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When tent rental becomes equipment rental with Rob Cruikshank: Episode 58
142 Plays1 month ago
Business is coming full circle for Rob Cruikshank of 24/7 Events. While his business is certainly tent rental, he talks with us about his early days in the industry and how high-end events and sophisticated jobs are changing the game.
PS, if you want to join ARA and you tell them you heard about it from Nate and Kyle, you'll get 25% off your membership! https://ararental.org/join-ARA/promo/Podcast25
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Reveal
00:00:00
Speaker
All right, we're back again with another episode of Under the Vital. Kyle, how you doing? It's day two at ARA Nate. I'm sure you can guess how I'm doing. It feels like day 900 since we've been here since Friday, but it's been a good show so far. We've got a good guest on here today. We've got Rob Kirkshank from 2470 Events in California.
00:00:19
Speaker
Rob, how you doing, buddy? Hanging in there, you know. I've been here since Friday. You and me both, man. Long nights, early mornings. I'm the one you call when you need a 10 up or down.
00:00:32
Speaker
I'm a 10-grittle man, I'm working on all day. Getting mistakes in the ground no matter what they say. From sunrise to the night, make sure everything's right. Yeah, I'm a 10-grittle man, I'm working on day.
00:00:46
Speaker
Understand.
Overview of 2470 Events
00:00:47
Speaker
So Rob, tell us a little about about what your title is and what you're currently doing out at 24-7. So we're primarily a 10 company. We have general party as well. um structure, 10 meter to 50 meter frame tent, 10 wide to 50 wide, tables, chairs, HVAC, power, elevated floor.
00:01:05
Speaker
So we kind of focus on infrastructure more than anything. Okay. And then when did you start in the industry?
Rob's Industry Journey
00:01:10
Speaker
2002.
00:01:12
Speaker
two thousand two I bought a business that had some table and chair, but it was just in a double line in the back 40. And then in 2006, we wound up selling the, it was probably a tool business, sold the tools and instead of just getting a normal job, I thought it was a good idea to go and buy plates and linens and more tents and here we are. So you started this tool and party and then moved a little bit into party?
00:01:38
Speaker
Moved 100% into party. Okay. And where you were you the original owner and started 24 seven? I bought an existing business from a company that had been there, man, probably 30 years. So it was, you know, it's old phone phone book days, right? So it was called a one Rentals. okay of And then we actually rebranded it for the dba twenty four seven and Okay, And was this a family business or is this something that you started out on your own? I started on my own. when back At first.
00:02:04
Speaker
I grew up in the rental business, a cool business. Let's jump back into that then. what did How did you grow up in the business and what were you doing? So my dad owned a company called AV Equipment Rental on Santa Clarita. just sold to Sundown in 22. Okay.
00:02:18
Speaker
But I grew up in that yard and then going through the ranks, it kind of came to the point that he had a partner, just kind weren't sure what was going happen. An opportunity came up to buy a company in Palmdale and his partner didn't want to do it.
Transition from Tools to Party Rentals
00:02:31
Speaker
So my dad asked me if I wanted to do it. So jumped, jumped in, run in. So then I was waiting to be hired by the fire department. And I just didn't have the patience to wait it out.
00:02:41
Speaker
You want to be a career firefighter? I want to be firefighter. Well, that was right after 9-11 in 2002, and everyone wanted to be a firefighter. You didn't ask to be a career tenor. I don't think any of us really did. The weird part is ultimately still a firefighter. Yeah, he put out fire. Just not using water. Exactly. Every day.
00:02:55
Speaker
So jumping into the tools and then did you just part from your dad or did you take over the take over that whole business? So I bought that on my own. Okay. He was not part of it. It was my own thing. And then four years of that, I had another partner, but that lasted two years, bought him out. And then two years later, sold the the equipment.
00:03:12
Speaker
Well, I know that 24-7 today, the building and everything that you got, it's and it's unbelievable, it's beautiful. Where did you guys start? and How big were you guys when you first initially started?
Founding of 2470 Events
00:03:21
Speaker
So we were in the Antelope Valley, good old Palmdale right there by Lockheed.
00:03:26
Speaker
We had a two acre dirt lot and there was a double wide in the back full of tables and chairs, maybe a hundred tables, thousand plastic chairs. I had, you know, there's like a one 30 by 30 for West coast frame tent, like a 10 by 10 and 20 by 20 and like a champagne fountain. That's, that's kind how it started. It's everybody's and the opers and champagne fountains, right? Kneeling benches. Can't forget. Yeah.
