{"id":53027,"date":"2022-01-04T15:05:40","date_gmt":"2022-01-04T15:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/por-development.local\/?p=53027"},"modified":"2022-01-04T15:06:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T15:06:03","slug":"how-old-is-point-of-rental","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.point-of-rental.com\/es\/how-old-is-point-of-rental\/","title":{"rendered":"How Old Is Point of Rental?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Brian Beaudry, NI Content Generator<\/em><\/p>\n

How old is Point of Rental?<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s more complex than I thought. When I joined Point of Rental in 2016, I immersed myself in the company\u2019s history to try to get a sense of its values, its story, and its voice.<\/p>\n

I found this blog<\/a> touting the creation of our first software in 1983. Amazing<\/em>, I thought, having been born in 1983 myself. I\u2019ll always know how old I am by what anniversary I\u2019m touting that year.<\/em><\/p>\n

I merrily included 1983 in our website, our brochures, and other documents as our founding date.<\/p>\n

In 2018, we ran with our 35th anniversary celebrations. I knew when we were sharing 35th anniversary cups at our ARA Show stand in New Orleans, and with every ad we put out, that I would be turning 35 that year.<\/p>\n

So you can imagine my lack of enthusiasm when our Director of Philanthropy, Terry Harris, pointed out in December that technically our 40th anniversary was coming up in 2022. I just got into the Young Professionals Network and now I\u2019m turning 40? It\u2019s like I\u2019m skipping my senior year of college to join the NFL, but without a multi-million dollar pay raise – I\u2019m just not ready.<\/p>\n

Why 1982? She presented compelling reasons, such as founding documents; I turned to philosophy in an attempt to maintain my (and Point of Rental\u2019s) youth, asking deep questions, like:<\/p>\n

When do you really<\/em> become you?<\/strong><\/h6>\n

I just brought up the NFL; the league provides an interesting example of how to handle your founding date.<\/p>\n

According to the official record book, the Cleveland Browns were founded in 1946. Of course, the team famously moved to Baltimore, becoming the Ravens in 1996, but the Browns\u2019 name and history stayed with the city of Cleveland. The expansion team, created in 1999, inherited the original team\u2019s history and is considered to have been founded in 1946 – they celebrated their 75th anniversary in 2021. If you look even further into things, they were established on June 4, 1944, and didn\u2019t play their first game until 1946.<\/p>\n

The United States, where our headquarters is located, has some similar confusion regarding its independence: Independence Day is officially July 4, 1776. But the Declaration of Independence was written and first published on July 2; most historians believe it wasn\u2019t signed until August of the same year, and the war confirming independence didn\u2019t end until Sept. 3, 1783. July 4 is just the date printed on the first broadsheets that included the full text of the Declaration.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s plenty of precedent set that a \u201cfounding\u201d date is fungible. As a person, though, I think we tend to stick with only one \u201cfounding\u201d day: Our birthday.<\/p>\n

And in that respect, Point of Rental\u2019s founding date seems pretty clear: Overland Rentals, the company our founders created when building their rental store, was founded on April 5, 1982. There\u2019s even official documentation:<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a>
Tough to argue against official paperwork with seals and everything.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
But wait – what makes you you<\/em>?<\/strong><\/h6>\n

As you can tell by looking around our website, we\u2019re a rental software company, not a rental store. Overland Rentals was founded as a rental store. While it\u2019s changed its name, that rental store even still exists today! Doesn\u2019t April 5, 1982 really belong to Rental Stop<\/a>, not us?<\/p>\n

Well, you can rely on \u201cthe spirit of things\u201d when you\u2019re establishing a founding date for your business, as we saw in the cases of the Browns and America, but changing what you produce doesn\u2019t change when you were founded.<\/p>\n

3M was founded as a mining venture<\/a> in 1902. They were going to mine for corundum and manufacture sandpaper and grinding wheels for sale. What they actually mined was anorthosite, and that didn\u2019t work for what they were manufacturing, so they pivoted and started working with other materials and making different products. They still celebrate 1902 as their founding.<\/p>\n

Nintendo<\/a> was a playing card company that got into a lot of other industries before discovering video games. Nokia was founded in 1865 as a paper mill<\/a>. Wrigley<\/a> used to sell people on its baking powder by including some chewing gum; eventually, the chewing gum became the business.<\/p>\n

Even one of our customers, North London Plant Hire, started business as a window-cleaning company 100 years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And because Overland Rentals became Point-of-Rental Systems and then Point of Rental Software, we own that extra year of history.<\/p>\n

So how old is<\/em> Point of Rental?<\/strong><\/h6>\n

It turns out that \u201cthe law\u201d and \u201cthe definitions of words\u201d don\u2019t care too much about philosophy. Because Overland Rentals grew up and morphed into us, Point of Rental Software, we were founded on April 5, 1982.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been living a\u2026well, not a lie: Our software really was born in 1983. But yes, we were founded in 1982. And, unlike people, who seem to turn 39 years old more times than you\u2019d expect\u2026as a company, we\u2019re delighted to be turning 40.<\/p>\n

So happy 40th anniversary, Point of Rental!<\/p>\n

If you notice any rogue \u201cfounded in 1983\u201ds on our printed materials or on our website throughout the year, let us know about it at marketing@pointofrental.com and we\u2019ll work to set things right.<\/p>\n

And now, if you\u2019ll excuse me, I\u2019m gonna go back and check my birth certificate to remind myself that I\u2019m still in my 30s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Brian Beaudry, NI Content Generator How old is Point of Rental? Well, it\u2019s more complex than I thought. When I joined Point of Rental in 2016, I immersed myself in the company\u2019s history to try to get a sense of its values, its story, and its voice. I found this blog touting the creation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":53036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-company-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t