A Guide On How To Start An Electric Scooter Rental Business

It’s only 3 months til the end of 2024 and the new year. What if we tell you to set up your scooter-sharing business from scratch in these three months? A new year with new opportunities for electric scooters for rental service business. We say it’s a feasible dream with the right plan and schedule. We will discuss the process to set up your electric scooter rental business and kickstart your journey in this lucrative business with a CAGR of 18.9% by 2027. 

Before jumping into the nitty gritty of starting the business, let’s focus on why this business has potential. Global warming and the whooping inflation have made life hectic in recent years. Most of us have faced the not-so-sweet ride of public transport in the rush hours or getting stuck on the road honking for hours, HOURS! That’s where micromobility tools like bikes and electric scooters have changed how we travel. 

The micro-mobility solutions like electric scooter rental businesses bring an affordable, environment-friendly, and efficient traveling solution for saving time, money, energy, nature, and natural resources. Younger folks find these rides much more fun and efficient than the traditional ones because of the electric scooter benefits, and the low pollution and carbon emission add to the brownie points. Therefore, electric scooter rental companies like Bird and Lime have blown up the market earning Millions! 

You can make a profit and contribute to nature’s well-being easily like them. But, how do electric scooter rentals work? Let’s take a look into the process of setting up a well-functioning electric scooter rental business. 

Process to set up your electric scooter rental business

Following are the key steps to set up your e-scooter rental business from scratch! We suggest you sit up with a note and pen and take notes for a head start. 

Create a business plan for the scooter rental business 

In our busy lifestyle, the number of grocery store errands has reduced. Imagine buying groceries, cleaning supplies, and storage boxes for your home in one trip. If you have forgotten any items; let’s shake hands because it’s a ‘Us’ moment! A list can make this shopping shenanigans easier and more manageable beyond imagination. The business plan is like a list for your electric scooter rental business. It helps you stay focused, avoid management blunders, streamline business procedures, and track progress well. 

A business plan is a layout and a written plan of your business. It is found that having a business plan boosts business growth by 30%. Therefore, you first need to take some time to map every detail of your business. 

Creating a well-researched and structured business plan might take 1-2 weeks. 

It includes all the details about the:

• Business Description: The description is about your company. You need to describe what your company does, what is your mission and vision statement, your team, and location, define your target audience, and all such details in summary format for an overview of your business. You can use this to secure funding and get loans. 
• Market Analysis: A company operates in a market, in the presence of a wide range of customers and competitors targeting those customers. So, perform a local market analysis to identify the potential of the scooter rental business market and if it has your target audience. Analyze the competitors and gather information to measure the entry barrier, competitive scope, and effective strategies, and learn from the mistakes they have made. 
• Goals Setup: Now that you have an understanding of the market you can need to set some goals for your electric scooter rental business. For example, the location of your scooter-sharing business, the target customers, and the half-yearly and yearly goals (users, profits, or any metric) to achieve. It helps you stay accountable and on track. 
• Operation Management: You need to make some serious decisions. It includes choosing the appropriate location to launch your business, a suitable model of electric scooter for rental (docked or dockless), rebalancing fleets for maximum utilization, the rent price for maximum profitability, team management for maintenance and customer service, and managing other legal obligation of the business. 
• Marketing Strategies: The survival of your business depends on how well you find and target your target audience. You must lay out a well-structured marketing plan to find your target audience and run marketing campaigns to convert potential users into loyal customers. Digital marketing has been found to gain popularity among the locals and attract tourists from other countries. For example, Voi uses quirky and trending memes on their Instagram to attract users and boost their leads. It helps them stay relevant in the market and communicate with the target audience the way their audience likes. 
• Financial management: Finance is the soul of any business. Therefore, you need to keep your finances right and accurate. It includes creating funding for your electric scooter rental business, tracking your balance sheets, revenue management, development cost, and considering the expenses and the profit you’ll get. Understand and create a strategy to manage your finances and distribute your revenue to boost the business. 
• Team management: A team can make or break your business. So, make your choice wisely. Choose a small team with skills to begin with. These team members can help you efficiently handle the operations, and legal obligations, maintain the scooters for maximum utilization and boost customer experience, manage finances, and more. List down which positions you need to run your organization without hiccups and recruit those people after careful selection. 

Register business with local government authority 

The micro-mobility industry, especially electric scooter rental companies, has faced more lawsuits than one can imagine. One of the main reasons is the safety of riders while riding a scooter. So, having your records set is essential to work hassle-free. Therefore, as soon you have your business plan ready and a simple office establishing your company, you must start the legal procedure to register your business with the local authority where your e-scooter will be used. 

Thoroughly research the local regulations for the electric scooter rental companies and the rides. The permits could be for scooter speed, models, security measures, safety requirements, and parking structures. It helps you create a business plan and get the approval from the local authority. 

