How Will Your Party Rental Company Take On 2021?
When most people think of New Year’s resolutions, they probably think of those generic personal growth goals we’re all too familiar with. Eat less takeout. Quit a nasty habit. Finish Game of Thrones. We don’t often consider the idea of a business having New Year’s resolutions. And if you’re a small business owner, that’s something you should consider changing.
After the year we all had, giving 2021 some direction can only have upsides for your event and party rental business. Setting realistic goals for your business and then sticking to your plans to achieve those goals will go a long way toward improving your business overall. And knowing you checked these boxes off is pretty darn rewarding, too!
Let’s take a look at 30 (yes, 30!) smart New Year’s resolutions for your business to try and stick to in 2021. You don’t have to accomplish everything on this list, and some items won’t apply to you or your business at all. But most small businesses, even ones outside of our industry, can benefit from most of these points.
New Year’s Resolution #1: Commit to Learning Something New
A business can only grow as much as its owner is willing to grow. You should try to commit to learning at least one new skill in 2021 that benefits your business, and getting good at it too. A few things you might want to consider learning this year:
- Digital marketing
- Advertising
- Google Sheets
- Web design skills
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- Financial planning and management
- Social media management
- Something artistic (and fun!) that can benefit your business, like photography, graphic design, or business writing
New Year’s Resolution #2: Think About the Lessons we Learned in 2020
This past year was unbelievably tough for most of us. But in the spirit of turning lemons into lemonade, we all need to break down those experiences of 2020—the good, the bad, and the ugly—into actionable lessons we can take with us into 2021.
Related: 20 Lessons we Learned in 2020, and Should Never Forget
New Year’s Resolution #3: Identify and Improve Your Weakest Links
Every business big and small has strengths and weaknesses. It’s how you identify those qualities, and what you do once you’ve spotted them, that make all the difference. Take some time to fully list and c
omprehend your company’s weakest links—the stuff you’re not doing as well as you should be doing—and come up with a serious, realistic plan to improve.
New Year’s Resolution #4: Update Your Business Plan
A lot of small business owners create their business plan early on and then never update it, and that’s a huge mistake. You need to regularly update your business plan and make sure it reflects your current situation as best as possible. And don’t just overwrite your old business plan, either. Date your business plans and keep your past ones for future reference. It’ll be more handy down the road than you might imagine. You might want to get into the habit of listing goals in your business plans and then reviewing how well you did before updating them.
Related: How to Start an Event and Party Rental Business, Part One (of Five)
New Year’s Resolution #5: Get Organized
One of the biggest differentiating factors between successful businesses and less-successful ones is how organized they are. Take some time to examine your business from top to bottom and find ways of improving how organized you are. Keep better data using Google Sheets, a free spreadsheet tool every small business owner needs to learn and use. Sort your invoices and receipts better. There are lots of small organizational steps that add up to huge improvements in efficiency.
New Year’s Resolution #6: Reorganize Your Warehouse
Speaking of getting organized, how is your warehouse looking? Are you getting the most value possible out of your warehouse space? This is a great time to examine new ways of improving your general warehouse layout and making sure your inventory is better protected and easier to access.
Related: Maximize Your Warehouse Space with These Organization Tips
New Year’s Resolution #7: Take a Long, Hard Look at Your Cash Flow
Take a moment to closely examine your company’s overall cash flow. What’s driving your revenue? How many revenue streams are you profiting from, and how strong are they? How much money are you spending, and what are you spending it on? Where is your company coming up short, and where can you make some improvements?
You should get into the habit of doing deep internal cash flow audits regularly (quarterly would be ideal). Review invoices, bills, and receipts. Make sure everything in your accounts lines up with what you have on paper and in your spreadsheets.
New Year’s Resolution #8: Improve Your Company’s Credit Score
Your small business needs to establish a strong credit score. A better credit score translates into better equipment financing, better insurance, and more. Look into net-D financing, equipment financing, and secured business credit cards as avenues for improving your overall credit score. And don’t forget to make regular on-time payments, too!
New Year’s Resolution #9: Find Ways to Save More Money
It isn’t enough to simply understand cash flow better and to improve your credit score. You should try putting money away in a savings account, too, and creating a safety net in case of emergencies. See if you can trim some of your net profits and park those funds in your savings account. Every bit helps, and small amounts add up to big amounts over time.
New Year’s Resolution #10: Ask Your Customers for Feedback (And Reviews, Too!)
