All Star's training includes classes, seminars, volunteer work and community service, and reading books. It covers financial training, human resources training, administration and more. The company is training lead mechanics, managers, sales staff, lead drivers and others who can use new skills to lead and train others.

“The leadership team of the company is developing the program and those on the leadership team will mentor the trainees and monitor their progress,” adds de Vries. Training will include on-the-job exercises such as riding with a sales person, partnering with mechanics, visiting branches and doing SWOT analyses. College classes in topics such as Spanish, accounting or welding could be part of the program, which each mentor designs for each particular participant.

Kropp Equipment, Schererville, Ind., developed an online training program so its sales staff at the company's four locations could participate without traveling, offering four-hour sessions once a week. “It's back to basics, but it goes on to mid-level, upper-level and doctorate degree in sales,” says owner Al Kropp. “We all learn from it. I've got friends who are doctors who go to seminars a few days a year. We forget some of the basic education that brought us to our current level. This takes us to the next level and stirs up some excitement.”

If not happy with the prices you're getting for your used equipment — and with scores of U.S. rental companies competing to unload unwanted assets, many face the same problem — try selling them internationally. Metrolift, for example, recently sold 32 aerial work platforms to South Korea.

One of the attractions of selling internationally is to remove your divested machines from your market so they can't compete against you. Illini High Reach, Lemont, Ill., regularly sells its used equipment abroad. “I consider it a success when we sell it, make some money at it and it leaves our market,” says Illini CEO Larry Workman. “Louisville is fine; Singapore is better.”

While the international used equipment market can be lucrative if done properly, every country has different regulations, and even different machines going into the same country can be subject to different taxes or permits. Export specialists or international equipment brokers such as Glen Ellyn, Ill.-based Universal Equipment should always be consulted.

Delivery costs money and delivering long distance even more money, but equipment sitting in a yard does no good at all. Some rental companies are bidding on jobs far away from their market areas.

For example, Black Swamp Equipment, Archbold, Ohio, is looking at jobs all over the country. “We'll go great distances,” says Black Swamp's Jeff Fryman. “We'll go out of state if we have to. We've got stuff quoted in Phoenix, in Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and elsewhere.”

Improving volume can be as simple as asking that question. While the market may have slowed down, another factor could be that your customer base is changing.

“A few years ago, the top 10 of our customers were all new home builders,” says Don Bruner of Cincy Tool Rentals, Cincinnati. “Now they are highway contractors, remodelers, rehab people, roofing contractors, landscapers. So we lessened our pump and generator inventory and beefed up other items.”

RER asked dozens of readers what message they'd like to send to the new Obama administration and the response was almost unanimous: Pass an infrastructure spending package. If the health of the industry and your rental business depends on it, it's worth spending a few minutes a day, even in these demanding times, to make phone calls, write Congress people or whatever form of political participation you feel is most effective and make sure elected officials get the message.

“Infrastructure is the No. 1 job creator,” says Modern Equipment's Griffith. “So I'd love to see an infrastructure bill. We need roads, we need highways. Spend the dollars on rebuilding the country; invest in alternative energy.”

Setting up a new facility in an area where your rental company is doing significant business can be expensive and even cost-prohibitive in the current economic environment. But if you're doing a lot of business in an area far from a branch, what about leasing some property to use as a drop-off and storage point for equipment? It can significantly save in time and fuel costs and make it easier to serve customers in that area, and possibly pave the way for opening a branch in that area later on. Some rental companies do this in cities that might be an hour or two away from headquarters; others based in large, spread-out metropolitan areas do this if they are doing a lot of business in an area an hour or two away, cutting fuel costs and lessening wear and tear on vehicles forced to travel long distances in heavy traffic.

It may take more than just one head to figure out how to cut expenses. Star's Kendall formed a special committee to figure out how to cut expenses. More important, now more than ever, serious market analysis is needed to figure out how to respond to current challenges. A group approach can help, bringing together different points of view from various facets of your company.