Day: March 18, 2022

How to Rent Out Equipment – Your Step-By-Step Guide

Blog Author By Kyle Clements
Published on

Do you have construction equipment rental business ideas that you aren’t sure how to realize?

Starting your equipment rental business takes planning and execution. To find success, you must manage inventory, and market your business well.

To start your business on a great foundation, we share this step-by-step guide on how to rent out equipment.

Evaluating the Market

Whether you’re interested in starting a tool rental, or heavy equipment rental business, you need to know who your target customers are. What’s the most rented equipment type in your area? Is there a demand for equipment rentals? These are all important questions that you should find a definite answer to.

An important part of how to rent out equipment is choosing the right equipment type to cater to your local market. If your area doesn’t see much new construction but plenty of renovations, then you should focus on lighter tools instead of heavy equipment. Every local area is unique, and evaluating the specifics of the market is key to your success.

Pricing Your Rentals

Once you’ve determined what types of equipment are in demand in your area, you need to establish your rental business profitability. To do so, you’re going to have to decide what you’re going to charge for your rentals. This task can be more challenging than it might seem.

The primary factor behind your rates is going to be what the market is willing to pay. You can look at similar rentals in your local area (or the broader region) to find this out. If it’s cheaper somewhere else, then you won’t get much business. The other major factor in deciding your costs is going to be how much revenue you need to be profitable.

Determining Your Costs

Your revenue has to be weighed against the costs of running your business. If you’re renting out equipment for profit, you’re going to have a variety of expenses. First, there’s the capital investment of buying equipment to rent out. Depending on whether you’re going with general tools or heavy equipment, this can be a significant investment.

Property for your business is going to be another significant cost. You’ll need to rent some kind of property to serve as your storefront, equipment storage, and maintenance shop. Further costs can include wages as your business grows, utilities, insurance, maintenance, and more.

Acquiring Inventory

Once you have determined your potential revenues and costs and found that your tool rental business plan can be profitable, you can move forward with acquiring inventory. You want to ensure that you get quality equipment while keeping costs as low as possible.

In some cases, used equipment can be a viable option. It really depends on the specific type of equipment. If your equipment rental business will have large numbers of the same type of equipment, you can consider reaching out to mid-level distributors for better deals rather than relying on retail dealers.

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Insuring Your Business

Insurance is important for many businesses but absolutely essential for rental businesses. Your insurance will protect you in several circumstances. The first is when equipment is damaged, but liability can’t be placed on the customer. This insurance can really save your business a lot of money on equipment replacement costs.

Second, your insurance will protect your business from potential liability for improper use of your rented equipment. If a customer were to cause significant damage to a building or property with your equipment, you could find your business under fire at some point in the legal proceedings. Insurance can protect you from this scenario.

Establishing a Maintenance Routine

Once your business is in swing, and you’re starting to rent out your heavy equipment, you’ll have to settle into a regular maintenance routine to keep it running. Different types of equipment have unique maintenance requirements. Keeping up with them is essential to maintaining both your inventory and your reputation as a rental business.

Another key component of your maintenance plan will be ensuring that customer maintenance requirements are communicated clearly. Many types of heavy equipment have active maintenance requirements that need to be carried out during the course of a regular working day, and customers need to know what their responsibilities are.

Marketing Your Rental Business

With your business now running properly, it’s no time to get complacent. You should always be focused on growing your business and bringing in new customers. To do so, you’ll need an effective marketing strategy that targets your potential renters. There are plenty of different options that you can take advantage of.

You should have a website that includes search engine optimization so that it comes up higher in search rankings. Social media can also play a role and make your business easier to find. Don’t discount traditional marketing tactics like brochures, print ads, and flyers, either. You might even consider billboards or bus ads, depending on your area.

Writing a Proper Rental Equipment Agreement

It’s important to ensure that you’re properly protected while running your business. That’s why you have insurance, a proper rental equipment agreement,  and an equipment rental business license. Your rental contract establishes the roles and responsibilities of you and your customers, and it’s critical that you get it right.

A rental equipment agreement will protect you from costs due to negligent use of equipment by your renters. It also serves as an essential record of rental rates and schedules. You can check out our convenient rental agreement template to make sure you’re covering all of your bases.

Start Your Rental Equipment Business Right with Quipli

With so much planning and commitment going into your equipment rental business, you should implement the best possible inventory and reservation management system.

Quipli provides rental businesses with an easy-to-use and versatile solution that integrates your inventory with online reservations, along with other benefits. You can reach out to our team today to book a demo and find out what Quipli can do for your equipment rental business.


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Protect Your Business with This Equipment Rental Agreement Template

Blog Author By Kyle Clements
Published on

Careful planning is the most important thing when starting and growing your rental business. This planning needs to cover the company from every angle — logistically, technically, and legally. Nothing should be left to chance when it comes to your business.

