The Most Hands-Off $6K/Month Side Hustle to Start - Ep. #330

How Nathan Acquired His First Trailer Rental Business What is your revenue per month on average? Speaker 2 5500 to 7500. Speaker 1 That's beautiful and you still have a full time job. Speaker 2 Still have a full time job? Yep, very minimal. Speaker 1 Work on my end. How much total time do you spend on the business? Speaker 2 2:00 to 4:00. Speaker 1 Hours. So you're making 200 plus an hour on this business? Speaker 2 It's pretty risk free. There is not a whole lot that can go wrong. Speaker 1 Can you get financing on these? Speaker 2 Absolutely. Speaker 1 So in about 5 minutes, a guy named Nathan is going to walk through that door and he's flying here from Lancaster, PA. And he makes thousands of dollars a month in profit working 5 hours a week doing trailer rentals, 31 years old. He has a full time job and two kids. And his business is almost 100% automated. Very low risk to start, low cost to start. You can find out if there's demand before you have to launch. There's just a lot to love about the trailer rental business. So I flew Nathan here so we could learn all about it. Let's go. All right, so how long have you had the auction job? Speaker 2 Coming up on seven years now, OK. Speaker 1 Yep. And how long have you been doing the trailer rental? Speaker 2 Business 15 months now, same age as my daughter so we we started that like 2 days after she was. Speaker 1 Born OK, I have to play well first gave you the idea to start with. Speaker 2 I have an issue like most young men my age of scrolling Facebook marketplace and saw a guy listing a trailer rental business for sale locally. Speaker 1 On Facebook Marketplace. Speaker 2 On Facebook. Yep and I realized I'd rented in the past a boat from him only a couple of years before so just reached out. He was selling 10 trailers and then his book of business for the last couple years as he was moving a couple hours W Pennsylvania. Just wanted to size down. Speaker 1 Now in a business like that, how much can you actually sell your book of business versus he's just selling the assets? Speaker 2 That's a great question. And I think it depends how much information you have on those customers. And he didn't have any e-mail addresses. It was just a home address and a landline or cell phone. So obviously immediately looking in, you realize it's fairly antiquated. Speaker 1 Yeah, he's selling his trailers with a maybe a little bit of goodwill in there. Speaker 2 So yeah, I eventually I was the only one that was really serious about making an offer on it, so I kind of negotiated to just buy the trailers for what he was saying they were valued at, which was 35,000. Speaker 1 10 trailers. Speaker 2 Yeah, they were older used trailers, heavily used. Speaker 1 Are we talking like dump trailers? Flatbeds box trailers. Speaker 2 A good mix of everything. That was his goal was to try and provide a little broad range of trailers. So there were five enclosed trailers, several open trailers, utility and equipment trailer. The only thing that out of that list you mentioned that wasn't in there was a dump trailer. Speaker 1 OK, OK. This is Lancaster, PA. Yes. How many people live there? Speaker 2 In the county it's 500,000. No, exactly in the town, but it's a mid sized town. It's nothing like Philly or here. Speaker 1 And how is he finding customers? Speaker 2 The old school way. Well I mean he had a he did have a website, just a WordPress website with a lot of characters on it and backlinks. So he ranked in the area if you search for trailer rentals. But that was really how he was finding it. 7 people. Speaker 1 Google Business profile good reviews. Speaker 2 Mixed. Speaker 1 OK. Yeah. I mean, he's unsophisticated. Sounds like he's not. He doesn't have like a CRM customer relationship management software or did he? Speaker 2 He, I mean you might say he did, but it wasn't sophisticated in anything other than he could type in somebody's name and see if they were in there. Previously there wasn't an anything automated that you could have hook up to reach. Speaker 1 OK, so he had a website, Google Business profile. Did he have a lot of reviews or a lot of pictures or he. Speaker 2 Had a lot of reviews. He was doing it for probably 10 years in the area. Speaker 1 What did you say his rating was when you bought it? Speaker 2 For he had two businesses and he separated out the trailers into their own so they were like a 4.2 star and then the other rentals were a bit. Speaker 1 Lower than that rentals. Speaker 2 Yeah, boat and some small equipment. Speaker 1 OK. But he didn't want to sell that side of the business. Speaker 2 No, and he still kept he's still doing the trailer rentals, just on a smaller scale, two hours away. Speaker 1 OK. Yeah. Do you have guys have like a non compete or anything or is it just he's so far away you're not worried about it? Speaker 2 It was kind of a goodwill offering in the fact that there's no non compete because he's still doing it. The way I structured the initial purchase, he was asking for $20,000 on top of the trailers for his customer list. And I made a deal with him that I'd just give him a referral free for any, any previous renter that was on his list or that he referred through his current or through his updated yeah, yeah, business. So that way he would still get a kickback if somebody from my area called him to run a trailer. So I was giving him or I still am giving him 35% of the first rental that anybody he refers. Speaker 1 OK. So when you so you ended up spending 35,000 on these? Yeah, OK. What was he doing in revenue like if he were to be able to value the revenues out