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Forty-four years ago, Mike Strong opened a rent-to-own store in Hutchinson, Kansas with a pickup, good credit, and a willingness to outwork the problem. Today, Mike’s Rent To Own has grown into 14 locations, and I got to sit down with Mike and his kids to hear the full family story, the rough edges included. We talk about the leap from an Army medic during the Vietnam era to corporate life at Chrysler, and why entrepreneurship felt like the only path where the future wasn’t capped by someone else’s plan.
Then we get into the real mechanics of building an RTO business that lasts: financing inventory when rates are brutal, doing deliveries after closing, and even the early days of running accounts on payment cards before rent-to-own software and modern systems changed everything. Mike shares the moment Curtis Mathis collapsed and how that forced a pivot into new vendors, furniture, appliances, and the constant question every RTO dealer faces, what do customers actually want right now? From VCRs and movie clubs to laptops, gaming systems, and Apple devices, the throughline is listening hard and finding a way to say yes.
We also dig into why small towns and rural markets can be a strength, not a limitation, and why relationship-based retail still wins. We talk community giving like Stuff The Trucks food drives, and the advocacy side through APRO, TRIB, and the Kansas Rental Dealers Association, including what it means to lead and give back in a misunderstood industry.
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