00:03:49
Speaker
Um, And we just kind of, yeah after the tool thing, the tool sold that. I just didn't know what the next step was, so we just went for it. We had a big contract with ah Boeing, who at the time was a big contract. They needed a 40 by 150. So the first big can I bought from Aztec was 40.
00:04:07
Speaker
So you jumped right into Aztec then? Yeah. Okay. And then what kind of inventory did you kind of diversify from there? Did you stay with more tables and chairs and things like that? Or did you just say, now that I got this stand, and I'm to start running down the different size tents and things like that? We just did whatever the phone call was. around And then you became a yes man. Exactly. and And you know, a lot of people that I learned coming up through this, they would start in the general party and they would add tents. I kind of went the other way. add it I had a tent first and then we kind of backfilled with more of that. So once once we um sold the the lot and everything, we got a warehouse out there and I just went and bought an ironware because we couldn't get deliver me linens. So we bought a laundry facility.
00:04:48
Speaker
And... But the whole facility. Yeah. Go to hell with it. Okay. so I just went for it. Why did you sell the tool business and decide to keep the 10 side? From an outsider's view, I would always assume tool or equipment, it seems easier. It's way easier. We didn't...
00:05:04
Speaker
It was just a good deal. um And then that wound up being a not so good deal. as I carried some paper, fast forward to the 2008 crash, and it's to say it didn't work out so well for everybody. Well, coming from a party guy, I feel like, yeah, i would rather be a tool guy. I mean, did a little bit of tools when I was at Bryants and party. You are a tool guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yes Well, but it was it was more fun.
00:05:29
Speaker
I think with the bigger companies coming on, it wasn't as profitable. So everybody I feel like most tool owners transitioned into party rental and tents to find the more profit unless you kind of grew that really dove in headfirst on the tool side. It was a race to the bottom, yeah especially in aerial, right? Like you didn't, they were putting out scissor lifts for 250 bucks a month. It got to a point, it's it didn't make sense. And you know i either had to invest big usually because it or just say, you know what, we're going to be a small contractor yard, a homeowner yard. Right. and and the the The dollars aren't there. No. Yeah. And have a, you know, a fulfill and fulfilling career.
00:06:04
Speaker
So it just made more sense to say, you know, I'm done with this. Who kind of helped mentor you in this? Or did you have any mentor in this when you started to jump into this party side? Did you, you said Aztec is where you got your tents from. Did you kind of rely on Aztec? Was there somebody in the industry that you were going off of and mentoring with? No, I just went for it. And funny enough, your dad.
00:06:26
Speaker
It was random. so it's kind of So we met from the Harbor Freight dealer. Yeah. Right? So the local Harbor Freight was in Antelope Valley and then they basically said, hey, you wanted to do 10 stores. Rob used to beat me up on price every damn um week.
00:06:38
Speaker
Well, he was just too expensive. He thought his 10 store made gold or something.
00:06:44
Speaker
So we um they said, hey, want to do 10 stores? We're sure. So it kind of kept spiraling. So I met you and then I met Scott from 10 OX. Yeah. I called him and he he hooked me up with your dad.
00:06:57
Speaker
And I learned a lot in that first probably year of doing small frame tents and doing them all around the country. And i don't want to say there was a mentor, but I was able to meet a lot of different people. Yeah.
00:07:09
Speaker
Which I think is really funny because when I first met you and you were calling all these people that do different Harbor Freights and things like that, I feel like everybody kind of knew you then in the industry and i was like, who the hell is this guy that who's calling? that's getting all these And why can't we get them when they're right in our backyard? So and then learning from you and your team and how you get what you guys are doing and everything like that.
00:07:28
Speaker
Which that was pretty good contract for you for a while. It worked well. It was it it was nice because it was it was um they did it six times a year. So in January and March. Yeah. It was nice to have that business.
00:07:40
Speaker
It was a lot. We didn't make a ton on the contract, but... being able to hire ourselves to do 20 stores up and down the coast of California, and then just you know work with everybody around the country. The outreach around the country, I felt like, you i mean, just saying, you know you put your name out there, people were asking questions, then you know later on, now you're here, and knowing everybody, or being in the bag group that you're in, and things like that, they know people got to know you from that.
