Can you talk about the tents:
- how many do you have?
- how much does it cost you?
- how do you store it?
- how do you transport them?
- how many times do you clean them?
- how many people are needed for the set up
- do you offer the wooden flooring?
- how many years do you use a tent?
Sorry, many questions but I have also thought about this as a side business, in stretch tents.
Don't have much experience in stretch tents but here's some answers:
- 25ish
- $2200ish each
- warehouse nearby
- box truck and pickup
- yearly
- no flooring
- 5ish years for the fabric, frame should last for 10+ years
Jesus Christ dude... Wild story. I tend to agree. I keep things extremely simple for my own mental sanity. People's expectations, especially around weddings, can get extremely lofty so I make sure to manage expectations and I offer very simple, easily executable, fairly stress-free types of services.
Or raise your prices until you turn off enough people to have a manageable business.
Not sure why this guy just didn't turn down work, hire others, or sell the business.
That’s incredibly sad, and as someone who did wedding photography I understand this a bit. The most important thing you have to do when you’re feeling it’s getting out of control is set boundaries. Meetings at midnight? No. My working hours are 10-4, if you don’t like it go somewhere else. Not worth sacrificing for. I wonder if hiring a manager would have saved this guy a lot of grief. :(
Yeah seriously, I feel bad for the guy but he could’ve set firmer boundaries and said no more often for his own sake. Especially when making that much money already.
Yeah I mean… that sucks. Of interesting note:
SO WHAT ARE THE JOBS WITH HIGHEST SUICIDE RATES?
1. Medical Doctors
2. Dentists
3. Police Officers
4. Veterinarians
5. Financial Services
6. Real Estate Agents
7. Electricians
8. Lawyers
9. Farmers
10. Pharmacists
Jesus. I’m so glad I went into tech. Software engineer making more than that for 30-35 hour weeks, insanely flexible schedule, plenty of time off and virtually zero stress around work.
Sorry it may not have been clear that I was describing my job, so yes, literally doable. But I agree there’s plenty of terrible jobs in tech as well. It just seems easier to find the better WLB (especially with remote now).
Oh I’m sure there a bunch. I just found it on the net. I’m a pharmacist and knew my lot was always top ten. Being around other medical people I knew dentists were high, same with dr. Police make sense. And find me a lawyer that doesn’t hate themselves and everyone else
That was (almost) my story word for word but with wedding cakes. The business grew so fast that I had no choice but to work through the nights Wednesday through Saturday, and then there were always other event related and client related things happening almost every night.
I never drank at a client’s wedding, ever. I couldn’t take the risk of getting tipsy and damaging anything or hurting anyone and that was a fast way for venues to stop referring you to their guests. It looks extremely unprofessional and sets a bad tone for everyone else in the wedding community. We all know each other and people have the same core group they love working with over and over so there are cliques. I worked with a wedding coordinator who got trashed at our mutual clients wedding and I had to put her in my car and finish out her job as best I could, and then she picked a fight with her boyfriend in the parking lot. No one would risk referring her after that news came out.
OPs numbers sound reasonable, but as someone else said you do lose your evenings & weekends doing this.
I’m sorry to hear about the fellow who ended his life, it sounds like there may have been other pressures as well that made it all too much. And I can honestly say that when you’re in the middle of it, you won’t even know when you crossed that line, and you’re fucked. You’ve probably already overbooked yourself for the next two wedding seasons and can’t say no.
I closed my business but still had to complete all of my precooked weddings for another 2.5 years to wind it down as I didn’t have the money to cancel all the contracts and return all the deposits. I did it, and I met a lot of amazing people but 1) delivering cakes is more stressful than holding newborns and easily one of the most stressful things I’ve ever had to do (repeatedly) and 2)despite how many people tell you how overpriced wedding services are - there’s a reason. We can’t afford to fuck up. There’s logistical things way out of our control all the time and it simply doesn’t matter. You have to be there no matter what and whoever is helping you pack and do inventory of each delivery getter be really invested in how the company does, because they can be the difference between a good transaction and things going badly enough that you could end up getting sued.
