If you’re looking for information on how to start a hookah rental business, you’ve come to the correct spot. The best thing about starting a hookah rental business is that, aside from client phone calls and hookah delivery and pickups, you don’t have to be around all the time to operate it. In addition, starting a business renting out hookahs only requires a modest initial expenditure. You may discover more about this business endeavor and decide if taking this step is the correct one for you as an entrepreneur with the help of this step-by-step guide.
1. Familiarize yourself with the Hookah Rental Industry
Businesses that rent hookahs to certain demographics offer a crucial party service since supplies like hookahs are constantly in demand for parties. Hookah rental businesses provide a wide selection of hookahs to their clients. For short-term usage, businesses and consumers that don’t want to spend a fortune on hookahs can rent it. Party organizers, businesses, or individuals who need a few hookahs for a couple of days are likely to rent them out rather than purchasing them. It is more cost-effective to rent hookahs for a short period of time. This is the justification behind this service’s whole logic. After a hookah is rented, the rental business drops it off at the designated spot and picks it back up when the rental time is up.
Businesses and Individuals don’t have to worry about purchasing a hookah that they’ll only need temporarily. And on the other hand, Hookah rental businesses benefit from rental fees on their hookah on a regular basis. This allows hookah rental businesses to profit from their one-time hookah purchase and possibly scale the business by purchasing more hookahs in the inevitable future.
Market Research
Most hookah rental businesses cater to party organizers, event management agencies, and also individual clients. With such a multitude of uses, a hookah rental business can be highly profitable if you target the right audience. A hookah can truly make parties great, and a such rental business can cater well to anyone looking for a hookah temporarily. Hookahs, new or used, are very affordable all around. Therefore, if you want to get into a party supplies rental business, starting a hookah rental business is a great choice.
How much does it cost to buy a hookah?
You can buy simple and basic hookahs for as low as $100. However, if you want to start a hookah rental business you should buy at least a couple of high-quality and great-designed hookahs which will cost you around $800 each.
How much does it cost to start a hookah rental business?
You could start a hookah rental business at a basic level for around $3,000 (assuming you buy two new high-quality hookahs). An extra $1000 could get you off to a great start. That being said, if you want to operate on a bigger scale and want to provide a variety of hookah choices to your prospective customer, you will need to buy at least 5 high-quality hookahs to start with, which alone costs around $4,000. Therefore, it will cost you around $5,000(hookahs plus marketing-related costs) to start a hookah rental business on a big scale.
Keep in mind, if you want to go really cheap, you can either buy used hookahs, make your own hookahs or you could buy as you grow. If you don’t mind a little hard work, hookah rental is one of the best businesses to start and grow.
Is the hookah rental business profitable?
Yes, Starting a hookah rental business is incredibly profitable. However, make sure to do your market research properly and have a solid marketing strategy in place. The success of your hookah rental business will depend on the number of clients you find. Buying a single high-class designer hookah will cost you around $800. And you can rent the same hookah for around $50 per day. That means you will make all your money back by renting your hookah for just around 16 days. After that everything is your profit. Furthermore, unlike drone rental businesses, the maintenance cost for a hookah is next to nothing.
Is the hookah rental business worth it?
With such a low startup cost, a hookah rental business is absolutely worth it. You can realistically buy just one hookah and start your business journey from there. The best thing is you can even start a hookah rental business by buying used hookahs or even cheaper if you can build your own. A single high-quality commercial hookah can generate anywhere from $250 to $350 per week. Furthermore, this business is highly scalable and you can reinvest a portion of profit back into the business and scale it to a million-dollar rental business in no time.
2. Plan your hookah Rental Business
The planning phase is critical for the success of any business. The same applies to the hookah rental business too. Let’s get into some of the key steps you will need to understand while planning your hookah rental business.
Choose a name for your hookah rental business
Whether you want to start a hookah rental business or a party supplies rental business, you must choose a name that reflects your values and beliefs.
Keep in mind that the legal business name must comply with state naming rules in the states where you intend to operate your business; otherwise, the state may refuse to accept the documents filed to form or qualify your hookah rental business.
Prior to deciding on a name for your hookah rental business, it is also a good idea to talk about branding and how it will affect your business. The main question here is whether your legal business name will also be your brand name, or whether your brand name will be distinct from your legal name.
It is preferable to use your legal business name as your brand name when first starting out. Why? You may inquire. The reason for this is that it simplifies things, is extremely simple, and is significantly less expensive.