00:08:06
Speaker
I feel like that helped a ton, probably. 100%. Well, what's been kind of the vision for the company and the culture moving forward now, coming from the small business, growing that thing up now? I mean, being as big as you guys are, you moved in to this excellent facility. What's kind of been your company vision and where do you see this going right
Focusing on Local Markets
00:08:23
Speaker
now? It's going to be Right now, we've kind of find we find ourselves in an interesting spot. like we we do a lot of some big events. We do some small events.
00:08:34
Speaker
We don't have a lot in the middle. yeah So we're actually trying to backfill right now and do more homeowner stuff and and get our local market. and We're doing stuff in LA. We're doing stuff in Florida.
00:08:46
Speaker
Why can't we own our own local market? And this perception is we're too big. I'm trying to like actually reverse that. It's really weird. I think a lot of a lot of us have that. Yeah, that's what it ends up happening. Yeah, I mean, even at Chattanooga Tent, we love Chattanooga local, and you know we it's our city.
00:09:02
Speaker
And you don't want to keep people from you want to keep people from not coming to your city, but you feel like when you start traveling, doing the bigger stuff, you almost outgrow your city, and you're trying to find your way back. Or when all the backyard parties are happening, that's when you're already slammed doing the big job. So you're like, i can't take a crew to go do a 40 by 100. That's crazy. Which you want to take all those. But at the end of the day, I feel like those backyard 20 by 40s end up being your biggest pain in the butt. and the And you're going back for more go backs on a 20 by 40 than you would a 30 meter, right? yeah um It's funny because like Thanksgiving, right? you know, most party stores, you got line out the door wheel calls for Thanksgiving. We close. Like,
00:09:35
Speaker
We closed the Wednesday before. Our local competitors, they have 300 will calls. And it's like, we cannot, we we even this year, we tried to do like this advertising thing and get involved in the PTAs and you know activate the moms in the area and get their tape.
00:09:48
Speaker
Zero. I don't know why we can't do it. Yeah, and that's funny. ah You were talking balance and things like that with mutton yesterday and how he doesn't work weekends. Like they're, they're done. They stopped working Saturdays and Sundays. Like if they're not doing it. Um, I mean, occasionally they have to, or they have somebody on call, but they're not trying not to do it for the most part.
00:10:05
Speaker
Do you feel like you've got, that's a good thing for you. You're able to close early. You're able to kind of give the, everybody the time off and create that culture. Yes and no. Um, but also, you know, I went through,
00:10:18
Speaker
I went through that great recession and all that stuff. And at that point, I had nowhere to go, but that really small. Yeah. um So I kind of built this thing by not saying no to anything. Right. it's jobs on Sunday, we're going to work on Sunday. Yes. That's how it is. Perfect.
00:10:31
Speaker
But we will, um to your point, we are starting to get to the, there where we we close for those holidays and we're not we're not doing the backyard barbecue holidays. Right. right But that's not to say that we're not trying.
00:10:45
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're trying to find that balance at the end of the day so that we we have more longevity in this industry rather than everybody get burned out and quit or they just don't want to come back to work. And you it career or path goes yeah yeah it goes back to the career path thing. It's hard to sell someone on a hey, you can come work this great career, but you're going to work seven days a week for.
00:11:04
Speaker
You're to make great money at 90 hours a day or 90 hours a week. Yeah. It's got to be a bounce. It is hard. And and that's what I was saying, you know, just with your vision and what you're trying to do with that. Cause I mean, you got to make money. You got to, you got to produce events. You got to do things. We don't, our deadlines don't, aren't able to be missed. We had to produce on our deadline. The industry where I feel like you said that you're gonna do the wedding, you have to do the wedding and get it done. It's not, Hey, I'm sorry. We're landscaper. You don't, Oh, I've got to cut grass today.
00:11:32
Speaker
We'll just get it done later. We'll see it next week. You brought up culture and, you know, I'm sure you guys deal with this too. the The older guys that are in there right now, is there they don't understand not working 90 hours a week. And the younger guys are like, well, I need my time off.
00:11:46
Speaker
That clash is something that we're dealing with constantly, as I'm sure everybody is. And then the balancing of the pay in that too, because obviously they want to work less hours to make more money. nope Or you pay them more money, give them less hours. of Some of the people just don't want to work at all, period. Because they don't understand why and they can't TikTok it or something, whoever that is, make it work. AI's not going to build this. tap Exactly, exactly. So you guys moved into your current building, your new building, what was that, three years ago or so? So we signed the lease three weeks before the COVID shutdown. Oh, that was through right. Nice.