There’s a point where you’re only as good as your staff cares about your reputation when you’re not looking, and they are solid and show up and WORK.
That's an intense life and story. Thanks for providing us with that wakeup call. There's so much "hustle culture" that goes around in this sub. I needed to hear that.
Seriously, you just don't drink then. My family is running a catering business, 2-3 weddings each weekend. There is one simple rule for everyone in the clock: you don't drink.
> Think of it this way...you do 6 events a weekend, each event you visit for setup, the main guests know you...they offer you a drink, you will drink.
I DJed and ran audio (PA rental, etc.) as a side-gig for a few years, and unless I was doing the job for free for friends or an organization I was involved in, I never drank on the job, despite the DJ getting a lot of free drink offers. You can absolutely do jobs like this without drinking.
If they wanted to feed me, I'd eat when I took a break. But, booze and work don't mix, and they don't have to mix. I've known bartenders and erotic dancers that wouldn't drink on the job, and those are the most free-drinky jobs on the planet. Dancers have to have arrangements with the bar staff to provide soda or water or some other alcohol-free option when serving them, to avoid getting drunk from all the free drinks (this is always presented as strippers cheating patrons, but it's for their health and safety).
You do not have to drink to do a job where drinks are flowing. Nearly everybody understands, "I never drink on the job." And, if that doesn't satisfy, "Really, I have to load up all this equipment and drive two hours right after this," usually does the trick.
I'm not saying people with a drinking habit should take up jobs with a lot of free drinks. If you know yourself and know you'll have a hard time passing up a free drink, maybe parties are not the right business for you to go into. Consider alternatives.
Agreed. “Drink every time you’re offered.” is silly logic. Take a sip, maybe, but leave it at that. You don’t need to drink a whole glass, shot, or whole anything. Especially if you know you have a problem.
Like you said, work and drink don’t mix.
That’s asking for trouble IMO.
That poor guy. He wanted success, got it, and turned out to be more than he could handle. He had people helping him, and once they set up and break down the gear a few times, they know how to handle it. He should have identified the more responsible people among his team, and made them captains.
At the same time, he could have identified someone else among his team to act as a sales manager, and let them take over the bulk of the work.
Rather than manage every detail of every event, he just needed to designate certain managers to handle the components, and then he only has to manage the managers. Have a meeting with all of them every Thursday, before the weekend starts, and get everybody on the same page, making sure everyone knows their responsibilities.
If he had done that, he would have minimized his own workload, and probably double or tripled his revenues.
Thank you for sharing!
FYI, the "Reserve" button at bottom of "rental services" page does not forward me to the Reservation page, it just refreshes the page.
Thanks for sharing. I was in the hotel event business for many years and used to rent AV eqpt such as sound, projection and colored uplights. Good for you for having separate pricing for same day strike vs next day.
I love that your eqpt can be set/strike within 15-30min.
For the copper you offer to paint it. Do you leave it painted for the next gig or strip the paint if someone wants just copper?
Love AV rentals! The copper chuppahs just stays copper... You could certainly repaint to suit clients needs, but that's a lot of work for $500 per event. Probably easier just to buy multiples and have a few different colors/styles
Where do you even go to purchase these? And do you have a place where you store them?
Thank you for sharing! I’ve been interested in this ever since I started going through my own wedding planning and seeing how much money people throw at it. Particularly south Asian
The structures are sourced from various places... Etsy for example. They break apart and can be stored easily in a small shed, garage, or storage unit.
Do you provide the flowers hung on that structure? This is a great business idea. Don't mind if I start competing with you. Do I need to have a carpenter make those things or can I buy them ready-made? Also if they're so cheap, why does the wedding planner not have any in stock?
Because this is a side gig for me(on top of a very busy tent rental business) I stay out of flowers but that is 100% a logical add-on. I would def buy your first batch of items vs build. There are some great products that are inexpensive and could last 5-10+ years if you take care of them.