However, if you operate an informal business (sole proprietorship, limited liability partnership, or general partnership), some states require you to use your surname as the legal name of your company.
Would you mind if your surname served as your legal business name? If the answer is YES, you can proceed to the next step. On the other hand, if your answer is NO, please stick with me.
If you do not want to use your surname as your legal business name, you must file a Fictitious Business Name Statement with the county in which your hookah rental business’s head office is located.
Shopify’s Business Name Generator is super helpful while brainstorming brandable names for your hookah rental business. Once you decide on the name of your hookah rental business, you need to perform three final checks.
- First, check your State’s business name database to see if your desired business name is available.
- Second, do a domain name search to check if your business name is available as yourbusinessname.com. If it is available go ahead and register the domain before anyone else gets it. BlueHost offers domain names free of cost if your purchase 1-year hosting package with them. You can use the tool below to see if the domain name is available.
- And lastly, do a federal search on the US Trademark Electronic Search System and make sure nobody has already trademarked your name.
If the name for your hookah rental business is available you can choose to trademark it, but honestly – don’t bother about it right now. It is a lengthy process and will cost you around $600. I would rather spend the money and time on marketing channels.
Hookah rental business plan
If you want to start a successful hookah rental business, you will need a compelling business plan at a minimum. A well-written business plan should explain the company’s core objectives and how it plans to achieve them. One of the other purposes of a hookah rental business plan is that it makes your business look professional and appealing to prospective lenders and investors.
All in all, a well-written actionable hookah rental business plan is a crucial document for your hookah rental business. Without it, you’d be running around like a headless chicken.
A compelling business plan has many sections, some of the must-includes are:
- Executive Summary
- Business Description
- Market Analysis
- Competitor Analysis
- Services to Offer
- Competitive Pricing Strategy
- Marketing Strategy
- Fundings
- Financial Projections
You can use business plan software like BizPlan and Enloop to compose a professional-looking business plan. However, don’t get lazy and pay someone 20 bucks to write a business plan for your hookah rental business. You will need professional high-quality work.
3. Register your hookah Rental Business
You will need to register your hookah rental business in order to operate it as a legal entity. But before you register the business, you need to understand and choose a business structure for your hookah rental business. You’ll want to choose that intelligently because how you establish your hookah rental business will affect your taxes and legal responsibilities.
Consider one of the most frequent business structures:
a. Sole Proprietorship
This form of unincorporated business is owned by a single person or a married couple. Your business will not need to be registered, and your taxes will be reported on your personal tax return.
b. General Partnership
An unincorporated firm with numerous owners that, in terms of registration and taxes, is similar to a sole proprietorship.
c. Limited liability company (LLC)
A registered business that provides personal protection to all of its members in the event that your company gets sued. You can decide whether you want to be taxed as a partnership or as a corporation.
Incfile offers one of the best services when it comes to forming an LLC. Their pricing starts from just $0 + filing fees. And these costs are often tax-deductible.
d. Corporation
This is a sort of incorporated business, with S-corporations and C-corporations being the most popular. The taxes you pay will differ based on the sort of corporation you form.
4. Register for Taxes and Obtain an EIN
As a responsible business owner, you must always follow the law. That is, you must adhere to all tax, licensing, and employer regulations. Taking the time to learn about any legal requirements for running your hookah rental business will save you a lot of trouble—not to mention money and stress—down the road. What business taxes you must pay and how you must file them will be determined by the business entity you choose, as well as other aspects of your hookah rental business. It might be a good idea to speak with a tax professional right now to ensure you understand what to expect.
If your hookah rental business employs other individuals, you’ll need an employer identification number. This is also known as an EIN or a tax ID number for a business. You can obtain your EIN from the IRS online for free and use it when filing taxes for your hookah rental business. It is also required if you want to open a business bank account, get a business credit card, or apply for a business loan. Even if you do not intend to hire employees, obtaining an EIN has numerous advantages.
5. Get Funding for your hookah Rental Business
Even if you have a top-secret hookah rental business service approach that can capture the hearts of customers from miles away, but you don’t have enough money, your rental business will fail. It may sound absurd, but in order to make money, you must first have money. There is no escaping the fact that purchasing a wide variety of hookahs is costly. Well, if it weren’t so expensive, everyone would buy one, and the hookah rental sector would be dormant. Not to mention the fact that you may be paying exorbitant rent, marketing your service, and hiring personnel with lucrative salaries and benefits.