00:12:16
Speaker
And we decided that that was the moment where we were going to double up on everything. and So that was an exciting time. So walk us through that. Walk us through that. but Everyone's got their COVID story. Yeah. um Ours came, our break came when the local bar called and like, I need a 20 by 4010. Her friend worked for the health department. They said, hey, they're going to let us open up outside. Yeah. So I'm like, whatever you need, we're bringing it. So...
00:12:41
Speaker
wound being one tent there, then they were to second tent, and then one of the guys was working there. um and One of the guys was coming for a drink, happened to be the general manager at the Chili's, local Chili's. So that guy called his boss, and there was now there's three Chili's, and that guy called his regional, now there's 10 Chili's.
00:12:56
Speaker
That guy called whoever, and now we've got like 30 Chili's in there. So I'm sitting there going, okay, how much money do I need to make rent? And i'm like, that's exactly what I'm charging you. I wasn't trying to be greedy, you just seem to get something out the door.
00:13:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, you just need the cash flow in. Then came gal went high school with, her her husband, her fiance in time, owned all the local Gold Gyms. okay So I called him and go, hey, I can help.
00:13:19
Speaker
yeah So got a contract with Gold Gyms. That's where I bought, I mean, we bought a ton of structure, about yeah and a 20 meter for that. Um, then he turned me on to his buddy at 24 hour fitness. So before you know it, I probably had 30, 20 by 30 zone and they just sat and that was. You more comfortable than moving into that building at the time? Like you made the right decision?
00:13:38
Speaker
Oh yeah. Yeah. It wound up, I mean, it took six months to get to that point where yeah I was like, okay, we're going to make it through this. And now I'm like, I miss it. I have that back. Oh yeah, yeah. And how many square foot is your new building? 51,000. And what was the vision behind that when you when you got there? What were you looking to accomplish? What kind of processes were you trying to get accomplished versus where you were before?
00:14:01
Speaker
um Improve our tent base. So we bought an s SKP machine and a drum washer. went Went through that. That was the first thing and just more space to spread out. Yeah. and At the time we were hosting a lot of nonprofit type events. Okay. So the more space helps, like we were kind of involved in the local politics and that was the spot. Yeah. Everybody wanted to do everything at the warehouse, which was, which was fun.
00:14:23
Speaker
Um, and just eventually just to grow something to grow into. So was a leap of faith. And now as everyone happens, we're busting at the scenes, Lisa's up in a year.
00:14:34
Speaker
And now we're looking at hundred thousands. And that's how that's funny you say because that's what we're doing in Nashville currently right now. And I know Kyle is having the same issues. and No matter what size building you're in, he's too small. Well, even when we went to Copley's place couple weeks ago, I mean, that thing is massive and it's beautiful and everything else. But he's already busting at the seams there, too. Not maybe at the seams, but he's he's filling it up quick.
00:14:55
Speaker
But I feel like, yeah, you can never have too much space. Do you do you feel like that improved your profits and your margins and everything by moving to that building? I mean, it definitely improved our... our gross numbers yeah we were we're buying more stuff the projects are getting bigger um miss profitability i don't know if that's really changed that much and we and hired more people expenses went up we're still able to have we're we're still profitable it's just did that actually add more net profit i don't think so okay the numbers have definitely gone up just felt like you it's probably more of the numbers i equate it to the numbers that you don't get to see yeah And you can't really produce because the efficiencies are better.
00:15:34
Speaker
And so you're able to move around a little bit more, things like that. But is it even that you could bring in a certain product to that building? Well, we the minute, of as we as we started getting deeper in the structure, the next the next move was floor. Right.
00:15:46
Speaker
So now we're buying TF. Now we're buying Duratrac. We have all that. Then right after that, HVAC. Yeah. And all that stuff takes up a ton of space. Then after for that, bathrooms. And after that, oh yeah, let's not forget the bathrooms. So let's walk through kind of what you got. What what kind of structure you got do you guys have? Shelter. Shelter, okay. And then flooring, you said TF?