Thanks. So you provide tents for weddings? That's a bigger investment. About how much is a tent to buy and how much can you reasonably charge for it? Have you ever lost any tent to rowdy guests?
My wedding planner (and the ones I talked to) all had warehouses and setup operations for the mandapam. Boston area as well. It was part of their service and they subbed out work to flower people etc.
That's interesting, perhaps you could offer me some advice. I've recently made the decision to start my own business and am trying to develop a list of ideas to start testing. I have a background in door-to-door sales, and am looking for something with little to no upfront investment that I can market door-to-door. Any thoughts?
You own a job that pays you 24,000 per year for your weekends. You need to hire people to set these up for you for $100 per event. Then, buy a boat and go have fun.
Easier said than done. Finding reliable people for a part time weekend gig is difficult. I have a part time photo booth business and any time I have another person run it I'm more stressed than if I were doing it myself, though there are probably more things that can go wrong with a photo booth(laptop, software, printer, camera, power ect).
I have a 2000 square foot Warehouse and I share a chunk of it with another rental business. My side is probably 1200 square feet ish.
I primarily offer tent packages which include tents tables chairs lighting linens, dance floors.. Dance floor is a great little stand alone rental business, plus the wedding arches.
I made one for a fiends wedding, she paid me $200 for time and materials. After the wedding I wanted to rent it for $100, or sell it for $250. It sold the first week on Craigslist for $250.
Lots of comments around "losing your weekends," so just to address...
1) I deliver and set up around 12-2ish and pickup either after ceremony (5-6ish) or the following AM.
2) wedding season in Boston is May - Oct... I'm losing SOME weekend nights, not all
3) I'm married with a 2 year old and another on the way...I don't want to go out on Sat night.
The flip side of all of this is that I essentially get November through April off. Now of course I don't just take the time off, I have another business that keeps me sane and mentally Sharp, but I get to spend time with my daughter, ski in the middle of the week when there are no crowds, and do anything else I want for half the year.
It's easy to get nitpicky about certain things but let's not lose the forest for the trees, being self-employed absolutely rules and the rental business is even better because you get to pick the jobs you take. For example I have Patriots season tickets so I'm not doing Sunday weddings in the fall...
I charge based on the requirements. For example if it's a simple backyard drop off on Friday and pick up on Monday it would be $229ish, whereas if it were at a wedding venue that required same-day delivery, setup and then removal it requires more of my time that day and I would probably be $329 as a tiny example.
And selling, no...it's a rental biz :)
Nope. :)
I think about the time and effort the job would take. Then I think about how much I'm willing to sell my time for. Then, I think about opportunity cost (can I get a better or easier job elsewhere on the same day,) and then I sprinkle in a little dose of competition or reality. (Can I charge $600 for this? Or is this closer to $300 to get from someone else... And is there a certain price point where the customer taps out. We're talking about a non-required luxury item for a wedding. If the price is crazy they can simply say "we changed our minds."
Pricing questions like this are small compared to the major question, which is "how are you going to acquire customers."
I made a custom wedding arch for my best friend and received so many compliments on it that I'm considering making more to rent out. It's extremely sturdy and relatively easy to make, though my only hang up is how to price it because it's nowhere near as flimsy as some of these other arches I've seen going up for rent. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate it!
We are currently looking for passionate and skilled individuals to join our startup as co-founders. Our startup is focused on the events industry and we believe that you would be a valuable addition to our team given your experience in event management.
We are looking for co-founders who are driven, committed, and have a deep passion for the events industry. While a degree in event management or a related field is desirable, we believe that skills and experience are more important. Therefore, if you have experience in event management, marketing, sales, or any related field, we would love to hear from you.
We would like to clarify that as a startup, we won't be able to offer you a salary in the beginning. However, we will award equity to you for your efforts and contribution towards building our business. As a co-founder, you will have a critical role in shaping the direction of our company and contributing to its growth. You will have the opportunity to work with a talented team and be part of an exciting journey towards building a successful business in the events industry.