of the business, How big was that? Speaker 2 They those 10 trailers averaged over the last two years, 28,000 a year, a year total. Speaker 1 All ten of them? Yep. Speaker 2 All ten of them combined. Speaker 1 OK, OK. And did he have like good books or was he filing taxes on that or I? Speaker 2 Hope he was filing taxes. He didn't. Yeah, the books weren't good. The way I was able to feel comfortable going about that. Was fairly familiar with how much used item sell for on Marketplace between the auction and just. I've been flipping stuff on Facebook for a while. I figured that the 35,000 just for those trailers was the price that I could sell them all for individually if we started it and it flopped. Yeah. Speaker 1 And if you really wanted to, you could have pieced together 10 trailers. But this is better than that, because what about the phone number? Where does the phone number go? Speaker 2 So he kept his phone number, kept his business name and everything. I just took a customer list from him. And so then he just set up a a phone call forwarding service, okay to my number if somebody calls in so. Speaker 1 You took over the website, swapped out the phone number with yours or? Speaker 2 He still has his website. Speaker 1 Everything you put it in your own business, yeah. Speaker 2 Own business name new. Speaker 1 Google Business Profile. Speaker 2 Yeah, everything on that side was fresh for me. From Manual to Fully Automated Trailer Rental System So are you getting anything like do you have any shot of getting leads on day one if you don't do anything or do you do you kind of have to start from scratch? Speaker 2 How do you mean start from scratch? Speaker 1 Because like you're not getting calls because he keeps the phone number, but is there is he forwarding leads to you like, hey, can I run to trailer? Not there anymore, but let me give you his name. Speaker 2 Yeah. So he is forwarding from day one, which is how I got my first rental and obviously immediately once we bought the trailers, then I was putting up a Google business profile. I interviewed a couple different software companies to do the website and back end stuff to start getting SEO traction. Speaker 1 OK. What did you name the business? Speaker 2 Lanco Trailer Rentals. Speaker 1 That's what they. Speaker 2 Call Lancaster County. Yep, it's pretty common. Easy to know exactly what we do and where we're. Speaker 1 Servedlencotrailerrentals.com. Speaker 2 It's Lanco trailers.com. Speaker 1 Yeah, What was his name for it? Speaker 2 Cross Keys Rentals. Speaker 1 OK. All right. So are you having to pay him a referral fee when he sends lead your way? Speaker 2 Yep, Yeah, for the first, the first time somebody rents with me that comes from him, I give him a 35% kickback, OK. And to date, over 15 months, I think there's been 20, right about 20 referrals. It's total 1200 bucks. Oh, OK. Speaker 1 So it's not not that much no on 28,000 a year that he was doing. It's got to be mostly profit, right, Because you buy the thing and it's your time. There's no gas. There's I mean wear and tear Minimal I'm guessing. Yep, insurance. Speaker 2 Yes, he told me he wasn't even worrying about insurance so it. Speaker 1 Sounds silly, but honestly it's kind of not. I think like if you were to self insure because after six months or 12 or 24 months, what you would have paid an insurance would buy another trailer. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Speaker 2 Absolutely right. And in Pennsylvania, the tow vehicles insurance policy has to cover liability for whatever it's pulling. It won't necessarily necessarily cover collision, but it has to cover the live. Speaker 1 So you're saying the the vehicle insurance in Pennsylvania has to cover whatever it's terrible? Speaker 2 That's for Pennsylvania. I don't know if that's every state so. Speaker 1 They legally don't have to have insurance on the trailer. Yeah. No, he didn't. Yeah. Do you have insurance? I do, yeah. Yeah. How? Speaker 2 Much does that run. So for general liability for the business itself and then insurance on the trailers, which there's thirteen of them right now, it's 3800 bucks a year without. Speaker 1 It's not bad. Speaker 2 Yeah, just under right around 350 a trailer. Speaker 1 Where was he keeping all these? Speaker 2 He was keeping them on a property that he owned. It was only 7 minutes up the Rd. from my house and then I ended up renting that old space in the front hand. Speaker 1 I guess that would be the other overhead is where to keep these things. Yep. Yeah. Are you still renting that space today? Speaker 2 I'm not no, it wasn't a great setup. It was just a really long skinny property, so every trailer had to be stacked up behind each other. So I had to also rent a little skid loader to move them all in between rentals and it I could set out a Max of three trailers at a time to get picked up before I'd have to go over pull all their trailers out back. So yeah, it was, it was a great way to start and kind of experiment with the contactless side where I was still coming to the yard, seeing the trailers every now and then meeting a renter. But since then I've found about 1/2 acre grab a lot that I rent which is just a better setup for a contactless. Speaker 1 Where were you paying him and then what are you paying now? Speaker 2 So I was paying him 400 bucks a month which was pretty reasonable and now I'm paying 800. Speaker 1 OK, but it's much better configured. Speaker 2 Yes, it's just a a flat square half acre grab a lot. So there's plenty of access to park the trailers all along one side and then as people come in to pick up or drop off, they have plenty of space. Just