00:16:08
Speaker
On TF, we have 30,000 square feet TF. I probably think, I had to guess, I think we're right around half a million square feet of structure and and then frame time. say and Do you think that the flooring game kind of helped you more be more diverse in the market to kind of be able to do different things, bigger things, things that? Absolutely. Flooring was a game changer for us. It was a big leap of faith. It's probably one of the most expensive things we bought, but um the projects definitely came.
00:16:37
Speaker
So, not lot of our guests have said they're shelter structures. Yeah. How has your experience been working with them? Shelter's been great. we um We've got everything, we we have the 50 meters, so we run the 350 profile. You have 50 meters? Yeah.
00:16:51
Speaker
Wow, all right. Big tight guy. Not lot. Good boy. I've only put up, biggest tenor does a 50 by 85. And then you have um you have the atrium tenor. We have an a wef two, so we have the atrium and the Arden. So the atrium and the 20 meter, that in the art and the Arden, it doesn't have the center post.
00:17:11
Speaker
And I wanted something like in LA, we've got a lot of tennis courts. wanted something that could pop up on a tennis court and hand raise it. And I also wanted to not be in three meter bay. So we bought that in the 150 profile that goes from a 12 to a 15 and we can hand raise it. I had the gussets engineered a little more so we can get 750 pounds, a beam, a hanging load on a 15 meter.
00:17:31
Speaker
And I also had them build it to fit the TF. Okay. And have you, I mean, easy product, love the product? Yes, great. Okay. has that been I know everybody's kind of going that way with that with that look in the industry, it feels like right now, but what what was your reason for wanting to get that?
00:17:48
Speaker
So the first structure we bought was a 30 meter by 60 meter. We really jumped in hard. yeah And I was working with a friend in Las Vegas who also coincidentally Came through the Harbor Freight connection. Yeah. um And the job was for a contract for a 30 by 120 every other year.
00:18:04
Speaker
So I bought a 3060. He bought a 3060. Okay. And he used to work for for Robert Crack yep at Rotor back in the day. Okay. So this was when Robert was first starting.
00:18:15
Speaker
So we bought that tent. And then wound having an extra warehouse at the time. So Robert loses stuff into our warehouse too. And so we kind have been... working together for a while and so we kind of third party warehouse for them. Okay. And how many employees you guys currently have right now? We're at... Nothing.
00:18:34
Speaker
Yeah. Well, we were at 44. I think we just lost six in Q1 so far. And is that just because you guys are slow right now? he be Well, we had some people quit. We had some people just wasn't working out.
00:18:47
Speaker
understand. So, count those. One person quit as I'm getting on the airplane. That was fun. Oh, like okay, yeah, I had one of those. Well, they knew you were leaving. Yeah. They were hoping, did they send a text or an email? They were probably hoping it wouldn't get through until you landed. I know, it was a text message to both Trillin and I, and it was, um,
00:19:04
Speaker
oh, I thought you guys were in town and I wanted to do this in person. got that far. And I'm just, whatever. Well, speaking of Jillian, we had her on the podcast and that was, I mean, you knocked out park with her because she is fantastic. And I know that she does lot with you at 24-7 and just got the award last night. And just what do your employees, what do they mean to you and what they're currently doing to grow this business?
00:19:28
Speaker
So we've, one thing that's cool about our business, I would say the majority of our employees have been with us five plus years. Okay. So we don't have a lot of turnover.
00:19:38
Speaker
um Just lost six in Q1, but not lot turnover. No, but they're new guys. Yeah, yeah. They're all, they're, they're experiments, you know, we have office people. i got We don't have a lot, our office, you got a good core group. We've got three people, four people in our office. there One guy's a bookkeeper.
00:19:53
Speaker
It's myself, my sister and, uh, Jill and is basically company. li talkka We don't have a lot of mid-level management. um All the money's out. Labor money is through installers.
00:20:06
Speaker
And that's how we like to keep it. We've been lucky enough that's worked. I don't know how much further we're going be able to go without adding some middle-level management. You're talking like warehouse manager fulfillment type? We're not warehouse guy, but we're talking like operations managers and, you know, um just some salespeople. We've gotten away not doing salespeople. I don't know how. Well, because this industry has been a lot of about order taking. it's It's fulfilling the calls that are coming in and and being order takers rather than salespeople, right? Well, also and marketing. Yeah.
