The Event Rentals Professional vs. the Event Rentals Hobbyist
As much as we hate to start this article out with a cliche, it's a pretty true statement: In the world of event rentals, there are broadly two types of small business owners you're going to run into. The hobbyists, and the professionals.
The hobbyist is an individual who sees their event rentals business as a side gig. Something they can do on the weekends. Party rentals aren't their primary source of income. They just own one or two inflatables and rent them out to friends, family, and whoever manages to get caught inside that web.
Event rentals professionals? That's a whole other thing. They're looking at event rentals as a primary source of income. They want to transform this into a fully-functional top flight business. They want to establish themselves as a serious, go-to source of party rentals and event rentals in their area. This isn't just a monetary thing. It's a wish fulfillment thing.
Now, to be clear, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a hobbyist. If your ambitions lie elsewhere, it's perfectly okay to buy a commercial bounce house or an inflatable water slide and supplement your income. We're more than happy to help you do that, too. But this article is geared toward those who want to earn serious money in the events business.
So what all does it take to establish yourself in this industry? What talents do you need? What physical and mental traits would make someone successful in this ultra-competitive field? Well, you've come to the right place to find out! Let's list off the ten skills every event rentals professional should have and explain why they're important.
1. A Self Starter Attitude
This is pretty much universally true on all avenues of entrepreneurship: you need to be motivated, ambitious, and willing to roll your sleeves up on day one if you really want to establish a lasting business. If you're allergic to hard work or you're unable to put in the research necessary to figure out where to start, this may not be a good profession for you.
2. Dependability
This one is probably a little too obvious, and we maybe could've rolled it into our last point, but we felt it needed its own section regardless: you absolutely must be dependable if you hope to make it in the event rentals industry. If you're the sort of person who'd rather be twenty minutes early than two minutes late, and stay late if necessary to make sure the job is done, then event rentals are likely right up your alley.
3. Patience (The Trait, not the Song)
Success is never overnight, and most party rentals businesses start out slow. It doesn't matter if you know you're dependable and have good products. It's going to take a bit of time to show the rest of your local community that you're someone they can trust to get the job done, and get it done right.
Allow ample time for word of mouth to spread and for your marketing efforts to hit their stride, and use any downtime you have to research and tighten up your business in other ways. Oh, and speaking of research ...
4. A Willingness to Learn and Research
Another all-too-important trait that some aspiring business leaders forget is that education is a lifelong process. You need to always be willing to learn about new products, emerging industry trends, marketing techniques, and more. You need to know your competition, too. And most importantly, you need to know your customers and understand what they like and what they don't like.
5. Unafraid of Physical Labor
Handling event equipment is physically arduous. An inflatable bounce house can weigh several hundred pounds, and party tents aren't much better. In the beginning, most of you reading this article will be working with a friend, a spouse, a sibling, or even by yourselves. It's going to be physically challenging work. If your business is successful you can hire people to help, but until then, you'll be left with a relatively high volume of physical labor.
6. Frugal (but not Cheap)
Here's another universal truth for all of business: you need to be conscious of your spending, but not in such a way you dodge smart investment opportunities or avoid gambling on good ideas.
You should always take your time and research every new idea before you turn it into an expense. Don't just buy three new party tents and hope they generate income; research those party tents. Ask your customer base if they'll put them to use. Make smart investments patiently, but be sure you're actually making those investments, too.
Oh, and this isn't just monetary, either. Are you familiar with the old adage "measure twice, cut once?" It's as true in event rentals as it is in carpentry, or masonry, or wherever it is that saying comes from. Every mistake is costly. It costs you money. It costs you energy. It costs you time. And hey, you're a human being ... you're going to make mistakes. But if you can take preemptive measures to mitigate the risk of making mistakes, that will be time well spent.
7. A DIY Mindset
The equipment used in event rentals does wear down over time. But whether your equipment lasts eight months or eight years will boil down to how you take care of it. And when it does break down, your ability to do safe, responsible, quality repairs can be the difference between keeping or replacing your equipment.
An event rentals professional with a strong DIY ("Do It Yourself") ethos will go far in this business. The ability to read instruction manuals thoroughly and understand them comprehensively is invaluable, as is a generally crafty attitude and an understanding of how to use a variety of tools.
8. "Logisticalness"
Yeah, I know ... "logisticalness" isn't a word. It should be, though. The art of being logistical—being organized, understanding the differences between tactics and strategy, planning things out five moves ahead—is practically a way of life for some budding entrepreneurs.
To gain and maintain a competitive edge in the modern business climate, logistics need to be more than a bullet point somewhere near the bottom of a business plan. Having definitive systems and routines, with contingency plans as well, all goes a long way toward establishing routines that ensure your customers and their guests are safe and having fun, and at the end of the day those are the most important elements of your business.
9. Customer Oriented
Without customers, your business won't get very far. and you'd be surprised to learn just how often small businesses fail because they forget, even for an instant, just how important their customers truly are.
You should always try to approach customer interactions in a friendly, customer-first manner. If there's a dispute, maintain a professional tone as best you can. Be happy to work with kids—being children-friendly is a requirement in the event rentals world—and prioritize child safety, always.
And here's another old adage for you to remember, too: the customer is always right. Keeping that phrase floating around in the back of your mind while interacting with customers can go a long way toward them repeating their business with you. You're here to serve the customer. They don't owe you anything prior to their booking.
10. Event Rentals Require Real Business Savvy
Take any random assortment of two or three hundred motivational cat posters and boil them down to their core sentiments, and you end up with these four basic pillars of business knowledge, which more than likely date back to antiquity:
- Know what your customers want
- Know what your competitors are up to
- Know your own industry; trends, best practices, emerging technology, etc.
- Know your own business; what makes it special, what needs to be improved on, etc.
When you're able to at least somewhat confidently answer all four of those questions in a way you can actually confirm, you'll have obtained business savvy. And it may be the most important item on this list, too, given that without this tenth and final trait, the other nine are going to give you diminishing returns.
How Many Traits Add Up to Make the "It Factor?"
The event rentals industry is in a perpetual state of growth. It seems like for every party rentals company that washes out, three more spring up to replace it. And it also seems like those companies boasting the largest collection of these ten aforementioned traits are the ones that make it furthest, too.
It's okay if you don't hit all ten of these marks on day one. But it is definitely vital that you do your best to develop any of those skills or traits you don't have. Take the time to better yourself (and, by extension, your business) through learning. Pay a visit to local community workshops when they're available. Read a few books. Work at it. Try and be the best entrepreneur you can be, and in due time, you'll graduate to the rank of business leader.
Above all else, try to always remember that the foundation of the event rentals industry is summed in a single word: fun. You should have fun when you go to work and enjoy what you do, and go to great lengths to ensure your customers and their event guests are having as much fun as you're able to provide as well. The other stuff? You can work on that in due time. But so long as you and your customers are having fun, the business will be growing as your skills do.