Giving That Matters
Every year, starting around Thanksgiving, we start celebrating with our teams and our families, reflect on the year that was, and look forward to the future. And as we get together with the people we love, it’s impossible not to feel grateful. Even as we feel grateful for what we have, I’ve spoken to a […]
How to Build A Better Rental E-Commerce Experience
In addition to everything else, the pandemic has taught us that being flexible in how we’re able to do business helps keep rental businesses (and others!) going. And when we can’t necessarily do business face-to-face, how does it get done? Through e-commerce. B2C companies today are leading the e-commerce push. Even in the non-electronic medium […]
The Future of Rental: Remote Work
As much as people joke about how no one uses their phone to call anyone anymore, someone out there keeps making the phone at the counter ring. What if your phones got answered but your in-store team wasn’t constantly being interrupted by the ringing? A couple of years ago (pre-pandemic!), I visited a large nationwide […]
Negentropy: How to Produce Free Energy
I bet you didn’t come to me (or the Point of Rental site) for physics talk or to discuss kids’ rooms. Hang on, though – it’ll pay off. You may be familiar with the concept of entropy – the idea that if a system loses too much energy, it will devolve into chaos. The example […]
Risk Management: Lessons From Texas
Well, mid-February was…interesting here in Texas. As our region, prized for its temperate winter conditions, had its temperatures plunge 50+ degrees below usual, almost to the levels of an Alberta summer, we discovered a few things about our risk management: People (and businesses) tend to prepare for expected risks, not the infrequent ones – houses […]
Turn Out The Lights And See the Big Picture
Former NASA Astronaut Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks in Apollo 13) was a fighter pilot prior to being an astronaut. He was flying a night mission when his plane was damaged, taking his navigation system out. He had no idea where his aircraft carrier was and finding it in the dark in the middle […]
Second Runs: How Much Do They Cost You?
We’ve all been there before: You knew you had a vacation coming up. You made a list of what you’d need. You prepared. You packed. And when you arrive at your destination, you realize you forgot the toothpaste (or some other item). If you’re lucky, the thing you forgot is something cheap you can get […]
Creating an Ownership Mentality
Growing up in Ada, Oklahoma, as part of a rental family, I was taught an “ownership mentality” early. To help grow my college fund, I was given an opportunity to buy new equipment for the store with my money, receiving a percentage of the income minus expenses. The rules were pretty simple: I couldn’t buy […]
It IS My Job! Building a Positive Company Culture
Every day you have a business, you’re building it, whether you’re trying to or not. And like any physical structure, your finished product is going to be considerably better when you plan your build. At Point of Rental, we have the opportunity not only to run our own business, but to work with thousands of […]
Climb, But Enjoy the View
A number of years ago when visiting family in Alaska, we attempted to climb to the Harding ice fields or at least that was the plan. It is a four mile hike with 1000 foot rise of elevation with each mile. After several hours of hiking, you would see false summits. As you reached the “summit” you were […]