We are now going to shift our attention to products, another of the key elements for success. We've talked in detail about the people and the positions and the type of folks that we need in each of those positions. We have talked about process and how important it is to have process streamlined throughout our dealership in all those areas that support rent-to-rent. And now we're going to focus on products. And so what hopefully you will learn through this discussion is that customers, when they are renting equipment, expect a little bit more than just the bare product. It really is, in some circles, called rental services, and that's because there's a variety of support things that go with the renting of the equipment. And that's transportation. That's field service. That's expertise when people are trying to figure out how to solve a particular problem. And it could be some ancillary types, pieces of equipment that also go with your core product so that someone can complete their job. So key elements of success, people, process, and now products. So let's start on Module 3, and we're talking about Fleet Mix. And so most of you, the dealership that you work at probably represents a major brand of equipment or potentially two or three major brands of equipment. So it's not like you can go out and basically cherry-pick a lot of different brands and models of equipment. You probably have a constraint in that area. And so you have a core group of products that that's what your business is, and we're going to build a rent-to-rent fleet around that core group of products. And as we do that, there should be some real objectives, very clear-cut objectives, for how your rental fleet comes together and how it serves a variety of needs for the dealership. So let's begin looking at that. One of the very first ones should be we want to make a rent-to-rent fleet that is profitable because if we make money with it, then it's sustainable, and it'll help the dealership in terms of its profitability, gross margins, that type of thing. So it's very important that we get the mix of equipment correct, which means the different types of equipment and the right quantities of equipment so that we end up with a profitable mix of equipment. Secondly, we want to create more opportunities with existing customers. So we would like to be able to do more with people that are already like us, and in most cases when you go and you talk to them, you'll find that you're not getting 100% of their business. They are most likely renting a few things from other people because you've never offered it or maybe you're not competitive in that way. Thirdly, we'd like to have a more complete solution for these customers. And what I mean by that is when a customer goes out here, let's say a utility contractor, and they have to put a new pipe in, they may have to cut asphalt or concrete to be able to access the underground area. Once they dig the hole, they may run into some water. Once they put their structure back in the ground, they probably have to compact the dirt and then potentially put the concrete or the asphalt back. So that's just one example of what if we had some compaction equipment to go along with our excavation equipment. What if we had some dewatering equipment to go along with our excavation equipment? So this is something that we need to, as you get to know your customers better and you know what it is they do, you have to start looking around the work that they do using your core products and see is there anything else that would make sense for us to offer in our rent-to-rent fleet. So our rent-to-rent fleet should also be designed in such a way that it helps us connect with new and emerging customers. So these are people that maybe haven't even shown up on our radar screen yet, but because we're in the rent-to-rent business and we promote that, those folks will come towards us. And so it makes us easy to do business with if we have rent-to-rent rather than the only option they can do business with us is if they agree to buy a machine, new or used, or maybe a long-term rental. So rent-to-rent creates more options and opportunities for us to do business with emerging customers. It creates us a future pipeline of premium equipment, and premium because we have maintained that equipment through its lifetime in the rent-to-rent fleet. So we've got all the documentation on it, and it should have been maintained properly and most likely lower hours than you might expect when we get ready to roll it, and so we should be able to make good money on the used equipment. Leverage cash flow, that's one of the objectives of our fleet. We don't want to go out here and basically take a million dollars and pay cash for a million dollars of equipment and then slowly recover our cash. Rental fleet financing is sort of like a mortgage, if you will. If you were going to buy a condo and rent it out, and you thought you could get $2,000 a month for the rental payment, and you could get your mortgage payment to be about $1,000 or $1,200, you would throw off cash of about $800 a month. Well, a rent-to-rent fleet is very much the same. We're going to put finance debt against this equipment in the anticipation of being able to generate revenues, in most cases, probably two times what our payment is if we keep it busy. So there's a real objective here to get the financing right so that we create cash. We don't want to drain the business of cash. Another objective for the fleet should be a channel or a pathway for new equipment that our brands churn out every year. Immediately put it in rent-to-rent. That is one of the best ways to kind of test drive a product, get people's responses to it. You lower the barrier of entry, so to speak, because they don't feel like they've got to go buy the thing to try it out. And so these are six or seven tips that you need to remember when you're trying to put together a rental fleet. And we're trying to make money for the owners, and we're also trying to make ourselves more appealing to the customers.

importance of products

success of a dealership

rented equipment

support services

rent-to-rent fleet