turn around, okay? Speaker 1 Yeah. So it's. Speaker 2 Much better set up. Speaker 1 So 300 ish a month for insurance, 800 for the lot, no employees. So we're at 11 hundred a month whether you rent anything out or not. Yep. Before we get to like the your current numbers, how do like the first three months go? What are your action plans? You hire a software company, you get a website up, you make the name, then what? Speaker 2 So there are several different trailer rental specific CRM website builders out there. So I interviewed each of them and found a company called Rent Flow Solutions and they more or less handle everything from the website design, SEO and help to set up automations or they can make it as automated as as you're wanting the business to be. OK? So I got with them and that was kind of how the Google side started picking up. OK. Speaker 1 'Cause they helped create your Google Business profile. Speaker 2 So I I still created that myself, but once I had the domain. Speaker 1 Their automations helped you start getting reviews and replying to reviews. Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. They they did the whole website build for me. All I had to do was send them the description and pictures of the trailers and they at least got it showing up on Google. So that call started coming in. OK. Speaker 1 Do you remember what your first month's revenue was? Speaker 2 The first month's revenue was 2300. Speaker 1 Bucks Wow. OK. It's pretty good. Speaker 2 It covered the expenses, which was my only goal. Speaker 1 I mean, already you're on track to meet what he did the year before because he's doing 28,000 a year that's. Speaker 2 On track for 4000 a month. Oh wow. OK. Speaker 1 So what about your your second month, AKA your first full month? Speaker 2 The first four months was right about 4000. Speaker 1 Wow, so you're beating him by 50%? I mean if he's doing 20. Speaker 2 8K yeah. So the one thing to consider in Pennsylvania at least, is it is a little bit more seasonal because of. Speaker 1 So it's not looking. Speaker 2 The summer time are the months where it's usually a little bit better, and then the open trailers stay pretty slow during the winter months because it's more just if you have good days people will use them. But yeah, if it's snowing, they don't want an open trailer. Speaker 1 OK. So how many of those leads that you first got were from him versus from your brand new website and Google business profile? Speaker 2 I wish I had that exactly. Roughly yes. Speaker 1 20 leads. Speaker 2 I want to say that first month we had about 20 rentals on the first total month and of those I would say 3 to 5 Max were from here. Speaker 1 Oh wow, OK, so you're averaging like 200 bucks a rental? Yes. Yeah. How much per day per trailer on average? Speaker 2 A good ballpark is probably 90 bucks is the median that I rent for. It's anywhere between 50 and 150. Speaker 1 Trailers and two days on average. Speaker 2 So it depends what kind of trailer they're running. If they're running an enclosed trailer, they'll average 4 1/2 days. If they're renting an open trailer, it's 1 1/2 days. Speaker 1 Because they might just need to go pick up a riding lawnmower. Speaker 2 Yeah, pretty simple, quick move or their car broke down and they're just towing it to the shop, just a single day, couple hour rental. Whereas a lot of times the enclosed trailers end up being moves or guys taking motorcycles out to Sturgis, things like that, where they're on a trip, yeah. Speaker 1 OK, so in these first few months you were doing everything yourself. Were you meeting people on the lot? How was that going? Speaker 2 The first several I met people there just did it manually in person. And then I quickly started once the website and some of the automations had started, started doing hide key boxes on the trailers with a lock on them. And then when somebody would show up, they'd get pick up instructions with where where that key was hidden for their rental so they could come up and pick it up without having to meet me. Yeah. The one downside that I learned pretty quickly of meeting people is like you found out today, you're on their time. So if they're running late, then you're stuck there at the yard for an hour like you didn't have to be. Speaker 1 Yeah. And you're just like, yeah, yeah. Speaker 2 You can walk around, kick tires, but you can only do that for so long. Speaker 1 Before, yeah. Speaker 2 Toiling your thumbs. Speaker 1 So phase one was you meeting people that are doing it manually. Yep. Phase two, here's a lock box. Hey, here's the code. Yep. Let me know if you have any questions. What about phase three phase? Speaker 2 3 was beginning of this year when I got the new yard lease set up. A all the trailers have their own designated spot, they all have locks on them with their own keys and then I've got a big sign kind of message board type thing with lock boxes on them for each trailer. They're all numbered and when somebody books on the website or if they call me to book, I'll process the card information over the phone. Then the automated system kicks in and they do the rental agreement right from their phone. Then it texts them 24 hours before their pickup time the pickup instructions with the lock box number in their trailer. So they show up, unlock the trailer, hook up and go. Speaker 1 So it's completely. Speaker 2 Automated completely, yeah. I mean, I'll still field calls, but that's that's the extent of what I'm doing. Just one off questions. Yep. Speaker 1 Hey I can't find it. Is it this one or that one or? Speaker 2 Yeah, more. It's just people calling in trying to get a price