Meet Jeffrey Guzman

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jeffrey Guzman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jeffrey below.

Hi Jeffrey, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

Hello everyone, My name is Jeffrey Guzman, and I am the owner of KC Mobility Scooter Rentals LLC, based out of Leavenworth, Kansas. My business provides mobility equipment rentals such as wheelchairs, mobility scooters, knee scooters, rollators and transport chair to Kansas City and surrounding areas.

If I was to choose a person that I believe taught me my work ethic, I would have to say my father. Throughout my life my dad has changed his job multiple times. He has been a mover, a delivery driver, has worked in a factory and most recently works for Fedex.

As a young boy I remember taking trips with him during his shift delivering drinks and snacks to many convenience stores up and down the New Jersey coast. As I got older my father worked for a uniform company, and convinced his boss to hire me when I was in 8th grade to push racks of clothes from the commercial laundry to the storefront. I worked about two hours a day.

As I got older, I knew that I did not have the luxury of being given what I wanted, so I continued working jumping from different jobs such as working at burger king, to being a file clerk at multiple doctor’s offices and finally my uncle’s pizza joint as a delivery driver until I left New Jersey for a 20 year career in the Army.

I believe these early job, taught me the lesson if I wanted nice things, I had to work for them.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

As a owner of a mobility equipment rental business, I will be the first to admit that this business is not what I expected. I honestly assumed it was going to be like renting a car, no real emotions tied into the business, simply renting equipment to people. I quickly learned that this business is nothing like that. My business is providing not only a service, but also an opportunity that restores a person’s freedom of movement to those who are suffering mobility issues.

The phone conversations and reviews left by customers have opened my eyes that this business is a lot bigger than myself. I am a integral part of providing families memories when they are able to rent their parent a mobility scooter or wheelchair, so they can explore the attractions of Kansas City. I feel an obligation to provide the best rental equipment, making sure that it is operational, clean, and well maintained, because it directly impacts a person’s vacation and their memory of Kansas City.

I want to be a ambassador to our wonderful city and surrounding community.

In addition to reliable and clean equipment, another reality that I feel some of my competitors miss is customization. We have all had vacation plans that have gone bad. Flights are delayed, can’t catch a taxi, hotel room booked. While many places have very strict rules and procedures, I am flexible to help make a clients trip less stressful. One example that pops into my head was a lady that called me who was visiting out of state for a softball tournament, something happened and her husband fell and broke both of his ankles. Being out of state on a Sunday with no idea how she was going to be able to transport her husband she called me. We quickly determined that their would be no way she would be able to return the wheelchair rental, I simply sold her the wheelchair at a fair rate to help her family get back home, since no stores were open in the local area.

Overall, I love this business and it brings me joy having the opportunity to help people.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The quality I believe that is important for any small business owner is empathy, when a customer walks in the door or contacts us they have a problem and are looking for a solution. Sometimes the customer does not know exactly what they may need or are confused on the process. Having empathy helps put me into the client’s shoes to assist them in finding a solution.

The skill that I think is essential for my business is basic repair skills. It is necessary to know your equipment and how to disassemble and reassemble and make quick repairs to ensure that your equipment is well maintained and to be able to answer questions from clients who may not be familiar with your equipment.

Lastly I believe self awareness is an essential area of knowledge as a small business owner. Know your current limitations, build smart and build slow. While we all want to be extremely successful as small business owners growing to fast and not being aware of what can go wrong has the ability to do more damage than good for your business. In today’s internet age, people are quick to leave reviews highlighting a negative experience. Lacking awareness and not balancing growth with customer service is a recipe for disaster.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I am always looking for people to collaborate with, especially if adding accessibility will benefit their business or event. I would love opportunities to provide rental equipment such as mobility scooters, wheelchairs, or transport chairs for conventions or locations. Typically we can work different solutions several of which are no cost to the host such as being named a preferred vendor for mobility equipment with our contact information on their website or a host can provide us with a no cost vendor spot to operate our rentals out of. Additionally we are always looking for long term rental contracts, where we would stop in and do maintenance every month. If anyone would be interested in collaborating, we can be contacted by phone (913) 775-1098 or email address: rentals@kcmobilityscooterrentals.com

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