Party Rental Small Business Podcast - A Podcast Devoted to Growing Your Party Rental Business

Insurance unfortunately is a vital party of any Party Rental businesses yearly expense, operating without it would be suicide. On todays episode the PRSB podcast will dive into the particulars on insurance. What kind of insurance do I need? How much liability is enough? What about my employees? We will talk all these things and more as we talk to a man who has been in the rental insurance industry for 37 years - Mr. Larry Cossio. Show Notes: 1) ASTM Standards- www.astm.org - Larry referred to this in the opening comments. 2) Safety Ideas for the Newby getting into the Party Rental Industry a. Know Thy Equipment - Know the associated risks with the equipment you are purchasing b. Site Inspection - Know where the electrical lines are. Know where the plumbing lines are, Know the overhead clearance. 3) How are liability rates calculated? based on gross sales and if your just starting your gross sales are estimated on industry standard sales for new businesses. 4) What is recommended for liability Limits? Standard is 1 million per occurrence, 2 million aggregate. That will get you into most parks or city set ups. Some states require 3 million. City Schools may increase your need for limits. 5) Cossio is a broker of insurance- their main program is with Nation Wide Ins. but they can get insurance on anything. 6) Water Items-  Some underwriters have an issue with water items. Check with your provider. 7) How do you handle a competitor who sets up unsafely? Answer: Educate your renters. Educate the community. Makes you #1 an expert and the person they will think about when a rental is needed. 8) Should you set-up rentals wit competitors? NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!... you are exposing yourself to undue liability, you are exposing your company to bad publicity. DON'T SET UP WITH YOUR COMPETITORS NO MATTER HOW FRIENDLY YOU ARE WITH THEM OR HOW MUCH YOUR CUSTOMER SCREAMS ABOUT IT. Educate your customer as to why you can not set-up your equipment with  a competitor. 9) Waivers vs Rental Agreements: What's the difference? Rental agreement is a transfer of risk, your providing a piece of equipment they are going to operate it. That's pretty much standard 50 state wide. Waiver 10) Rental agreements and waivers are state specific - don't use someone else's waiver and adopt it as your own. Have a local attorney prepare your waiver. They are so specific that even the font size can void a waiver or rental contract - spend the little money it takes to have an attorney put your waiver together. 3 waivers from other companies for the attorney to look at. Contact Info: Cossio Insurance 864-688-0121 www.cossioinsurance.com Larry@cossioinsurance.com IAAPA Booth # 4662

Attracting and Keeping Good Employees Ideas to Succeed! In the party rental industry we all struggle with the same issues - Good Employees and employee retention. For the last 21 years of our business it has been a constant struggle to keep quality employees. We have experienced employee theft, drug use, no shows, turnover and on and on. Over the years we have developed a series of employment recruiting ideas that have proven fruitful.  In this podcast we will talk about attracting and keeping good employees and in the process give you some ideas to succeed. Type of Employees: a. Drivers b. Laborers c. Office Staff d. Cleaners f. Dave Ramsey g. College Students h. High School Students Where do You find them? 1. College Job Boards i. Job Placements Office 2. Laundry Mats 3. Churches i. College Groups 4. Craigslist 5. Charitable Organizations i. Youth Group Mission Trips ii. Youth Sports Teams - Parents iii. High School Booster Clubs 6. Pay Off Your Debt Now, Ask Me How i. Shirts ii. Car Signs 7. Temp Agency i. No workmans Comp ii. No SSI 8. Current Employee Incentives i. Recruit Friends $$ Incentive ii. Recruit Good Workers at Other establishments 9.  Carry Business Cards 10. Competitors 11. Use your website i. Now Hiring Tab on Your Website 12. Current Customers i. Use Invoice back as Application ii. Offer Free Birthday Party if Customers refer Candidates that begin Work iii. Email Invoice Ads for Help Wanted 13. Facebook i. Facebook Class Webinar            3) How do You Keep Them 1. Offer Incentives i. Monthly Gift Cards ii. Yearly Trips iii. Christmas Savings Plan iv. Yearly Entertainment Pass v. Movie Passes vi. Netflix vii. Company Car viii. Deep Sea Fishing Trip ix.  Cruise x. Free Parties for Kids 2. Recognition/ Praise i. Business Cards for All Your Employees a. Incentives for New Employees b. Incentives for Creating Business c. Create Competition ii. Create a points system based on how much Business or new Employees your current employees get - Winner gets a Vegas Trip for 2, Cruise, Beach Trip or Cabin in the mountains. 3. Benefits i. Insurance a.. Life b. Health ( Affordable Care Act) ii. Vacation

