Business

19 Feb

Rental or Hire Equipment Safety Instructions

It goes with out saying these days that ensuring your customers operate the equipment they rent or hire from your company is a business critical issue.

Not just because it is morally and ethically the right thing to do, but also to ensure you are not subject to legal actions.

Customer safety is now a business critical issue

Hire and Rental companies regularly provide a range of equipment that requires some form of safety instruction.

There are a number of issues that hire and rental companies need to consider in their approach to OHS, not only to their customers but also their off site staff.

Such issues include:

Ensuring that safety instructions accompany each hire or rental and have an audit trail to demonstrate it;

Increasing the means by which customers can access hire or rental equipment safety data;

Ensuring off site staff, such as delivery drivers, assemblers, collectors and even inspectors have client site safety data briefs; and

Even the adhoc or routine scheduling of client site safety or maintenance inspections.

Addressing these issues is good business practise, part of mitigating your business risks. Such business practise is a combination of good staff training and awareness, good processes and a good hire or rental software system.

Safety Instructions issued to Clients.

HireEzy enables safety instructions to become an automated part of the picking and delivery process. Adding in a client signature for issued items, including the safety instructions aids in providing a demonstrable proof that such instructions were issued and received. A copy of the signed receipt that can then be attached to the client booking and hence client record, to maintain an historical record.

Increasing Means of Access.

Not all clients like reading safety instructions, particularly complex ones. Have you considered using demonstration videos? If so what about uploading such a video to YouTube or your own web site. If that sounds hard or you want to link such a process to your hire or rental management, then simply consider using HireEzy.

Off Site Safety Instructions.

Many client sites require some form of on-site safety compliance, particularly construction sites. To simplify the process of managing off site safety, simply link the client safety instructions to the booking and hence to the contractors or staff that are going to site. This requires in-built document management and workflow, which HireEzy has.

Client Site Safety or Maintenance Checks.

Such visits not only need to be scheduled they need to be set in the task list. Because HireEzy includes a task management system, these checks can be scheduled, often months in advance. This means that when planning for the week ahead, you can see not only your hire or rental related activities, you can also see any client site checks that need to be undertaken.

HireEzy certainly makes a big difference in improving your Hire and Rental Safety OHS management. However it must be supported by good staff training and staff compliance to processes.

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration. For more information email us sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

Work Based Learning & Health and Safety Act 1974 (slideshare.net)
Families told doormats are health and safety risk (telegraph.co.uk)
Father told he needs £350 insurance for son to do work experience at home (telegraph.co.uk)

19 Feb

Resources for Hire and Rental Entrepreneurs

Hire and Rental can be an extremely profitable and high growth business.

Examples abound of incredibly successful entrepreneurs in the industry who have grown their businesses to impressive levels. Continued growth in the sector is a given. Particularly with the growth of niche based rental or hire companies, such as Baby Equipment, Handbags, Cocktail machines, the list goes on.

To support Industry growth we have started this list of tools and sites that entreprenuers can use. We will add to it over time to provide a single resource to support the industry’s entrepreneurs.

If you have any resource sites you think useful then please let us know so we can add them.

12 Do’s and Don’t For Entrepreneurs

Top 10 Social NetWorks for Enterpreneurs

Entrepreneur Resource Centre

MIT Sloan Management

Entrepreneurship – Kauffman Foundation

Invest to Exit – Dr Tom McKaskill

Fact versus Fiction: What makes a good entrepreneur

Does failure mean you have failed?

A Dozen Don’ts for Entrepreneurs

About Us

Baby Boomers are Today’s Entrepreneurs (boomercafe.com)
Anatomy of an Entrepreneur (yogeshnaiks-blawg.blogspot.com)
Which augmented reality startups are most ready to dominate the market? We rank them. (digital.venturebeat.com)
The entrepreneur whiz kid myth (money.cnn.com)
The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur (myventurepad.com)

19 Feb

Creating Low Cost Product Photos for Business

Need for creating high quality product images is increasing!

But the cost to Small Business in time and money can be prohibitive.

Images are needed for:

Web sites
Digital marketing Catalogues
Even for HTML email campaigns
As well as traditional media advertising

Not having images or having low quality images can seriously detract from a Small Businesses Marketing effort. Detraction that in a competitive market can directly impact on sales.

A key cost driver is often the high volume of product images needed

Many small businesses, particularly rental and hire can have hundred’s if not thousands of products. Hence paying to have each product photographed is literally cost prohibitive.

Taking adhoc images or using supplier product photographs can create an inconsistent image appearance.

Images with different sizes, backgrounds, borders, orientations etc when placed on a web site or catalogue can look terrible.

Creating a negative perception in the client’s/ prospects mind.

The issue becomes how to create consistent looking photographs/ images that enhance your brand’s advertising appeal and impact regardless of the advertising medium.

Creating Low Cost Quality Product Photo’s

However there are some very effective ways of creating your own consistent high quality images.

Creating you own in-house photography studio is actually far easier than your think.

In a series of step by step video’s you can see how to create these product photographs.

We have collated these from YouTube and all are accessible on our YouTube channel – how to photograph your own products

About Us

19 Feb

Social media isn’t the problem- its the current crop of managers

The current generation of managers (C Levels) are the barrier to Social Media.

And the problem is not social media that has just brought it to a head

There has been lots of traffic over recent months how junior staff are struggling to convince older managers of the benefits of Social Media.

The are stuggle has to come to a head because of Social Media

The C Level Managers today were junior staff in the 1980’s. A time when the whole western world got so wrapped up in down-sizing, right sizing – productivity improvements.

They think, and I should know I went through it too, all about lean and mean – minimum staff to do a job – its all about the productivity per person. To most of them Social Media is idle chatter in fact all chatter is idle.

All Customer Conversations are Idle Chatter

To the C Level Managers today whose careers started in the late 1970’s and 1980’s – any customer conversation is idle chatter. Think about it, have you heard things like this.

Telephone Calls: You spent too long on the customer account call! And by the way what were you talking to them about their kids playing basketball for?

Counter Service: Stop talking to the customers just serve them and move on, time is money.

Now Bring on Social Media

Social media is about engaging with people, actually chatting to them. That is most definitely not going to fly with a productivity mindset manager, especially when the results are hard to prove.

So as BenYoskovitz puts it

Unfortunately, too many mid-level and junior-level employees are forced to spend a disproportionate amount of their time figuring out how to justify things to their bosses ….

Marketing Will Tell Customers

Its not up to YOU to create a relationship with customers – marketing will TELL our customers we want a relationship with them.

Probably a bit harsh that line, but I spent twenty years in Corporate life before joining the excellent world of a Small to Medium business.

But there is an element of truth to it. Corporate marketing departments “control” the public message, including defining the companies relationship with clients. Depending on the value of the client that is.

Measurement is the Key

The 1980’s crop of managers are not dumb, ( well I hope I am not) our careers have been built around measurement. Measuring results is needed to justify decisions. That is just the way we were taught to think. However we all struggle to measure the intangible value of customer conversations (relationship building conversations).

Social media will in time develop the metrics to prove it works. Once it proves it and allowing for some time to change mindsets it will be adopted. And it does work, for example

We dumped google adwords and just use Social Media and our leads went up 83%.

