Rentoid blog

Get a free iPad! (No this is not a scam, really!)

Calling all rentrepreneurs!

iPads are the hottest, most requested item on rentoid

- They get at least 100 searches a day

- The 3 or so that we have available on the site are always rented out

If it is so obvious that there is such a high unmet demand, why don’t you go buy one yourself and list it on rentoid? Think about it, a new iPad 2 costs $580, if you rented it out for $20 a day you would have it paid off in 29 days! After that you’ve got yourself a free iPad! Or if you want, you could continue to rent it out and make some PROFIT for doing almost nothing! This sounds unethical but you are in fact providing a valuable service to people.

First go to the rentoid home page and do a search to make sure there are other people using the site in your area. If there aren’t, the first step is to tell your friends, family and neighbours about rentoid - share it with them via facebook. Once you are sure there are local people using rentoid it’s really as simple as going out, buying an iPad, listing it on rentoid and waiting for the flood of phone calls and emails.

Also, make sure you remember to get your renters to place a bond down in case the iPad or anything else you rent out gets damaged.

Happy renting!

Geordie

The traditional approach for most businesses has been to: create a product/service, sell it, end of story. This has worked well up until recently. But now many consumers are looking for a change. There’s a couple of good reasons for this:

Financial - The GFC has bred distrust of old companies and has also forced or at least encouraged many people to tighten the belts, downsize and re-examine what is actually important to them. Many are actually finding that they prefer simpler lives, with less stuff and want invest more in the things that actually make them happy such as their friends, family, health, traveling and new experiences.

Environmental - Growing awareness of environmental issues is causing people to question the consequences of our lifestyles - where do these products come from? What does it cost to produce them? What are the unintended side-effects of our production system? Where do they go once they’re no longer useful or wanted? It is an inescapable fact that we live on a planet with finite resources and need to find a better way of doing business.

The solution is a model based on sharing that Lisa Gansky calls ‘The Mesh’. The mesh is a new business model that is taking the world by storm. It is about giving consumers more tools, choices and information. It is about sharing products and services - giving people superior access without the burden and expense of ownership.

Mesh businesses work by leveraging the following growing trends:

Urbanisation - The increased population density caused by urbanisation makes sharing networks possible. Once people are living nearby one another in large numbers, sharing of certain items such as cars and tools can become practical.

Use of Data & Social Media - Whereas a buy/sell model encompasses one transaction, a sharing model inherently creates a conversation between providers and customers as they need to continually interact to do business. Every time a product or service is rented, leased, or borrowed the company can collect data about the transaction. This lets them get to know the customer better and then use that data they have compiled to personalise the offerings for the customer for next time. These conversations are happening in real life but also online with the explosion of social media, which provides an effective platform but also another point for data collection and further personalisation. Conversations over social media tend to be much more genuine and human, as opposed to the traditional scripted press release/sell approach.

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Mobile - the Internet started by moving data around but now with widespread adoption of smartphones it is also moving around physical goods. Mesh companies are leveraging this trend to enable their customers to reserve cars, bikes, homes, meals and more - on the go.

Examples of mesh businesses are popping up everywhere. Here are a few to check out if you’re interested!

Carsharing - www.zipcar.com

Entertainment - www.netflix.com

Kids clothes swap - www.thredup.com

Collaborative funding - www.kickstarter.com

Group discounts - www.groupon.com

And there are plenty more here - http://meshing.it/

Geordie - rentoid team.

For an explanation of what ‘Collaborative Consumption’ is, see previous posts or go to http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com.

Looking for cheap a cheap place to stay while going travelling? Or maybe you’re looking to stay somewhere that will give you a unique experience? Look no further than the brilliant example of the p2p revolution in action that is shared accommodation.

Have you ever heard of http://www.couchsurfing.org? This organisation connects travellers with locals in over 230 countries around the world. For travellers, they get a free place to stay, a chance to make friends with local people, and also a unique, authentic and priceless experience of life in that part of the world. For hosts, they get to meet interesting travellers from all over the world without leaving home and also get to share their culture with people who are genuinely interested.

Do you have a holiday home that just sits there unused most of the year? Or maybe just a spare room? Why don’t you rent it out on www.airbnb.com, make some easy money and meet some new people? On the other side, have a look what cool spaces are available next time you go travelling and stay anywhere from a castle in the Scottish countryside, to a trendy new apartment in Berlin.

