Jesus Martinez launched Cine Glow in San Diego after renting a single LED to the agency where he had been employed as a cinematographer and gaffer. He understood the demands of traveling film crews and indie productions on the services provided by local rental house owners.
Today, Cine Glow rents Dana Dollys, lights and accessories for commercials, indie features, and documentaries. As a film producer as well as an equipment rental provider, using spreadsheets to manage rentals became impossible. The need to distinguish the tracking of rental revenue from production was making communication difficult among the company’s growing staff.
After a thorough search for a program that provided the internal management capabilities as well as the ability for customers to book equipment online, Jesus chose Booqable. The Booqable team management tools along with its revenue reporting capabilities set Jesus on the right path toward building a significant camera rental business in San Diego.
Managing a growing team with one shared system
Before Booqable, Cine Glow relied on spreadsheets and manual communication to manage rentals. As orders increased, it became harder to delegate tasks clearly between the team’s three members. Jesus needed a system that everyone could access easily without spending hours on training or setup.
Here’s how it works. Booqable gives Cine Glow one central platform where the team can manage the entire camera rental process together. Staff members can have their own login seats, making it easier to assign responsibilities and track updates.
Staff can be assigned to orders with the order tags and activity logs display who modified a rental, product, or customer’s details. While still relatively new to the mobile app, Jesus also acknowledges that allowing staff to add notes and process orders from their phones is convenient.
The benefits for Cine Glow are:
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Streamlined delegation of preparing and returning rentals
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Easier onboarding, as the application is user-friendly and straightforward
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Increased transparency as to who processed a particular order or customer request
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Mobility for staff, enabling them to run the company remotely.
For Jesus, this was a significant solution as the one issue he struggles most with being an entrepreneur managing a booming camera rental business is the juggling of responsibilities. He previously worked off of multiple scattered spreadsheets and relied on email threads; now, his team can collaborate efficiently within a single platform.
Tracking rental revenue in real time
One of Cine Glow’s most significant issues pre Booqable was managing the financial side of the business. When rentals and production were operating under the same company it was becoming incredibly difficult to figure out where the real profit for the camera rental side of the business was coming from.
Booqable’s reporting tools gave Cine Glow a clearer overview of the business. Jesus can now view total revenue, track paid invoices, and see outstanding balances directly from the documents page. As online orders come in, everything updates in real time, helping the team stay current with incoming rentals and payments.
The reporting tools also allow Cine Glow to generate company and customer reports whenever needed. On top of that, exported PDF invoices make it easier to break down production invoices line by line for clients.
The reporting features help Cine Glow by:
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Separating rental income from production work more clearly
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Tracking payments and outstanding balances in real time
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Giving the team a better understanding of how the camera rental business is performing
For Jesus, having accurate reporting removed a lot of uncertainty from the business. Instead of guessing where revenue was coming from, Cine Glow can now make decisions with a much clearer understanding of its growth month after month.
Growing into San Diego’s local rental hub
As more and more clients have started finding Cine Glow online Jesus has already begun to see shifts in their renting behavior. Productions have begun looking through the available equipment, ordering extra equipment and renting solely from the website.
This increased exposure has already helped them expand and plan their future endeavors of moving into their own operation location. The future for Cine Glow according to Jesus is to become the hub where camera rental happens for productions who travel to San Diego.
And with the use of Booqable, the team can assign orders, rent equipment and track their income more effectively. This provides them with a strong framework for the future. According to Jesus “Booqable has been awesome because I can finally see the light at the end of the rental tunnel.”