or or see if I have availability before they check the website. OK, Yeah. Speaker 1 OK, so how much did it cost you to get phase three set up with like the lock boxes and the? Speaker 2 So then the majority of the cost is the 800 bucks to rent a lot. Speaker 1 OK. Speaker 2 The lock boxes, they're 30 bucks a piece on Amazon. I spent 350 bucks on a print shop to make like an official sign that looks good built a little wooden placard overhang board for it to sit on so couple 100 bucks there each each lock is 65 bucks on the trailers. OK. And then I have cameras out there, but fenced in. It's not fenced in. It's open, but it's not Rd. frontage. So you wouldn't see it if you're driving past? Yeah, a lot, which is why it's cheaper. Obviously Rd. furniture would probably bring in more rentals. Yeah, but I just, I hadn't found a place. Speaker 1 That's not easy to find a gravel lot that's for rent that has good frontage, right? Speaker 2 Yeah, and that's within my price range for renting out, right? Trailers, right? You know. Speaker 1 As a side hustle right? OK, so 4000 first full month Was the rest of the summer kind of similar ish? Speaker 2 The next several months were and then I think through October was good and then the winter months were a little slower. They dropped down to the lowest was just over $2000. Speaker 1 Could be worse. They were. Speaker 2 Between two and $3000 kind of paid for itself, but definitely a little bit slower. Yeah, but that was also what I was expecting from what I had I heard from him. So my my only goal at the time was just to cover the 1200 bucks and fix expenses that I knew it was going to have. Understanding Maintenance, Damages, and Overhead Costs OK. What about any like maintenance? Any repairs? Flat tires? Speaker 2 So really with trailers, which is the whole reason why I got into it, it's there's no engines. So there's typically also minimal hydraulics. You know, a dump trailer will have some hydraulics, but it's all minimal. So your real maintenance comes from tires and then bearings typically, and suspension parts. OK, Past that there is not a whole lot that can go wrong with the trailer. Unless it's user error obviously. Speaker 1 Yeah, do they have to take pictures before and after? Speaker 2 Yeah. So the when they come pick up, get the code, they take the four pictures, it checks the trailer out of our system and then same thing when they're back, take after pictures. And then we have AI hold a security deposit on our card. So then I can verify trailers in same condition it left in once they wrap up. Speaker 1 OK, have you ever, have you ever had any claims like someone bumped into something or I've had? Speaker 2 Damages to the trailers for sure. So that's something you have to definitely disconnect yourself with with the trailers, which I'm glad I bought the first ones used for that reason cuz they already had dents and scratches throughout. But it's going to happen. Thankfully. Typically trailers are pretty sturdy and it's just part of it. You know that they're going to get banged up a little bit and as long as it's not major it, it's tough to put a trailer out of emission like that. The enclosed trailers have a little bit more dents and Dings because they're larger, but that's what the security deposits. Speaker 1 For so when you do have incidents you just use the security deposit. Speaker 2 Yep, yeah, always. My goal is to be fair to everybody involved and I always make sure to voice that to the renter. I'm not looking to make any money on their damages, but I'm also not looking to eat the cost myself. Speaker 1 How much is the deposit and are you always claiming that when you have a damage or do you just lose sometimes? Speaker 2 So a good rule of thumb at least that I do for the deposit is 2 times the daily rate. So if it's cheap little trailer that could be 100 bucks or up to 250. I usually don't go past that. And then the vast the vast majority of damages at least. Since I've been doing it or under that threshold, yeah, every now and then I had two breakdowns that were larger than that, but they were both easy to work out with the renters. Speaker 1 OK, they're cool about it. Apologetic. Speaker 2 For yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, they kind of know if, if it's more than 250 bucks, that's a big enough bump on the trailer that they know they. So I'm sure there will be a day where I'll have to eat something. Speaker 1 But you haven't yet. Speaker 2 No. Speaker 1 Wow, Nope. So your maintenance costs have effectively been zero. So other than like, I'm sorry, not maintenance, your damages repairs are effectively 0. Speaker 2 They net even. Yeah, but you are having to. Speaker 1 Spend money to maintain and then the bearings the. Speaker 2 Tires. Speaker 1 Yeah. How much have you spent on that? Speaker 2 So my first year, that was for the first full year that was 8000, I spent on main maintenance and that was also a little higher than normal because I front loaded buying a bunch of extra. Speaker 1 Parts. Speaker 2 And I work with the mobile mechanic in the area to have him do all the maintenance, so that my goal with it was to be get it to where it's as hands off for me as possible. Speaker 1 Yeah. OK. And then do you think that 8000 a year is like you can expect that or was that artificially high because they were all used? Speaker 2 I think, I think that's a safe bet yeah. Going forward, I have a couple more trailers now and as rentals increase, the maintenance goes up because it's you can do it off of the mileage yeah, of the trailer. So you know, bearings are every 12,000 miles for example, so the more they're getting