Who's Your Data?

We rented a jeep for off road four wheelin’. The rental process took an hour. Everything was done by hand. Even the credit card imprint was taken on an old timey slider thing-a-muh-jig that makes a carbon copy of the credit card. There was a nifty satellite phone for the jeep that was six times more powerful than conventional cell phones…except it wasn’t in the jeep, so that doesn’t count.

The Dillon Marina rented speed boats and pontoons using clipboards and paper forms. I had called the day before to reserve a time. The person who answered the phone failed to transfer our data to a bulletin board. We got the boat anyway, but it was left to poor pathetic humans to remember to post our info.

The Ranch at Keystone golf course was a little better. They accepted an automated on line reservation.

I am sure the lack of technology is a price issue. To automate the jeep rental process, they have two choices, build it or rent it. If the jeep rental company built their own, they would need hardware, software and somebody to maintain it full or part time. At the low end the intial investment would be $25k. The labor would be expensive…$25k part time, $50k full time. Looking at their low-end operation, I am certain that would be a difficult investment. They may not know that there are outsourced options. A small business could outsource the whole thing for $2k a month. Even that might cause a cash flow problem.

If they rent five jeeps a day for 28 days, seven months a year and the average rental is $225.00 per day…they are grossing $220,500 a year. Costs before the two principles pay themselves are probably half of gross. They might make $50k a year each before taxes. I hope they have other ventures going. You can’t sleep in a tent in Breckenridge for $50k a year.

Technology is going to have to get a lot cheaper before it makes sense for many small businesses. And I mean a lot cheaper. The jeep rental company could justify a $5k investment; five times cheaper. The good news is that costs will get to that price point. The bad news is that the lower price point will put a lot of tech companies out of business.