 APRO: The Official Voice of the Rent to Own Industry
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APRO's Exclusive Rent-to-own Audio and Podcasts
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Rent to own Audio & Podcasts: Dan Cole, National Rent To Own
Dan Cole, National Rent To Own
Dan Cole is an MRDA Board Member and its political action committee chairman who opened his first National Rent To Own -- now a 33-store chain located mostly in metropolitan St. Louis -- in 1984. MRDA's decision to incorporate a training program into its annual Heartland of America Tradeshow is one that will serve both vendors and the store managers who attend the show. On Capitol Hill, Cole will again head to Washington, D.C. for the APRO Legislative Conference to educate a new Congress about the rent-to-own transaction and put a personal face on the industry. He said dealers have to frame the rent-to-own transaction very carefully. "Once we've had a chance to sit down and explain to them (Congress members) what our program is all about, we turn every single one of them," Cole said. "Absent that, if we don't frame what we do, we leave it open to the consumer groups to misrepresent us. So we've been very successful teaching people how we operate." A healthy PAC fund is critical Cole said, for state associations and for building political relationships. "The purpose of it really is it provides a conduit for us to meet with our legislators at the state level," Cole said. "They need money and it doesn't buy influence but it does buy access for us to be able to go in and talk to these people. It keeps our name in front of people and it's allowed us to make a lot of friends and keep them at the state level." In the midst of an economic downturn, Cole said it's important to stick to the basics and to keep the customer first. "One of the things we've got to keep in mind in the rent-to-own industry is our integrity and to make sure we are always doing the right thing by our customers," he said. "We try to keep our feet firmly on the ground and that's worked well for our company." | ||||
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2012 APRO Convention and Trade Show July 24-26, Memphis, TN
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RTOHQ: The Magazine
RTOHQ: The Magazine is the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations' award-winning rent-to-own industry magazine, and it's available here. | |||
 CLICK HERE FOR OUR DIGITAL RTOHQ: THE MAGAZINE
RTOHQ: The Magazine’s upgraded digital format APRO's new, mobile-ready magazine is now available in addition to our print edition. The digital format provides the same informative content as our printed magazine, but also offers tools to make the reading experience more enriching. Access the table of contents page with one click or tap. Get additional information from advertisers by clicking on the links in their ads. The interface is easy to navigate and requires no special app—read our magazine on your computer, digital table or smartphone. Click here to access the digital version of RTOHQ: The Magazine March-April 2012.
A New Rent-to-Own Experience by Neil Ferguson Here’s the lowdown on APRO’s 2012 Convention and Trade Show, July 24-26 in Memphis. The RTO industry’s big event will offer many valuable experiences, including insights on how to turn your stores into “experiences”–the good kind for consumers
Who Is Your Competition? by Bill Keese In order to expand your customer base, you can learn a lot by observing your competitors. But first, you need to figure out just who they are. If you think your only competition is the rent-to-own store down the street, you’re not considering the bigger picture. APRO’s executive director offers a big-picture perspective.
A Review of Online Customer Complaints by Ed Winn III While rent-to-own companies have not cornered the market on negative reviews posted on consumer complaint websites, it’s no surprise that there are cyberspace beefs against RTO. APRO’s general counsel reviews some of them in search of a pattern and he considers appropriate response to online complaints.
Rent-to-Own Families, Part VIII by Kristen Card Our series of family-run rent-to-own businesses continues with profiles of the Homeiers in Kansas and two Texas-based sets of kindred colleagues, the Spangles and the Weisblatts.
Future issues of APRO's magazine will be available in this same new format. Click here to access past issues that are not yet archived in the new interface.
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Association of Progressive Rental Organizations 1504 Robin Hood Trail Austin, Texas 78703 800/204-2776, ext. 103 Fax 512/794-0097 |