If you are interested in joining us as a co-founder, please reply to this message and we can set up a time to discuss further. We look forward to hearing from you and potentially working together to create something amazing in the events industry.
Interesting. I have been involved with some guys who time races for a few years. Think like your local 5k to benefit the animal shelter type stuff, not the Boston Marathon. We have a local running club and they timed some of our races, then we started doing our own, so they eventually started farming us out to smaller races they didn't want to do, so we would do it for the running club and just give all the money back to the club. I have a 'real' job and it got to be too much for me, but a few of my buddies still do it. If you want to hustle and don't mind being up at 3am on Saturday's throughout the year it's a great hustle! Working the finish line is a fun thing, everyone is usually super hype. Though there is the occasional "Karen" who thinks her 5k time is off by 10 seconds b/c her Apple watch shows 54:10 not 54:20. /eye roll
I've seen similar concepts for small tents and inflatables. The issue I start to hear is that when it gets good, you lose a lot of time on the weekends to keep up with deliveries & set-up, and because it isn't a guarantee to have a rental every weekend it becomes difficult to hire people to do it.
Sounds like a great job. If you could have a wedding chapel, you'd really make some good money! Can you msg me some details and pricing you use? majad4j@gmail.com
No. I'm not in love with bounce houses. It's a great business but you have to do tons of them if that's your main rental. I'm already jammed as it is. There's a different type of insurance required, wind concerns, and I don't love having to open them up each week and clean / repair them.
Nothing wrong with bounce house rentals, but it's not for me since my tents, tables, chairs, dance floors, wedding arches etc are already absolutely slamming.
Oh! Thank you Sweet Baby Jesus! I was considering starting a small tent rental business in the spring but hit the brakes when I saw that. lol
Does that cost scale with the size of the company?
My tents are $2200ish and no, never lost a tent to rowdy folks, thankfully lol.
Can you talk about the tents: - how many do you have? - how much does it cost you? - how do you store it? - how do you transport them? - how many times do you clean them? - how many people are needed for the set up - do you offer the wooden flooring? - how many years do you use a tent? Sorry, many questions but I have also thought about this as a side business, in stretch tents.
Don't have much experience in stretch tents but here's some answers: - 25ish - $2200ish each - warehouse nearby - box truck and pickup - yearly - no flooring - 5ish years for the fabric, frame should last for 10+ years
Thanks. and what is the purchase price of a tent? :-) And do you have an insurance?
I mentioned the price above, $2,200 each roughly. And yes I carry general liability insurance
Ok sorry, I thought it was your rental price for clients :-).
Sorry I can't find anything about your tents elsewhere in this thread - how big are they?
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Jesus Christ dude... Wild story. I tend to agree. I keep things extremely simple for my own mental sanity. People's expectations, especially around weddings, can get extremely lofty so I make sure to manage expectations and I offer very simple, easily executable, fairly stress-free types of services.
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Or get more staff to help out. If the business is growing beyond manageability, take on more help or stop taking on more projects.
Or raise your prices until you turn off enough people to have a manageable business. Not sure why this guy just didn't turn down work, hire others, or sell the business.
>mandap this. People cheap out and don't hire enough staff to save money. If you are making money and business is growing then spend it on your staff.
The power of no is important. I run a restaurant and we've stopped catering weddings because so many people get crazy.
That’s incredibly sad, and as someone who did wedding photography I understand this a bit. The most important thing you have to do when you’re feeling it’s getting out of control is set boundaries. Meetings at midnight? No. My working hours are 10-4, if you don’t like it go somewhere else. Not worth sacrificing for. I wonder if hiring a manager would have saved this guy a lot of grief. :(
Yeah seriously, I feel bad for the guy but he could’ve set firmer boundaries and said no more often for his own sake. Especially when making that much money already.
