When Raz started his camera rental business, Raz Rentals, he just had a few cameras, but it has quickly grown over the past few years. A couple of years ago, he started using Booqable to manage his inventory and online store and has seen his customer base in his local area grow massively. Now, he has hired Ben to reorganize his inventory in preparation for moving premises.
As you may know, the majority of camera rentals come from commercial production companies. They will usually call and ask for the equipment they want in advance of a shoot. However, smaller production companies who work on projects like music videos love to browse equipment to get what they need, and this has proven a huge success with the online store.
Raz Rentals
When Raz started his rental business, he was a camera enthusiast who saw a need for camera rentals in Perth. The creative community was growing, and he wanted to help them to get the equipment they needed. Initially, this was done over the phone or via email, no matter how big the customer was.
They cater to everyone from small production studios with tiny budgets to more prominent commercial clients who have budgets of $300,000 a day. Their inventory consists of high-end cameras, lenses, lighting, and grip equipment suited to various purposes, from advertisement production to short films, all from the comfort of a residential house that has been the hub of operations since he began his business.
One day they could be supplying a full ALEXA Mini LF Camera Package for a large Production Company, and the next, they could be helping a music video production that only requires a couple of smaller items like Filters or Lights. So, the mix of customers they serve is quite large and requires a lot of coordination to get the right equipment to the right people at the right time.
Keeping up
Like many rental businesses in the past, Raz would keep his prices and availability close to his chest. Unfortunately, this meant that he was constantly dealing with phone calls and emails from people looking for camera equipment. As a result, he would spend a lot of time going through orders and providing equipment for everyone he could.
This would lead to potential problems as he couldn’t keep accurate track of where each item was and if it was available. As with many rental businesses, he would keep track of orders with spreadsheets that were often difficult to update and stay on top of.
As the business grew and he was taking more and more orders, this could’ve become a big issue, especially since it stopped his company from growing faster. It also meant that many customers felt uncomfortable ordering because they didn’t know exactly what they were getting.
A breakthrough
Raz knew he had to find a better way of organizing his inventory to keep track of orders and showcase his products online. He came across Booqable while looking for rental software to accomplish both tasks and decided it was the best fit for his business.
It is now easy for him and his team to keep track of orders, send out invoices, and book customers. In addition, since integrating Booqable with his business, he has grown it faster without increasing the amount of time spent on admin work, thanks to the automated system that alerts him.
He has also integrated Booqable product cards with his WordPress website to create a beautiful online store. This allows him to display all of his products in one space and has proved popular with small production studios. They can now find exactly what they need without having to call and find out what he has and what’s available.
Moving premises
Since installing Booqable two years ago, Raz Rentals has seen an incredible increase in digital foot traffic. There has been a great success with the online store, and he is happy that customers can find what they want and when it’s available with just a few clicks without waiting for a reply or spending unnecessary time on the phone.
This has allowed Raz to expand the inventory on offer and freed up more time to work with more prominent production companies more closely. He has also been able to hire Ben to assist him with reorganizing his entire inventory, and they are preparing to move to a warehouse. In addition, he is helping to optimise their day-to-day workflow and keeping the website updated. So it sounds like things are about to get even more exciting at Raz Rentals.