rented out, the more I'm going to have him in there replacing them. Speaker 1 How do you keep track of the miles? Speaker 2 So all the trailers, I put Agps on all of them, yeah, yeah, it's a pretty simple GPS. It just pings twice a day. So there's plenty of different GPSS that guys use in the industry. Some of them ping every 5 minutes and guys like to sit there and see exactly where they're at. But I just need a, a ballpark of where they're at to track mileage. And then obviously that's a worst case scenario if a trail would happen to get stolen. Yeah, obviously that's the one of the no, it's not happened. And I get that question a fair amount, but I'd say it's kind of there's levels of insulation with it where when somebody books on the system, they have to upload their driver's license and insurance to the rental agreement form. So I already have that on there and they won't get a pickup instructions text with the code until that's done and they're paid OK. Then once they're on site, there's obviously cameras there. So their vehicle themselves are on camera. Yeah, all the trailers are locked. Of course, if somebody breaks in, breaks one off, they can take it. But then you're hoping to GPS. Speaker 1 Is yeah. So what do you pay every month for like your website and all the software stuff? Speaker 2 So the website and software is right about 200 bucks a month. Speaker 1 Okay so we're at 1100 for insurance and rent +200 for website 1300. What about like your cameras and your GPS offer? Speaker 2 The cameras, they're 50 bucks a month. There's I have 4 of on there. Speaker 1 50 for all four, yes. Okay. Yep, and the GPS software. Speaker 2 The GPS there and upfront, 1:50 to buy it and the batteries. Speaker 1 Are good for four years. OK. So nothing ongoing? Speaker 2 Nope. Speaker 1 All right. And then 8000A year ish for the maintenance which should be what, 700 a month 800? Speaker 2 Right about there. Speaker 1 500 * 12600 like 650 a month it would take. So we're like 2000 a month for overhead including maintenance. Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, right now it's right, right between 2 to 2500, OK, depending how, how much the. Speaker 1 Transaction is lumped. Yeah, OK. Achieving High Profit with Minimal Time Investment And then what is your revenue per month on average? Speaker 2 So now the last several months it fluctuates between 5500 to 7500. Oh nice. Speaker 1 OK, let's call it 6500. So you're netting 4000 a month give or take? Yep, 45,000 a year. That's beautiful and you still have a full time job. Speaker 2 Still have a full time job? Yep I'm I'll be at the yard for maybe 2 to 3 hours a week is typically what I should I spend on it right now. Speaker 1 How much total time do you spend on the business? Because you're not only working on it when you're at the yard, right? Like if you were to add up all the hours in a week 510. Speaker 2 Definitely less. I think that's where it's closer to two to four hours. The main thing that I am doing is just taking calls. OK, I'll get several a day and if I am booking somebody on it, it might be a 10 minute phone call, but the system kind of takes over from there once I've mark them. The only things I do, I swing by on my way home from work, usually 2 * a week. Just look over the trailers on there. Or if somebody drug a light connector, something that's easy to quickly swap out, I might spend 30 minutes swap them something out while I'm there. Speaker 1 So 5 hours a week give or take. Speaker 2 2 1/2 to 5. Speaker 1 Yeah. So 1000 bucks a week, net profit on average, it's lumpy. 1000 bucks a week, four or five hours a week. So you're making 200 plus an hour on this business after. Like, don't get me wrong, you have to set stuff up. You have to negotiate with the guy. You had to get a lot, find a lot, make the board, make the thing that covers the board to keep people out of the rain. There's hours that went into it before, but you got it to the point where it's somewhat passive and making you 250. Speaker 2 Bucks an hour. Yep, for your yeah, a lot of the the time was front loaded just getting systems in place. But once they are now it's it's very minimal work on my end. Speaker 1 How big could it get in Lancaster County if you wanted to just go all out? Speaker 2 That's a good question. And I go back and forth on what's the right way to grow it without leaving my current job, whether that's continuing to add more trailers, which there's definitely room to do that. And I think it's pretty easy as demand comes in for certain trailers. I'll mark down when somebody, anytime somebody calls and I don't have the trailer they're asking for, I just will have a running list in my phone and then I'll look to add that next. Or I think honestly, you could do a bunch of little transplant locations of 10 to 13 trailers, keep the footprint small and just take the exact same repeatable system and put it 30 minutes away. That's also something that happened. Speaker 1 Yeah, have your mobile mechanic go out there once a week or so the. Speaker 2 Mechanic already already travels, so he could just spend a day there, a day in Lancaster. Speaker 1 What if you, like could only have one trailer to offer? What would it be? Speaker 2 Probably for my area, it's going to depend where you're at geographically, but a dump trailer, it was a little bit slower to get started. But once people know you have that, that rents out by far the most on my lawn as far as number of rentals, but they're averaging 1 1/2 days and it's seasonal. So that's really heavy summertime. Speaker 1 Chunk removal stuff. Speaker 2 Junk, Landscape, concrete, Asphalt. It's hydraulic. Speaker 