00:20:35
Speaker
They have a name is it that people know. So you don't, obviously, if you want to continue to grow, you you might have to add salespeople to go out and hunt. but and And we've tried. That's got to be the shift is you're not so much order taking anymore and you're going to more sales side. So you're looking for more of the hunters hunters and the salespeople rather than i mean, you still got to have the order takers and the people inside. But this industry, I feel like it's going in a way that you got to have more people going out and looking for that business and bringing it in, especially with all these.
00:21:03
Speaker
key firms and everything else popping up everywhere and and the money that they're putting in and throwing out there, you got to figure out a way to go out and get it now. Yeah, we've gotten very lucky that most of our businesses come word of mouth. Yeah. So that's been nice.
00:21:17
Speaker
Locally, you know, we've got a pretty good name, but like I said, some of the the the local community doesn't really need what we do. These are ours i' on the bigger scale. lesss not There's not a need for it. So we're going down to L.A. We're traveling around the country most of the time and Hiring the right salesperson, there's a couple ways to go about that. You got to go, you know, recruit someone right that's doing that.
00:21:39
Speaker
And that's a pretty sizable paycheck that I'm not sure we're ready to do yet. with raveling through well With the traveling, are you focusing more on the wedding side? or are what What's your ideal clientele that you guys have? So we're pretty much corporate and then I would say high-end wedding.
00:21:54
Speaker
High-end wedding. And that's what mostly all of our travel is. willing me Mostly all the travel is high-end wedding. there's some There's some corporate. We're starting to get more corporate on the travel end. Okay. Well, I mean, with a 50 meter, you better be diversifying something other than weddings. Well, gotta remember, the 50 meter came out of film and production, so we do a lot of film stuff. Okay. And the reason we got the 50 meter, well, I mean, I already had i already had the profile. You found that one job like the rest of us do?
00:22:22
Speaker
So I had a sub run, couple rafters, whatever, but yeah um it was the the season finale at Grey's Anatomy. There was one where they there was like a limo crash. So we built a 50 meter and they put all the, like the, they they we were making a rainstorm. They did all under the 50 meter.
00:22:38
Speaker
It was a 90 degree day, but they pumped in clouds. Holy cow. That's what I was goingnna say. what do What is some of the cool projects that that you've done? is there, I mean, building gyms and stuff, that's, yeah, that's cool. But I mean, that's pretty damn cool to be able to do Grey's Anatomy. Is there some other ones that you've done that you feel like are pretty cool? We just, ah we did a bunch of HVAC for the pit, you know, the show The Pit on in HBO Max. So we're doing all their background holding on that one, just wrapped. So season three should start shooting in a couple months. Okay.
00:23:06
Speaker
But season two, we got that. We did Fast and Furious. even um Oh, boy, you're putting me on the spot trying to remember this stuff. Some pretty cool movies. And then, you know like we'd have those couple celebrity gems, which are fun.
00:23:20
Speaker
have seen you did send me one picture of the one you did. I won't say it out loud if you don't want to, but it was really freaking cool. Yeah. um That was all over the Internet. um Yeah. I mean, such cool project, I feel like, out there in the... in the Then some rooftop stuff's fun too. We got you got a rooftop where we had to crane a car up on a building. that was fun.
00:23:39
Speaker
That was 2019, I think. We did um basically ripped the entire roof out, put in all these supports, craned up the car, and then it was just a ninety two nine meters. but then i And then we had a bunch of nine meters And then I called an ally to an ASTEC and we had to make a bunch of connecting tents to connect it all together.
00:23:58
Speaker
And that that was a fun project. It was up for three years. A wild rooftop of this building, brand new builds up in LA. Do you guys do a lot of long terms? Yeah, we have some customers actually own their tent and we'll sell it to them and then we'll bring it back and store it, clean it.
00:24:12
Speaker
the so So long-term stuff, are you finding more construction stuff with your diversifying in the structure side? Are you doing more long-term construction stuff like that? Or do guys of stay away from that? No, we we we're trying to get into it, actually. And it's kind of, you talk about full circle, right? Like these projects are coming back to what I grew up doing. Right. So it's kind of natural for me to to walk in to walk into a project like that and understand what the job site needs.