True Customer Relation Building May Become in Vogue

And this may even flow on to the broader area of customer conversations. May be Dale Carnegie’s principals for enhancing relationships may become in vogue again.

Become Genuinely Interested In Other People.
Be A Good Listener. Encourage Others To Talk About Themselves.
Talk In Terms Of The Other Person’s Interests.
Make The Other Person Feel Important — And Do It Sincerely.

Ultimately we will get back to talking to customers either on the phone, in the aisle, at the counter or on facebook etc. Because the proof will emerge that it pays to do so.

For example more companies like us will be able to show themselves and others that Social Media infact time anytime spent on customer conversations works.

Please add your comments!

About Us

Is Social Media the greatest revolution of our time? (francescofederico.net)
Legal Issues and Social Media Use in Organizations (othersidegroup.com)
Twitter and Foursquare Become the New Loyalty Program at Tasti D-Lite (mashable.com)

18 Feb

Hire and Rental Real Time Availability Checking

Rental and hire companies often have multiple stock items.

However knowing whether you have enough items in stock to satisfy a customer order can often be an issue.

This issue is compounded by the need to ensure that the stock is available for whole period of the order.

And if not, which other customer orders will be effected?

Furthermore with its inbuilt over booking facility directly linked to cross hire management, any short falls in stock can be efficiently and effectively managed!

About Us

18 Feb

Free Wedding Planning Software

| 1 comment

Here is a great value add to wedding hire or wedding rental companies clients.

Wedding Decorating Ideas is a blog with a great range of wedding decorating ideas.

It also has Free wedding planning software

The site doesnt compete with you as it doesnt hire or rent wedding equipment.

However just be aware of the annoying pop up that appears occaisionally.

Remember if you are a Wedding Hire or Wedding Rental company we provide the world’s most innovative wedding hire software or wedding rental software business management system to help run your business. Includes complete booking management, financials, digital and social media marketing PLUS MORE.

About Us

18 Feb

Hire Rental Marketing Options for the Economic Recovery

Over the last 12 months many hire and rental companies have been facing tough times.

However even with the first green shoots of recovery appearing many companies are still forced to ensure that costs are contained.

The question is should the marketing budget be one of the areas in which costs are cut?

Reduce Marketing Spend Yes or No?

For some the question became should you cut your marketing promotion?

The simple answer was no!

According to Malcolm McDonald, emeritus professor at Cranfield University School of Management in the UK, recessions can “focus the mind” and lead {sic companies} agencies to “cut out the waste”. He advises brands to focus on core customers in needs-based segments, adding: “Whatever you do, don’t cut promotional expenditure in the core business. [There is] massive evidence that cutting promotional spend in a recession is disastrous

Green Shoots of Growth

Now the green shoots of recovery are upon us, and many are now beginning to plan for the long term. The most recent McKinsey report shows that this longer term planning focus is now starting to creep back in to business thinking. But it also makes the point that many companys’ are still focusing on containing costs. click here to read the article.

The recession has created opportunities for hire and rental companies that have survived. Such opportunities include picking up new clients from competitors that are less well placed or who have closed their businesses.

Low Cost Marketing Options

There are a range of alternative low marketing options that can now be considered, the most effective of these is digital marketing.

Why digital marketing, well because as previous research posts in this blog have shown, web leads now account for over 55% of new business for progressive hire and rental companies. If you are uncertain about digital or social media marketing then read this article, 13 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is worth your time

Achieving such increases though does depend on doing some basics:

Web Site: Enabling customers/ prospects to browse your service/ product offering and place in a booking request.
SEO: Search Engine Optimisation this is a range of things you need to do to help Search Engines, hence your customers find you.
Blog: Grossly under-rated but shown in the latest UK research to increase web traffic for small business by over 50%. This is where you post about your solutions, eg how to plan a party, or examples of Marquee Weddings, etc. Content people are looking for to read and find information, before making a decision to purchase.
Twitter: Singularly the most effective business tool for letting people know about your latest blog posts or catalogue item changes.

There are a range of other tools that you can use. But as a basic plan

Making it Easy

If this sounds hard it is not, but it does take commitment. This is where we can help. HireEzy provides you with a hire and rental business management solution that has:

WebSite: A fully integrated web site in which customers can browse and place orders requests directly in to your HireEzy system. HireEZy’s unique web integration tools, any changes you make in your catalogue can be immediately published to your website, if you so choose. What this does, is to increase your search engine rankings, if you make changes often, that in turn improves you lead generation.

Integrated Digital Marketing Tools: Furthermore it includes a full range of digital marketing tools including Twitter and blog integration. A very effective way of maintaining your marketing effort whilst containing costs in times like these is to use HireEzy. HireEzy comes with an inbuilt range of marketing tools, to assist you producing low cost but highly effective brochures, newsletters etc. All tools are inbuilt in your Hire Software and are linked to your product catalogue, so that with simple one click steps and you can email, tweet, post on line or print a range of high graphic image marketing collateral.

What more information or an on line demo, then go to our website www.makinglifeezy.com.au or email us at sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

12 Feb

Thumbs Down – Techo Twitter Posts week ending 18 Oct

Welcome to the Thumbs Down Edition of my review of the week in tech.

Each week I’m picking out the things that I thought were a stupid idea, a bad thing to happen or just payed out on a tech company deservedly that I submitted via Twitter for you all to read. If you haven’t already seen my Twitter feed of tech tips add me @aholesgrove or have a look at http://twitter.com/aholesgrove and subscribe to the RSS feed of my tweets.

I missed out on doing this weekly review on time as it was all hands on deck in Making Life Ezy putting the final touches on HireEzy 2.1 before release that week. We’re all done now and everything is back to normal.

This week in Thumbs Down I found myself highlighting Google’s lamo attempt to control the internet and picking out a HUGE problem with Apple’s new operating system which deletes all user data. Yeah, you read that right – and people whinge about Windows. Gosh.

Haha – Google Wave – Early Impressions: Too Much Effort & Unintuitive http://tinyurl.com/yzhn4st

I’ve blogged before about how I think Google Wave is/will be stupid, worthless and pointless. But don’t just take my word for it, other people are saying it too – as evidenced by this article. Don’t know what Google Wave is? Well, who cares. If you do, it’s supposed to be an email/twitter/instant messaging alternative – replacement, whatever. C’mon Google, you employ 20,000 of the smartest people on earth and not one of you can figure out that most people won’t want to ditch email because they can barely breathe without having access to it. #FAIL

Interesting read, if you’re a geek – YouTube’s Bandwidth Bill Is Zero. Welcome to the New Net http://tinyurl.com/yfhcuuv

Well, I know most of you aren’t geeks and won’t read the article, so I’ll paraphrase here to outline why I thought this article was interesting – basically, Google has a direct optical fibre connection to the core movers and shakers that make the internet connect to everybody (in fact, I read recently that Google accounts for 6% of all internet traffic in the word at the moment, an astounding statistic for a company that didn’t exist 10 years ago), which means that Google don’t need to pay for internet traffic. So, all of those YouTube videos are just beaming out of the place with the computer infrastructure built into the rest of Google’s fortress of computer power, essentially making what most people would think to be an extremely expensive operation in pushing out online video actually cost them basically nothing to run – all those ad impressions are pure profit. This is an amazing contrast to an organisation like Facebook, which spends $1 million a month of infrastructure to make their service super snappy and fast for users. What the article goes on to detail is how Google hold so much power already, that instead of internet providers charging places like Google to have direct access to each other so that company’s internet users their their site quicker, Google are so powerful that they can charge internet companies to have better direct access to them to provide their services faster to their users. In the next 3 years this will be a huge debate in the US as their government is trying to regulate this stuff and don’t really know how to approach it properly. Public outcry ensures. It’ll be an interesting development.