1 Right. You just Yep. What are those costs? Speaker 2 That was 8300 new. Wow, OK. Speaker 1 And then I mean that'll last 10 plus years. Speaker 2 Yep. Yeah, if you keep maintaining it, it'll have no problem. Speaker 1 And what do you rent that one for? Speaker 2 95 a day. Speaker 1 OK. Do you have like a metric words like like 10% right? Like I spent 9 grand on this. I need to rent it for your one percent 90 bucks a day. Speaker 2 You know, yeah, I I'll base it off of what the other larger companies in the area are doing, but a decent rule of thumb is 1 1/2 times the OR 1 1/2% of the purchase price. Yeah. So if it's a $4000 trailer, 60 bucks, you could probably do a little bit higher than that on the cheaper trailers. But for a $10,000 trailer, at least for me, that's pretty accurate for OK. Speaker 1 50 which means in 75 days of renting it out you get all your money back yeah, and it's. Speaker 2 And then you. Speaker 1 Pure profit, quote UN quote. Pure profit from now on. Speaker 2 Out it is and you still you own the asset. Yeah, that you could go and sell for 20 to Max 40% less than you paid for it. They really don't devalue very fast. Speaker 1 Can you get financing on these? Speaker 2 Absolutely. Yeah. Do you? I took out a key lock for the initial really purchase, Yeah. Speaker 1 Too barred against your house? Yep. OK. Was that difficult? Speaker 2 No, no, it was, it was something I, yeah, it was, I think the initial rate was 2 1/2 percent for their first nine months. Yeah. And then it jumped up to 6 1/2. Speaker 1 OK. OK. So that's how you bought the business. So Yep, you didn't really have the cash or if you did, you didn't want to use it, so you'd borrow it against your house. When you get these finance, do you usually finance them through like the dealership you buy it from or through a bank or what? Speaker 2 So I only used the HELOC for the initial ones when I'm financed. And then since then I've replaced all the old trailers that we had initially bought. They've just been from the money and and the from the business. Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. So you've replaced all of the original 1st 10. Speaker 2 They have one little cheap trailer that's still original that's in a good shape that I haven't replaced. But all the other nine, OK, Yeah. Speaker 1 So dump trailers. You're in your area. If you had to pick one it would be that. What about #2 and 3? Speaker 2 Probably a car hauler, kind of similar. An open trailer, so when it's bad weather in the winter it's not going to move up north, but here it would move year round. That would that's a very often rented trailer and then an enclosed trailer after that, preferably for me, yeah, like a 20 or 24 foot enclosed trailer. Those, for whatever reason, would be great. Speaker 1 What are people using those for? Speaker 2 Moving, moving, hauling. You can haul cars in them if you want them enclosed. Yeah, that's more or less, yeah, extended it. But a lot of times they're on trips. People will take them on vacations or motorcycle guys love to rent a big enclosed trailer and put 3 or 4 bikes in there for them and their friends to transport them to Daytona or yeah, South Dakota. And then they'll drive them while they're out there, OK? Speaker 1 Have you do you have issues with people backing it in like re parking it or pulling it out or do Or is the type of person renting a trailer the type of person that kind of knows how to? Speaker 2 Pull a trailer. Typically they know how to pull a trailer, but there's definitely people that don't. In that instance, I'm thankful now that our yard is big enough that you can turn it around. And if worst comes to worst and somebody, I had somebody call me saying like, I can't do this, There's no way. So in that instance, I just had them pull to the side to where it's not yeah, just drop it there. I'll, I'll get it next time I'm over there. And as long as there's it's out of the way for people to turn around or if I'm worried enough on the phone talking with them, just feeling it out, you can kind of tell if. If somebody's asking for a big enclosed trailer and they're pulling it in, you know, saying they're going to pull it in a car and they've never towed before, that's kind of an easy one to weed out over the phone. Strategies for Geographic and Equipment Expansion Are you Do you want to grow more by buying more trailers or by renting out other things or trailers in other cities? Speaker 2 That was going to be a question that I'd ask You sure. My the initial thought was to do transplant locations. Since I already traveled through a lot of Northeast PA, it would be easy for me to work them into my roots during the week to just check here and there and take the exact same systems that we're already doing. Just put it to another geographic location or obviously once you start in the rental game, you can expand into equipment is a big sector and it's kind of endless as to the size that you could go. Or they experimented with a golf cart this summer. Speaker 1 With renting, I know, yeah. Interesting. Speaker 2 Yep, I know guys that do RV's or at least the pull behind campers so there's plenty of avenues to expand just a single location. But those expansion opportunities if you're going past just the regular trailers, have them set up right now. All require typically time. Speaker 1 Yeah, there's more moving parts. Like they break more. Speaker 2 Yep and those people for will often want them delivered yeah campers golf carts, which is what I learned testing that out this summer. They most 95% of the people that are inquiring about them just want them dropped off and at least right now that's