A Family Affair
 

Today Brian Grant, having taken over the business from his father works alongside his sister Denice Berg and her husband Steve. (above photo)

Being in a smaller community than their metropolitan area to the immediate north, Grants Rental maintains a full depth of rental equipment, just so they can respond to the demands of their own market.   The party rental department is complete with everything from pop-corn machines to party tents.  The homeowner rentals focus on grounds keeping and home owner repairs.  Independent contractors can  find just about anything from a compressor all the way up to a bobcat or excavator.

Grants Rental recently expanded into a new and larger facility with more display, storage, delivery and repair capability. Brian keeps his focus on not overgrowing his market and competing against himself.  "I really have no need or desire to open another store location at this time, I would rather focus on a good a return on investment." Brian said.

Speaking of ROI, Brian said "One of the things I really like about i-Rent software is the ability to instantly review the earned income, anytime I want.  One of our marketing concepts is to bring a new piece of rental equipment on-line, receive rental income from it, then sell it for a profit before it is used and abused, while giving our clients a nice discount.  This works for both them and us." -- "With i-Rent he can instantly look at a piece of equipment, find the earned income, any repair or maintenance costs and decide on the spot, what it should sell for, all while talking to the client at the front counter.  "

Grant Rentals has a fleet of modern delivery trucks which can quickly move the needed party items on-site, with minimum delays and handling. 

Scheduling deliveries and pick-up's is important not only to turning rentals, when done right it is good for  customer relations.  Ralph Snow is in charge of the scheduling.

Maintaining rental equipment is a major cost factor which Grant focuses on with a complete service facility.  "Keeping your eye on both the condition of your equipment, scheduling maintenance and making sure that the equipment will work properly -- as well as helping maintain it's resale value is important to me" Brian said.  "I have delegated that to Joe Lunnin who runs our service department."

One of the innovations we make good use of is our flag poles,  from which we hang our tents.  This allows for easy washing and drying while using the minimum of square footage from our yard.

Active in the community, Brian is a board member of the ARA of Massachusets.  He also likes Field and Track and sometimes wishes he had more time to coach; but, the time needed to run his growing business occupies most of his day. The end of the day is his time to kick back and spend quality time with his wife Marta and their two children Nathan and Maia. His sister Denice also needs quality time with their two children Tyler and Stepanie. All employees are ready to return to their families so the quick closing of the day and back-up of information with i-Rent is appreciated. 

"When we were looking to switch from our old rental program, to a Microsoft Windows system, we knew we would also be updating with new computers.  This represented an investment which I did not take lightly, so my sister and I looked long and hard."-- Grant said.

"There is lot's of software out there, a few looked really good.   I guess it really came down to three things which swayed us to AbbottSoft.  The software is state of the art. AbbottSoft has a plan where I do not have to continually pay support fees and I followed a gut feeling that this was the company I could trust."  I have not been disappointed at all." -- Brian said.

The software was "just as advertised," AbbottSoft came on site, installed it on our new computers, and within an hour we were up and running.  The two days of training proved it was as easy to use and as fast as I understood it should be.  The support has been phenomenal. "I could not be happier and I am glad I trusted my instinct in this decision"  

Grant Rentals is located at 10 Bedford Park, Bridgewater MASS. You can stop by anytime or call them at: 508-279-0950 -- Nice family who work smart, for their living.