It’s back-to-school time here in Texas and throughout the country. Prepped with new bags, books, and supplies, kids are excited to start learning new things (well, most of them are). But there’s no reason they should be the only ones excited – at Point of Rental, we believe everyone should be eager to learn new things, regardless of age.

With that in mind, we’ve come up with our list of resources that we believe will help you keep learning new things about the rental business.

The New Classroom: The Internet

If you’re an ARA member, Rental U is an online educational resource that uses web-based technology and allows you to assign and monitor training coursework for employees. Classes are taught via video, Powerpoint, podcasts, as well as other methods.

YouTube is also home to a wealth of knowledge about how to do anything from setting up a website to how to check the oil on a skid steer to etiquette rules for parties.

HAE’s mobile app doesn’t feature coursework, but it will notify you when in-person training is available in your area.

New People, New Perspectives

Most of us send our kids to school rather than in front of a screen to learn. Even as we get older and know more, we often get our best ideas by talking with other people. Trade shows feature dozens to hundreds of businesses demonstrating the newest and greatest things they have to offer. In North America, The Rental Show is the industry event. In the UK and Europe, it’s the Executive Hire Show. In Australia, HRIA’s conference is the most well-known convergence of rental experts in the region.

If you can’t make it to the biggest conferences, you can connect at trade shows and industry-specific conferences for your type of rental. There are hundreds of those, so we’re not going to list them here – if you can’t find any and a quick internet search isn’t helping, contact us at [email protected] and we’d be happy to help you.

Speaking of us – your software company might even bring people together. If you’re a Point of Rental customer, our International Conference takes place each fall in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and our trainers and support staff work with customers to solve problems, teach software tricks, and show off advancements in our software.

Print-based (Includes Online Magazines)

These are good basic materials to keep up with everything going on in the rental industry. You can sign up to receive notifications by email, too, which will keep you up-to-date on what’s happening worldwide.

  • Rental Equipment Register: Focused on North America, RER provides coverage of emerging trends, operational techniques, market updates, and business insights for the entire rental industry.
  • Rental Management: Another North American magazine, Rental Management covers rental completely, featuring advice, store profiles, business management stories, and products impacting the industry.
  • HAE Interface: What RER and Rental Management are in North America, HAE Interface is for European rental (hire, in Europe). Run by Hire Association Europe, the magazine covers all aspects of the industry.
  • Hire and Rental News: Hire and Rental News covers…the entire industry in Australia, and they include separate magazines for the access and events industries.

Within rental, we’re often split into a bunch of subsections based on which industry we’re serving, from events to equipment to countless smaller niches. Here are a few big ones:

  • Pro Contractor Rentals: PCR provides information for professional contractors. They keep up on new products and industry news, which helps inform businesses that rent to contractors.
  • KHL.com: The KHL Group is a diverse media company that covers the construction and access industries throughout the world. They run 14 magazines and 11 newsletters in several languages, so they’re bound to have something that will connect with anyone in those industries.
  • Special Events: Special Events covers the events industry while having a focus on event rental, with information regarding products and techniques that will help improve your business.

While you’re learning all about how to build the back end of your business through the earlier sources, these sources will help you figure out how to get customers in the door.

  • Google AdWords’ Training: If you’re just beginning to get into online search advertising, Google has made it easy to understand their system with text and video training.
  • Hubspot’s Marketing Blog: An inbound marketing leader, Hubspot’s blog provides content ideas and all kinds of marketing suggestions.

But we don’t want to overload you with things to read on your first day of the rest of your career. Use these links; sign up for newsletters; continue to learn and grow. If you feel like there’s an important resource that we missed, tell us about it at [email protected] and we may decide to add it to the page for future learners to discover!