Are you regularly asking your customers to provide feedback on their experiences? There’s no better way to monitor your company’s street level performance than by asking customers to honestly detail their experiences working with you.
And don’t forget to ask them for honest Google and Yelp reviews, too! Online reviews of your business are invaluable … especially when they’re positive. Let your customers know that you appreciate their honest online reviews of your products and services.
Make the time to read those reviews and take them seriously, too. Don’t just write off a bad review or come up with excuses. This is a real customer who had a negative experience. Find out what went wrong and see what you can do to make it right for them. Some negative reviewers can be swayed to update their review positively if you put in the work!
#11: Tune Up Your Customer Service
That feedback we just mentioned is useless if you don’t transform it into something actionable. Use customer feedback to improve your overall customer service experience and fine tune those areas where your business is coming up short. Better customer service means happier customers, which means returning business and stronger word of mouth.
#12: Update Your Office Equipment
How old is the computer you’re using for business? You should avoid major tech issues and crippling slow-downs by replacing your office computers regularly. And that goes for all of your other office equipment, too.
Laptops should be replaced every three to five years, while desktop computers need to be replaced every five to seven years. All computers age differently, of course. Some might get by with a few minor upgrades while others need to be recycled and replaced. Most people don’t know much about computers, though, and if that’s you, be sure to ask someone who does.
You should also regularly check that all of your software is updated. If you use programs like CCleaner, be sure to run them at least once per month and update them as needed. And don’t forget to update and run your antivirus software, too!
#13: Backup Your Important Information and Data
When was the last time you created digital backups of physical files? Do you have digital copies of invoices, receipts, contracts, and contact information? Now is a great time to get all of that done. You should backup your data using cloud storage services like Google Drive or Dropbox, and keep copies on your personal computer too.
#14: Identify, Build, and Grow Your Brand
Having a fun company name and a logo is nice, but how do you define your actual brand? What voice does your company speak to customers with? Give your company’s brand some thought and see if there are ways to improve on it.
What should a potential customer think of your company when they first look at your website or call you on the phone? What messages need to be digested by people each and every time they look at your business? And when people talk to their friends about your company, what message do you want them saying? You can do a lot more to shape all of that than you might realize!
#15: Overhaul (or at least Update) Your Company’s Website
Having an amateur, dated, or unattractive website is a major turnoff for potential customers. Ask around and see what people think about your website. This is especially valuable if you ask people who can be objective, like strangers in a Facebook group
Your company’s website should target each and every one of these goals however it can.
- Contact information that’s easy to find, but not in-your-face
- Modern and attractive aesthetic
- Fast load times
- Easy navigation on mobile and desktop
- Local, regional, and industry-related SEO that drives organic traffic
- Provide all of the information a customer expects, including product photos and prices
- Other valuable content, like informative blogs, customer testimonials, links to non-competitive businesses, etc.
You may want to consider hiring a freelance web designer to help your website achieve all of these goals. Your company’s website is mission critical and it might be time to bring in a professional.
#16: Make Better Use of Social Media
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are essential business tools in 2021. Focus one of your New Year’s resolutions on putting social media to work for your business and communicating with your customers in new ways.
#17: Are You a Decent Writer? Consider Blogging
We share this potential New Year’s resolution cautiously. A bad blog will do more harm than good, and despite what some websites tell you, not everyone can create a useful blog. But if you’re a decent writer with at least a basic understanding of how SEO keywords work, a blog could have lots of benefits for your website. If you have a little free time, it’s at least worth a try.
#18: Find New Ways to Promote Your Business
Make 2021 the year where you try new advertising campaigns and new methods of promoting your business. Have you been considering a radio ad? Now is a great time to research the costs locally and attempt to figure out what sort of ROI you could get out of it. Consider trying Facebook ads and Google ads too, if you haven’t already.
#19: Do More Networking
If your company has done New Year’s resolutions in the past, you may have listed “do more networking” and seen mixed results. But networking is an incredibly powerful tool in the arsenal of any small business, and there’s no harm in trying to establish stronger working relationships with caterers, wedding planners, photographers, DJs, and other adjacent businesses.
#20: Celebrate and Acknowledge Your Employees
There are only upsides to having strong employee morale. Your staff enjoying and taking pride in their work leads to better customer service and happier customers overall. Take some time to thank your staff. Acknowledge their wins and celebrate their milestones. Your employees are treasured commodities and keeping them happy ripples positivity throughout your entire operation.
