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Meet Clint Crowe of Elite Event Rental in Marietta

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Clint Crowe.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
In late 2011, Andy Crowe approached me with an idea for a startup. I was in my first year at Georgia State University, studying business. His idea was to fund a tent and event rental startup which I would operate and eventually inherit. This was Entrepreneurship 101, and I would be learning how to launch a startup and run daily operations in tandem with my schooling. In early 2012 I had a website designed, purchased inventory, and began networking with everyone I could.

The first two years I purchased or sub-rented anything I needed in order to pull off an event. I was taking any job that would have us, large or small, to get our name out there and build a reputation. Our focus was on tents, tables, chairs, and stages. If we didn’t have the inventory, then we would purchase it new. Our inventory grew rapidly, and over a 5 year span, we became one of Georgia’s largest rental providers.

We have doubled and sometimes tripled in growth every year since we started. Our capabilities have expanded to handle the South’s largest events, from Atlanta’s food and music festivals to Georgia’s most extravagant weddings and corporate events. One of our recent projects was the 2017 Atlanta Steeplechase where we provided over 40,000 square feet of tenting. In Mid-September, we’ll be providing 47,000 square feet of tenting and infrastructure for the Imagine Festival at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Balancing school, sales, company growth, and daily operations required a tremendous amount of work in the beginning. There were several semesters I had to take school part time while putting in long hours during peak seasons. Today, I’m blessed to have a team around me that run the ship while I’m working on strategic growth and direction.

This industry requires long hours and a lot of physical labor. Our largest initial points of pain were centered around sourcing labor for installations and strikes. The bulk of our equipment requires trained professions for installation. With every event, there is only one chance to get things right. This holds especially true for weddings and festivals.

To this day, we competitively bid on as much business as possible. We plan meticulously, holding daily production and strategy meetings to ensure success. We were fortunate enough to experience a major surge in growth this past year but that has brought on new issues with scaling efficiently and effectively. The end goal is to grow Elite into the largest rental provider in the south.

Elite Event Rental – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Elite Event Rental provides complete rental solutions for events of all sizes. We specialize in difficult and custom installations, facilitating turnkey installation and removal of tents, tables, chairs, stages, dance floors, and linens. We now own hundreds of tents, ranging in sizes from 100 square foot vendor tents to 20,000 square foot structures, and we add new inventory regularly. We pride ourselves on providing the cleanest equipment, punctual installations and removals, and tackling the most difficult jobs or timeline.

Our customers call us when they need their event done correctly with no margin for error. I thrive off of turning what others deem as “impossible” into my reality, and this bleeds into our business model and daily operations. In every event, there are creative solutions to problems and I challenge my team to tackle any problem thrown their way.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
The short answer is that reaching profitability was a huge success. Most startups never make it that far. Personal success looks like having the freedom to do what you want when you want to do it. Business success is similar in that it looks like having the ability to take on the jobs you want, while still providing the highest quality service for the jobs that you didn’t necessarily pick first. It feels like everyone is chasing money, but money never mattered as much to me as building a life by design. I set out on this journey to build an empire.

When I started this business, I had the smallest rental shop in the state. Now we are a top contender in every major bid. Making our first asset purchase was a huge success.

Completing our first installation and receiving a referral was the next. My next goal is to generate $1 million in operating revenue, and we’re not far off. We have doubled and sometimes tripled our revenue growth every single year. One day, I would like to own the largest rental company in Georgia, as well as open up additional locations across the Southeast. I consider every time we complete an event with a pleased customer as a success. It looks like creating a business that empowers customers, employees, and the community in equal measure. We don’t just rent tents, we help people create better experiences and give them the space and infrastructure to do so. This is never truer than during wedding installations. We take the stress off of the bride and groom so that they can focus on each other in the days leading up an event they’ve been thinking about for years.

Pricing:

  • As every event is custom, we have events that range from >$100.00 to <$80,000
  • A small tent stats at $125.00 and our largest tent costs more than $10,000 to install
  • Tables and Chairs start at $8.00 and $1.50 respectively
  • Tables linens range from $13-$25 depending on the material and the size
  • Stages and dance floors start at $80 and $35.00 per section. Stages come in 4’x8′ sections and dance floors come in 3′ x 3′ sections

Contact Info:

Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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