LAME – Google enters the e-book arena http://bit.ly/wFDAM

I’m sure if I stood in a newsagent taking pictures of each page of a magazine so I could read it later without having to buy the magazine in the first place I’d be chased down the street by the shop owner and probably have the cops called on me. Google send people to libraries to scan books digially, build a whole online book store full of inventory and they call it a “business“. This is criminal. That’s all I have to say.

WOW Mac Users should read this – Major bug in Snow Leopard deletes all user data http://bit.ly/10PdGD

So, being the good samaritan that I am, I’ll give you Mac users this tip – don’t allow anonymous logins on your computer. You’ll have your login that you use and just keep using that – don’t switch to another user and use the anonymous feature, as what happens is that you’ll go to log back into your computer as you and everything will be gone. Yeah, it’s pretty awful and embarassing problem. I tweeted this last week and I’m not sure if Apple have patched this problem yet but keep your eyes peeled on the Apple Software Update feature – last I read Apple were looking to put out a 10.6.1 update that addresses this and other problems.

About Us

Confessions of a Google Wave Fanboy (elasticvapor.com)
Weekly Wrapup: Google Wave, Real-Time Web Trends, And More… (readwriteweb.com)
Facebook Wave: Why Facebook Should Clone Google Wave (mashable.com)
VIDEO: Google Wave Gets Explained (mashable.com)

04 Feb

Starting and Surviving in Business

: Image by Alex Osterwalder via Flickr

Starting your own business, whether home based or otherwise, is a big step. Any new company, large or small, is going to take time to get off the ground and start generating any kind of substantial profits. Saying that is one thing, but if you’re one of the people embarking on the task, the obvious question is, “How do I survive while waiting to start making money?”

The fact is that unless you have a hefty amount of personal savings, which you are prepared to diminish, you are probably going to need some kind of alternative income source during this period. After all, any money you do make during the initial start up period may well need to be channelled straight back into the business in order to help it grow. The good news is that with some good advice and solid forward planning, surviving those first few months may end up being slightly less intimidating than first thought.

The first thing to do is take a good hard look at your current personal finances and be brutally honest with yourself about your needs over the first few months of your new business. Take account of everything, from rent or mortgage payments, food and other routine household expenses. Once you have had a good look at your personal spending needs, you will know how much money you require, on average, for the first year or so of your new endeavour. You have to be honest with yourself and not be unrealistic, either about how much money you will need to survive or the level of income you expect to take during those first few months.

The way to go about preparing a realistic estimate of your business profit prospects on start up is to assess the expected sales levels and how much you expect to be paying out in costs and expenses. Take a look at the difference between the two figures; if the expenses are greater than the sales figures, which they are most likely to be during the start up phase of your enterprise, you will have a good idea of how much money you will need to find from alternative sources. This will probably mean taking out loans or selling some personal assets.

Another way of surviving financially might be to continue working for your current employer until your new business takes off. Many new business proprietors take out bank loans to get them through those first few months, but before you take on such a debt you need to be certain of all the details. Find out what would happen if you failed to make the necessary repayments and found yourself with a hefty overdraft.

Other options might be to simply find ways of reducing your business or personal costs, such as using public transport instead of your car or finding the lowest possible prices for goods that you buy. Running your new business from home if possible, rather than having to rent commercial premises would be a highly effective way of saving a considerable amount of money.

Starting up a new business can be relatively simple providing you plan ahead.

Naz Daud – CityLocal Directory

Copyright information: This article is free for reproduction but must be reproduced in its entirety, including live links to the following websites:

http://www.citylocal.co.uk/

http://www.citylocal.co.uk/businessfranchise/

http://www.citylocal.ie/

& this copyright statement must also be included.

30 Jan

Audio Visual Rental Hire – Marketing Options (updated)

| 2 comments

The Audio Visual hire and rental industry appears to have weathered the recession.

The Audio Visual rental and hire industry had been experiencing solid rates of growth leading in to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

According to various reports many had been planning to increase staff and inventory prior to the GFC .

However when the GFC hit, there was some discussion and predictions of doom and gloom.

But the suddenness of the crisis was thought to have left many exposed!

Firstly there was concern that the predicted collapse of the USA $175 Bn Corporate offsite meeting market would impact the AV rental and hire companies. This figure includes all goods and services supplied to the market, of which AV rental is but one.

Discussions with our clients has indicated that whilst Corporate Off site meetings may have decreased. Demand appeared to shift to providing AV equipment for on- client site meetings.

Cash flow Impacts

Whilst many indicated that there had been a fall in demand, the biggest issue was cash-flow. In particular clients extending the payment term period.

Cash flow is the life blood for many AV hire and rental businesses given that many have large inventory debt costs to be serviced.

Many did not comment on the role of the banks in providing increased credit lines. However based on evidence from other sectors it is likely that the banks were not that forth-coming.

A common theme amongst clients was the focus on cost management. Those were able to identify, analyze and remove non value adding costs appeared to do well.

Cost management analysis must cover the entire natural business process from lead generation through bookings, service delivery, inventory to managing the accounts. This total analysis ability is critical, as without it companies can cut costs in one area, only to find that costs rise in another.

This may sound trite, but in an industry that has grew rapidly through the boom years, cost management was not in many cases of core management focus.

Downturn Passing

Now that the downturn is passing and the green shoots of recovery are appearing, those AV companies who survived will be well placed.

Whilst it is expected the cash flow may remain an issue for the foreseeable future, revenue is expected to increase.

Positioning for Growth

The focus now moves to positioning for growth, picking up new markets and clients.

Given the lagging issue of cash flow, many may not have the marketing financial resources to take advantage of the emerging opportunities.

Look to Social Media Marketing

AV companies that find themselves in that position should seriously consider using Social Media Marketing. Social Media marketing is growing rapidly, in particular by businesses of all sizes from Corporate to the Smallest.

Combining attraction tools like Twitter with content sources such as a blog can be incredibly effective. Evidence from the USA shows that web site traffic can be increased as much as 55% using such tools.

About Us

29 Jan

Why Party Hire and Party Rental Companies should be Natural Social Media Marketers

: Image via Wikipedia

We recently completed a two month market research project and found that the vast majority of Party Rental and Party Hire companies are not using Social Media.

This is really odd – given that Social Media is a Natural Fit for Party hire and Party Rental companies.

Social Media is how we now increasingly conceive and plan events and parties….

Well Social Media is how people connect with people socially in a digital world!

