Starting investments
no less than 50 sq.m.Required space
from 12 monthsPayback period
55%Profitability
Opening your own hookah room is a very promising undertaking, especially in big cities, but there are many difficulties in the early stages when you need to register and obtain permission to operate a smoking room.
Today, even in big cities there are not very many hookah houses, if you do not count as such only individual establishments. Usually a hookah room is a part of a restaurant or cafe for which a special zone is allocated and there is a separate list of services. But at the same time, the hookah is a separate organization, sometimes even the hookah and the restaurant itself are different business entities.
Two different checks are also brought to visitors. In this regard, for any beginner, a competitor is almost any cafe where hookahs are offered. Despite the fact that a full-fledged hookah offers better services, for most consumers the interest in the hookah is limited to the possibility of smoking, a rare connoisseur of this really good hookah with good tobacco.
Of course, a full-fledged hookah will be popular with a certain contingent, but still located in a cafe or restaurant is often more profitable, because in this case you do not have to advertise your institution separately, it has the same regular clientele, and therefore many restaurant visitors will take advantage hookah services.
In addition to smoking only one hookah, most visitors are not interested, they need additional services, and this is primarily at least drinks and sweets, not to mention a full menu. But in connection with the adopted law, there are some restrictions on the organization of your hookah, but the format of the institution may be different depending on the chosen strategy.
To begin with, it is worthwhile to register a business entity, in order to be able to use a simplified taxation system, you should choose the form of an individual entrepreneur or limited liability company - an individual and a legal entity, respectively. For registration, it may take up to 20 thousand rubles (in case of registration of a legal entity) and up to a month time.
How to classify the economic activities of hookah
It is important to choose the right classifier of economic activity. Best in this case is the definition (OKPD 2) 93.29 Other entertainment and recreation services. It should be noted that if you plan to register a hookah in a cafe, in some cases, in order to comply with the legitimacy of your business, it is better to arrange two separate business entities.
There may be several definitions depending on the format of work: (OKPD 2) 08/18/2019 Food services with full restaurant service, (OKPD 2) 08/18/2019 Food services in self-service establishments, (OKPD 2) 08/18/2019 Services other food services, (OKPD 2) 56.30 Beverage services, but any of these classifiers refers to catering services, so de jure smoking of tobacco-containing products in them will be prohibited. It is for this reason that an additional enterprise is organized - a hookah - which, although it will be located on or near the territory of the cafe (restaurant), should be isolated, and drinks or food will be delivered from the cafe (restaurant), and not prepared on the spot.
Currently, the law restricts smoking to tobacco only, but hookah is not always made with its use. There are electronic hookahs, hookahs on special stones and some others that do not use mixtures, which include tobacco, they can be smoked in public places without any restrictions. Therefore, if you do not plan to offer hookahs with tobacco, then you can do without such legal tricks.
The registration and opening of your cafe, restaurant, other catering establishment in this case is completely identical to the registration of a catering establishment without a hookah, and was discussed in more detail in the relevant articles. Many entrepreneurs open their own hookah bar in the territory of an existing restaurant or cafe owned by another organization.
For this, as you might guess, you need to have friendly relations with the owner of such an institution or offer him fairly favorable conditions for cooperation. Practically nobody is interested in a separate hookah without the opportunity to eat or drink, except perhaps the biggest connoisseurs who cannot afford to buy a quality hookah.
Collaboration with an already operating restaurant, cafe or other other catering establishment allows you to start your work in an already known place with a large flow of customers, but sometimes the owners of these establishments are much more profitable to organize a hookah restaurant than work with another entrepreneur; In this regard, it is almost always necessary to organize your own cafe in addition to the hookah.
Hookah room requirements
About the same requirements are imposed on the hookah room, but taking into account the specifics of this room, special attention will be paid to the fire safety of the ventilation system. According to the law, a hookah or other place specially designated for smoking must be equipped with a good exhaust hood, smoke exhaust system and undergo a full inspection by the fire department.
In this regard, you will have to be patient to get all the permits, because it is possible that there will be many complaints from the inspection bodies. Many companies that install ventilation and fire systems already have some experience installing hookah systems, so there is a chance that competent specialists will immediately do everything according to the letter of the law.
For a hookah, a small room will be enough, which is better divided into separate small zones that stand out for each particular visitor or company. That is, in the hookah room, people should be fenced from each other, being in fact in separate rooms. This is not only conducive to creating an atmosphere, but also allows you to more accurately meet the requirements of the legislation on the allocation of premises for smoking.
Each room should be approximately 10 m2 in size, but it is best to have more spacious rooms for large companies. Some hookahs are initially large enough to have a considerable number of rooms, which are also spacious. From here, the total area of the room is calculated, which can be the size and one small room, existing as a small addition to the cafe, and a fairly large institution that can accommodate many visitors at once.
Depending on the size of the room, the cost of installing ventilation and smoke extraction will also vary. It consists of many parameters, which may include additional automation, humidification, air conditioning, drainage, video surveillance and much more. For 100 square meters, a full range of design, installation and acquisition of additional devices with subsequent installation can cost about 150 thousand rubles.
Significantly increase or, conversely, reduce costs can the presence or preparation of such systems in the cafe, with which you just have to establish a connection and communication, rather than carry out a full installation. The installation should also include the purchase and installation of an audio system, because not a single hookah, and a public institution in general, can do without sound.