For more examples of p2p accommodation see www.roomorama.com, www.crashpadder.com and www.bedandfed.co.uk or let us know if you find any yourself.

Geordie - rentoid team.

Our vision here at rentoid is to change the world, to create a smarter way of consuming and to change the world for the better. It’s a big goal but our philosophy is that you should ‘always aim for the moon, because even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars’.

We can’t do this alone and we need your help! If rentoid is really going to shake things up we need to spread our message overseas.

Rentoid was founded and is based in Australia but we are aware that we have members from many other countries too. This post is a shout out to you! We want to know, how did you hear about Rentoid? What do you like/dislike about our site and service? How could we improve? Do you have any suggestions on how we could create larger and more numerous rentoid communities?

Let’s create a better future together

Geordie - rentoid team.

Yes, I own a ladder. But why? It’s something that most of us only need to use a few times a year, if that. I’m sure it’s a similar story at your house. Is it really necessary for us all to have one each? Why couldn’t we just buy one collectively with our neighbours and share it? Well I’d like you to tell me! In the meantime, here is my theory:

People have been willing to pay for access to a ladder anytime, with no hassles for say $100 for a new one, and the space it will take up in the already cluttered garage because until very recently there hasn’t really been an alternative, no other easy option.

Sure you could ask your neighbours if you could borrow theirs but maybe you’re afraid of annoying them. You could post an add up at the local shops asking to borrow one but this is quite a bit of hassle and maybe no one who owns one.

But things are different now. With the Internet and rentoid it is easy to rent access to a ladder only when you need it for say $10 each time. Is that all? Sounds too good to be true! Well yes, there is a small caveat, if someone rents the ladder at the same time you were planning to then you have a problem. But the thing is, it’s unlikely that will happen, and if it does, well it’s also pretty unlikely that it will be the end of the world if you can’t rent it today like you planned and have to get it tomorrow instead. For me, that small chance is definitely worth taking because I save money by renting, and because I can feel good about saving the environment by getting one less ladder manufactured.

The real truth behind this post is that the ladder is just an example for most things we buy. So remember this post nexct time you go out to buy something you intend to use infrequently.

Geordie - rentoid team.

A few bits and pieces I have lying around the house…

Books - don’t read them every day (and hard to read more than one at a time.)

DVDs - I’ve already watched the.

Clothes & shoes - can’t wear them all at once.

Backpacks - I have 2. I might use one in a day, but almost never need to use both at once.

Musical instruments and gear - that guitar has been sitting in the corner for quite a while now. But I’m still very attached to it and don’t want to sell it.

Bubble machine - bought it for a party but I don’t have parties very often.

Hard drive space - I while back my external hard drive was having some problems and needed to be reformatted. The problem was I didn’t have anywhere to put all my files so I had to go out and buy another one just so I could copy over the files and fix it. Crazy right?! I hope I can help someone else avoid this conundrum by listing my own hard drive space on rentoid.

Dumbells - These are something that many people have, but think about it, if you’re like me, most people don’t use them every day and the days I do use them it will only be for 15 minutes or so.

Suit - what do I need this for? Weddings and funerals. Do these come around often? Nope.

TVs - Sure, it might turn out that nobody wants to rent your old TV but you never know, and it certainly doesn’t hurt trying.

I’ll be listing these on rentoid in the next few days. What items do you have lying around the house that could be out there making you easy money?

Geordie - rentoid team.

In her book ‘What’s mine is yours’ Rachel Botsman talks about the rise of a new movement which is sweeping the globe called ‘Collaborative Consumption’.

‘Collaborative Consumption describes the rapid explosion in swapping, sharing, bartering, trading and renting being reinvented through the latest technologies and peer-to-peer marketplaces in ways and on a scale never possible before’.

To learn more about ‘Collaborative Consumption’ check out www.collaborativeconsumption.com

Rentoid is a part of the Collaborative Consumption movement and we are very proud of that, but today we are beginning a series of blog posts looking at some of the other ways this game-changing idea has materialised around the world - starting with peer to peer lending.

Ever wondered how all the biggest, most glitzy buildings in most cities are those of the banks? Or how a small group of men on Wall street managed get multi-billion dollar bailouts from the US government after gambling billions of dollars of other people’s money, losing, creating a financial meltdown? How is it possible for these people to be so obscenely rich when they are just moving money around and not actually creating anything of value?! It’s because banks pretty much run the world (see this documentary ‘money as debt’ for more info - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2550156453790090544#).