Its how they communicate and even plan get together’s, events, parties and even weddings!

AND its not just Gen Y, that use Social Media!

The fastest growing segments are primarily middle aged people and businesses.

Baby Boomers and Seniors are flocking to social media – Stats to Prove it

Primary Marketing Demographic of Party Rental and Party Hire companies is…

And who is the primary market demographic for Party hire and Party Rental companies – Middle Aged people (disposable income, children to be married off, home based entertainers etc) and Businesses (corporate events, client events etc)! The very segment flocking to social media!

Hence why it is so strange!!!

Party and Event rental companies supply equipment and services to people holding events or parties.

As such they want and need to connect with people planning to hold such events or parties.

A primary segment that buys these services and hence they wish to connect to is the middle aged demographic. Why because they are the a major purchasing of such services!

Missing A Golden Marketing Opportunity

Fundamentally Party hire and Party rental companies are missing a golden marketing opportunity.

To take the lead in connecting to these market segments.

So Why is it Not Used?

The research identified that the primary reasons for the failing to use Social Media was not understanding how to use it.

In the next article we explain how to use Social Media at each stage of the buying process of your customers.

Or for more information please contact us Email Us

HireEzy party hire software and party rental software for growing businesses

generation x is now on alltop. thanks, gen x files, guy kawasaki! (jenx67.com)
Different generations, same objectives: Boomers, Gen-X and Gen-Y want the same things at work (newswire.ca)

28 Jan

Look To Small Companies For Social Media Innovation

: Image by apesara via Flickr

Necessity is the mother of innovation – so the adage says!

The tough times create the business circumstances that foster necessity. Businesses are forced to be both more creative and at the same time more brutal in their decision making. Innovative ideas whether:

market solutions,
business models or
technology will be created.

Whilst many of the ideas in this post are applicable across all business sectors, the focus of this article is on the Equipment Hire and Rental market.

Social Media as Basis of Innovation Ideas

The range of ideas that may be implemented can not be predicted. However it can be confidently predicted social media will form the basis of many innovations, around areas such as:

Revenue Improvement: Marketing areas such as lead generation, customer service, customer retention;
Cost Reduction: In marketing budgets by reducing expenditure on traditional marketing methods
Mitigation of Risk: Such as in areas like Product Damages and Safety through use of YouTube, see post.

At the end of this post is a series of examples of how to use each of the major Social marketing tools.

Where to Look for the Innovative Ideas?

Where will the innovation emerge from, large corporations or small rental or hire business?

Let’s look to what has happened over the last thirty years as an indicator of what may happen. Consider this, that since 1980, Corporations have completely lost their monopoly on new ideas. This change in innovation sources ended the era of IP monopolization. We are no longer in the era when “feudal lords” (i.e., a small handful of large “old economy” companies) controlled all the (intellectual) property and those who were without property had no rights. [1]

In 1980, Corporations accounted for 80% of all innovation (research and development outcome), they now account for under 20%. The beneficiaries have been small to medium sized companies who now account for 80% of innovations.

A key trend emerging in the knowledge economy is the change in the sources innovation. Prior to the 1980’s, large corporations dominated US research and development, with over 80% being undertaken by companies with more than 5000 employees. However since 1980, this has completely inverted, with small companies accounting for almost all the growth in R&D. [2]

Hire Rental Industry Innovation

The discussion above may not sound applicable to the Rental and Hire Industry but it is. For example in the 1980’s only the large Corporations could afford the innovation R & D expense of developing computing based management systems. Such rental software or hire software management systems are now powerful and affordable to businesses of all sizes.

Importantly though even more powerful tools such as Social Media are available (in may cases freely) to any business.

Innovation in the use of these tools is not constrained by not having financial resources but more by the extent of the will and imagination of companies.

It is in the area of will that the true constraint may appear. Major Brands have demonstrated in some instances a reluctance to engage in social media for fear of losing control of their brand. This is understandable as the brand is an asset that could well appear on the balance sheet. Hence taking avoiding perceived risks with the brand is understandable. Numerous articles in this subject.

Smaller hire and rental businesses whether though the pressure of necessity or less attachment to a brand are therefore more likely to undertake innovative social marketing ideas.

So if you are looking for new innovative ideas in the equipment hire and rental industry look to the Small business sector rather than corporations – the results may surprise you. Below is a list of how equipment hire and rental can use of each of the main social marketing tools.

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How to Use Social Media Tools

26 Jan

Global Innovation depends on

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: Image via Wikipedia

Imagine if the hire and rental industry did not exist on the scale that it does – would we see as much innovation?

Economists argue that innovation is a key driver for economies to emerge from recessions. If this is true, then the hire and rental industry is fundamental to facilitating this innovation.

Why because Small Business are now the engine of innovation. Before downsizing commenced in the Western world, Corporations accounted for 80% of innovation. Corporations now account for ONLY about 20%, with the bulk of innovation (as measured by patents produced) coming from small to medium sized businesses. Small Businesses can only achieve this if they are able to focus their limited resources on the things that create innovation.

It is the Hire and Rental industry that enables Small Business to focus on innovation.

Background

To appreciate the true impact, it is worth reflecting back on the 1970’s and early 80’s. During this period Corporations still had a desire to own assets rather than rent. For example a construction company would purchase and maintain its own complete fleet of plant and equipment. Or a corporation would purchase its own audio visual equipment (at the time usually a very clunky over head projector). In fact even the people to operate and maintain equipment were employees of a company.

Ludicrous situations existed where major road construction equipment could sit idle for months. The equipment worth hundred’s of thousands of dollars would still be incurring maintenance costs because it had a time based service schedule. Why did corporations and even government hold such equipment – “just in case it was needed”. There was also a market imperative relevant to the time – that the perceived size of the corporation mattered. More assets, more employees the more it mattered.

The Downsizing Impact

However during the 1980’s this attitude changed and Corporations and Government began to respond to increasing Global competition. Their response was to begin to reduce costs, hence began the downsizing period.

Downsizing over the 1980’s in the Western World not only released millions of talented people from corporations and governments it also released equipment. But the release through downsizing created opportunities because the fundamental need for equipment and services was still needed.

Validated Economic Theory

The hire and rental industry emerged to fill the needs left by downsizing, and in so doing actually validated some of the economic theory under-pinning a lot of the downsizing theory. Such as:

Created Exchange Markets

Hire and rental companies effectively created exchange markets, whereby equipment or services became available to any business (irrespective of size) or government for a price determined by the market. Market forces of supply and demand in effect ensured the efficient market allocation of resources. This is a major pillar of the economic theories that underpin the World economy.

For example, road construction plant could be made available through a rental or hire company to any organization for a period. Through the process of hiring to multiple organizations the plant could be kept in near continuous use. This increases the efficiency of the individual equipment.

Opportunity Cost

Furthermore it enabled the client hiring the equipment to avoid spending their capital on buying the “hired” equipment. This meant that they could in theory invest the saved capital in other areas of their business where they could gain a better return or competitive advantage. In economic terms it is about opportunity cost. But if the hire and rental industry did not provide this exchange market, then this opportunity for client companies to invest capital in higher return or competitive advantage areas would not exist.

