Companies of all sizes and typessometimes buy equipment and sometimes rent equipment. This is also true when it comes to a trade show exhibit, which fits into a similar category of long term asset as other company assets have a useful life, depreciation and maintenance expenses when owned and capitalized. Of course, each instance is unique, however these suggestions may provide some assistance in deciding when yur company should rent a display instead of buying one.
To get started, you will need identify and estimate the financial and other costs of owning a display or booth. Clearly, there is the significant expense of the trade show display or exhibit itself, including accessories like podiums, flooring, monitors, kiosks and even cases for shipping the display to the show. And, at least for right now, let’s overlook the expense of graphics for the booth, since the accounting for graphics can vary depending on if your company uses different displays or the same display for successive shows. But your firm’s exhibit purchase expenses can range from ,500 if your company only owns a basic pop up display to tens of thousands of dollars or more if your company owns a large exhibit like a truss display or a modular trade show booth.
Then you have to calculate the expenses for display storage, which naturally varies with the size of the display your company has. You may be able to store the exhibit at the firm’s headquarters, but if that’s not possible it may be necessary to rent a storage facility or pay a storage company to store and protect the exhibit. If you lease storage space, it can cost 0-0 per month, depending on how large a space your company needs to rent, what location of the country the display is stored in and what other services are required.
Your firm will have expenses for the management and maintenance of owning a trade showexhibit – this is the way other tangible assets cost money to own and maintain, your company will incur expenses to maintain, inspect, repair, recondition and refurbish the exhibit. Typically, you can plan on 1-2 hours to get a 10 x 10 display prepped and ready for a trade show – removing it from the case, setting it up, inspecting it, fixing any broken bits and re-packing. Even pop ups and banner stands should be inspected – you can never be certain these portable displays work as expected unless you check. If you also have podiums or other display accessories, double the amount of time you budget to do a pre-show inspection. Use whatever typical labor rate your company allocates for overhead, because someone will in fact get paid to do the work (no free lunches).
And still your company must buy graphics for the display – the artwork. These expesnes can range from a few hundred dollars if you have banner stands up to several thousand dollars if your company has a large display. These costs don’t include shipping to and from the trade show. But if you total these expenses, it’s not at all difficult to come up with ,000 or more in expesnes to own a trade show exhibit – and possibly much more. And storage, maintenance and reapir happen every year.
Then there’s the unwelcome preparation frenzy – where is the exhibit? Who used it last? Where are the graphics? Where are the lights? Didn’t it have a shelf? If you own a trade show exhibit, someone needs to be familiar with these details and in charge of making sure the display gets to the trade show.
If this sounds easy to you (and better yet, cheap), you should stop reading right now since what I’ll say next won’t be relevant. But if this appears complicated, expensive and risky, a display rental may be a better way to go for your business than buying a display. Think of the differences. No money out of pocket to purchase the exhibit. No maintenance, storage and upkeep expenses. No more scrambling to find the lights (then buying new ones in a panic only to find them after the trade show).
A useful estimate is that renting costs 30-40% of a display purchase. But if you factor in the other expenses your company avoids, a display rental might really be less – maybe as little as 15-20% of the cost of buying – since buying has a lot of hidden costs. You might say “sure, buy then I have to buy new graphics every year and if I bought the display I’d only have to buy them once.” Well, make a plan to use the same display and your company can use the same trade show graphics. And ask your display company to store them – most will since you’ll be coming back for the display real.
Added to these financial factors, imagine a trade show where you running around at the last minute to find the display and inspect it. Imagine the display is delivered, looks great and is all set to go. This benefit – the freedom not to worry about your company’s trade show booth may be the best argument in favor of a trade show display rental.
It’s not for every business and there are always exceptions, but your business may find renting a trade show exhibit more cost effective – and a less stressful way to get to the trade show.
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Ted Ridgway is President of Impact Displays, which offers a broad range of trade show displays, trade show graphics and trade show display rentals for companies of all sizes. Impact Displays is located at 1934 Junction Ave in San Jose CA and can be reached at info@impact-displays.com or by calling 877-217-2681
