A hand-picked list of 79 resources for people running or starting a rental business — contract templates, pricing tools, marketing and SEO, trade associations, forums, inventory tracking hardware and more.
Everything here is free to browse. Links marked ↗ open on another site.
Rental Software Directory
Free Rental Contract Templates
How Much To Charge? Setting Up Rental Pricing
Boost Rental Profits: How Much Should I Charge For Renting Equipment, Cars, Boats, AV, etc.? – article coming soon
Rental Business Marketing
Marketing Groups
/r/marketing – Reddit group with approximately 411,000+ members not specific to rental / hire but you can find great ideas here
Emails – Writing Great Copy
Emails Marketing Tools
Used for sending mass emails, but much more as well. Email template design, conversion tracking, open rates, and follow-up (drip) campaigns.
Search Engine Optimization – How To
For rental businesses be sure to pay a lot of attention to “Local SEO” meaning searches that contain your ciy, state, or area name in them, such as “los angeles computer rental” as an example.
Search Engine Optimization Tools
Content Writing
Before writing content articles for your rental business website use traffic estimation tools to see if there is any traffic for the keywords you are targeting, or else it will be a waste of time. Here are some good guides. Also try picking up a few top rated books on Amazon on Marketing or Content Writing, the $10 – $30 you spend will be worth it with the ideas the books give you. Go for low-hanging fruit first.
Rental Associations
Rental Business Groups and Forums
General Forums
Trade Shows
Starting A Rental Business
Rental Business Ideas
Rental E-commerce Shopping Carts – Online Rental Bookings
There are 3 main E-commerce shopping cart platforms that dominate the space:
Each platform has advantages and disadvantages. There are also a myriad of other shopping carts but you probably won’t find the features you need for rentals in these platforms. After choosing your shopping cart system you still need to add a rental booking plugin or extension.
For a list of what Rental Booking Plugins are available for each platform please check our Rental Software Directory.
Programming & Web Development
Basically you have the choice to go local and search on google for web developers in your area, or use a freelance type marketplace. Make sure to check the feedback and references of the web developer you chose, as well as if they have any experience in the rental industry. Make sure the web developer you use is specializing in your chosen platform: If you use Magento make sure your web developer knows Magento in and out. if it’s WooCommerce / WordPress then find a developer specialized in that.
Make a CLEAR outline of all the work you need done written out and if possible sketched out using a free online sketch tool or even with pencil and paper.
Here are a few resources:
Find A Designer for Ads, Web, Videos, etc.
The above mentioned freelancer finder websites Upwork and Freelancer.com have lots of designers to chose from. However not all designers will use those since they do charge fees. Here are some other resources to find good designers. Note that many of these will have a paywall to try and contact the designer, but you can usually get around it by just searching for the designer’s name or company and finding their contact information.
How To Track Rental Inventory
Rental Inventory Tracking 101 – article coming soon
Free Barcode and QR Code Generator [PDF Print Labels]
Below you’ll find some barcode and QR code generators. We plan on making our own with better PDF label support in the future, but this should get you started.
Inventory Tracking Supplies
Before purchasing any tracking supplies such as barcode readers, RFID tags or QR code labels try to map out your rental asset tracking strategy. Make sure that your barcode reading equipment is compatible with your rental software solution, and that the asset tags that you order are durable enough to last through many rentals.
Label Printers
The top barcode label printer companies are listed below. Usually you’ll buy these printers from e-commerce retailers like Amazon, Staples, Walmart, Target, etc.
Brother
RFID, QR Code, Asset Tags, GPS Trackers
Running your rentals on WordPress? Sales Igniter is a WordPress rental plugin that handles availability, deposits and contracts inside the WooCommerce store you already own.