The opportunity cost principal is sound, but what makes it real is that the scale of the industry actually enables choice to be made. Consider the size, range and distribution of the industry now. The ability to apply the economic opportunity cost decision for businesses and even individuals has now been extended to nearly every conceivable area. None more so than to the Small Business sector.

Competitive Advantage Depends on Rental Options

Think about businesses starting up or expanding now. Rather than invest their limited start up capital in standard (no competitive advantage) items, they can instead invest in the things that will give them a competitive advantage.

Consider the standard items now available for rent or hire, hence the range of opportunity cost decisions made available to companies:

• Office furniture, even to plants and fish tanks for the office ambiance
• Office technology, computers , printers etc
• Marketing and Sales presentation equipment and event solutions, eg Audio Visual,
• Even the clothes and handbags when dressing to impress can be rented.

The latter sounds trivial but when personal capital has been invested in this can be an important choice.

This ability to effectively choose where to apply capital only exists because the hire and rental industry enables the economic opportunity cost choice to be made. Enabling this choice to be made means that companies can invest in other areas where by they can gain a competitive or innovation advantage. Hence they can FOCUS limited resources on the key competitive areas.

So Would the World be As Innovative?

Therefore innovation and the benefits it brings is dependent on the Hire and Rental Industry.

However the global economic value of the hire and rental industry is largely un-appreciated. It is not just about the gross turnover of the sector, but its economic multiplier effect. This multiplier is through the ability to enable opportunity cost choices to be realized. Through the provision of such opportunity cost choices it facilitates the continued growth of innovation in the small to medium business sector, now the major source of global innovation.

The Hire and Rental industry enables innovation!

Footnote on Stimulus Packages

In relation to the various Government Stimulus packages, most are major investments in Infra-Structure and Construction. It will be the hire and rental industry that will ensure that equipment and related services are delivered to these projects in an economically efficient and expedient manner. Hence contributing to the more rapid delivery of these projects and the economic benefit they are planned to deliver.

About Us

Making Life Ezy are the developers of HireEzy the world’s innovation leader in hire software and rental software. HireEzy provides the flexibility and power the Global hire and rental industry needs to meet its ever expanding range of products, services and solutions.

HireEzy is the complete booking management business system for the hire and rental industry. HireEzy includes an integrated on-line store, range of web 2.0 marketing and productivity tools and social media marketing.

Bootstrapping Our Way Back From the Collapse(xconomy.com)

21 Jan

Staff and Contractor Management

: Image by star5112 via Flickr

It is often argued that the most effective asset any business has - is its people.

This is particularly the case for hire and rental companies.

Staff Deliver your Brand Promise

The biggest differentiators in the hire and rental industry is often service.

Staff play a critical role in this service delivery. If you have a brand promise of for example “ going the extra mile”, it is staff (or even contractors) who actually deliver this promise through their actions and attitudes.

Yes policies, procedures, processes and systems all help deliver a brand promise, but ultimately it gets down to people to people interaction. That is the interaction between your staff and your clients.

Effective Staff Performance Management

Effective management in a small to medium enterprise though is often more difficult than in a large corporation.

The reason is that managers and/ or owners of the business just don’t have the time to be able to undertake detailed human resource management. Everyone managers and staff included are fully engaged in the days operational activities.

Despite not having the time and resources, small to medium business managers still need to ensure that they effectively manage staff.

However most HR systems to support this though are complex and require significant investment of time to use.

Time that is not available to small to medium business owners.

The Nature of Small to Medium Business Staff Management

Understanding the real nature of small to medium business daily HR management is the key.

Small business staff management is pre-dominantly task driven. Things need to be done and trusted that they get done.

Staff tend to know what routine tasks need to be done, they just need to know the where, when and what.
Adhoc tasks though need to be identified and allocated to staff, once allocated all the manager needs to know is that they are done or what stage they are up too.

Using Task Management

The benefits of using task management to compliment Staff Performance management can be divided in three areas:

Risk Management

In the unfortunate event that a staff member does not work out for a business, industrial relations laws in many countries require that you as the owner can prove it. The best measure of proof is to be able to demonstrate a failure or inadequacy to perform tasks. To do the allocated tasks to the person and their completion or performance need to be captured. The problem is most small businesses simply haven’t got the time to record and document such tasks. Hence if forced to go to court the small business owner can spend extra-ordinary amounts of time gathering the information.

Self Performance

On the upside many small business staff are incredibly committed, reliable and trustworthy. They don’t need to have intense supervision they know what tasks need to be done, they just need the information. For example if they are sales staff they know the sales process, they simply need to know what leads have come in, what stage a sale is up too and when it needs to be followed up.

Good staff management practise though would be to give them access to self monitoring their performance against sales targets. This approach of trust and providing the information and self performance monitoring both improves staff performance whilst reducing demands on management time.

Management Focus

If the first two aspects are provided, then a manager can gain time. Some of this time can then be focused on managing the business – even having time to spend on the business.

Our Solution

HireEzy our hire software and rental software integrates task management with the HR system. This enables:

Routine Tasks

Routine tasks are those tasks staff perform regularly. Ideally you want staff just to do these tasks when they are required. To do this staff need to know when they need to be done. For example warehouse staff need to know when items are expected to be collected or returned. If they know this they can plan accordingly. As a manager or owner all you want to know is that staff know about the routine task and have got it in hand. HireEzy provides this information to all staff from the ability to allocate sales leads to sales staff to enabling the logistics staff to know what deliveries/ installations/ dis-assemblies and collections are due on a given day and all requirements for each of them.

Adhoc Tasks

Secondly you want to be able to allocate adhoc tasks to staff and then monitor the progression of that task. In fact in some cases in small business daily demands may lead many managers forgeting that they allocated a task or staff may forget that they were given one. HireEzy enables adhoc tasks to be recorded, allocated and monitored – in fact it does this very well.

Focus On Performance Management

Enabling tasks both routine and adhoc to be more easily managed and monitored means that as a manager you can spend more time on monitoring performance. Having a simple overview of all tasks means that you can quickly identify tasks that are not being completed and take corrective action. record of issues

Self Performance Management

This applies particularly to sales staff. Sales staff in many companies have a sales quota to meet. They want to know as much as you do if they are meeting those quota targets. HireEzy also enables this, providing both sales staff and managers with a all their booking quotes and actual sales. This data is automatically captured from each quote raise or booking made eliminating double entry whilst providing greater visibility of performance.

Personnel Records

The most common administrative problem facing small to medium businesses is the management of personnel records. HireEzy enables all personnel records to be recorded and stored against each staff member file. This means that documents from letters of engagement, contracts, recognitions and records of performance counseling are stored in one place. Even payments to and payments from a staff member are recorded in many cases automatically, hence eliminating duplicate data entry.

About Us

HireEzy is developed by Making Life Ezy and is available in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and NZ

16 Jan

Absolute must google marketing tools for hire and rental companies

| 1 comment

: Image via Wikipedia

Google’s Place Pages are a MUST for every Small to Medium Hire and Rental Company.

The Place Pages provide Small to Medium hire and rental companies with an excellent free marketing resource to add to their on line marketing.

WHY?

