Rental Center: Investing in himself
A newcomer to equipment rental, Sam Moseley and Hilltide Rentals emerges on the rental scene in the Tampa, Florida, area.
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“I’m just excited about the next chapter and really being hands-on with a new startup equipment rental company, which is rare, especially here in the state of Florida. This is a capital-intensive business and we do have the capital pools to fuel expansion opportunities as they arise. So it’s just being strategic about that. There’s a fine line between growing too slow and too fast,” says Sam Moseley, owner of Hilltide Rentals. Photos: Hilltide Rentals |
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| Esteban Bello is one of the first employees at Hilltide Rentals. He’s readying the new fleet of scissor lifts for their first rentals. Hilltide Rentals will initially concentrate on aerial equipment rental and will soon add telehandlers to its fleet. |
by Clair Urbain
After graduation, he joined a private equity firm in Tampa, Florida, working with a firm that invested in high growth businesses across the technology, financials, and business and consumer services sectors.
In 2023, the entrepreneurial bug bit hard and he started looking for business opportunities in the Tampa area.
“I’m originally from Lakeland, Florida, and had a great childhood and family there. Although I went to college in Mississippi, I always knew that I wanted to come back and live in Florida,” says Moseley, the owner and founder of Hilltide Rentals.
Hilltide Rentals is a new equipment rental center in Gibsonton, Florida, a Tampa suburb. Opening in late April 2024, it’s beginning with scissor lift rentals and plans to add telehandlers and boom lifts by the end of the year.
Scoping opportunities
Moseley extensively researched a wide variety of business opportunities in the Tampa Bay area. Throughout the recent months, he built an effective network of advisors made up of regional equipment rental operations, large asset heavy businesses and general and specialty contractors who have helped him hone in on business possibilities. He’s also tapped into Enterprise Florida, which offers a tremendous amount of information for starting a business in Florida. “It’s been great to have people in my network come together and support me. I don’t know what I don’t know, and it’s taken a lot of just figuring it out and grit mentality.”
“I cut my teeth in the investing space over the past five years and always knew that I was going to either buy a business or start one. I don’t have direct ties to the equipment rental industry, but it’s an attractive opportunity, especially in Florida. More than 1,000 people move to Florida area every day, so there is a tremendous need for more infrastructure and that means a strong need for equipment rentals and sales.”
Moseley’s research revealed a particularly strong need for aerial equipment in the Tampa area. He talked with contractors and learned one of the major complaints they had was jumping through the hoops to rent equipment from national chains.
“One of the biggest pain points in the industry is if a contractor is trying to rent a piece of equipment, they must call an out-of-state 800 number service center that transfers them to a local branch. They also reported that if they have a problem or need advice on how to run a piece of equipment, help is not always readily available. We are going to win business by providing excellent service to the contractors and building long-lasting relationships throughout the industry. At the end of the day, people do business with people they enjoy, and so that’s what we’re going to try to offer,” says Moseley.
Although there is a healthy demand for aerial lifts in the area, it’s still a very competitive market and Moseley aims to apply some of the skillsets he learned in private equity to the world of equipment rental. “I want to apply some white-collar business efficiencies to what is considered a blue-collar industry,” says Moseley.
Specifically, he wants to apply the following tactics to his business:
Data-driven decision making: Utilize data analytics to understand customer preferences, equipment utilization rates and market trends, enabling informed decision-making in inventory management, pricing strategies and business expansion.
Strategic planning: Apply strategic planning methodologies from the world of finance to set clear business objectives, identify growth opportunities and develop long-term strategies for market penetration and differentiation.
Customer relationship management: Implement customer relationship management systems to track interactions, manage client accounts and personalize service offerings, fostering stronger relationships and customer loyalty.
Efficiency and process optimization: Streamline operational processes and workflows using lean management principles, reducing waste, improving productivity and enhancing overall operational efficiency.
Financial management: Apply financial modeling and forecasting techniques to manage cash flow, assess investment opportunities, and optimize financial performance, ensuring sustainable growth and profitability.