Developing a formal construction equipment rental contract is a vital task that your rental business needs to start offering equipment rentals. While this might seem like a challenging task, we’ve got some clear guidelines to help you out.

What Is an Equipment Rental Contract?

Just about every kind of business out there relies on some sort of contract to nail down what exactly the service being provided entails. Defining this agreement is important to prevent confusion between companies and customers and to provide evidence of the nature of the contract if legal action ever needs to be taken.

A construction equipment rental contract is similar to the contracts many businesses deal with but covers both customer and business responsibilities. Considering that you have valuable equipment on the line every time you rent it out, you want your equipment rental contract to be ironclad and incredibly clear.


Need an airtight rental agreement template? click here to learn more

What Should an Equipment Rental Agreement Include?

Your construction equipment rental contract needs to clearly define the terms of the rental or lease in question. It is imperative not to overlook any details when preparing an equipment rental agreement because any ambiguity could end up being decided in favor of the customer if you ever face legal action.

Of course, you also want your equipment rental contract to be clear to make customer relations go smoothly. If a customer understands all of the terms of the rental clearly, they won’t end up disappointed or dissatisfied by any misunderstandings.

To protect yourself legally and keep your customers happy, make sure your construction equipment rental contract includes the following:

The Specific Equipment to Be Rented

Your equipment rental contract needs to specify very clearly what particular equipment is being rented. You don’t want to ever have to deal with a customer returning a similar but different piece of equipment and having only your word against theirs to rely on. Keep in mind that this should include any accessories and attachments as well.

The Length of the Rental

The construction equipment rental contract needs to define how long the rental term will be. Is the user renting your equipment for a day, a month, or indefinitely? 

The return deadline should be clearly stated. If you’re arranging without a set end date, you’ll need to define additional terms for billing and what constitutes the end of the lease.

The Rental Rate

Of course, your agreement needs to define what the price is for the rental. This section should include a complete breakdown of the costs, not just a total. The rates should be set for each piece of equipment and be listed as the per day, per hour, or week rate. Don’t forget to be clear about accepted payment methods as well.

Limitations and Liability

Part of running a construction equipment business is dealing with the regular wear and tear and consequent maintenance involved. However, your agreement should have clear limitations defining what is and isn’t allowed, holding the customer liable if they damage the equipment through negligent or inappropriate use.

Insurance Responsibilities

Insurance is one of the most complex aspects to deal with when defining a rental agreement. The contract must identify who is responsible for equipment insurance. Does the customer need to acquire their own insurance, or does your equipment rental business insure the equipment during rentals?

Transportation Arrangements

Every agreement should clearly state who is responsible for transportation. This section is one of the most common sources of disputes between customers and rental businesses, whether the equipment needs to be picked up by the customer or dropped off by the company.

Termination Provisions

As the owner of the equipment, it’s in your best interests to include some provision for terminating rentals at will. This section will allow you to demand the return of equipment in some extenuating circumstances. 

Without these terms, you could find yourself without any recourse if you know that customers are misusing equipment or breaching renting terms and conditions.

Renewal Options

With construction equipment, the actual duration that contractors need equipment can vary widely from their initial estimates. This variability means that they could require the rental longer. 

Contractors will often look for businesses that provide attractive renewal options. Your agreement should define renewal rates and notice periods for extending the rental.

Maintenance Responsibilities

Most types of construction equipment require regular maintenance that would fall within the typical duration of rental agreements. It’s essential to define these maintenance responsibilities to avoid negligence from customers leading to equipment damage without your rental business having any effective recourse.

Warranties

The warranties defined in your rental agreement show what the primary expectations for your equipment rentals will be in terms of equipment quality and condition. In general, this protects the customer more so than the business. Many customers will be unwilling to rent without well-defined warranties guaranteeing that equipment works as intended.

Contact Us Today to Purchase a Rental Agreement Template

There’s a lot to keep in mind when setting up rental agreements for your rental business. We can make things a bit easier with this handy downloadable rental agreement. Of course, make sure to look over it carefully and ensure that it’s in line with the terms you want to set for your construction equipment rental contract.


Contact Us Today For a Rental Agreement Template

Starting Your Construction Equipment Rental Business Off on the Right Foot

Having a reliable equipment rental agreement is an absolute must for your business, but there’s so much more that goes into running that business well. Reservations and inventory management are two of the most important areas to handle properly if you want to succeed.

Quipli provides rental businesses with a dedicated platform for seamless inventory and rental management, along with a point of sales system and digital growth tools for growing your business. Just contact our team today to book a demo and see what we can do for you.


START YOUR EQUIPMENT RENTAL BUSINESS WITH QUIPLI’S SOFTWARE TODAY