Rental Roundtable #40: From Teacher to Rental Leader - Chad Wagner’s Journey
In this episode of Rental Roundtable, Chad Wagner, owner of A1 Rent It, shares his journey from being a teacher to running a four-location rental business. Starting with one location, Chad and his wife rapidly expanded to three overnight, growing from six to 35 employees.
We discuss:
✅ The challenges and lessons from scaling so quickly
✅ How peer groups and the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) keep their business on track
✅ The evolving role of technology in rental operations
✅ Whether subscription models are the future of equipment rental
Chad Wagner
President/Owner
I am a third-generation rental equipment store owner. Our business was started in 1963 by my grandfather. I grew up working in the business after school and on the weekends, like many in the industry. I attended college in Wisconsin and earned a degree in mathematics education. Immediately following college graduation, I accepted a teaching position in Las Vegas where I lived and taught for three years. Upon returning to the Twin Cities and continuing my teaching career I re-entered the rental workforce during the summer months to help out my dad and earn some additional money. My wife also began working in the business full-time. After earning my master's degree in education I looked around and thought 'what next?'. So I approached my dad about working full-time in rental. After writing a business plan and being provided some additional responsibilities on the event rental side of the business, I continued to teach for another three years until the cashflow of the business would support my wages. I left teaching and came on full-time in 2014 as the branch manager of our single-location general tool & event rental business working alongside my dad, my wife and our two other full-time staff. In 2016, my wife and I purchased the business from my dad. He continued to work in the business until 2022. In 2021, we acquired another rental company with two locations (one gen tool, one party) and about 30 employees. Overnight we went from 6 employees to about 35 and from one location to three! In 2021 we hired an implementer and began our EOS jour… Read More