How To Star Rental Car Business

Instructions

Decide on the type of car rental business you want. While that may seem like a silly first step, there are several options to choose from. You could be mostly interested in the travel market where you would rent cars to travelers who don't want to add mileage to their own vehicles. Another option is to become an event rental car business, meaning you would rent out your fleet for weddings, prom nights and other special events. A more recent entry is the exotic car business. As the name suggests, you rent cars that most people would never otherwise be able to afford.

Create your fleet. As mentioned earlier, you don't need a lot of vehicles to get started. Just remember that the more you have, the more potential earnings you have. Additionally, you need to select cars that will be appropriate for your type of rental business. Hummer SUVs are popular with event rentals while vans and sedans would be better choices for travel rentals. Because your clients are going to expect a nice vehicle for their money, you should always purchase new vehicles and keep them well-maintained.

Purchase insurance. All of the cars need to be covered by insurance. You can discuss with your agent the specifics of the policy, but you want to have sufficient coverage to pay for any damages to the vehicles and to the drivers if the cause of an accident is mechanical. Generally, you'll also want to be able to offer drivers optional insurance coverage. Remember that this is going to be one of your primary expenses--it's not something you want to skimp on.

Budget for maintenance. Another important part of running a car rental business is keeping those cars up and running. When one is out of commission, you are going to lose money. If you can't afford to have your own maintenance staff yet, consider working out an arrangement with a repair shop you trust. Because you may be bringing them a lot of business in the future, they may be willing to reduce your labor costs on repair jobs. Regardless, you have to set aside a decent sum of money so that you can cover the maintenance costs, including oil changes, tire replacement and tuneups.

Tips & Warnings

Safety and security is important in this business. Hire security or get security systems for all of your business lots so that should anything happen, you will be notified immediately.

Read more: How to Start a Rental Car Business | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4683608_start-rental-car-business.html#ixzz1tyCBuEtK