Here is what your website could look like at each of the three price levels, plus an optional add-on. These are pictures of what the site would look like, not a working site. Nothing here takes real payments yet.
If you only read one part, read this. Everything below is just the same three options with pictures, so you can see what you are buying before you decide.
A one page site that takes payment. You text each customer afterward to set the delivery day.
Customers pick their own delivery date and pay. You get a daily orders page and automatic review requests.
Customers choose how many totes, prices update live, texts go out automatically, and you get an inventory dashboard.
One page that explains the offer and takes payment. After someone pays, you are the one who texts them to set the delivery day. This is the fastest way to be open for business.
Sturdy totes delivered to your door. Keep them two weeks. We pick them up when you are done.
Not sure if we reach you? Text us and we will let you know.
Texas charges sales tax on rentals, so it is added here automatically based on the delivery address.
Every order needs this back and forth. At one or two rentals a day, that is manageable. Past that it starts eating your evenings, which is what the next option fixes.
The customer picks their own delivery date and pays. You both get an email confirming the day. No back and forth texting to schedule. You open one page each morning and see the day laid out.
Pickup two weeks later, on August 5.
Confirmation sent to your email.
Need to change your date? Text us at least 24 hours ahead.
Hi Ana, thanks for booking with Carry More.
Stack them by the front door on pickup day and we will handle the rest. Questions? Just reply to this email.
Carry More Tote Rental · Corpus Christi, TX
Hi Ana, thanks for letting us handle your boxes. We picked everything up this afternoon.
If we did right by you, would you leave us a quick review? It takes about 30 seconds, and it is the biggest help you can give a brand new local business.
People searching for movers filter by reviews before they ever click a website. Twenty rentals where you ask every time get you most of the way to being taken seriously. Twenty rentals where you never ask get you nothing you can show the next customer.
| Time | What | Customer | Where | Totes | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 | Drop off | A. Ramirez | Flour Bluff, 78418 | 20 + dolly | Paid |
| 11:00 | Drop off | J. Whitfield | Southside, 78413 | 20 | Paid |
| 1:30 | Pick up | M. Salas | Calallen, 78410 | 20 | Due back |
| 3:00 | Drop off | D. Nguyen | Downtown, 78401 | 20 + dolly | Paid |
| 4:30 | Pick up | R. Castillo | Padre Island, 78418 | 20 | Due back |
Customers choose how many totes they want and the price updates as they tap. Pickup reminders go out by text on their own. You also see a running count of how many totes are out at customers' houses.
Good for a 2 bedroom home.
Example pricing only. You set these numbers, and I can change them any time without rebuilding anything.
Before texts can turn on, the phone companies have to approve the number. That usually takes a few days and I handle it. The site works fully in the meantime, and emails go out from day one.
Eight weeks. The taller the bar, the busier the week.
You mentioned wanting help with social media. Here is my honest take: for a business that can only deliver in Corpus, getting your Google listing right matters more than any post you will ever make. This sets it all up properly once, and leaves you with posts and a plan you can keep using.
20 totes delivered to your door for $99, two full weeks. No cardboard to buy, nothing to break down when you are done. Booking August dates now.
Sample listing. The 4.9 rating and 21 reviews shown here are an example of what this looks like after a few months of asking every customer, not something that exists today.
Correct category, service area, hours, description, and your photos loaded in. This is the piece that decides whether you appear when someone in Corpus searches for boxes.
I create them, add your logo, and link them to your website and back again. Nextdoor matters here more than people expect: verified businesses post free to the neighborhood feed, and people there ask for moving help constantly.
Captions ready to paste and a list of what to film on your phone. Enough to cover your first three months without staring at a blank screen.