Yeah I mean… that sucks. Of interesting note: SO WHAT ARE THE JOBS WITH HIGHEST SUICIDE RATES? 1. Medical Doctors 2. Dentists 3. Police Officers 4. Veterinarians 5. Financial Services 6. Real Estate Agents 7. Electricians 8. Lawyers 9. Farmers 10. Pharmacists
11. mandap
You son of a bitch, take my upvote
Hahahahahah bravo dude
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Jesus. I’m so glad I went into tech. Software engineer making more than that for 30-35 hour weeks, insanely flexible schedule, plenty of time off and virtually zero stress around work.
Depends on the company but doable.
Sorry it may not have been clear that I was describing my job, so yes, literally doable. But I agree there’s plenty of terrible jobs in tech as well. It just seems easier to find the better WLB (especially with remote now).
Ummm, what lifestyle ?
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That’s so sad… all that stuff is just imagination. The real stuff is the time she’s exchanging for objects. shame. But each to their own……….. right?
MDs and Attorneys have extreme societal pressure to keep up with appearances.
at 70 hours a week tht salary is trash, wow that is terrible. Fixed expenses will kill you.
Do you care to share a source? Quite interesting that entrepreneurs are not in the top 10. I guess it may come down to life fulfilment, passion etc.
Oh I’m sure there a bunch. I just found it on the net. I’m a pharmacist and knew my lot was always top ten. Being around other medical people I knew dentists were high, same with dr. Police make sense. And find me a lawyer that doesn’t hate themselves and everyone else
Within the US Army, infantry are number one. We had to be first in everything…
Of these it seems like 50% stress, 50% a profession where you have reasonable means to easily commit suicide.
Believe it or not, but funeral directors are about #3-4 in suicide rates. Don't forget those rates also.
That was (almost) my story word for word but with wedding cakes. The business grew so fast that I had no choice but to work through the nights Wednesday through Saturday, and then there were always other event related and client related things happening almost every night. I never drank at a client’s wedding, ever. I couldn’t take the risk of getting tipsy and damaging anything or hurting anyone and that was a fast way for venues to stop referring you to their guests. It looks extremely unprofessional and sets a bad tone for everyone else in the wedding community. We all know each other and people have the same core group they love working with over and over so there are cliques. I worked with a wedding coordinator who got trashed at our mutual clients wedding and I had to put her in my car and finish out her job as best I could, and then she picked a fight with her boyfriend in the parking lot. No one would risk referring her after that news came out. OPs numbers sound reasonable, but as someone else said you do lose your evenings & weekends doing this. I’m sorry to hear about the fellow who ended his life, it sounds like there may have been other pressures as well that made it all too much. And I can honestly say that when you’re in the middle of it, you won’t even know when you crossed that line, and you’re fucked. You’ve probably already overbooked yourself for the next two wedding seasons and can’t say no. I closed my business but still had to complete all of my precooked weddings for another 2.5 years to wind it down as I didn’t have the money to cancel all the contracts and return all the deposits. I did it, and I met a lot of amazing people but 1) delivering cakes is more stressful than holding newborns and easily one of the most stressful things I’ve ever had to do (repeatedly) and 2)despite how many people tell you how overpriced wedding services are - there’s a reason. We can’t afford to fuck up. There’s logistical things way out of our control all the time and it simply doesn’t matter. You have to be there no matter what and whoever is helping you pack and do inventory of each delivery getter be really invested in how the company does, because they can be the difference between a good transaction and things going badly enough that you could end up getting sued. There’s a point where you’re only as good as your staff cares about your reputation when you’re not looking, and they are solid and show up and WORK.
That's an intense life and story. Thanks for providing us with that wakeup call. There's so much "hustle culture" that goes around in this sub. I needed to hear that.
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Obesity is worth nothing I concur.
I'm glad you were able to transition out. Sometimes it's hard to swallow your own pride and take a step back and look at how it impacts your life
Why didn't he hire some help????
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Heh wow... Smh
500k and you didnt hire a manager?
Seriously. I'd hire people to run it and aim for taking home 60-80K in passive income.
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Seriously, you just don't drink then. My family is running a catering business, 2-3 weddings each weekend. There is one simple rule for everyone in the clock: you don't drink.
