My first job in the rental business was washing dishes in the kitchen of the family's rental store. I was young enough that someone had to remind me to roll up my sleeves. From there I moved to washing tents after school and through every summer. Then onto the delivery trucks. Then into sales. Then into managing parts of the operation.
I have spent my life in this industry. I still own and run a rental business today through Encore Event Rentals. I am not someone who studied rental from the outside and decided it looked like a workable niche. I am someone who knows what a rental business actually feels like at every level, because I have done every level.
What you learn from inside the business
Operating teaches you things you cannot pick up from textbooks or industry reports. You learn what equipment actually costs to maintain versus what it earns. You learn which customers are profitable and which only look like they are. You learn the rhythm of capex — what to buy, when to buy it, and when to walk away from a piece of equipment that is no longer earning its keep.
You learn the grind of keeping equipment working when it absolutely has to work. You learn the specific pressure of making an event happen on time when there is no second chance. You learn the financial side of the business, too — what revenue is tied to, what margin looks like through a slow quarter, where the cash actually comes from and where it leaks out.
Most M&A advisors learn rental from the outside. They read the comps, study the multiples, talk to a few owners, and call themselves rental specialists. That is not the same thing. When I sit down with a rental owner to talk through what their business is worth, I am not interpreting the industry. I am part of it.
Most M&A advisors interpret this industry.
I am part of it.
Why the credentials matter
The operator experience is the foundation. The credentials are the discipline.
I hold the Certified Business Intermediary (CBI) designation from the International Business Brokers Association, the Certified Management Accountant (CMA) designation, and an MBA. I earned them because I believe a broker representing a business owner through what may be the largest financial event of their life should never stop learning. Rental owners deserve an advisor who understands both sides of the table — the operator's reality and the financial mechanics of how a business actually trades. The credentials are tools. They exist to do the work better.
Why rental, exclusively
There are plenty of competent business brokers in this country. Almost none of them know rental from the inside. Most have never washed a tent or stood in a rental yard at the end of a long week trying to figure out which units are coming back broken. Most cannot tell you what a fleet utilization number actually means in real cash terms. That gap is the reason Sater Advisory exists, and the reason it serves rental businesses exclusively. Rental owners deserve a broker who knows what they are selling.
How I work
Every engagement is handled directly by me. There are no junior associates running your deal while I sign the papers. The relationship is the work.
Confidentiality is built into every step. Pricing is built on what rental businesses actually trade for in today's market, not aspirational numbers from a glossy pitch deck. Your timeline drives the process, not mine. And the goal is not just a closed transaction — it is a transaction you will be proud of five years later, when the dust has settled and you are living the next chapter.