The various software apps to start your small rental business are all designed to solve specific problems. From your interactions with customers and your financial tracking to internal team communication, small rental business software can be critical to your organizational success.
But not all apps are created equal.
We’ll highlight the seven software apps we know can be incredibly helpful for small rental businesses. They each serve a unique purpose, but some work together (in tech-speak, they integrate) to ensure you meet each business need without duplicating your efforts.
Technology is also constantly changing, so it’s important to try to keep up with the latest developments. Of course, starting a small rental business means you’re probably an expert in your product, but maybe not an expert in the tech or business side of things.
The product we started with was bike rentals, which led to the creation of Rentrax, our bike rental software, to meet all those unique business needs. But we know it’s uncommon that we’re experts in both the product and software.
As a small rental business, there are always a hundred things happening at once. To save yourself from mountains of paperwork and human error, use technology. These apps will help you maximize your efficiency while minimizing the time and effort required to stay on top of everything.
Best Software Apps to Start a Small Rental Business
1. The Best App for Small Rental Businesses: Rentrax
Of course, we have to add ourselves to this list of software apps to start your small rental business! Rentrax offers small rental businesses a comprehensive solution that we know fits your business needs.
How do we know?
Because Rentrax was created by a small rental business owner who couldn’t find a rental software solution to suit all these unique rental business needs.
Rentrax is the only app in this list that was specifically designed for small rental business users. It covers everything from inventory tracking to customer management, from maintenance reporting to invoicing and so much more. And we do it all with the understanding of your market fluctuations, allowing you to adjust your pricing according to high or low season needs.
We think our most valuable feature is our exceptional customer support, so you never have to worry about keeping up with all the technology changes going on around you. You just keep your customers happy while we do the rest.
Rentrax also easily integrates with many vital software apps used by small rental businesses, including several that we’re about to recommend! These are some of our current integrations:
- MailChimp
- Quickbooks
- PayPal
- Moneris
- CardConnect
- Paragon
- Stripe
- Most commercial barcode scanners
Integrating your software helps you get the job done faster and with fewer headaches. We know because we’ve used it all during the many years of being in the small rental business. And that’s why we built Rentrax to be useful, user-friendly, and unique to the rental business market.
Want to check it out yourself? Schedule a free demo and we’ll show you how your rental business can adapt Rentrax to its every need. And, of course, feel free to contact us any time if you have any questions.
2. Software Apps for Communicating with Customers: MailChimp
Keeping in touch with your customers is vital for your brand and business growth. As a small rental business, staying top-of-mind will ensure your previous customers keep coming back and that those who have demonstrated interest in your business actually follow through when it comes time to rent.
The best external communication software for a small rental business is MailChimp. There are multiple other communication platforms out there, including ConvertKit, AWeber, Constant Contact, and more.
But MailChimp is free for up to 2000 subscribers on a single email list. You can build landing pages and forms easily and MailChimp integrates well with most other software you might want to use.
Rentrax has a marketing option for you to reach out to your customers, as well as a MailChimp integration option.
3. Finance Apps for Small Rental Businesses: Quickbooks
For tracking your finances, we highly recommend Quickbooks. This is an app for a small rental business that is vital to integrate with whatever other software and systems you use. Integrating Quickbooks information with your sales, inventory, and tax documents will make your life dramatically easier.
If you start your rental or tour business using Quickbooks from the beginning, you’ll thank yourself later. This software is especially useful as your small business grows. As that happens, tracking all your finances can start feeling like its very own full-time job. With Quickbooks, you’ll save yourself time and money when it comes to filing taxes, which can obviously get more complicated as your business grows. Trust us, minimizing that headache is worth its weight in gold!
Rentrax integrates with Quickbooks to simplify this process for you.
4. Apps for Taking Payments: CardConnect, Moneris, PayPal
Apps for a small rental business to accept payments are necessary in order to make the process seamless and simple for the customer. PayPal has been around for quite a while now, so it’s recognizable and trusted by users globally.
CardConnect is available in the US and makes it easy to manage your transactions. Moneris is one of the most popular payment processors in Canada and works well for both online and card-present transactions.
Having multiple options for your transactions is advisable so that you can reach a wide array of customers who might have different preferences for payment methods. The security and reliability of these transactions cannot be understated, that’s why Rentrax integrates with all of these and more payment options.
5. Software to Start a Small Rental Business: BambooHR
As soon as you start hiring a team, you need to cover all your HR bases. This can seem overly complicated and distracting as the paperwork piles up, but it’s essential that you stay on top of these legal matters.
BambooHR is an app for small businesses to track staff growth and career development. You might not have a massive team right now, but laying the groundwork early allows you to build and grow seamlessly.
6. Apps for Internal Team Communication: Slack
Slack is ideal for keeping the whole team chat in one space, while also keeping it professional (your staff doesn’t need another group text). Small rental businesses like medical equipment rentals can see rapid growth, adding team members and specifically increasing staff for high season each year.
Starting a Slack for your team allows you to add or deactivate team members easily. You can organize conversations into channels so everyone stays on track and can quickly reach out on any issue or project.
This is especially helpful if you start opening other locations and need to coordinate communications across teams who don’t work together in person.
7. Software for Organizing Small Rental Business Admin: G Suite
G Suite by Google is the best way to collaborate and store all your documents in a single cloud space. G Suite also allows you to create company emails for your team, to schedule and plan across shared Google calendars, and to hop into video or voice calls from inside most Google products.
For ease of communication, paperwork organization, calendar integration, and more, G Suite is ideal for your small rental business.
If you’re about to start your own small rental business (Bike rental, ski rental, furniture rental, …), schedule a free demo with us so you can see how Rentrax will help you every step of the way. We’ve been in your shoes, so we’re happy to help.