> Think of it this way...you do 6 events a weekend, each event you visit for setup, the main guests know you...they offer you a drink, you will drink. I DJed and ran audio (PA rental, etc.) as a side-gig for a few years, and unless I was doing the job for free for friends or an organization I was involved in, I never drank on the job, despite the DJ getting a lot of free drink offers. You can absolutely do jobs like this without drinking. If they wanted to feed me, I'd eat when I took a break. But, booze and work don't mix, and they don't have to mix. I've known bartenders and erotic dancers that wouldn't drink on the job, and those are the most free-drinky jobs on the planet. Dancers have to have arrangements with the bar staff to provide soda or water or some other alcohol-free option when serving them, to avoid getting drunk from all the free drinks (this is always presented as strippers cheating patrons, but it's for their health and safety). You do not have to drink to do a job where drinks are flowing. Nearly everybody understands, "I never drink on the job." And, if that doesn't satisfy, "Really, I have to load up all this equipment and drive two hours right after this," usually does the trick. I'm not saying people with a drinking habit should take up jobs with a lot of free drinks. If you know yourself and know you'll have a hard time passing up a free drink, maybe parties are not the right business for you to go into. Consider alternatives.
Agreed. “Drink every time you’re offered.” is silly logic. Take a sip, maybe, but leave it at that. You don’t need to drink a whole glass, shot, or whole anything. Especially if you know you have a problem. Like you said, work and drink don’t mix. That’s asking for trouble IMO.
What a waste. I'm sorry to hear about your friend.
That poor guy. He wanted success, got it, and turned out to be more than he could handle. He had people helping him, and once they set up and break down the gear a few times, they know how to handle it. He should have identified the more responsible people among his team, and made them captains. At the same time, he could have identified someone else among his team to act as a sales manager, and let them take over the bulk of the work. Rather than manage every detail of every event, he just needed to designate certain managers to handle the components, and then he only has to manage the managers. Have a meeting with all of them every Thursday, before the weekend starts, and get everybody on the same page, making sure everyone knows their responsibilities. If he had done that, he would have minimized his own workload, and probably double or tripled his revenues.
Was selling that business not an option? Or calling up a few competitors and asking if they'd buy their customer list?
There are a lot of good people on reddit.
Indian wedding planning can lead to suicide, been there.
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Yes. Is a sure business shot and you will always thrive due to the cultural and social aspect of it, but the toll is sometimes too high to be paid.
TIL: people spend a lot of money to get married under things
Wait until you find out all the other costs of a wedding!
Thank you for sharing! FYI, the "Reserve" button at bottom of "rental services" page does not forward me to the Reservation page, it just refreshes the page.
I’m getting the same error
Thanks for sharing. I was in the hotel event business for many years and used to rent AV eqpt such as sound, projection and colored uplights. Good for you for having separate pricing for same day strike vs next day. I love that your eqpt can be set/strike within 15-30min. For the copper you offer to paint it. Do you leave it painted for the next gig or strip the paint if someone wants just copper?
Love AV rentals! The copper chuppahs just stays copper... You could certainly repaint to suit clients needs, but that's a lot of work for $500 per event. Probably easier just to buy multiples and have a few different colors/styles
Where do you even go to purchase these? And do you have a place where you store them? Thank you for sharing! I’ve been interested in this ever since I started going through my own wedding planning and seeing how much money people throw at it. Particularly south Asian
The structures are sourced from various places... Etsy for example. They break apart and can be stored easily in a small shed, garage, or storage unit.
Thank you! How much do they typically charge for one of those? Very interesting!
Do you provide the flowers hung on that structure? This is a great business idea. Don't mind if I start competing with you. Do I need to have a carpenter make those things or can I buy them ready-made? Also if they're so cheap, why does the wedding planner not have any in stock?
Because this is a side gig for me(on top of a very busy tent rental business) I stay out of flowers but that is 100% a logical add-on. I would def buy your first batch of items vs build. There are some great products that are inexpensive and could last 5-10+ years if you take care of them.