Whether you a brand new Party Rental Company or you have been in business many years, it is always imperative to promote your business in a BIG WAY and keep your advertising costs at a minimum. In this podcast we give you 10 ideas to get your company exposure in your marketing area. While inexpensive these Ideas are effective in getting your company name recognition, increasing community awareness of your business and landing you customers. Branding is imperative to helping the potential customer remember who you are. All branding should be standardized between every medium in which you put your business, including: Social Medial, Print Media, equipment logos, vehicle advertisements, etc. etc. etc. Marketing is a precise action. You have to know exactly who to hit with your advertising dollars or the effort is worthless. Target marketing is key. Who rents for their kids parties? Who books for the church event? Who is in Charge of the Spring Fling at the local School? These are questions of target marketing. Knowing who your is renting your products and how to reach those targets is crucial to the success of your advertising efforts. If your company needs branding, logo's, brochures, FaceBook Banners and you are not familiar with Adobe Illustrator or PhotoShop -- a very inexpensive way to get these images and logo's is through 99 Designs -- CLICK HERE!! ----> - Here is a list of 20 Easy Ideas to Market your Business Without Spending a Fortune! Parades Christmas 4th of July Veterans Day Memorial Day PR Releases Publicity from Donations Children's Hospital Children's Outreach Toys for Tots Moonwalk Donations for School Silent Auctions OOPS! Campaign  Unique Shirts Marathons Doctor Offices Pediatric Dentist Offices Pediatric Offices Children Hospital Waiting Rooms Doc in the Box Waiting Rooms Web Page Involvement Don't Make Me Think Cross Promote with Worthy Organizations Humane Society Orphanage Food Drives Mems on Social Media Phonto App Word Swag App Create a Marketing Contest Best Birthday Party Pic gets Free Party Free Invitations with your logo Email Marketing Campaign Mail Chimp Awebber Parent or Child Magazine Community Ice Cream Truck Little League Flyers The Car Park YouTube Videos Free Party Contest for Shares Costume Partnership Movie in the Park Flyers at Kids Movies

Creating Competitive Advantages 1. What is a Competitive Advantage? a. What separates your company from your biggest Competitor? b. How do you compete against the big company in town? c. Why would a school keep renting from your business when they can get it cheaper from the low baller in town? 2. Competitive Advantage – is what separates you from your competitors - a. Do you ever think about what separates you from your competitors? b. Do you ever really sit down and look at your competitive advantages and evaluate how you can use your advantages to market your services? c. One of the biggest marketing flaws of most companies ( Party Rental or otherwise) is the failure to fully reap the benefits of their competitive advantages. Either the company thinks they have an advantage and they don’t or they have an advantage and they fail to realize it. 3. So What is a Competitive Advantage? a. Competitive Advantage is Objective not Subjective – Other words for something to be a competitive advantage it has to be measurable. For Example – “We offer quality equipment”, “We are on Time with Deliveries”, “We Have great customer service”, “We have the Newest and best Equipment in Town” – EVERY COMPANY SAY THESE THINGS!!! These are not competitive advantages. So if every company is saying these type of things are they Competitive Advantages??? NO 4. Competitive Advantages are Measurable and they are Deadly Marketing Tools if Used Properly in Your Marketing! a. Low Ballers or Price Cutting is a Competitive Advantage because its measurable, however should you fight with price cutters by cutting your price? Case Study: Walmart is the Low Cost provider of basically everything, but do they have competitors offering the same products for more money and thriving? Yes they Do – Target, Dicks (Walmart is the largest sporting good seller in the world), Best Buy – Why are they Thriving? Because they embrace their competitive advantages. Kmart on the other hand made the attempt to compete with Walmart as a low Cost provider when they offered their famous Blue Light Specials – What happened? Customers came in their store and purchased the blue light specials but nothing else and it drove Kmart into bankruptcy. DO NOT LOW BALL TO TRY AND GAIN COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE! That is a crucial mistake!!! Embrace your companies quantitative competitive advantages. 5. So what are your actual Competitive advantages? a. Create Competitive advantages to market against your competition thereby eliminating their lower price advantage. b. Internal Competitive Advantages vs. External Competitive Advantages- c. Internal advantages - are things you do that your competitors really have no idea about. i. Ex. follow up calls, emails or texts a day or two after the rental to make sure service and equipment was satisfactory. ii. Ex. Mass emailing your customers an insider’s view to the new equipment you have coming in for the next season. Do this prior to Internet Posting. iii. Ex. Sell the fact that you will always provide your customer with a copy of your insurance policy without asking.. this is an extremely solid selling point when bidding against a low baller who typically will NEVER mention their insurance policy. Especially with schools, churches, organizations and municipalities. d. External Advantages - are things you market to your customers in the public forum. Say them Loud and Proud – Market them high and Low but make them be objective not subjective. i. Cleaning Day – Take Pics of your equipment being cleaned and and shout it from every social Media platform you have that your Equipment is routinely cleaned and sanitized. ii.

Hello Party & Event Rental World!! Episode 001-  Introduction is to introduce Greg & Gerald Hacker of Fun Source Rentals, Inc. to, the party rental business community.  Episode 001 will give you our background in the event rental industry, including  how the Hackers started their business. The podcast will also explain what the Party Rental Small Business Podcast is all about. This is a podcast and website that is dedicated to looking under the hood of a successful party rental business to give you insight into methods and systems that will increase your business and help you have greater success. The PRSB Podcast will be a weekly podcast that will present interviews, commentary, rental news, marketing ideas and so much more dealing with all things Party Rental.