Had a good conversation this morning with another operator in the community. We’re both dealing with the same external reality: A large national rental company (recent IPO) has dropped two locations into our local market. Close proximity. Aggressive pricing. A lot of iron hitting the street. Some rentals are being lost. Local market dynamics are changing. No denying any of that. Where the conversation got interesting was how differently we view what comes next. One approach is to chase price i.e. lower rates to protect utilization, keep machines turning, and “stay competitive.” The other approach is to hold pricing, double down on differentiation, and make it painfully clear why someone should rent from us instead. That difference isn’t about optimism vs pessimism. It’s about how we define the threat. I do see the national chains affecting the market. I just don’t see them as an existential threat unless my only lever is price. If the only way I can win a rental is by being cheaper than a company with: - cheaper capital - national buying power - shareholder pressure to chase utilization …then I’ve already lost. I just haven’t admitted it yet. Their pockets are too deep for me to win that fight. To be clear: I’m not saying price never matters. It does. But racing to the bottom tends to solve one short-term problem by creating several long-term ones: - thinner margins - higher wear and abuse - worse customers - less cash to reinvest - more stress, not less - a slow and excruciating death by 1000 cuts (or 1000 less than profitable rentals) From my seat, the better question isn’t “How do I match their price?” It’s “What problem do I solve that they can’t or simply won’t?” Reliability. Speed. Local knowledge. Trust. Flexibility. Relationships. The stuff that doesn’t show up on a rate sheet but provides huge value to the right customers. This path is definitely not as easy as adjusting prices. There will need to be a lot of intentional actions taken for a long time. There will be continued missed rentals and lost customers. But the reward, when successful, will be a moat that lower rates can't cross, and a customer base that values us as more than a commodity rental yard.

How did everyone finish the year?

If 80% of my revenue comes from 20% of my rental items should I get rid of 80% of my fleet?

What have you guys found to be most effective when writing ad copy that actually moves customers to take action? I ran two different promotions in October side by side and tracked everything I could think to track. When I reviewed the data, one thing stood out. More than half of all engagement happened during the last 30 percent of the promotion periods. Those spikes in activity lined up perfectly with the messages that said the deal was about to expire, both by email and text. After a long conversation with ChatGPT and some reflection on basic consumer psychology, I realized something interesting about my market. They weren’t motivated by scarcity or limited availability, and they didn’t respond to free value, even a $2,500 giveaway. What finally got them to move was a simple deadline, the “use it or lose it” factor. Now my challenge is figuring out how to use that insight, how to tap into that urgency and decisiveness, without having to constantly run a new deal or special promotion. Curious what approaches you’ve found that create urgency or inspire action in your market without discounting or giveaways.

There’s a lot of talk about systems in the business world. Until recently, I didn’t really know what that word meant. I was running on an assumed definition until one day I asked ChatGPT to explain it. That conversation led me to a book called Work the System by Sam Carpenter. The main idea of the book is simple but powerful: we live in a world of systems, both natural and manmade, that function correctly 99.9% of the time. As small business owners, we often fail to see our own operations through that lens. Instead, we get stuck in the daily loop of putting out fires, reacting to whatever screams the loudest, day after day, ad nauseam, until we quit or go bankrupt. But if we step back and identify the major systems in our business, then break those down into subsystems, and document how we actually perform each task, something changes. We start seeing the causes of those fires instead of just the flames. And once we see them, we can fix them permanently through a clear, written process (an SOP) that anyone can follow. And this is how successful businesses operate. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably doing some of this already. I had documented processes here and there, but they were random at best. This framework is helping me see the entire structure of my business more clearly. It’s helping me organize those scattered systems and finally begin to fix the inefficiencies that have been quietly lighting fires behind the scenes. I’m curious, how intentional have you been about identifying and documenting the systems in your business? Do you think most of your daily fires come from missing systems, broken ones, or ones that only exist in your head?