Local government permits and approval might take up to 1-2 months if done with proper research and planning. 

Buy the scooters suitable for business  

Imagine creating tiramisu without good coffee; is it worth it? The electric scooter rental business is like that; less worthy without a good quality e-scooter. You need to find the scooters, and the necessary parts like docking setup, IoT devices, and more to give the best user experience to your users. Pay attention to the scooter, the IoT integration, the structural integrity of the scooter, and the credibility of the scooter provider. It helps you benefit from optimum resource utilization for your e-scooter rental business. 

You can use the following questions to streamline the process of selecting the right e-scooter for your rental business. 

• How much electric scooter costs? (for better profits)
• How much maintenance do e-scooters need?
• Does the scooter have the necessary safety features?
• How long does the battery last on a busy and slow day? 
• Does the scooter integrate directly with my business management software? 

It might take up to 1 – 3 weeks to deliver the scooter and the supporting equipment to kickstart your business. Thus, start your research right after to apply for permissions to quicken the process up. 

Create a customer app for renting the scooter 

An app is the visual front of your company, where your users reside the most. You must invest in creating a well-designed app for a seamless user experience and retain them. But how do electric scooter rentals work on an app? Following are a few expectations users might have from an electric scooter rental app. Furthermore, we have added a few features that ensure better user engagement and satisfaction. 

• An app that loads fast and error-free 
• A live list showing available scooters nearby 
• Easy booking procedure for the desired scooter 
• Telematic maps to help you travel 
• Swiftly lock and unlock the scooters 
• Live map to reach your destination and find appropriate parking
• Profile management to participate in promotional events 
• Customer support section for immediate assistance 

You can build a custom application for the users. However, creating a reliable user application might take up to 1-1.5 months if you entrust it to a skilled  E-Scooter Sharing App Development company. But, what if we tell you you can get a user-centric electric scooter-sharing app without any development from scratch? Yes! Our scooter rental solution created by experts includes a user app including the features mentioned above on a subscription basis. Pay the subscription and you have a scooter-sharing app that aligns with your brand image, color themes, and more. Within 1-3 weeks, you have a user-friendly app ready to launch! 

Read our blog on how to select the  Best E-Scooter App Development Company! 

Setup CRM software for operation management 

Software is the heart electric scooter rental business. The CRM software helps you manage your operation from a single screen, all you need to do is connect your e-scooters with the system and you are good to go. Through this CRM software, you can:

• Track your electric scooters on the road
• Mapout travel zones and avoid harm 
• Pinpoint parking areas 
• Manage revenue for your business 
• Rebalance your scooters for better utilization 
• Adopt dynamic pricing for better profitability 
• Tackle customer queries in an instant 
• Create analysis reports from collected data

CRM software development may take 1-2 months or even more due to many technical errors. You can avoid the hassle and yet enjoy the same benefits through subscription-based CRM software like Squillion Tech provides. It has all the above-mentioned qualities with added staff-based access for data governance and vehicle inventory tracking to offer the best services to your user. All it takes is 1-2 weeks to customize the visuals of the software for you. 

How does Squillion Tech help you streamline electric scooter rental service?

Squillion Tech has developed a  Scooter Sharing Software designed to keep the needs of a scooter-sharing rental business in mind. Our skilled developers, UI/UX designers, and marketers have worked on developing this stunning software and user app solution for our users. Through the software, you can integrate your scooters, manage your inventory, rebalance scooters, track scooters, provide customer support, and collect and analyze your data. With the customizable e-scooter application you can engage the users, and push up your marketing plans. We offer a complete solution to help you kick-start your journey and streamline your operations in one place. 

Why should you trust Squillion Tech?

• We help you automate your operations
• We make tracking easy with a telematic GPS system 
• Rebranding the user app to fit your brand image 
• Integrate third-party APIs and the scooters with software 
• Live insights into the inventory 
• We help you create custom map zones 
• Get data insights from the analysis 
• Robust maintenance services meeting industry standards

We can help you set up the software and app within 1-2 weeks in case of customizations, to help you kick start your electric scooter rental business and streamline your operations like a pro! Get on call with us for more information, it’s a free demo! 

Conclusion 

The micro-mobility industry is booming, especially electric scooters for the rental business. So, in these three months, you can set up an electric scooter rental business from scratch to start your 2025 with a bang! We discussed how to create a business plan to outline the structure of your business and the elements necessary for your business. Once you have a reliable plan, immediately register the business and get the necessary permits for the scooter-sharing business in the location. 

Buy the scooters that align with your goals and budget, start with only 10-15 scooters, and gradually increase the number based on demand. Most importantly, create a user-friendly app so customers can rent the scooter easily and software to manage your operations. Squillion Tech can help you save your precious time with personalized subscription-based software and brandable user applications. Contact us for more information.