The target market for most SME hire and rental companies is their local city, region or county.

Big hire and rental companies with big marketing budgets can often dominate even local area searches through either their ad-words or large dollar spends on SEO.

For example even though you may be the nearest party rental company, major party rental companies can still appear highly ranked in the search results and as well as in the paid advertising links on the page. Previously discussed in a previous article.

Your advantage often can be your proximity to the person. You therefore need to emphasize this fact.

Google Local Business Center

Google has a local business center with excellent resources to help you in this marketing objective. They are free and easy to use.

To access the tools, simply create a google account and then claim your web page etc.

Then with in the local business center you can add your business to the Google Maps search. As shown below with ourselves.

You can also enhance this feature by clicking on the Pages icon in the local business center to add even more detail to your page.

So that when they click on the map pin, they can see more information about your business, including images and text etc, even promotions. For example if you are in the USA you can even use the coupon feature to add to your map pin.

For example “10% off all Marquee hires in Mar”

Easy to follow steps and easy to use. However be aware that Google needs to verify your change and this can take a few weeks. But it is worth it.

Link to Social Media Marketing

If you link your Google Local Business Center marketing actions with a social media campaign, then you have an extremely effective marketing combination that can substantially counter any major competitors marketing budget.

Don’t Know How

If you don’t know how or want further information, then please contact us. We provide this as a service to our Hirezy hire software and rental software clients. But we are always happy to talk with other hire and rental companies.

By the way, HireEzy not only is the best hire and rental management software it also comes with all the embedded digital and social media marketing tools you need to conduct really cost effective marketing.
EMAIL Us – we are only too happy to help

14 Jan

AMA latest market survey shows growth in Social Media

The American Marketing Association has just released its August 2009 market survey highlights.

The survey is conducted by the AMA and Duke University, it surveys over 3000 of the top US marketers.

The shows the definite rise of Social Media marketing within overall marketing plans.

Cmo Survey Highlights And Insights, August 2009

View more presentations from FuquaMarketing.

Brogan to Keynote Social Media Event Focusing on Local Entrepreneurs (austinist.com)

10 Jan

What is the Next Generation of Business Software for Hire and Rental

In answering the question, it is worth reflecting back on the History.

First Generation Hire Software and Rental Management Software

The First Generation of Rental and Hire Software really began depending on who you believe in the 1980’s. Certainly there may have been earlier versions written for mainframes, but the packaged software started with the development of the affordable desktop. The packaged software market, first generation, emerged from the development of point solutions for specific early adopting customers.

These early versions focused on the basic process of managing bookings. Providing no more than a simple process of managing inventory, bookings and client records. However their effectiveness in bring business value should not be under-estimated.

Second Generation Hire Software and Rental Management Software

The Second Generation of Rental and Hire Software could be argued to have emerged with the growth of Windows, inparticular Win 95. This generation of rental and hire software built upon the popularity of Windows. Utilizing the look and feel of Windows, these systems began to emerge in the mid to late 90’s.

This second generation of hire software and rental software systems expanded the affordability and popularity amongst hire and rental companies.

These second generation systems grew to expand connection to useful business devices such as Point of Sales (POS), License Scanners, Bar Code Scanners and Cash Drawers etc. Second generation companies stress connectivity to these devices as their main selling point. Whereas as you will read Third Generation systems include such connectivity to devices as standard functionality.

However a major limitation of these older second generation systems was their reliance on interfacing to other critical business systems, in particular Accounting Packages and Customer Relationship Management Systems. Not having fully integrated Accounting and Marketing meant that hire and rental company managers were unable to truly and quickly analyse the true performance of their business.

The final death knell for the second generation hire and rental software systems was the maturity of the web. The web has grown from a novelty in the 1990’s and a ridiculous new financial business paradigm shift in the early 2000’s (dot.com boom) to a maturing business tool as we approach the end of the decade.

The web is now the primary source of leads for the best performing rental and hire companies.(most cite the web as providing over 50% of new business leads). In effect the web has created a second shop front, a virtual store that operates 24 by 7. This virtual store is as much a part of a hire and rental business as is the physical store.

Furthermore the web is also a primary source of incredibly useful business tools, such as Google Maps, On-line Bank reconciliation, Colloborative Event Planning, Contractor Management, Document Storage and Access, as well as communication tools like Email etc.

The old second generation hire and rental software systems were aimed at providing a solution for the physical store . Most such systems because of their under-pinning technical architecture and technology were in the main incapable of being stretched any further to enable the web to become an instrinsic part of a Hire and Rental business.

This led to the rise of the Third Generation Hire and Rental Systems.

Third Generation Hire Software and Rental Management Software

The third generation systems are Hire and Rental software products that instinsically include the web store and access to web business tools within the software package. This generation of software enables hire and rental businesses to trade in a physical store and a virtual store all with in the one package.

Furthermore they enable the use of high value business efficiency tools such as Google Maps, outlook email integration to with client records and on-line collaboration etc.

Finally they are an all inclusive business software system that includes critical business functionality such as Accounting, CRM and Digital Marketing. This inclusion ensures that hire and rental businesses can finally analyse in detail their businesses. Such things as profitability by customer or by product, forward cashflow forecasts based on actual bookings etc in near real time.

Third Generation systems reflect the business need of hire and rental companies. Affordable, easy to use and complete business functionality, the third generation systems are growing rapidly. One key driver of this growth is the Global Recession, as hire and rental companies seek solutions that both contribute to sales growth whilst reducing operating costs.

Second Generation systems are still available on the market and will be for some time. However these systems are increasingly being replaced by Third Generation systems. As this trend continues to gain pace, many hire and rental companies on older second generation systems could be left exposed, not only to business risk but the potential for declining market share.

HireEzy is the Global Leader in the Third Generation Hire and Rental Software Market. As one recent client who converted from a Second Generation system said

its like going from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age – it is incredible!!!!!

Want more information or an on-line demonstration, then contact us at sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

07 Jan

A simple business guide to Social Bookmarking

| 2 comments

: Image by Ivan Walsh via Flickr

Social Bookmarking is one one element of a Small to Medium businesses Social Media Marketing plan.

Social Bookmarking can be really good at helping bring more traffic to your site or to add credibility to your articles.

Basic Understanding of Social Bookmarking

When you find a site or on-line article of interest you can bookmark the site in your browser for later reference. But there are limitations with this:

Organizing and Searching

Being forever on the net doing market research, I am always finding sites or web articles that I think I would like to look at later. The problem is that in reality I end up with so many bookmarked pages and a really bad structure for filing them – that I can never find them again.

Some pages I book marked, could well have been filed under market research, hire industry data or even say social media statistics. Trying to remember where I put it became a real brain ache.

Sharing

The next limitation is sharing the articles with other people. Aside from not wanting to download every site or article and waste bandwidth, I want to be easily able to share articles with others. This is achievable using the browser bookmark system but it is cumbersome.

Others Opinions

If I do share an article I would like to track their opinions and how valuable they think the article is. Also how they would categorize the article, ie what keywords would they file it under?

Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking solves these limitations. It enables you to:

Book mark a site or article of interest;
Save the link;
Organise your links by using multiple tags;
Search by for your links by tags;
Include other people publicly saved articles who have used the same tags, hence enriching your search; and
Assess the value of an article based on others people opinions and ratings.

Why you should do it!

It is this last point that offers the real value to a small business.

If you create an article, lets say through your blog, you can submit it to a Social Bookmarking site.

More Readers. The first reason you would submit the article is that it potentially offers the opportunity to attract more readers. The social bookmarking site creates a new link from their site back to your blog, good for in-bound links.

Credibility. Others can read the article and rate it as well as make comments. The credibility of the article is increased the more others rate it well or comment accordingly. Yes there is a risk of the reverse happening as well.

Keywords. Other reading a good article may often tag that article with their own keywords. These tags along with yours are then indexed by search engines. This can be great for the search engine ranking of your article which in turn can flow through to more traffic to your site.

A well done article can be incredibly powerful in increasing traffic to your site!

Managing the Risks

Social bookmarking technology is generally free and easy to use. However whilst the technology is easy to understand the social groups that use may not be.

If you ever changed school can you remember the first day? The way they talked, the terms they used and what they talked about?

If you were smart you just listened for a while until you got use to them and their cultural norms. Hey why risk being labeled a “dork” better to just hang back for a while.

Social Bookmarking groups are exactly the same. Each social bookmarking service, and there are a number of them, seems have its own distinctive culture or informal rules and interests.

Social Bookmarking Services

There are numerous social bookmarking services. But as discussed above it pays to select the right one for you. This article gives a brief summary of each of the top ten and their focus.

Finally

The benefits of social bookmarking for small to medium businesses can be excellent.

But remember it is social by nature, so spend time getting to know the community of followers for your selected social bookmarking service. Watch the types of articles that are most popular and unpopular. Take the time to comment and rate others community members posts. Invest time in becoming known as a good community member and they will reciprocate.

29 Dec

How to Design a Company Name, Logo and Colour Scheme

| 1 comment

At some point, usually at start up, every company has to think about it’s trading name and the image/ colour scheme it uses.

Getting it wrong can be a limitation on growth – or worse!

There is quite some theory behind naming, logo design and colour.

We have put together this list to help you get to grips with some of the theories.

Spending time on name, logo and colour is well worth the effort.

Examples of Getting it Wrong

Here are some examples of getting it wrong:

List of bad logo design’s and names

The Worst Bad, Ugly and Horrible Designs

What Makes A Good Logo?

What Makes a Good Logo

Top Ten Logo’s of All Time

Thought Provoking Logo’s

50 Clever Logo’s

Developing an Image

Logo Design – How to design a logo

Colour Theory – Theory behind Colour

Color Symbolism - What Different Colours Means to Different Cultures

Colour Considerations – What different colours mean for business

Thinking of a Company Name

Considerations – What You Should Consider

A Process – An approach to developing a name

Name Generator – Automatic Name Generator

SEO Impact – Think SEO Before You Name

Why Revamp Your Brand Design (wealthyways4you.com)
Our logo through the ages (ycorpblog.com)

26 Dec

The Risk Facing Social Media

Social Media marketing faces a serious risk to its adoption by business.

Many already question whether it is a fad? And if these risks are not addressed then it could well be perceived as a fad?

The hype that presently surrounds Social Media marketing has many of the hallmarks of the late 1990’s and its hype regarding integrated business systems.

The Chasm

Social Media Marketing has its basis in technology arguably web 2.0 tools. Therefore it is considered that some aspects of Geoffrey Moore’s, Crossing the Chasm (1991) could be applied to Social Media Marketing. (note image source wikipedia)

Early Adopter Stage

In life cycle terms Social Media Marketing for business is very much in its early adopter stage.

Early adopters, like us, are the enthusiasts who see the business potential. To businesses like us, we see the potential of Social Media marketing as a way to achieve our business goals. We are driven by dreams and aspirations for improving our business marketing using Social Media marketing without the need for definitive proof that it will work before we start.

However this is the stage at which results must begin to match dreams.

visionaries are easy to sell but very hard to please… because they are buying a dream…

This is where the real risk for Social Media lies!

It must be seen to deliver the results expected. And it is this expectation that it at the very heart of the risk facing Social Media marketing’s future.

Hype Setting Unrealistic Expectations

Social Media Marketing has certainly been hyped up in some many quarters as the new marketing approach for the new age. Whether deliberate or not, expectations are being set that Social Media marketing will deliver above average returns on marketing effort.

If visionaries can only achieve average results or arguably even slightly above average results, their perception may be that their Social Media marketing experiment has failed. Based on the concept that satisfaction is achieved when perception exceeds expectations. For example if you have really high expectations but perceive only above average results then you will be dissatisfied.

Metric’s Needed to Moderate Expectations

The second problem is the absence of benchmarks or metrics to moderate or help define a reasonable set of expectations. Moderation of expectations may be needed by Social Media, given the hype especially by those who advocating the wonderful benefits of “going viral”.

However there is an understandable paucity of metrics to gauge the success of social media marketing due to its infancy. Some research is being to emerge to help guide and even moderate expectation thinking. However such research is still limited, effectively meaning that a real risk exists of visionaries having unrealistic expectations of success hence being disappointed when those expectations are not met.

Risk of Focusing on Applications (Tools) Not Strategy

The next risk element facing Social Media marketing is the focus on tools (applications), ie Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Linked in etc rather than a coherent strategy. Twitter and Facebook’s dominance in the mainstream media may lead to some visionaries building business dreams on the basis of just using one or two of these applications. Such an approach to those of us who are beginning to understand Social Media marketing is fatally flawed.

Social Media marketing requires a coherent strategy with a defined purpose, such as increasing web traffic, increasing sales leads, improving brand awareness or customer retention. Flowing from the purpose objectives can be set. Knowing both the purpose and objectives means that the appropriate applications and resources can be determined. Whilst the absence of metrics (as discussed above) may limit the hardness of objectives this should not be used as an excuse not to create a strategy.

Pressure is On Social Media Marketing

Finally the pressure is mounting on Social Media marketing and with it the risk of perceived failure in the broader business community. In addition to the risks discussed above is the pressure coming from the volume of companies who are planning to undertake Social Media marketing. The Center for Media Research found that…

After surveying more than 1,000 people with media buying or planning responsibilities, the center found that “having a presence on social networks” is one of the top priorities for media plans in 2010.

As Sean Carlton (former Dean of Philadelphia University’s School of Design + Media) from Clickz.com puts it many of these companies are creating a presence with out a strategy.

Bad Publicity will Create a Bigger Chasm

It will take time for Social Media marketing advocates to develop case studies proving the benefits, plus defining the metrics as well as providing the infra-structure of education, consultants, resources etc to teach the “how to’s”.

The clock is ticking though as the high volume of “newbies” entering the social media marketing space creates a real risk of bad publicity. Newbies who fail will be quick to tell the world, “oh we tried that and it didn’t work.” Bad news always travels faster and wider than good news, its human nature.