#21: Grow Your Staff ...
Is it time for your company to expand? If so, you may want to start by growing your staff. You can’t do everything by yourself, and building a qualified team is essential for growth.
A smaller rental company might need more hands to help with setting up, tearing down, and maintaining equipment. Meanwhile, larger companies might consider hiring an accountant, a professional web designer, or perhaps someone to handle reception and sales.
#22: … and Train or Retrain Your Staff, Too!
How often are you training your staff? How often do you refresh your procedures, and how well do you teach those procedures to your employees?
Regularly training your staff is a great way of improving workplace safety, reducing the frequency of mistakes and accidents, and even enhancing customer experiences.
Staff training provides plenty of opportunities for personal learning, too. Searching the web will offer plenty of free resources that can help you train your employees better and improve accountability, too.
#23: Delegate Tasks Better
As your company grows, micromanaging becomes a nasty habit that’s increasingly difficult to break. Don’t be afraid to let your most trusted and capable employees take over some of those tasks and chores for you. It lessens your workload, and your staff will hopefully appreciate you showing your trust in them.
#24: Expand Your Inventory
This should be less of a New Year’s resolution, and more something you do every few months. You should closely examine your rental equipment inventory and see what needs to be repaired or replaced. And it might be time to expand on your equipment inventory, too.
#25: Try New Styles of Rental Equipment
Looking for other ways to expand? If your rental company predominantly works with party tents, consider commercial inflatables like bounce houses, bounce house slide combos, inflatable slides, or inflatable obstacle courses. You may also want to look into adding a portable dance floor or more folding tables and chairs.
#26: Create Fresh Photos of Your Inventory
Shoppers want to know exactly what they’re getting out of a party rental. One great New Year’s resolution is to commit yourself to taking more photos of your rental equipment inventory. Try to show multiple angles of the equipment, and show people playing and having fun on it, too. And if you don’t mind us taking a moment for some shameless self-promotion, we’d love it if you’d share your photos with us and let us showcase them in our Facebook Client Gallery!
#27: Expand Into New Territory
Thinking about the general region your company services, how well are you fulfilling bookings around town? Are you regularly getting inquiries from outside your regular service area? Or do you see an area with low competition that’s ripe for the plucking?
For some of you, it might be time to consider expanding your service area. That might include leasing a second warehouse facility, acquiring more vehicles, and growing your staff. But it might also mean bringing your awesome equipment and services to whole new swaths of customers, too. For companies experiencing solid growth, it’s worth at least considering.
#28: Consider Experiencing a Trade Show
In 2020, we saw a lot of trade shows relevant to our industry get canceled. Hopefully we’ll see a lot less of that in 2021. And there will also surely be lots of virtual events you can participate in, too. Trade shows grant you a lot of great networking opportunities and can introduce you to new products and services you may not find otherwise. And their educational value can’t be understated, either!
#29: Volunteer Your Time and Equipment Locally
This past year was tough on all of us. We could all use a good pick-me-up in the new year. And volunteering services and equipment is a great source for that. Youth groups, churches, schools, the PTA … there are lots of organizations locally that would love for you to set up at their events. And this is a great way to strike up some free advertising and do some networking, too!
#30: Prepare Your Company for the Biggest Party of All Time
With 2020 finally coming to an end, 2021 is looking like a year filled with hope. A vaccine is already being distributed, and by this summer it should have hopefully reached most Americans who want it. And as the country begins to reopen, we can all rest assured that event and party rentals are going to be in extremely high demand.
America is going to want to celebrate our return to normalcy. We’ll want to get together with all of the people we’ve been missing since the start of the pandemic. We’ll have a big backlog of birthday parties, anniversaries, graduations, and postponed weddings to gather for.
Your event and party rental company will be at the heart of this massive national and global celebration. There’s a huge, golden opportunity for rental operators to capitalize on here. With some thoughtful advertising, reasonable sales and deals, and a little clever planning, you can get your rental company ready for what might just be the biggest party of all time.
On a personal level, New Year’s resolutions are infamously difficult to keep. But there’s nothing on this list a capable small business owner can’t achieve if they stick to it. And if there’s one big lesson we all learned in 2020, it’s that our industry is resilient, smart, and adaptable.
We hope you’ll put some of these New Year’s resolutions to good use, and we’re looking forward to seeing all you can accomplish in 2021. From all of us here at Tent and Table, we’d like to wish you a very happy and safe New Year!