00:24:36
Speaker
um we We're trying. It's a tough one to crack though. I mean, that's the competitive market. yeah And the big guys seem to have their hands tight around it. And it's a different pricing structure too that's That's where I was going to go with it. I feel like most of their prices they can afford to be lower on. and It's one of those things I think they are happy if they're making money on 50% of whatever they gave to that site. So if they're offering the site 10 different services,
00:25:01
Speaker
As long as they're profitable on some the stuff. Absolutely. They're also, that's their niche. I mean, they're, they're, they're niching that and they're stuck in that and they are, they're able to cut those margins where with us, it's more like a, at that point, I feel like it's more boutique for us. Yeah. And so it's not something we always do. We would love to do more of it. We just can't find enough, enough profit in it. Well, I'm wondering if they're eventually going to break in. I mean, I know you do some high end festival work. Yeah.
00:25:27
Speaker
Eventually, I think that's the work they're probably going to go after next because they're going to want the full circle rental. Well, and that's what they're doing construction sites. I mean, they're getting the whole damn thing, that's what they wanted to do. But yeah, they're going out for these festivals and music stuff. They're going going after corporate stuff, sporting events and things like that. Well, I had this conversation with, I'm not going to mention who, but one of those big companies, and when we were talking about...
00:25:51
Speaker
construction work and how or how they weren't understanding, they didn't see like a job like the Super Bowl as corporate. yeah And I was like, how is that not a corporate event or a corporate job? yeah And the guy looked like I was crazy.
00:26:04
Speaker
so there I've had a couple of those conversations as well and they told me they didn't want to go after that style. but they want to go after corporate same conversation. It was like that. Yeah, I would kind of equate it to, I mean, I understand it's, it may not be corporate. It's still, it's like a sporting event, but I would see it in our industry as more corporate than yeah weddings. Yeah. Right. Definitely. Well, you know, it'll be interesting to see if they can do it.
00:26:29
Speaker
If they, as they continue to break in, because it's, when you actually start having real good lines, that's what matters. Well, the way that they do it is they start hiring people from the industry that have already done it. Yeah.
00:26:41
Speaker
Make it happen. The one thing we're going to have over that always is they're never going to take care of the gear. The gear is going to be trashed. yeah yeah So we have we have that advantage. Well, then we have the people of advantage, I think. Absolutely. When you're a smaller business, even both your sizes, yeah you at least know who your employees are.
00:26:58
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. At the end of the day, yeah. Especially, i mean, you have to. yeah And it's easy to buy something, put it up, and the first time. But the next time, you've got...
00:27:09
Speaker
damages, you've got missing bolts, like all that's coming and they're just, they're not there yet. No, it's not at all. Before we finish up here, Rob, just some rapid fire questions for you. Favorite event ever to attend?
00:27:22
Speaker
Ever to attend? Yeah. I'm a concert guy. So any concert and then right behind that was the Super Bowl. Alternative career path?
00:27:33
Speaker
Firefighter. they You know what? Now. Now.
00:27:40
Speaker
I would definitely say it's probably probably be firefighter paramedic. yeah Yeah. Stress reliever during event week.
00:27:51
Speaker
I like being on the job. i don't i don't stress out on the job. My stress is sitting in the office. I can't handle sitting in the desk. I think that's all of us.
00:28:02
Speaker
One thing people misunderstand about your job
00:28:08
Speaker
how important we are, because we are the foundation, rentals in general. It just doesn't happen without us. And then what's one piece of advice that you would give to somebody coming into the industry but Honestly, be patient. like ah Everyone wants the money now, but you've got to learn. And this is a job. You have to do it. you have to You have to be out there, and you have to do it. You have to learn.
00:28:31
Speaker
And the dollars will come. And there is a career in this business. A lot of people think think of it as a job, but there's legitimate careers to be had here. Yeah, definitely. Coming to events like this, there's a ton of people who have made this their life. Yeah, yeah.
00:28:43
Speaker
That aren't owners. That aren't owners, yeah. yeah and And I get ah i bet we speak to all of them. They never thought they were going to this. Yeah. though No, I'm right there on that. And you got to admit, like, it's the best people. It really is. It's the most fun. Just ask Kyle how a lady stays out and hangs out with them. I go to bed at 10 o'clock every night. Every night. Yep, that's right. Sorry. So sorry.
00:29:02
Speaker
Well, Rob, we appreciate you coming on today and love watching what you're doing over there on the West Coast. And we'll have to get you on again later and continue. Yeah, let's do it. Sounds good. but Another episode of Under the Vinyl, a rental management media podcast.