Is Your Rental Company Ready for What Comes After COVID-19?
Since the coronavirus outbreak began, we’ve all spent a great deal of time fretting over COVID-19 and its immediate effects on our families, our social lives, and our rental business operations. And if you listen to the media, our outlook isn’t great. You can barely go more than a few minutes without a talking head throwing around words like “recession” and downturn.”
Here at Tent and Table, however, we try to find the good in any given situation. And when you stop to think about all of this COVID-19 stuff longer term, you do come to realize something important: this isn’t permanent.
This virus will eventually leave us alone. Life is going to return to normal. There’s going to be a day in the not-so-distant future where the all-clear sounds and America transitions back into the hustle and bustle of shoulder-to-shoulder foot traffic and packed movie theaters.
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It’s safe to say most companies are currently focused on how they can get through this ordeal in one piece. Some good-natured businesses big and small are also trying to find ways of helping their local communities, too. But how many of these companies are thinking about what happens after COVID-19? Are they prepared to transition back into normal day-to-day operations?
Your rental business has likely gone into one of two states. Either you’re hibernating until the quarantines have passed, or you’ve pivoted toward helping with the COVID-19 response in whatever capacity your community needs. Either way, you’ll eventually need to consider what happens when all of this is over.
This Won’t Be a ‘Return to Normal.’ It’ll be a Visit to Hyper-Normal
Let’s take a few moments to think about what America will look like when COVID-19 is finally under control. How are we going to settle back into our old routines? Or will America feel the need to reward small businesses for their valiance in the face of this pandemic and patronize local companies more than ever before?
Most of you are probably envisioning something similar to scenes of pre-virus America, and in the long term, that’s surely accurate. Apart from some businesses surely seeing the value in remote work from home and adapting more of that model into their operations, life will probably go back to what it was before the virus. But we’re not talking about America three or four years from now. We’re talking about America three or four days after the virus has been dealt with.
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Never before have so many Americans been stir-crazy all at once. And when all of this finally blows over, our industry—the party and event rental business—is going to face a tsunami of activity the likes of which we’ve never seen.
Families will be calling in about party tents, bounce houses, inflatable water slides, folding tables, party chairs, and more. Backyards all across the nation will boom with activity. Birthday parties, graduations, anniversaries, backyard barbeques … any excuse to get outside with family and friends will be a good excuse. And a rental business prepared for this huge influx of opportunities will be able to maximize its profits in the massive nationwide party that’s coming our way.
Here Are Some Tips to Prepare for Post-Virus Partying
These being uncharted waters, no one really knows what to expect here. But industry leaders seem to universally agree that rentals are going to boom after all of this is over. Our own rental wing is preparing now for all the work that will be showing up soon. It’s a good idea for your own rental business to start preparing, too.
Here are a few tips to prepare your rental business for the incoming wave of post-virus partying our industry is forecasting:
Get Your Equipment Up to Snuff. Make sure your equipment is clean. Check for damaged equipment and make repairs as necessary. If any of your inflatables, tents, tables, or chairs need to be replaced, this is a good time to give our sales team a call at 1-716-832-8368.
Spend Downtime on Digital. Put some work into updating your website. Write a blog post about your company’s process for cleaning inflatables and party tents. Get more active on social media; try posting live videos, share photos of your equipment, and chat with people who engage your content.
Figure Out Your Post-Virus Sales. Your competitors are likely going to offer discounts and deals to jumpstart their post-virus activity. It’s a good idea to plan ahead and come up with deals, packages, and coupons.
Review Your Busiest Seasons. Look back on your busiest seasons from the past. How did your rental business manage big influxes of work? How did your equipment hold up? What lessons from those periods might be useful to your rental company when the country starts going back to normal?
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How Prepared Is Your Rental Business for the Industry’s Bounce Back?
We all got into this line of work for the same reason: we love bringing joy to others. Strip away all of the clutter around what we do—the money, the gratification of landing the bigger events, etc.—and it really does boil down to that. We take pleasure from making people happy, and knowing we’ve accomplished that makes us happy in return. Everything else? That’s all just a bonus, right?
Right now, rental companies are experiencing varying levels of duress. And I’m not just talking about money, either. We’re worried about our loved ones and hope they don’t get sick. We’re watching local news and dreading how all of this is impacting our local communities in any of a dozen different ways. This has been a stressful ordeal. It’s been scary. And it has impacted all of us, too … our families, our friends, our customers, and ourselves.
Your rental business will soon find itself in a position unlike anything you’ve witnessed before. This huge party and event rental boom everyone is predicting means you’ll be bringing joy to a whole lot of customers. And if that doesn’t put a smile on your face, surely the huge profit potential will.
We hope you’re using this unforeseen downtime productively and positively. And when the tides shift and Americans start returning to normal life, we hope your rental company is prepared for the next steps. Give Tent and Table a call today at 1-716-832-8368 and our sales team will help your rental business prepare itself for what’s coming our way soon. We’re sure you’re as excited for post-virus partying as we are!