Hello again, it’s Ryan Andrews. I am REUZEit’s Chief Innovation Officer and have been an integral part of the company’s overall development selling used lab equipment. Over the past 10+ years, our vision of creating a circular economy through surplus asset management as a service has propelled REUZEit to what it is today. In this blog, I’ll be sharing part 4 of REUZEit’s origin and history series.
Transparency: The Key to a Good Client Relationship
We knew transparency was going to be key, mainly because we had our eyes and ears to our industry gathering information on common pain points experienced by other vendors in the used lab equipment resell space. There was a growing distrust, lack of thorough inventory logs, hidden storage and other fees, non-auditable financial and sales records, lack of communication, and even sometimes brokers completely ghosting the clients and taking the equipment, never to be heard from again. Knowing this was abundant, and sadly even is today, Justin and I knew our secret sauce at this point was to operate transparently.
We Had Our Work Cut Out for Us
A couple of weeks went by, and we had already sold seventy thousand dollars’ worth of equipment, netting our customer 10X what we would usually spend on the direct purchase. We presented our sales report; with Justin being the excel guru and ex-financial analyst, we had some very thorough reports. Needless to say, this client was ecstatic and invited us up again for another truckload!
We were sitting in the war room, where all the project leads of this massive closure were discussing the various tasks remaining to move used lab equipment out of all 8 buildings covering what seemed to be a million sqft. Over three hundred thousand in lab equipment costs to remove! We knew we could solve this pain point, so I spoke up. “Hey, we can take care of those cubicles at zero cost to you. Can we take that scope?” Being in the good graces that we were at the time, we were handed that scope, but with a nearly impossible deadline.
We had the scope of moving all the laboratory equipment and cubicles out of the buildings in two weeks! With a promise of zero net costs, or better, we had our work cut out in order to shine.
The Completion of Our Biggest Project Yet
We were still very much operating very lean at this point, often dipping our bank account to near zero paying for truck rentals necessary to finish this part of the project. With me coming up and driving truckloads of used lab equipment back down to Vista and fulfilling sales orders that had to ship out, Justin ended up running a majority of this cubicle and first set of building closures himself. Towards the end, Justin was frequently spending 24 hours onsite, with the occasional power nap, in order to finish it up. I came back up for the final push and broom sweep.
The landlord wanted no damage to be done during egress of this project, so extra care and costs for that care were incurred during the entirety of this 8-building project. Not a scratch, dent, or mess was left. A few months after the completion of this project, which spanned 14 months, the landlord tore down all the buildings. Ironically, our clients’ main competitors ended up building right on top of that site we closed down.
With this part of the project complete, we had made good on our promise–and actually exceeded it. Not only did we complete everything on time with no damage or major issues, we also came in well above the net zero goal and delivered a very sizable return back to our client. We felt like heroes.
Stay tuned for the final installation of our origin story.
REUZEit: The All-in-One Solution for Used and Surplus Lab Equipment
Investing in laboratory equipment for your scientific research is a necessary cost, and we’re committed to providing you with options that you can fit into your budget. Money saved on one product can be used to finance another resource that is just as important to your progress. Whether you’re searching for innovative chemistry lab equipment or looking to replace broken lab equipment, REUZEit offers low-cost solutions that work as hard as you do. Browse the best surplus and gently used biotech and pharmaceutical equipment on the market! Check out our USA-based store or our European-based store to shop discount laboratory equipment.