Technology integration: Embrace technology solutions such as fleet management software, IoT sensors and online booking platforms to enhance equipment maintenance, track inventory and improve customer convenience and accessibility.
For the rental center’s back-office support, he’s chosen Renterra, a cloud-based ERP system. “It’s the whole ERP system. Everything from customer resource management of contractors to keeping track of when someone calls and wants to rent a piece of equipment. You can keep track of your yard, what’s available, what’s not available. It shows where everything is on a map. It’s seamless. It also has an app for use in the field. Renterra is a relatively new company headed by two very smart guys who used to be consultants. Our software provider has been incredible,” he says.
Building a business
Once Moseley identified equipment rental as a viable business opportunity, he started building relationships with equipment companies. “I started working with a sales rep at Skyjack about six months ago. It hasn’t been easy to acquire equipment. Unfortunately, the national chains and larger companies have been eating up equipment inventory, but I was fortunate to get some units ordered before the big boys placed their orders. My order filled the gap between when they stopped placing orders to when they resumed. That was the only way I could get some allocation,” he says.
In the active real estate market in the Tampa area, finding a facility took some diligent research. “I looked on Google Earth for two weeks to find abandoned warehouses and then I looked up the owner and reached out to them directly,” he says.
Finding a good location in Tampa Bay was a daunting challenge. “Tampa Bay real estate is crazy. Obviously, we’re a startup. Cash is tight. I can’t afford to go build out a massive warehouse on one of the main roads next to some of our main competitors,” he says.
He finally found a 3,000 square-foot building on a half-acre of land along the busy Highway 41 corridor in Gibsonton. “It was an old rink that had a synthetic plastic floor for ice skating. It had already been gutted. We moved a container inside it for an office and we’re finishing out the rest of the facility. Right now, it’s all we really need; we aren’t going to have a brick-and-mortar store at the beginning,” he says.
Finding employees has been another challenge. He posted openings for delivery drivers online and got more than 200 replies; after sorting through the applications, only five made the cut, and he has since hired two drivers who will also help with equipment maintenance. By the end of the year, he hopes to expand the staff with an outside salesperson and perhaps two more drivers.
Long-term plans
Private equity professionals have a reputation of buying companies, rolling them up with other businesses, then selling them in a five- to 10-year timeframe. Unlike his experience in private investment, Moseley plans to make this a long-term business. “My long-term goal is to be the premier equipment rental company in Florida. I want to be a true Florida-based, Florida-centric rental company. I think the heart of the Tampa Bay region is a great place to start centrally located in the state and I can expand east, north and south of here. I envision being the owner and manager of this business for quite some time. I do have a private equity background which has a reputation of investing in a business and then selling it in five years. Truthfully, it takes a lot more than five years to build an amazing business and that attracted me to the rental space. Jumping from the investment side to the small business side, I look forward to having the passion to grow something that is my own and provide value to customers for a long period of time,” he says.
Crawl, walk, run
Moseley is very cognizant of the fact that he has a boatload of work ahead of him and is carefully taking steps one at a time to keep from getting ahead of himself.
“This year so far has been kind of a blur. I’ve gotten so much done and overcame a ton of challenges. I feel like every day I wake up, there’s a new challenge to be solved, which is something I enjoy, although it can be stressful. I’m just excited about the next chapter and really being hands-on with a new startup equipment rental company, which is rare, especially here in the state of Florida. This is a capital-intensive business and we do have the capital pools to fuel expansion opportunities as they arise. So it’s just being strategic about that. There’s a fine line between growing too slow and too fast.
“I’m trying not to get ahead of my skis here. Things can get bad quickly in this industry, and they snowball. You can wake up and find you should have made some changes months ago, and then you’re too far in debt. With the economy right now, everybody’s a bit in limbo. No one knows what’s going to happen, but I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as 2007 and 2008, but I think people are little tense about it right now,” he concludes.
Click here to learn more about Hilltide Rentals.
This article originally appeared in the May-June 2024 issue of Pro Contractor Rentals magazine. ©2024 Urbain Communications LLC. All rights reserved.
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