5. Renting Moving Totes: From $2,000 Startup to 61% Utilization with David Stillson

David Stillson hated cardboard boxes and that frustration turned into a business.When David and his wife Nikki needed to move, he went looking for a cheaper alternative to buying boxes and stumbled onto tote rental. For about $2,000, he bought a pallet of commercial logistics totes and dollies, used them for his own move, and started renting the rest. Their first customer needed totes to transport live coral from a 180-gallon fish tank. Their fourth rental was a 150-tote corporate order they didn't have the inventory to fill...yet.Now they're running 380 totes out of their garage, hitting 61% utilization, and booked out weeks in advance with residential movers, real estate agents, and corporate clients.In this episode, David covers:→ How he researched and validated the idea using ChatGPT and competitor scraping→ Why he chose commercial logistics totes over $7 Home Depot bins→ The bundle pricing structure that makes it easy for customers to say yes→ How in-person networking (and premium cookies) outperformed paid ads→ Logistics of delivering, cleaning, and storing hundreds of totes from home→ His advice for anyone who wants to start a rental side hustle this yearIf you've been looking for a physical rental idea that's low drama, low loss risk, and easy to scale from your own driveway, this episode is for you.