Small businesses like hookah rental businesses can take advantage of numerous incentives, subsidies, loans, and equity investments. However, regardless of the funding source you choose, you will need to have (at a minimum) the following documents:
- A hookah Rental Business Plan
- Projected Financial Statements
- Tax returns of both the business owner and the business itself (when available)
- An explanatory document on how the money will be used
- A description of services offered by your hookah rental business
After you’ve done the number crunching and figured out how much money you’ll need for your hookah rental business, you may look into the following choices.
Obtain Funds through SBA Backed Lenders
Even if you have little to no money and wish to start a hookah rental business, you may be eligible for an SBA loan. The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) works with lenders to provide loans to small businesses around the country.
One thing to keep in mind is that the agency does not make direct loans to small business owners. Instead, it develops guidelines for its lending partners, community development organizations, and micro-lending institutions.
SBA-guaranteed loans have a number of benefits. The loan rates and prices are frequently equivalent to those of non-guaranteed loans. SBA-backed loans also come with continuous assistance to help you launch and run your hookah rental business. Moreover, certain SBA loans have lower down payments, more flexible overhead restrictions, and no collateral requirements.
Obtain Funds through Banks
If you are unable to obtain funding for your hookah rental business through state-level agencies or SBA-backed loans, your next step is to seek regular small business loans from banks. As a result, you must conduct due diligence and understand how lenders evaluate your hookah rental business. If you do, you may be able to obtain a traditional loan with a longer term and a higher loan amount.
Obtain Funds through P2P Lenders
The term “Peer to Peer” refers to a sort of financing that is very similar to crowdfunding, except that your hookah rental business loan application is vetted and presented to numerous lenders and investors. If traditional lenders have turned down your hookah rental business loan application, this sort of funding is a perfect alternative. Some of the well-known peer-to-peer lending companies are:
6. Promote your hookah Rental Business
Most business owners, for some reason, do not include marketing in their business strategy. This is likely one of the most serious mistakes you can make, and you should avoid it at all costs. For a service-oriented business like a hookah rental business, marketing, and advertising make or break your business. Furthermore, if you do not have a large sum of money to invest right away, you must understand what it takes to successfully promote a hookah rental business. You’ll also need a solid marketing strategy and communication strategies in place.
Let’s go over some of the traditional and modern marketing strategies you can use to promote your hookah rental business.
Build a website
I can’t stress this point enough. You will NEED a website in order to operate your hookah rental business. There is no way around it. The world has become digital and you must create a digital presence for your hookah rental business.
Make sure to utilize the power of the internet. Additionally, you must customize your hookah rental website and make it align with your brand. You can put pictures of your hookah plus testimonials and make an excellent impression on your visitors. After all, actions speak louder than words.
Don’t forget to include your mission statement on your hookah rental website and let your customers know why they should rent from you. Having a website creates a digital presence for your hookah rental business so your potential customers can search and find you on the web.
You can read my guide on how to make a basic website for your small business if you want to do it yourself. However, if you want someone else to work on the technicalities while you focus on acquiring more customers for your hookah rental business, we are ready to help you. Our $499 digital package comes with a professionally designed website, custom email, 24/7 support and maintenance, SEO, and digital marketing services. You wouldn’t want to miss the deal. Contact us today before the deal runs out.
Establish social media accounts
Create a digital presence for your hookah rental business by establishing social media accounts. You must be strategic in this regard, as you do not want to waste your time appearing on all social networks, particularly those that do not align well with your target audience.
You want your hookah rental business to be on, depending on the size of your operation:
- YouTube
Nowadays, almost everyone uses social media not only to communicate with friends and family but also to shop for goods and services. Getting your hookah rental business in front of your target audience can result in more leads and sales. Moreover, it can also be used to keep current customers informed and to attract new customers.
Run Paid Ads
Paid Ads have the ability to target prospective customers within a specific demographic and region, making them an excellent tool for your hookah rental business. Consider running paid ads through services like Facebook Ads, Yelp, or Google AdWords. Furthermore, the best thing about paid advertisements is that they produce results quickly, allowing you to scale your hookah rental business vertically and horizontally.
Please contact us if you need professional help running paid ads for your hookah rental business. We will be more than happy to provide you with help and resources for absolutely free.
