$3k a Month Renting Out Mobility Scooters Part-Time

I love a good rental business: buy something once and get paid for it over and over again.

It’s a cool model, and this week’s guest found a creative approach to it in the mobility scooter niche.

Lenny Tim from LAMobilityScooterRentals.com is a serial side hustler and entrepreneur involved in the e-commerce and YouTube space. He built his scooter rental to $3k a month in his spare time.

Tune in to the Side Hustle Show interview to hear how:

• Lenny discovered his niche
• found his first customers
• expanded his fleet and operations

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The Idea to Start a Mobility Scooter Rental

In 2019, a friend of Lenny’s who had an equipment rental business reached out to him to see if they could start a similar service together.

After doing some research, Lenny came up with a list of equipment they could rent out, and one of them was mobility scooters.

There weren’t many mobility scooter rentals at the time, and scooters were neither too bulky nor too expensive. So, they decided to run with the idea.

But Lenny wanted to see if there was a demand for scooter rentals first before fully committing to the business, so he built a site using the GoDaddy Website Builder.

Getting Initial Traction

Lenny started getting calls and emails within six months of building the site.

He attributes this initial traction to the quality of the site. “I looked at my competitors and I just tried to do better, and … I ranked pretty quickly,” he told me.

Lenny didn’t know much about SEO, but he tried to get a domain name that would be easy to search. He also populated the site with pictures and keywords, set up a Google Business Profile page, and made a listing for the business on Yelp.

The business was primarily geared toward travelers and tourists in Los Angeles who needed a scooter to get around, but they also got calls from film crews. Sometimes, hotels would even call on behalf of guests who needed scooters.

Lenny said he waited until he got several requests a day before actually buying the scooters to rent out.

“I wanted it to be where … I was gonna get several consistent rentals all the time.”

Pricing

Lenny charges $75 a day to rent a mobility scooter. He adds a $75 delivery/pickup fee on top of that — $150 if the customer is more than 10 miles away.

Lenny told me that he generally doesn’t do one-day rentals. Instead, he keeps rentals to a three-day minimum, which costs $225 plus delivery/pickup.

He usually aims for four- to seven-day rentals, which go for the same base price of $249. Meanwhile, customers who want to rent a scooter for the month can do so for $500 plus delivery/pickup.

But all of that’s negotiable, especially if the customer is pleasant to deal with or if they ask for a discount.

And while there’s opportunity for selling add-ons like cellphone chargers and canopies, Lenny says he likes to keep things simple.

“Some people want [add-ons], some people don’t, so I keep it simple. It’s kind of like an 80/20 rule. I just rent them the scooter, and I get the most money for that.”

Lenny charges the highest prices among his competitors — something he’s able to do because of the work he put into building his brand.

Startup Costs

Lenny uses Pride® Mobility Scooters, which typically cost around $1,500 brand new.

But he was able to keep his startup costs fairly low by buying scooters second-hand on Facebook Marketplace and other local marketplaces for about $500 apiece.

That meant he could get his money back after just one to three rentals.

Currently, Lenny has seven mobility scooters. He says he could definitely buy more, but he prefers to keep the rental as a side business, not a full-time one.

When the scooters are not in use, he keeps them in a storage unit he rents out.

And as far as delivery goes, Lenny makes do with his SUV, which can comfortably fit two scooters in the trunk. “I just put [the scooter] in the trunk of my car and I just deliver it that way.”

What About Liability Insurance?

Aside from the rental agreement, Lenny has a general liability policy in place to protect himself and ensure that the customer takes responsibility for the scooter when it’s with them.

He was initially worried about customers calling him in the middle of the night about an accident or a faulty scooter. Luckily, that’s rarely happened.

“It’s happened once or twice where the batteries were kind of faulty and the scooter wasn’t running that well, but I was able to take care of it … Nobody was stuck anywhere,” he said.

Lenny is also confident about the quality of his scooters. And a lot of times, people who rent scooters are with their family and don’t venture out on their own.

Strategies to Market the Business

Here are some of the strategies Lenny recommends to promote a scooter rental:

Set Up a Google Business Profile Page

Lenny created a Google Business Profile page and optimized it for SEO.

He believes that building a strong digital presence this way helped him easily outrank his competitors, even those that have been around for a long time.

Create a Yelp Page

Lenny made a listing for his business on Yelp when he first started out.

He says he still gets some requests on Yelp, even though he doesn’t pay as much attention to his listing there anymore.

Build Relationships with Hotels

Striking up partnerships with hotels is a great way to get a steady stream of customers.

You can either approach hotels personally to let them know about your service or ask them to put up one of your flyers on the front desk for guests to see.

Lenny didn’t take advantage of this strategy because he’s happy with how much business he currently has. But he says he’ll definitely reach out to hotels if he ever considers taking his side hustle to the next level.

Solicit Reviews

During the first few months of running the scooter rental, Lenny would typically send customers a follow-up email thanking them for their business and soliciting reviews.

These days, he doesn’t solicit reviews as much because he feels he has enough positive ones on both his Google Business Profile and Yelp pages.

What’s a Typical Day Look Like?

The majority of Lenny’s day-to-day work involves delivery and pickup. He says he usually works only 2-3 days a week in keeping with the part-time aspect of his business.

Here’s how renting works:

1. The customer calls or emails Lenny to rent a scooter.
2. Lenny sends the customer a PDF copy of the rental agreement, which they’ll fill up, sign, and return to Lenny.
3. Lenny creates an invoice using Square and sends the customer a payment request.
4. Lenny delivers the scooter to the hotel where the customer is staying and leaves it at the front desk. He makes sure to put a tag with the customer’s name on the scooter.
5. Once the rental period is up, Lenny picks up the scooter at the hotel.

Any Surprises Along the Way?

When he was starting out, Lenny was often worried that something was going to go wrong with the scooters or that customers would have issues with them. But that was rarely the case.

Save for an incident or two where he had to change the batteries for a customer or bring them a new scooter altogether, business was smooth sailing.

Lenny was also surprised at the different types of customers he’d get. It wasn’t always travelers, tourists, or people with mobility issues. Some customers rented scooters to use as props.

What’s Next?

Lenny says he plans to expand the mobility scooter rental at some point.

But he also recently started a big-ticket equipment rental business, LAGeneratorRentals.com, with a friend.

They’ve already acquired some generators, and they’re thinking of possibly serving the movie production and events niches.

Lenny’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“Start with a minimum viable product.”

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