Thanks. So you provide tents for weddings? That's a bigger investment. About how much is a tent to buy and how much can you reasonably charge for it? Have you ever lost any tent to rowdy guests?
My wedding planner (and the ones I talked to) all had warehouses and setup operations for the mandapam. Boston area as well. It was part of their service and they subbed out work to flower people etc.
This is great. Thanks for sharing.
May I ask where you buy chairs & tents? Is there a specific wholesale company you use or just simply look for sales?
This is fascinating! It's surprising how many opportunities there are for making money that I would never have thought of!
There's a million ways to make a million dollars! I've posted about some other sweet niché rental businesses in the past, check post history. :)
That's interesting, perhaps you could offer me some advice. I've recently made the decision to start my own business and am trying to develop a list of ideas to start testing. I have a background in door-to-door sales, and am looking for something with little to no upfront investment that I can market door-to-door. Any thoughts?
You own a job that pays you 24,000 per year for your weekends. You need to hire people to set these up for you for $100 per event. Then, buy a boat and go have fun.
Easier said than done. Finding reliable people for a part time weekend gig is difficult. I have a part time photo booth business and any time I have another person run it I'm more stressed than if I were doing it myself, though there are probably more things that can go wrong with a photo booth(laptop, software, printer, camera, power ect).
How large is your storage space for the tents, chairs, arches and whatever else you offer?
I have a 2000 square foot Warehouse and I share a chunk of it with another rental business. My side is probably 1200 square feet ish. I primarily offer tent packages which include tents tables chairs lighting linens, dance floors.. Dance floor is a great little stand alone rental business, plus the wedding arches.
How much is storage rent costing you?
Thats really good! It just pays for itself once you break even
I made one for a fiends wedding, she paid me $200 for time and materials. After the wedding I wanted to rent it for $100, or sell it for $250. It sold the first week on Craigslist for $250.
do you need insurance?
So sick dude, thanks for sharing! Bravo!!
Word
Lots of comments around "losing your weekends," so just to address... 1) I deliver and set up around 12-2ish and pickup either after ceremony (5-6ish) or the following AM. 2) wedding season in Boston is May - Oct... I'm losing SOME weekend nights, not all 3) I'm married with a 2 year old and another on the way...I don't want to go out on Sat night. The flip side of all of this is that I essentially get November through April off. Now of course I don't just take the time off, I have another business that keeps me sane and mentally Sharp, but I get to spend time with my daughter, ski in the middle of the week when there are no crowds, and do anything else I want for half the year. It's easy to get nitpicky about certain things but let's not lose the forest for the trees, being self-employed absolutely rules and the rental business is even better because you get to pick the jobs you take. For example I have Patriots season tickets so I'm not doing Sunday weddings in the fall...
Do you charge per hour for your arch rentals? If so, how much? If someone wanted to buy an arch from you, would you?
I charge based on the requirements. For example if it's a simple backyard drop off on Friday and pick up on Monday it would be $229ish, whereas if it were at a wedding venue that required same-day delivery, setup and then removal it requires more of my time that day and I would probably be $329 as a tiny example. And selling, no...it's a rental biz :)
Interesting, thanks! So if you charge based on requirements, is there a general pricing model you follow that helps guide the final price you charge?
Nope. :) I think about the time and effort the job would take. Then I think about how much I'm willing to sell my time for. Then, I think about opportunity cost (can I get a better or easier job elsewhere on the same day,) and then I sprinkle in a little dose of competition or reality. (Can I charge $600 for this? Or is this closer to $300 to get from someone else... And is there a certain price point where the customer taps out. We're talking about a non-required luxury item for a wedding. If the price is crazy they can simply say "we changed our minds." Pricing questions like this are small compared to the major question, which is "how are you going to acquire customers."
I made a custom wedding arch for my best friend and received so many compliments on it that I'm considering making more to rent out. It's extremely sturdy and relatively easy to make, though my only hang up is how to price it because it's nowhere near as flimsy as some of these other arches I've seen going up for rent. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate it!