not the game that I want to be in. But I would consider it for next year knowing that now to hire a younger guy to work several hours a week on the side for me to run. They'll just pick those up. Speaker 1 What do people rent golf carts for? From what? Speaker 2 I've seen it's usually between 100 to 200 bucks a day. Speaker 1 But what's the use? What's? Speaker 2 The use Yeah Events campgrounds. Speaker 1 OK, like you're you're an event organizer and you're coming to the area for an event and you need a way to get around the event. Speaker 2 That or even just weddings, things that are happening, a lot of that's that industry is happening outside on farms nowadays. So people will rent them for those type of types of events. And then also a lot of inquiries come from people that are camping nearby in the area. Won a golf cart for the week while they're in in town. Speaker 1 OK, Yeah. Do you ever rent on Facebook Marketplace? Speaker 2 Yeah. So Google makes up about 55% of where the leads come, and then Facebook for the last 15 months is about 14%. Speaker 1 OK, well, where's everything else? Just organic. Speaker 2 Organic word of mouth referrals or repeat customers. And then there's a couple specific trailer rental platforms that you can post your own trailers on. You don't even have to have a business. You can do it kind of with their rental agreements if you want to test it out if you have something sitting around. Speaker 1 OK. I mean, I'd be curious to see what would happen if you posted a bunch of different things on Facebook Marketplace just to see what the demand is like as if you already had it. Yep, Skid steer for rent 450 a day. I've rented the skid steer on Facebook Marketplace. I've rented the next video on Facebook Marketplace. That's where I think to get them. But like, you got to drop it off, pick it up usually, yeah. And you got to fill up with gas. How many things can go wrong on that? Speaker 2 Yeah, and you need to at least give the person running it a quick tutorial on how to use it. And at least for where I'm at right now, that's not something that I wanted to do during the day. I would have to find an operator if I wanted to expand into that. Speaker 1 Yeah, because it's like on one hand, if you were to open multiple locations, then you could say, well, that's a whole different business. But on the other hand, if you were to stay in the one location and put a boat on there or an RV, I think that's more of a different business than just adding another location would be 100 because there how many other things can you rent out that don't have moving parts? They're kind of hard to find. Speaker 2 There's not not many. Speaker 1 So if I were you, based on all the facts you just told me, and you have such a system dialed in, I would just open a new law or just see what I could do to get more people to my current law. What percentage of the space are you taking up there? Speaker 2 Probably 50%. So there's still room there and I because I'm a habitual buyer and seller of things, I've bought a bunch of trailers this summer and I'll I'll post them there or have them on the lot for rent for 2-3 months just to test and then sell it after. Speaker 1 So it could be if you filled it up at your same occupancy, your same volume, it could be $100,000 of profit from that 1/2 acre lot, yeah. Speaker 2 You could find a way to do that for sure. Speaker 1 Yeah. If I were you, I would get to that as soon as possible and then find the next best city, you know, in your area. And you probably didn't even do any like competitive research, I'm guessing like when you bought this, like. Speaker 2 I looked around for sure and just saw what what anybody renting trailers around the area was doing, how many reviews they had, what their kind of setup looked like, and nobody was doing contact lists. And at least I'm obviously a little on the younger side still where I know everybody my age and younger would prefer that type of method. Grab and go. It's on your own time. So I just thought it was a missed opportunity. Speaker 1 There, what I was wondering is like do you have any bearing on in Lancaster, you know, there's this many total trailers for rent in the market against this population versus a city half hour down the road has this many trailers. Like do you know if the supply and demand of trailers in your market is high or low compared to other markets? Speaker 2 I don't have an idea there because. Speaker 1 You might learn that the average market has half as much competition or twice as much. Yeah. So you might be like, dude, this is easy mode. I'm gonna go an hour down the road and you're. That's like average competition and you do half as well. Yeah. Or you might learn, man, I'm playing this on hard mode. You go half hour down the road and it's just, it explodes because that's more of a normal market. Yeah, I'd be curious to know that. Like you could just scrape every trailer into place divided by the population and assume that like the demographics are similar, they might not be. Like if the one city has an average income of 40,000 the other one has 80,000, it could be totally different. So I would find sister cities of Lancaster that have comparable population sizes and comparable demographics and then try to get a bearing for not just how many competitors, but how many total trailers are there for rent in that area just by calling up, looking at their website. All right, looks like, you know, they have this many spots for gone right now. Yeah. And get like a metric of like person per trailer and try to get like a baseline. All right, there's 8 cities all in Pennsylvania or Pennsylvania, Ohio. They're all in like 60,000 average income. And you know, it's like 4000 residents per trailer. Wow, this one's only. This one's 9000 residents per trailer. I need to go there next. It's a little out of the way, but twice. I'm twice as likely to have success there. Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. That's a good point. Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, you could do that research in an hour. Yeah. OK. So 4000 a month. Have you ever done any businesses before this? Or was it like your first? This your first? Speaker 2 So this was the first like official LLC we set up. I've have a habit of not staying still. So I mean, I've flipped stuff for a while. I managed an office location for a company for a period of time. Sold Cutco knives. Speaker 1 So how were you at that? Speaker 2 Pretty good. Yeah. I did it full time for four years. Wow. Right through high school and then right after. Yeah. So that's kind of working for yourself. Yeah. But no, no. Like running a business. Yeah, but I need technical. Essential Advice for Starting a Trailer Rental Side Hustle What advice did you give to people that want to start this business? Speaker 2 So it's pretty risk free in the fact that you can go out and buy a used trailer for a cheap price if you look long enough and you can throw it up on Facebook and even just these other rental software platforms out there that don't charge anything upfront, they just take a Commission off of. Speaker 1 What are the names of those? Speaker 2 Neighbors, trailer rentals, big rentals, there's big loads. That's what's top of mind. Speaker 1 So 3 websites there plus Facebook marketplace you're saying? Speaker 2 You can test, test the market with all of those without spending any money on a website on Google. Yeah. And they'll they'll send you their leads. Yeah. Speaker 1 I mean, this sounds maybe sounds a little untraditional, but if you really wanted to launch this without spending a couple grand on a trailer, you could list a trailer for rent that you could rent, right? Yeah. Like let's say there's a box trailer for 90 bucks a day. You go to neighbor and all this through websites. You list a box for 90 bucks a day. You're not trying to make money, right? And just see how it goes. Go pick up that one, drop it off like you're breaking even. You're losing a little money. But it's like, you know what? Actually, I don't like this at all. I'm glad I didn't spend 9 grand on a trailer. Or you know what, this is kind of fun. And if I own that trailer, I'd actually be making 90 bucks and not just giving it right back to, you know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, I just like to think of ways that you can completely de risk. Speaker 2 Yeah, I think definitely posting it on on Facebook is an easy way to just check some ballpark. Speaker 1 Demand in your area one just post something. Get a stocked image of a trailer and post. Speaker 2 Just see how many people are reaching out to you on that and even just see take a look at what other people are doing cuz there's gonna be other people posting their own trailers on Facebook for rent. It's fairly common, but of it being fairly common, not a lot of people, I feel like, take it very seriously. Yeah, and just test it with one trailer on the side right haphazard for a couple months and then move on. Speaker 1 Yeah, OK. Do you boost your Facebook Marketplace listings? Speaker 2 I've done it just a little bit. I mean total over the past 15 months spent 100 bucks. So I I really don't anymore and. Speaker 1 I sounds like you don't really. Speaker 2 Need to no. And I don't do any paid ads on Google, OK? It's just all kind of organic. Speaker 1 OK, any other tips? Advice. Speaker 2 If you want to take it seriously, get out in your local community and just let people know that you're renting trailers. Work with other businesses, tell them you'll set them up on like a little business program where they get a 10% discount if they rent for anytime they rent for three days and you'll make their fucking super easy and they can just text you. You know, something simple like that, if you just have a a dump trailer, reach out to the landscaping company, somebody who might need to use that several times throughout the summer. And typically once somebody rents from you, once they're in the door, they're going to use you again. Yeah. So they're pretty likely to repeat. Speaker 1 Beautiful. Where can people find you or your business? Speaker 2 So you can find me on Twitter or X. That's going to have to be LinkedIn, the show notes. Speaker 1 No, it's fine. We'll link it. I don't know. Speaker 2 What it is Offhand, I put together a free just basic starter guide that you can go online and download at Trailer rental dot guide. Speaker 1 OK. Speaker 2 Put in your e-mail and I'll send that to you. I've just been compiling what I've been learning on the fly for the past 15 months. But that's enough to get somebody to their first trailer and renting it. Or if you have a direct question, you can e-mail me [email protected]. Speaker 1 Beautiful. Thank you, Nathan. Thank you. Hey guys, if you're still listening to this, it's probably because you haven't had a chance to take your Airpods out, you're still mowing the lawn, you're still driving, what have you. If you're still here with me, I would really, really love and appreciate a five star review on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcast. It would mean a lot. If you want to go the extra mile, share this episode with a friend that might have an interest in starting a business. It would mean a ton. Hope you have the best day of your life today.