Bryan Peters grew up in the rental business and always dreamed of owning his own operation. Finally, this past January, the stars aligned for Peters to turn that dream into reality with the establishment of AdvanceTrac Equipment in Dripping Springs, Texas, which, he admits, is a different type of equipment rental company.
His love for the rental business began at age 14 when his family started one in California. “They focused on their niche — primarily heavy earthmoving equipment and stayed out of the small equipment space. That is where I first got exposed to the equipment rental business. I fell in love with it. I loved the idea of having equipment, helping contractors with their needs and seeing different projects come to life,” Peters says.
After his family moved the business to Texas, Peters and his wife followed in 2018 so he could work with the family. Even though he was happy, the itch to start his own company grew.
“I remember that my wife and I were both reading books on the couch when I said again that I wanted to start my own business as I always had that entrepreneurial spirit. She looked at me and said, ‘Why don’t you do it? Quit talking about doing it and just do it.’ I thought that was a fair point and decided it was time,” he says.
While he was ready to take the plunge, he wasn’t exactly sure what the business would look like. “I knew it would be equipment because I have been around heavy equipment for most of my life. That was early January 2020. Then COVID hit in March. That threw the brakes on everything as I wasn’t sure how it would affect things,” Peters says.
With Texas opening back up by June of that year, Peters decided in July that it was time to file for his business license as a limited liability corporation, or LLC. “We talked with a few banks and private investors, but never got any traction with them. Knowing that we wanted to begin our own business, we started to broker our own equipment. We bought and sold some equipment,” he says.
Then a good friend of his reached out and asked whether he could create a spreadsheet that would allow this person to track the ownership costs of his equipment. “I said sure. That lent its way toward some management work on the consulting side,” Peters says.
Another opportunity occurred in July 2021. “I had a customer reach out to me. He said he had a long project starting but his balance sheet was all messed up. He didn’t want to spend money on equipment, but he knew he needed these pieces of equipment. He asked if I could set up a long-
term lease agreement. This person was out of state. While this didn’t end up working out, the process of him asking that question turned me toward ARA Insurance. I knew I would need to get rental insurance for this piece of equipment this person wanted,” Peters says.
Peters had known about the American Rental Association (ARA) and ARA Insurance from friends in the industry. He joined ARA and was connected with ARA Insurance Preferred Agent Emmett Long, with Jowers-Sklar Insurance Agency, Rome, Ga.
“Emmett suggested I talk with James Waite, [James Waite Law], the attorney who helps with rental contracts, so I reached out to him. James asked whether I had talked with another person about funding. He put me in touch with Ami Kassar [founder of MultiFunding Business Loan Advisors]. When James mentioned Ami to me, I wasn’t’ sure I wanted to do this. I was turned down so many times, but I did talk with him and had a detailed business plan. He said, ‘I know how to help you.’ Well, from that first call I had with him, it was 50 days later that I had access to money. I went back to James for assistance with my rental contracts and then back to Emmett for insurance. It came full circle — an incredible experience,” Peter says, still amazed and grateful that it all came together so quickly.
Since then he has connected with a third-party e-commerce business, has had conversations with Josh Nickell, ARA vice president, equipment segment, participated in the ARA Facebook groups and been able to network with others in the industry. “It has been a great group of folks to network with and be part of a community of other rental companies,” he says.
As a brand-new rental operation, Peters is focusing on smaller earthmoving equipment. “My expertise is in that market. I want to serve the contractor needs on the small equipment side. I don’t want to compete with my family. Eventually, I want to become a general equipment rental operation, but right now I am starting with skid steers, small to mini excavators, small dozers, small wheel loaders, small compaction equipment and smaller generators,” Peters says.
To carve out his niche and show contractors why it is worth their while to work with him, a brand-new rental business owner, Peters has focused on demonstrating value.
“I want to drive true value in the relationship between vendor and contractor. The way we have tried to accomplish that is by being more of an easy button for our customers. We want to make it easy for our customers to do business with us, easy to pay us, easy to order equipment, etc. I have tried to simplify all our processes as much as possible. I want to incentivize customers to use us by showing we will provide value if they commit to us. That value could be in terms of price, different terms of payment, whatever they see that value is,” Peters says.
Another way to provide value is to offer weekly utilization reports.
“We provide that reporting so they can make those decisions about whether to keep the equipment on rent or take it off in real time. If they are putting only 20 hours a week on a machine, maybe they don’t want to keep paying for that machine, or in these times maybe they do because they know it will be difficult to find another one. This way it puts the power of making that decision in the customer’s hands,” Peters says.
The final way of offering value is by operating a little differently.
“We are not a standard rental company. We are new, but we started our business as a brokerage firm and then worked ourselves into doing consulting work. I found there is a need from a contractor perspective to optimize their fleets. In some cases that is buying. In some cases that is selling. In some cases, it is renting, and in some cases it is managing,” he says.
“We are trying to take a more holistic approach to equipment for contractors and say, ‘Here’s how we can help you optimize your fleet.’ Maybe it is through our rentals, maybe it is through buying and selling equipment for you or maybe it is helping you manage your fleet. Through one of those three avenues, our goal is to help,” Peters says, adding that it is about “making sure they have the right equipment for today’s projects and tomorrow’s growth.”
He admits it is different for every contractor. “It is not just one magic wand. Every contractor is different and does things differently. You have to be respectful of that and have to put yourself in their shoes and understand why they do what they do. We see ourselves as a partner. We can help customers sell fleet they are not utilizing, help buy equipment and help rent equipment as well,” Peters says.
It is an approach that is making headway — even with all the challenges of supply chain issues, etc. While he is building for today, he also is thinking about where he wants his business to be heading. “Big picture, we want to have a substantial presence in Texas and beyond. We want to do what we are doing today only on a bigger scale,” he says.