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Starting a Hookah Bar: SOLVED
Joseph Stalin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Basically I am interested in starting a hookah bar. I attend a large university with something between 20,000 and 30,000 students. I was suprised to find that there is not one hookah bar in the entire city. Obviously I think that there would be a huge market. My problem is that I am a poor college student with not much more than an idea. What do I need to look into if I want to start my own buissness? One problem I know I will run into is initial capital. Will I be forced to convince an adult with good credit to cosign a loan with me, or what are my options there? Basically, I am looking for any advice you may have. Oh, and I am in California.
EDIT: Fixed title.
EDIT: Fixed title.
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Also, this is probably a really really bad idea.
Might also be a great idea...
However, your city might ahve laws against smoking indoors at public facilities. Might want to check that.
Idk, to me the OP just sounds like some dude that likes hookah. Maybe I'm mistaken but when you're seriously considering starting a business, are webcomic message boards the first place you think of to go to for advice?
Maybe it will suprise you to know that I actually almost never smoke hookah? I've seen a lot of good advice on these boards, and I figured that this would give me a good starting point from which to look into the venture more. Who knows, maybe someone here even started one? The fact is, I mt friends brother started a hookah bar down in Long Beach before he sold it for huge profit. I guess I don't see why it would be unreasonable to look into starting one for myself.
Where should I go to look into the legality of it? City Hall?
Workingmen of all countries, unite!
Like I said, that was just the impression I got. Obviously I was wrong.
Go here to find state requirements, and here for national reqs. Get in touch with your county and city(yeah, city hall) to find out local laws. It would probably be helpful to find a lawyer because they'll be more knowledgeable about exactly what needs to be done, and make sure that you're airtight legally.
Off to sleep for me, best of luck to you.
I'd say a good place to start would be to contact your friends brother. I can't think of a more potent source of advice on starting up a successful hookah bar than someone who has managed to start their own and make a good profit off it.
You do have to be realistic though. Thinking a Hookah bar would be profitable in your city isn't enough, you have to be sure it will be profitable if you want to be successful. The fact that there isn't a single hookah bar in the city might be a strong indication that there simply isn't a sustainable market for it, so one of the first things you're going to have to do is look into the feasibility of such a venture - canvas the population, get an idea of the potential size of your customer base etc. You aren't likely to get a loan without a strong business plan and being able to show the bank manager realistic financial projections is going to involve coming up with realistic statistics on probable numbers of customers.
You're also going to need to learn how to run a hookah bar. Most restaurants fail because people open them without having any idea of what is involved in running a restaurant. They just liked the idea of running one. They have no idea of what is involved in terms of sourcing ingredients, planning a successful menu, keeping on top of health and safety, managing the accounts and so on. I guess your friends brother should be able to help you out there as well.
Is that relevant? It's not as if nobody has ever succeeded in business by exploiting foreign cultures before.
Its relevant if he can get Shisha directly from the source instead of going through traditional retail or wholesale channels. Not terribly important, but it could make a significant difference if he's successful and wants to be more profitable.
No, and I can't imagine that being a problem.
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How are they able to stay open with the city-wide ban on smoking indoors at businesses?
Personally, I think the entire hookah bar industry is about to get body-slammed by legislation. There is a push against smoking in general, and lots of people see hookah bars as especially dangerous because they supposedly target young people and have the false appearance of being safer than other methods of using tobacco. Plus there's the whole shared thing you put your mouth on aspect waiting to bite someone.
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The reason the vast majority of businesses fail is under-capitalization. You need money to make money, so, like everyone else says, you're going to need a business plan.
I'm going to be honest with you, and tell you that you'd be better off finishing college before trying this; running your own business is a more than full-time job, and if you want to be successful, you're probably going to have to put a lot more work into it than you'd be capable of doing while going to school.
Hi, this post is flying completely in the face of the core rules of this forum. Make another one like it and you're in for quite the little vacation.
To start a service industry business, you need a very significant up front investment, because you can't really start small and sell your way up. There's only so small you can start, and that's not very small.
To secure a large amount of cash to get started you will need a loan.
A bank will not give you a small business loan if you cannot illustrate how much money you need, why you need it, where and how it will be spent over what period of time, and where and when and how much money you expect to make over what period of time, justified and supported by research and realistic, conservative estimates.
It is going to involve a lot of very analytical, dispassionate research to get going. You need to back up, close your mind to how awesome it would be, and focus on whether or not it's actually likely, nevermind possible to make money doing this. And you need to be aware of the fact that you might find that it is not likely you will be able to make money doing this, and if that's what you discover, you'll need to give up. That is much harder than you think it will be.
If you're prepared to invest the time and effort before you even get that loan, nevermind what it's going to demand of you once you've got that loan, get in touch with your local small business resources. A lot of communities do provide a lot of free resources for entrepeneurs.
You're not going to do this part time while you're in college though. Starting and running a business are full time pursuits. The initial research is probably the only thing you'll have time to do part time, and that's because there's no deadline on that.
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Davis. After doing some research, it seems that Hookah bars are probably illegal. The town's municiple code seems to outlaw them, yet it looks like it is still possible to apply for a permit and have it approved. Sounds like it is probably too much work for me to take on at this time however.
Mods, feel free to lock this.
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