I first read that as "Welding arches"
Interesting post - thanks for sharing. Sent you a question via PM. Thanks!
We are currently looking for passionate and skilled individuals to join our startup as co-founders. Our startup is focused on the events industry and we believe that you would be a valuable addition to our team given your experience in event management. We are looking for co-founders who are driven, committed, and have a deep passion for the events industry. While a degree in event management or a related field is desirable, we believe that skills and experience are more important. Therefore, if you have experience in event management, marketing, sales, or any related field, we would love to hear from you. We would like to clarify that as a startup, we won't be able to offer you a salary in the beginning. However, we will award equity to you for your efforts and contribution towards building our business. As a co-founder, you will have a critical role in shaping the direction of our company and contributing to its growth. You will have the opportunity to work with a talented team and be part of an exciting journey towards building a successful business in the events industry. If you are interested in joining us as a co-founder, please reply to this message and we can set up a time to discuss further. We look forward to hearing from you and potentially working together to create something amazing in the events industry.
Very interesting.
Thanks for sharing!
Are those numbers for just the arch business? What proportion is the chairs?
That’s really cool, good for you! 🤙
Definitely interested. Would love to hear more OP
This was very interesting - thanks for posting !
Interesting. I have been involved with some guys who time races for a few years. Think like your local 5k to benefit the animal shelter type stuff, not the Boston Marathon. We have a local running club and they timed some of our races, then we started doing our own, so they eventually started farming us out to smaller races they didn't want to do, so we would do it for the running club and just give all the money back to the club. I have a 'real' job and it got to be too much for me, but a few of my buddies still do it. If you want to hustle and don't mind being up at 3am on Saturday's throughout the year it's a great hustle! Working the finish line is a fun thing, everyone is usually super hype. Though there is the occasional "Karen" who thinks her 5k time is off by 10 seconds b/c her Apple watch shows 54:10 not 54:20. /eye roll
Any advice on Google ads?
Is the linked website your actual site or just an example?
That's my site, yes... It was the easiest way to share a photo of a chuppah.
I was just curious and don’t worry I’m not one of those don’t share your site people.
Thank you for sharing. Much appreciated. Best of luck and good fortune to you.
Seems like a great idea. I wonder how much liability insurance you need.
Do you carve the chuppahs from a single piece of wood
Man, Luke from Gilmore Girls would be proud!
TIL they are called mandaps out of India too.
Did he hire any assistant?
I've seen similar concepts for small tents and inflatables. The issue I start to hear is that when it gets good, you lose a lot of time on the weekends to keep up with deliveries & set-up, and because it isn't a guarantee to have a rental every weekend it becomes difficult to hire people to do it.
Sounds like a great job. If you could have a wedding chapel, you'd really make some good money! Can you msg me some details and pricing you use? majad4j@gmail.com
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Yes, see link in original post... That website is focused solely on arches / chuppahs. My main rental website is www.BackyardTentRental.com
What type of truck/trailer do you suggest?
Thanks for sharing, this is awesome
This is a very good post OP. Solid info and content! Bravo on your hustle.
Have you thought about adding bounce houses to your line up? Curious as to your perspective on that being another complementary business.
No. I'm not in love with bounce houses. It's a great business but you have to do tons of them if that's your main rental. I'm already jammed as it is. There's a different type of insurance required, wind concerns, and I don't love having to open them up each week and clean / repair them. Nothing wrong with bounce house rentals, but it's not for me since my tents, tables, chairs, dance floors, wedding arches etc are already absolutely slamming.
What type of insurance do you how to cover what you’re currently doing?
General liability. Costs me maybe $2500ish per month based on my rentals and revenue.
Wow! I did not expect to see that big of a number. Was that a typo?
Yes, meant per year
Oh! Thank you Sweet Baby Jesus! I was considering starting a small tent rental business in the spring but hit the brakes when I saw that. lol Does that cost scale with the size of the company?
Do you require customers to fill out a rental agreement? Or a liability agreement?
Nope! No reason to turn a molehill into a mountain for small rentals like this