Need info on opening a gown rental place

amother

Coffee

Tue, Sep 27 2016, 10:19 am

I saw an ad for a store that was closing down and selling all their gowns for very little.
My friend and I were thinking of opening a small gown rental place.
Anyone who does it have any advice on what to rent the dresses for and other policies that should be put into place before we open?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Rutabaga

Tue, Sep 27 2016, 1:33 pm

Are you trying to open a business or a gemach? You will probably want to institute different types of policies either way.

If you're opening a business then you need to make a profit obviously. So you need to figure out what your costs will be and how you want to run things. Where will your premises be? Will you have set hours or only by appointment? Will you allow alterations? If so, will you have an in house seamstress so you can control the quality? Who will be responsible for the dry cleaning after the simcha - you or the customer? How long before the simcha will the customer be able to pick up the gown and how soon afterwards will she have to return it? How will you keep track of all the gowns?

If you plan to run a gemach then many of the above questions still apply. You still have to cover your costs but you have to charge less and solicit donations. You can be stricter about your policies because you're doing people a favor rather than trying to ingratiate yourself to customers.

How will you replenish your stock of gowns when they wear out?