To cross the chasm, ie to start to become part of the main stream marketing, Social Media marketing needs third party referencing. The early majority, that segment on the other side of the chasm, look to others in their industry for proof that something works:

Pragamatists tend to be ‘vertically’ oriented, meaning that they communicate more with others like themselves within their own industry than do technology

If some in the industry have been early adopters who have failed to be successful then word will spread. This will have the impact of slowing the adoption of Social Media marketing in that industry. Effectively deepening or widening the chasm depending upon your perspective.

Social Media Marketing is at a Cross Roads

Social Media Marketing has a future and it will in time become a standard component of marketing strategy. However it does face risks to its short term future from over hyped expectations and the focus on tools not strategy.

Greater emphasis needs to be placed on developing strategic frameworks/ guides and as well as metrics, case studies and other reference material to help support the successful use of Social Media marketing.

If you believe in Social Media, and we do, then we need to focus less on hype and more on the tools to help support its growth!

About Us

Making Life Ezy provide business management solutions with integrated web and social media solutions to the Hire/ Rental Industry. For more information email us at sales@makinglifeezy.com.au or visit our web site www.makinglifeezy.com.au

Social Media and Socialising…Let’s not muddy the waters. (socialmediatoday.com)
Establish the beachhead (marsdd.com)
Why Social Media Measurement needs to Catch Up to Adoption (visinsights)

25 Dec

Your Web Presence Should be a fully integrated part of your rental software or hire software

Download PDF Brochure: hireezy Online

Research shows that most rental and hire companies nowgenerate the majority of their new business from the web, estimated at over 50% of new leads.

But the problem is most companies maintain a seperate database or system for their on-line store and physical store.

This separation not only unnecessary costs, which can be substantive, but it also can inhibit your search engine page ranking. The lower your page ranking, the lower your sales inquiries – it is a direct correlation.

Furthermore with the growth of social media marketing, a by product of web integration is the ability to integrate social media marketing into your workflow.

HireEzy, the hire software and rental software solution for growing companies, has solved this problem!

HireEzy can provide you with a fully integrated on-line and in-store solution! And integration into Social Media Marketing!

This solution is incredible because it not only eliminates unnecessary costs, it can also improve your page ranking, leading to improved sales!

For more information download the attached brochure!

HireEzy the Global Innovation leaders in the hire and rental industry!!

Available in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK

Online sales set to double within two years (telegraph.co.uk)

24 Dec

Business Process Mapping – hire software

: Image via Wikipedia

If you are in the process of implementing hire software or rental software, or even just looking to improve some aspect of your business, then using business process mapping is a really good approach.

Business process maps can be as detailed or as simple as you want to make them.

If you are new to the idea of business process mapping or are simply looking for some tools to help, then this highly rated article from Marianne Franco will be incredibly helpful to you.

When in Doubt, Map it Out

22 Dec

Big List of Resources on How to Use Social Media

What Social Media offers to businesses of all sizes is amazing.

Business tools for a range of needs and functions from:

collaboration,
marketing,
knowledge management,
document management,
sales,
logistics, etc

But what are they and where are they?

Cameron Chapman made this post on Mashable, it is one of the best consolidated resource lists we have read. Not only does it list sites but also provides a succinct summary of what they do.

Click the link below to read it, it is well worth it.

HOW TO GUIDE: 60 Great How To Sites and Resources

Posted using ShareThis

19 Dec

Hire and Rental Industry Social Media Wallflowers

A recent survey of the consumer packaged goods market identified that over half of all such companies are social media wall flowers.

About half (53%) of consumer packaged goods companies are still social media “wall flowers,” meaning that they still have both low presence and low engagement within these media, according to an informal survey conducted among members by the Grocery Manufacturers Association. (read full article – its another brilliant article by Sarah Mahoney)

The same can be said of much of the equipment hire and equipment rental industry – where wall flowers dominate

Not an issue you think – well given the best Equipment Rental and Hire companies now generate most of their leads from the web.

AND in order to generate leads you need high levels of on-line awareness (search engine rankings)

AND with out doubt the best tool to help create that is Social Media

THEN being a wall flower is costing you money

Social Media marketing should be essential for every party hire, party rental, event hire, event rental, wedding hire, wedding rental type company -

WHY because the market you target is to supply people who are being social!!!!

Social media helps you to engage with such people – it works!

If you are in the industry and want to know more about Social Media marketing for you company then we are happy to help share our experience and knowledge, as an industry service.

HireEzy the global innovation leader in equipment rental software and equipment hire software – and it includes embedded integrated social media marketing tools – amongst a whole lot of other things

For more information email us at More Information

Social Media includes Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, YouTube etc – for articles on how to use Social Media for hire or rental business marketing see other posts we have in this blog.

4 Online Marketing Techniques Your Business Should Be Using (smtusa.com)
SEO vs. Social Media: Which is Better? (shoemoney.com)
Shifting CPG resources from traditional to social media (smartblogs.com)

Older posts »

Cross Platform
MAC & WINDOWS SOFTWARE

Business

Safety Instructions issued to Clients.

Increasing Means of Access.

Off Site Safety Instructions.

Client Site Safety or Maintenance Checks.

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A key cost driver is often the high volume of product images needed

Creating Low Cost Quality Product Photo’s

About Us

The are stuggle has to come to a head because of Social Media

All Customer Conversations are Idle Chatter

Now Bring on Social Media

Marketing Will Tell Customers

Measurement is the Key

True Customer Relation Building May Become in Vogue

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About Us

Reduce Marketing Spend Yes or No?

Green Shoots of Growth

Low Cost Marketing Options

Making it Easy

Haha – Google Wave – Early Impressions: Too Much Effort & Unintuitive http://tinyurl.com/yzhn4st

Interesting read, if you’re a geek – YouTube’s Bandwidth Bill Is Zero. Welcome to the New Net http://tinyurl.com/yfhcuuv

LAME – Google enters the e-book arena http://bit.ly/wFDAM

WOW Mac Users should read this – Major bug in Snow Leopard deletes all user data http://bit.ly/10PdGD

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One particular area we have concentrated on is the opportunities offered by Social Media!

About Us

Dr Tom McKaskill has just published a short article on where the business growth will come from?

Ok, I am an unashamed Dr Tom McKaskill fan!

Tom McKaskill’s Business Article Latest Article

Ok That’s Great But What Are Some Ideas For Business Initiatives?

About Us

But the suddenness of the crisis was thought to have left many exposed!

Cash flow Impacts

Positioning for Growth

Look to Social Media Marketing

About Us

Social Media is how we now increasingly conceive and plan events and parties….

Primary Marketing Demographic of Party Rental and Party Hire companies is…

Hence why it is so strange!!!

Missing A Golden Marketing Opportunity

So Why is it Not Used?

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Necessity is the mother of innovation – so the adage says!

Social Media as Basis of Innovation Ideas

Where to Look for the Innovative Ideas?

Hire Rental Industry Innovation

About Us

How to Use Social Media Tools

Marketing Problem

Creating a Digital Marketing Platform

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Imagine if the hire and rental industry did not exist on the scale that it does – would we see as much innovation?

Background

The Downsizing Impact

Validated Economic Theory

Created Exchange Markets

Opportunity Cost

Competitive Advantage Depends on Rental Options

So Would the World be As Innovative?

Footnote on Stimulus Packages

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