The advantages of renting before buying

Updated Dec 28, 2012

United Rentals LogoA very interesting Q & A session with United Rentals president and CEO Michael J. Kneeland was recently posted at the Conexpo-Con/Agg website. In it Kneeland talks about the advantages of renting before buying and gives a few words of advice for construction business owners.

On renting before buying, Kneeland says “it provides liquidity in today’s still capital-restrictive environment. It is true that interest rates are low and money is cheap, but access to capital is still a challenge.” He adds that because the initial costs of ownership are eliminated owners can bid more competitively and retain workers.

What’s very interesting is that Kneeland says United Rentals have seen a lot of contractors “taking on residential or repair work and then expanding their revenue sources geographically” thanks to the wide range of equipment and many locations his company has.

Kneeland also offers some business advice: always have a plan B. “I’ll often say that life is about a lot of different choices. You have to select the ones that are most impactful and then say, what has to be true for them to be realized? Then you have to reverse engineer it, and say that these are the things that have to happen for them to be achieved.”