Lens Rental business: Your Thoughts

[Jordan]

Hey everyone!


I've been interested in opening a lens rental business for over six months now, and I'm just interested in getting some feedback from everyone here. Right now I'm in France and it might be too difficult not speaking the language well and with different laws and all, and I might very well be returning to somewhere in the U.S. or Canada soon anyhow. Once I get settled, I'd really love to open a lens rental business, assuming there isn't one near where I'll be moving.


I'm interested in finding out what you folks think about the business opportunity. There are several reputable lens rentals business that operate online. That's all well and good, but isn't there something about going into one, talking with the person, seeing the lenses, etc... You don't have to pay for shipping or wait for the lens to get to you.


I'm wondering: what types of lenses would you tend to rent, what are other things besides lenses you'd like to rent (camera bodies, video stabilizers, underwater housings etc...) that I'm not thinking about, and does anyone have any business knowledge that could aid me in this? Any information or just opinions would be much appreciated! Thanks!





- Jordan


www.freshphotohawaii.com


www.freshphoto-du-sud.fr

[neuroanatomist]

Some random thoughts:


Might be difficult to run a profitable business as brick-and-mortar - it would depend on your customer base in your location. Several camera shops (e.g. Calumet, Glazer's in Seattle) do offer rentals, in addition to the rest of their business - but not as their only business.


I would think many rentals would be higher-end lenses - telezooms, superteles, and specific-purpose rentals (e.g. 85L for portraits). LensRentals.com's two most popular rentals are the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS and the 100-400mm.


You'd need a lot of capital to start such a business - lenses are expensive, as is most of the other gear people would want to rent. You'd need to stock all the major brands. Since you're renting stock, not selling it, making back that investment would take a lot of time. If you're running it as an in-person rental service, you won't do it out of your home (looks very unprofessional). Leasing retail space will eat into your return on investment.


Where will you locate it? If you're not in a major metropolitan area, you'll have a tiny local customer base (too small, I'd think). If you are in a major metropolitan area, how accessible are you? Lensrentals.com is inCordova, TN - a suburb of Memphis. I'd expect commercial real estate is not too pricey there.


Overnight shipping is easy - if I have to drive 20 miles outside of Boston to visit a particular shop, I'd be tempted to just order online.


Other thoughts - what about support? Someone rents a lens from you for their safari in Tanzania. They email you on day 1 of their safari, from theNgorongoSopaLodge (an amazing place perched right on the rim of the crater, btw!), to tell you their 100-400mm lens has stopped autofocusing. What do you do?


I agree that there's something nice about being able to talk to a human about your needs (but then, one can just call up lensrentals.com). Most likely, the 'typical' rental customer already knows what s/he wants - either they've done their research (like reading Bryan's reviews), or they've gone into a brick-and-mortar shop but wont to try or can't afford to buy the lens they need.


Here in the US, the Small Business Administration offers free help, including 1:1 consulting, on starting a small business. There are lots of tips on their website, covering market research, writing a business plan, obtaining financing, etc. http://www.sba.gov/


Good luck, Jordan!

[peety3]

Another person's random thoughts:


I love the customer service of LensRentals. It trickles down to how they set their prices - fairly, from a cost-of-doing-business point of view. They adjust prices as they learn more and more about how they have to run their biz. Honestly, I will never switch to someone else unless they should happen to disappear, for rentals where I can plan ahead by at least two days.


I really enjoyed renting some lenses from Glazer's in Seattle when I was up there last year - they rent by the day, and their prices seem to track linearly with the cost of the lens. I rented a 14/2.8II for $30/day and a 200/2IS for $45/day. Deposit was 50% of retail, so I had to make sure I used my Amex where I have flexibility. Cool part was I could pick up the day before after 3PM or 4PM (can't remember which) and they were due back the day after by 10AM or so. This gave me two nights to play with the lenses, and boy was that fun and worthwhile.


I really hate renting gear from the only camera shop in my town that does rentals. Terrible inventory (no more than one of any one thing), all beat up, and they do a deposit of full retail price, even though the gear is in no condition to warrant a full retail replacement. Plus, if I remember correctly, a day's rental period is actually more like 18-20 hours, as it's due back the next day by 11am.


If I had a Glazer's shop in my town, I'd rent more often and own less gear, because of the option to rent by the day. I'd put a lot of miles on said shop's 200/2, because of my love affair with that lens.


What do I rent? Usually it's stuff either at the top of my wishlist (that I just can't buy yet) or stuff towards the bottom of my wishlist (when I feel that lens is right for a particular task). For my upcoming wedding, we're going to cut the photographer loose before we do the dinner (non-traditional wedding day plan) so I'm renting the 10-22 to survive such a small room. For our Alaska cruise, I'm renting the three lenses on the top of my wishlist (10-22, 24-70, 70-200/4IS), since the two of us will likely have a need for wide/normal/tele per-person. I'm also renting a 500/4 because I want the reach, and it's the best price/performance value I can find. I usually rent with delivery to my office, so I can receive it more directly (since signature is required). On rare occasions (price or transport reasons), I rent with delivery to a UPS shipping site and pick up in person there. I did that last winter with a tripod, so I didn't have to rent it longer and fit it into a suitcase, and will do it next month with the 10-22 so I can rent for 4 days (while we're in MD) instead of 10 days (to receive in TX before our flights and ship from TX after our return).

[peety3]

Where will you locate it? If you're not in a major metropolitan area, you'll have a tiny local customer base (too small, I'd think). If you are in a major metropolitan area, how accessible are you? Lensrentals.com is inCordova, TN - a suburb of Memphis. I'd expect commercial real estate is not too pricey there.


I agree that there's something nice about being able to talk to a human about your needs (but then, one can just call up lensrentals.com). Most likely, the 'typical' rental customer already knows what s/he wants - either they've done their research (like reading Bryan's reviews), or they've gone into a brick-and-mortar shop but wont to try or can't afford to buy the lens they need.

LensRentals is in Cordova because that's where the owner is based (LR is a side gig for him, as evidenced by one or more of his older how-to videos). It happens to be really close to FedEx and UPS hub sites, which helps their shipping rates.


From reading the commentary on LR's website, I think a lot of rental customers can be quite clueless. On their tilt-shift lenses, "If you don't know what this is, you don't want it." They used to have a page about tripods, where the owner would ask the customer what kind of shooting they do. Those with prints in a gallery, he'd just stop and drool. Those who said a 500mm is fine without a tripod would need a lot of handholding.

[neuroanatomist]

Those who said a 500mm is fine without a tripod would need a lot of handholding.

Ba dum bum. Nice pun! []