I do not post for you every week. That is a real job with a real monthly cost, and if I folded it into the website price, I would be promising ongoing work I could not keep up with. If you decide later that you want someone running it, I will tell you honestly what that costs.
| What it does | Basic $750 | Standard $1,800 | Full $3,500 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website with your offer and price | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Takes card payments | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Domain and business email set up in your name | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sales tax handled at checkout | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Customer picks their own delivery date | No | ✓ | ✓ |
| Turns away addresses outside your area | No | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automatic confirmation emails | No | ✓ | ✓ |
| Daily orders page for you | No | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automatic review request after pickup | No | ✓ | ✓ |
| Built so Corpus Christi searches can find you | Name and address only | ✓ | ✓ |
| Google listing filled in and social accounts set up | Add on, $450 | Add on, $450 | Add on, $450 |
| Customer chooses how many totes | No | No | ✓ |
| Automatic text reminders | No | No | ✓ |
| Inventory dashboard | No | No | ✓ |
| Care plan available after launch | $125/mo | $125/mo | $125/mo |
| Your time per order, after launch | 5 to 10 min | Almost none | None |
Before the website can take money, a few accounts have to exist in your name. Some of this only you can legally do, because it is your business, your identity, and your bank account. None of it is hard. But a few things have a waiting period, so starting early is what decides whether you open next week or next month. I will walk you through every one of these on a call. You do the typing, I do the explaining.
Texas counts renting out physical items as a taxable sale, so renting totes means collecting sales tax. Texas requires this permit from any business that rents things out. There is no exception for small businesses, so you need it before your first rental. It is free to apply and takes about two to three weeks to come through, which makes it the longest wait in this entire project.
Apply at the Texas ComptrollerHere is the part that puts money back in your pocket. Once you have that permit, you can give your supplier a resale certificate and buy totes without paying sales tax on them, because you will be collecting tax when you rent them out. On a few hundred totes that adds up fast. One catch: the tax break only covers totes you rent out. If you keep some for yourself, you owe tax on those. Worth one phone call to a CPA before your next order.
Read the resale certificate rulesGoogle confirms you are really the owner by mailing a postcard or calling you, so only you can do it. This is the free listing that decides whether you show up when someone in Corpus searches for boxes, and it matters more for a local business than the website does.
Claim it on GoogleYour EIN is on the letter the IRS sent when you registered. Stripe needs your EIN, and Stripe has to deposit into an account in the business name, not your personal account. Most banks open one the same day with your EIN and LLC paperwork.
Look up your EIN at the IRSI have both $15 and $20 written down for the dolly, so I need the real one, plus the exact business name as it should appear on the site, the email, and the receipts.
Your phone is fine. A stack of totes, one open with the lid off, totes loaded in your vehicle, and a stack by someone's front door. This is the one thing I genuinely cannot do for you, and it matters more than any design choice here. Stock photos of generic brown boxes make a new company look fake, and your black totes with the yellow lids are the most recognizable thing you own.
Your web address, bought on your card so you own it outright. Watch the renewal price, not the first year price. Some companies charge a dollar the first year and twenty every year after.
Something like hello@carrymoretoterental.com instead of a personal Gmail address. It costs almost nothing and it changes how seriously people take a new company, especially a realtor deciding whether to refer you.
Stripe takes the card payments and deposits the money in your bank. You type your Social Security number, EIN, and bank details yourself. I will be on the call explaining each box, but I never type your numbers and never write them down. If you add me to the account, you can remove me any time. After you submit, Stripe verifies you on their own schedule, usually one to three business days.
Create your Stripe accountWhere the website actually lives. On your card, in your name, so nothing about your business is trapped behind my login.
The site asks them automatically, but asking out loud at pickup while you are standing right there works better than any message. Getting to twenty reviews is the difference between people trusting you and people scrolling past you.
A calm reply to a complaint convinces people more than a row of perfect ratings, because it shows the next person what you do when something goes wrong.
You already said they asked for something to hand out. A realtor who can text your link to a client who is dreading packing is worth more than months of posting, because that realtor sends you customer after customer.
I need two things: the real dolly price, since I have both $15 and $20 in my notes, and your EIN. Stripe will not turn on payments without the EIN, so this is the thing that decides how fast you can take money.
Plain English. What I am building, what it costs, what happens if you want changes later. Half up front to start, half when the site goes live.
You create the domain, the business email, and the Stripe account with me walking you through each screen. Everything ends up in your name, on your card, under your password. I never type your Social Security or bank details, and you can lock me out any time.
You see a working version first, and you can send me two batches of changes at no extra cost. Payments switch on once Stripe finishes verifying you, which is on their clock and usually takes one to three business days.
I hand you a short list of what to do if something breaks. If you want me on call for updates after that, it is $125 a month. That includes the monthly website and email costs listed above, so you would not pay those twice. That part is optional and you can start or stop it whenever.