The car rental business is highly popular, especially in resort cities or regional centres. According to experts’ forecasts, the revenue from car rentals in the United States alone will reach $104 billion this year. To start a car rental business, it is essential to prepare a business plan. This is a detailed description of the project, including all cost calculations and the prospects for development in the near future. You can either create the plan yourself or seek assistance from specialised companies. In addition to the main calculations, important components of the business plan for car rental companies include describing the scale of the vehicle fleet, employees and positions, advertising expenses, and car rental management software.
Car fleet
After developing a business plan, the next step is to determine the niche in which you plan to operate. The foundation of a rental company is automobiles. Therefore, you decide which car class to use in your business operations. The structure of the car rental market is based on key customer categories: people who need a car for business trips, vacations, or corporate travel.
If you plan to rent luxury-class cars, you will need hundreds of thousands of dollars for procurement. An optimal solution would be to choose mid-range cars, a few economy options, and several models of business-class cars. This way, you will be able to target a larger segment of customers when you rent your car for $500 a month or more.
What are the advantages of starting an auto rental business?
- There is a constantly growing demand for rentals.
- Quick adaptation to the market, even in the face of constant changes.
- The ability to personalise the service by adding specific amenities.
- A vast selection of channels for promoting the service.
Employees
Please consider office space rental. It should serve two functions – be attractive, reflecting the style and purpose of the company, and be bright, spacious, and comfortable for employees to conveniently receive clients. The location of the office also plays a role in customer loyalty. Being in the city centre and having accessible roads is a plus, while renting premises on the outskirts of the city or in industrial areas is not recommended.
To successfully achieve the set goals, it is necessary to hire staff who have knowledge about automobiles. Each employee must have an individual approach. Car rental companies require managers, accountants, and technical workers. This is the minimum requirement for starting. If we talk about expanding the workforce, then a lawyer and an administrator are added.
* The administrator, who is also the deputy director, is responsible for general management of the company. The administrator interacts with regular clients, suppliers, service companies, and service centres. Additionally, the administrator controls the company’s work schedule.
* Managers, or client managers, process customer requests, provide consultation, and handle the documentation for renting and receiving vehicles. They perform necessary calculations and verify payments. They specifically verify, rather than accept, if the company utilises a car rental management system. Such a program allows for automatic payment acceptance from clients.
* The lawyer is responsible for pretrial work related to car rentals. Their responsibilities include conducting legal analysis of contracts, arranging insurance, working with insurance companies, and preparing claim letters when necessary. Furthermore, it is the lawyer who represents the company’s interests in disputes in courts and traffic police departments in situations related to vehicle operation.
* Technicians, also known as mechanics, are responsible for maintaining the fleet in good condition and conducting timely vehicle inspections. To avoid misunderstandings during transactions, mechanics can be assigned to receive vehicles from clients to assess and document any malfunctions, scratches, or missing components.
* Accountants handle all documentation-related tasks, including preparing financial reports, managing tax accounting, overseeing the company’s finances, conducting inventory, and calculating employee salaries.
Advertising
After analysing the business goals of your company, the next step is to select advertising that will be highly effective. Analyse the target audience and choose the most relevant types of advertising. Here is a list of only some of the types you can use to promote your car rental company:
- Social media: This includes creating pages and blogs on popular social networks. This approach allows you not only to present and advertise your company but also to interact with potential customers. Regularly publish useful and attractive posts using photos and videos of your company. When used correctly, advertising on social media can be a powerful marketing tool for your business.
- Online advertising, specifically launching contextual advertising on search engines with traffic redirection to your own website. Having such a resource allows you to reach a larger number of people and serve as a showcase for your company, which you can present in your own way.
- Outdoor advertising includes placing advertisements on billboards and other public places where your potential customers can be found. It could be a hotel in a resort city or a bus stop near an airport. Outdoor advertising offers ample opportunities for creativity and low installation costs.
- Collaboration with tourism companies, such as travel agencies, hotels, airlines, and other organisations. You can present your advertising in the form of posters, business cards, leaflets, and brochures. The idea is to become an additional option to the company whose services are closely related to yours and place printed advertisements for your business there.
- Testimonials and recommendations are another good advertising method. Encourage your customers to refer friends or leave reviews about your company by offering discounts, promotions, or bonuses for recommending your company.
- Affiliate network: You can make deals with car service centres, gas stations, roadside restaurants, and other companies to advertise each other to your respective customers and thus expand the target audience segment.
CRM system for car rental
Perhaps you have heard about CRM for car rental and leasing. It is software that is essential for optimising workflows, effective company management, employee management, and customer relationships. A car rental system for businesses brings significantly higher efficiency, helps provide better customer service, increases loyalty, and allows for the analysis of workflows and timely decision-making for their optimization.
CRM systems offer a wide range of functions, including customer data management, fleet management, automation of manual processes, analytics, and reporting. Among their advantages are:
- A simple and user-friendly interface.
- Security.
- The ability to control all rental company operations.
- Instant access to the admin panel via a mobile phone.
- Faster processing of requests.
- Reduction in input errors.
When starting a car rental business, there are risks such as economic instability, high competition, and a high financial entry barrier. However, the existence of risks does not mean that you should abandon the idea. On the contrary, it indicates a high demand for services. Those who decide to open a company and implement specialised software should not worry about errors in managing workflows. The use of a CRM system allows for the automation of routine tasks, improves customer service, and increases sales through a more loyal user experience.
Conclusion
Starting a car rental business is an excellent investment for the future. It provides an opportunity to generate high profits and be flexible in the choice of vehicles. Having a specialised program to manage the car rental business helps ensure high efficiency in workflow processes, customer loyalty, and contributes to low overhead costs by minimising errors. The car rental industry is developing and becoming more competitive. For entrepreneurs, this means wide-ranging opportunities to achieve success. By approaching the creation of a business plan correctly and carefully planning the launch, one can gain more advantages that owning a car rental business offers.
