’t. No matter what kind of rental company you operate, you should be looking for ways to save money and cut costs.
There are dozens of rental businesses out there, ranging from equipment and construction rental businesses to party rental, sports gear rental, furniture rental, and many others. So let’s go over a few money-saving and cost-cutting tips that work for your rental business.
1. Optimize your customer service
One of the best ways to save money as a rental business is to optimize customer service. If your customer service is ineffective, much more time will be wasted on your end and the customer’s end. If it takes a person three different calls to get the help they need, it is bad for both sides.
If you can improve your customer service, it will limit the amount of time it takes to help your customers. And as you know, time is money. Also, by using call center software features, you will be able to easily go back to previous calls and find ways to make them more helpful, shorten them, and do other things that could improve your customer service.
2. Reduce or eliminate the use of paper
While more and more companies are using online solutions, plenty still rely on paper. If you want to save money, reducing the amount of paper you use is a good idea. In addition to helping your company cut costs, reducing paper usage is also incredible for the environment. You can reduce it by printing on both sides, shrinking fonts, or eliminating it.
Paper can be incredibly wasteful and can contribute to the degradation of our environment. Finally, it is expensive to buy and is simply inefficient compared to online or cloud-based solutions.
Read More: How Cloud Based Rental Software Enhances Your Rental Operations
3. Use the right type of advertising
Advertising is one of the best ways to grow your rental business and get new customers. However, not all advertising methods are created equal. Many types of traditional advertising can be expensive, and perhaps not as effective for the modern landscape.
However, using something like social media marketing can gain you access to potential clients, for a fraction of the cost. Also, you will generally be able to target your market better than with traditional ads. By choosing the right options for advertising, you can keep your costs low and boost your ROI.
4. Invest in your employees
While you might not think about it, hiring and training employees can be a huge cost. One of the best ways to limit turnover and help reduce these costs is to invest in your employees. This can be anything from running workshops, allowing them to take courses, or even paying them better than the market average.
By investing in employees, more are willing to stay and you will have to spend less on hiring and training new ones. Also, investing in employees can help them become more productive and effective.
5. Find more affordable vendors
If you are a company renting out products, space, or other items, there is a good chance you own them. As a result, you have to buy these to rent them out to other people. If you can find a way to get the same, or similar items, for a fraction of the price, you should consider doing so. This could save you a ton of money, without hurting any other aspect of your rental business.
6. Buy in bulk, when it makes sense
As a rental business, there is a good chance you need to buy a lot of products to rent out. Instead of buying them all individually, consider buying in bulk. This can generally get you a deal, and it is much easier to get everything at once. While bulk buying often makes sense, this isn’t always the case. Before you buy in bulk, make sure that you will use and be able to rent out all that you buy. If you buy too much, it could end up just sitting there and be a waste of money.
7. Encourage telecommuting
Telecommuting has become incredibly popular in recent years, as many of the jobs at all different kinds of companies can be done from home. If you can have employees working from home, it can save you a lot in office-related expenses, could allow you to downsize, and often lead to more productive employees. As a result, if your particular rental business can have certain people work from home, doing so should be encouraged.
8. Always negotiate for a better deal
Lastly, you need to make sure that you’re not afraid to negotiate. Any time you are purchasing anything, you should be trying to see if you can work the price down at all. This has the potential to save you a lot throughout the lifetime of your business. Sure, it might not always work out, but it’s worth a try. You could also try to barter or trade in some situations, as that can help you save money as well.
9. Automate your business
Automation is one of the biggest buzzwords in business recently, and for good reason. Several different processes can be automated, from social media to customer service, to invoicing, and plenty of others. This essentially lets programs or software do the work for you. This can significantly improve the efficiency of your rental business, cut costs, and improve employee productivity.
You can try out EZRentOut – a leading cloud-based rental solution that offers businesses seamless rental management. It also comes with a host of other features like asset tracking, maintenance management, a customized webstore, and much more.