Hookah in order to be popular with visitors, has its own surroundings and recreated atmosphere of the Arab countries. However, the theme of the institution can be any, the main thing is that the room was comfortable and liked by visitors. If you plan to work with any restaurant or cafe, the hookah is usually designed in the same style as the institution of the partner. If you organize your own restaurant with a hookah, it is better to make both institutions as one, sustained in the same style.
If there is no artistic talent or experience in the planning of rooms, then it is better to turn to professional designers who can create an interior project that is ergonomic, sustained by the atmosphere, aesthetic appeal and psychological approach to arranging a room. In this direction, the services of a designer can greatly affect the final look of the establishment, which will positively affect its attractiveness to the client.
The cost of a design project may vary depending on the package of services offered, but the minimum cost is approximately 90 thousand rubles per 100 m2. Designers will create a technical plan and a project for the arrangement of furniture and other interior elements, according to which it will be possible to carry out further equipment of the room. This includes interior decoration, the purchase and placement of furniture, decoration and other small works.
The cost of purchasing furniture is difficult to calculate, because you can buy both completely inexpensive products and elite-class products, the cost of which exceeds all other items of expenditure. Together with audio equipment, a computer, a cash register and auxiliary equipment, a hookah can be arranged for about 200 thousand rubles; for this money, more or less normal furniture and decorations can be placed on 100 m2.
Some businessmen even organize tents, which are separate rooms for visitors, in order to recreate the Arabian surroundings. Any additional devices and devices can significantly affect the project price, so the figure of 200 thousand rubles is very arbitrary.
We make the menu for a hookah
As already noted, for the hookah you need to provide several additional services. Therefore, in addition to smoking a hookah, drinks are offered, at least tea and coffee, some light snacks, in the case of a restaurant - a full menu, but all food and drinks should go through the cash desk of a cooperating cafe or restaurant, and it is prepared there. This was done primarily to comply with the law, because smoking in places where they eat and / or cook food is definitely prohibited, but there are no restrictions on places specially equipped for smoking.
In addition to the menu, some other services can be offered in the hookah room, for example, the provision of board games, cards and chess, sometimes even competitions, and in the case of a common room focused on the atmosphere of the Middle East, girls can even dance the corresponding dances on the common stage. Hookah is a place of quiet and peaceful relaxation, with a certain atmosphere of relaxation and tranquility, people are waiting for dim light and quiet music.
Hookahs, in comparison with all other items of expenditure, will require not so many investments from the entrepreneur, although, of course, there are instances that have an unusual shape or even are a unique design solution and therefore cost a lot of money. The cheapest hookah can be bought for about one thousand rubles, but it will be a small product, it is difficult to enjoy smoking through it, so normal items worth three thousand rubles or more are bought in the hookah.
A rare company orders two hookahs at once, it is usually smoked in a circle by each person in succession, but still it is better to have two or three spare hookahs for those that are designed for each room. In general, hookahs and accessories will cost about fifty thousand rubles. In the future, the cost of tobacco, foil, filling and coal will be included in the price of the hookah, and therefore paid by the consumer.
To work, first of all, you need to hire special people who do, smoke, serve hookah - hookah workers. Several visitors can be served by one employee, there are no more duties on him than on a regular waiter. Only the hookahman takes himself a significant amount from the cost of the hookah made - yet he exchanges health for money. Waiters and administrators will work de jure in a cafe or restaurant, but also serve hookah. In addition to hookah workers, hookah dancers may only be required to attract dancers, all other duties are performed either by cafe or restaurant employees, or outsourced (for example, accounting).
The financial plan for the hookah
Currently, the cost of a hookah can be different depending on the filler used in the smoked mixture. Very often not only non-alcoholic drinks are used as a filler, for example, in water, juice or milk, but also strong alcoholic drinks, and they can use cognac, absinthe, and even champagne, and many other spirits too. Therefore, it is much easier to engage in alcohol trade in collaboration with a restaurant, because it will probably already have a license for it.
If you do not consider alcoholic hookahs, then you can make quite good money by offering customers a wide variety of mixtures with different tastes. In this case, the mixture does not have to contain tobacco, there are special so-called fruit mixtures that do not give the effect of tobacco smoking, smoke is safe, which in fact can be smoked anywhere, but at the same time they are suitable only for those who like the hookah smoking process itself, not the effect you get.
Special stones can also be used, which when heated give the feeling of hookah smoking and even electronic analogs of hookahs, which are hookahs just as much as an electronic cigarette is a regular cigarette. Due to many of these factors, the cost of the cheapest hookah starts at about 500 rubles, but normal can be ordered for about a thousand.
For connoisseurs can be created complex compositions of several fillers and special mixtures, which cost the client several thousand. The average bill in hookahs is about two thousand rubles, given that several people smoke hookah at the same time, for a visitor this is not a very big price, but for an entrepreneur it’s a pretty good indicator. A well-known institution will never be idle, and therefore we can talk about the good profitability of this initiative.
Thus, opening your own hookah room is a very promising undertaking, especially in big cities, but there are many difficulties in the early stages when you need to register and obtain permission to operate a smoking room. Subsequently, there may also be inspections from state bodies, in which case all the requirements specified in the law must be strictly adhered to.
Matthias Laudanum
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08/18/2019