It’s a sad story, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but there is hope! With the arrival of the Internet and the Web, peer to peer lending is now possible so we cut those greedy parasites (bankers) out of the deal once and for all! What is peer to peer lending? Here is a good explanation from Zopa - a market leader in p2p lending:

Peer-to-peer lending is a smarter, fairer and more human way of doing money. It’s like borrowing and lending with your friends and family - except there are thousands of people you can lend and borrow with.

Both lenders and borrowers get better rates, because peer-to-peer lending is more efficient than the traditional banking model. Banks have massive overheads, with thousands of employees to pay and hundreds of branches to maintain. So they have to take large margins on the money that passes through them.

There’s no smoke and mirrors here. Banks use your money to make even more money for themselves. They lend some of it out, gamble some of it on the price of tin or the Yen depreciating, and invest the rest in any other money-making schemes they can think of.

Whereas at Zopa, people who have spare money lend it directly to people who want to borrow. There are no banks in the middle, no huge overheads and no unethical investments.

Also check out other p2p lending organisations such as ‘prosper’ - www.prosper.com and ‘lending club’ - www.lendingclub.com

Let us know what think about p2p lending!

Geordie - rentoid team.

Trying to make some extra dough? Want to do work that feels meaningful? Rent yourself out on rentoid! (No we don’t mean it like THAT)

Rentoid is all about creating value from things that aren’t being used as much as they could be. The stuff we own is a classic example of this, but something else that isn’t being used as much as it could be is us - or more specifically, our labour, time, skills etc

• Do you have any skills that someone in your community might need?
• Can you can make a good curry? Put yourself up on rentoid and I’ll hire you to cook for me one night!
• Can you speak a Chinese? I’ll hire you to be my tutor!
• Can you play jazz guitar? I’m having a dinner party and it would be SO cool to have some live music!

People often have many special talents they have acquired over the years, and they don’t have to be things you have learnt during your formal education or in your professional life either!

If you don’t have any skills that’s fine too! Want to earn some extra cash and do some good? Rent out your physical labour to the older lady next door who needs some furniture moved. Go and baby sit for the family down the road. Come over to my place and I’ll pay you a few bucks to do the washing up because I had a long day at work and just don’t feel like it!

So list yourself on rentoid to make some extra cash, help your community and hey, you might even have some fun doing it!

Geordie - rentoid team.

How to be your own boss, make money and create value for your community - become a rentrepreneur!

I’m sure that most of you have heard of a little company in silicon valley called eBay yeah? (If not you’ve probably been living under a rock, but that’s ok!). Well I don’t know this for sure, but I would guess that the vast majority of people that use ebay are ordinary folk like you and me - people who want to sell something they hardly ever use or buy something online because it is often much cheaper. Well did you know that there are also a large number of people who sell things on eBay for a living, not just for a bit of extra cash? So here’s a thought, why not do the same thing on rentoid?

1. List the items that you already have and that you are happy to rent out on rentoid
2. Tell your friends, family, neighbours or heck, anyone who will listen to do the same
3. Ask those people to also list which items they would like to rent themselves
4. See which items are in high demand on the rentoid wanted list
5. Go and buy those items yourself, list them on rentoid for a price that is fair and will cover the cost of the item and there you have it! You have set up your own mini rental business!

By doing this you will:
-help your community make money from their idle assets
-help your community save money by encouraging them to rent instead of buying goods that are used infrequently
-help your community create closer relationships by doing business with one another
-save the environment too by reducing the number of things that need to be produced
-create value for other rentoid members, because like the telephone or the Internet, the more people use it the more valuable it is. You know it makes sense - Jusk like Keka said.

So give it a go, and please let us know if there is anything you would like help with that we could cover in future blog posts - such as how to convince people to use rentoid (it makes perfect sense to us! But we realise the rentoid model is something that most people are new to).

Cheers, Geordie.

We’ve recently been talking about Australian current affair TV show called the Hungry Beast. W think it is clearly the best show on television. The good news for those who haven’t seen it is that every episode is available via the ABC iView channel on the web.

Last week they ran an entire episode about “waste”. Which was very interesting and at times even disgusting. It’s a topic close to our hearts here at rentoid as we very much encourage a better utlisation of resources via renting (the worlds oldest commercial form of effective asset management)

Here’s a little clip they did on bottled water…. an old enemy of ours, especially in a country like Australia where what comes out of the tap ‘for free’ is as good as it gets.