Need Help Immediately Plz!

[nadous]

I own a Hookah lounge for 3 months now, and my business is LOOSING, i don't have alcohol license , so i am not selling alcohol, my place is relatively small 600 sq/ft, but i sell good Hookah with reasonable prices. I make good offers from time to time. According to the customers who come, my place is cozy and homey. I don't intend this to be an advertisement, but i really need a good advice , I need help please.

Thank you,

Nadous

[kenshinx23]

Social Media, good word of mouth, a niche. 

[Pavo21]

where in california are you? what tobacco do you use? what pipes do you use? do you have lots of friends? there are lots of questions that i can help u answer but i need to know.

 

what is ur lounge called also?

[mustang67n]

Social media is definitely the easiest and cheapest(free) advertisement. you can run daily specials and offer them online so when they show up they say a special phrase to get the deal.

[nadous]

My lounge is in Charlotte NC, My brother is the one who runs it. It is 10 mins drive away from a community college. I use Starbuzz and Alfakher Tobacco.I have a Facebook account https://www.facebook.com/HookahHotspot?ref=hl.

My website is http://www.hookahhotspot.co/ . We use Khalil Mamoon Hookahs.I tried to advertise with Facebook, but Facebook doesn't promote for tobacco. We do have good promotions , and we think we offer the hookahs with reasonable prices.

[A Sharrp SYBIAN]

every lounge uses starbuzz and AF Of you want to separate yourself from the competition use Tangiers and Fumari :-) yes they are more expensive tobaccos (well tangiers can be priced cheap if you buy wholesale but Tangiers is the best.) Quality helps. People love Fumari, and tangiers and not many lounges serve either of them. That should get you more customers. Also you guys should have flavor of the night specials and promotions. I used to work in a hookah bar (fun times) the key is to generate interest. have silly events like fri night night free bowl drawings and get some big screen TV's show Football,  Hockey games and the occasional UFC fight instead of the typical arabic music. Little things like that bring big business lol Now if you wont take any of these ideas into consideration i know many other hookah bar owners on here who possibly will :-P / already do.

 

Starbuzz is the regular hipster trend it's dying out because it's been done to many times... Al Fakher on the other hand just stayed the same while their competition upped their game... They are now a 2nd - 3rd rate tobacco down there with brands like layalina... (still better than many starbuzz flavors though) \

 

If you truly wanna separate yourself from the competition you gotta step your game up. It takes money to make money! 

 

 

         The old place i worked at even had an amateur band night :-) If i ever make enough to get back into the hookah bar game ill start with these idea's then expand from here. I know how to run a quality establishment. ;-) 

Edited September 25, 2013 by A Sharrp SYBIAN

[Eddie_H]

I agree with what others have been saying. You have to be utilizing social media, a website, and a USP (unique selling point).

A particular problem I see with a lot of small hookah bars is that they really fill up during peak times which can cause you to lose customers. A strategy could be to have a ‘happy hour’ during slower periods where you have discounts but then regular prices during peak times to encourage a more even spread of customers throughout the day.  

Make sure your established online too, this means: a website, social media, and local online business directories are huge (Google places, Yelp, Yellow Pages Online, Merchant Circle, etc..) they display hours, contact info, reviews, photos and show up when people search for you on their phone.  

As for the hookah bar itself, what are you doing that others aren’t doing?

 

[nadous]

Thank you very much for your suggestions, I really appreciate it.I am considering every word. I really need to contact Mushrat ,so please if you have his contact Info, I'd really appreciate it.

[Coyote]

The lounge I frequent makes postcard flyers and distributes them around college campuses. They also draw attention to the storefront by running a strobe light. People think its the cops, so they look to see where the light is coming from. The have weekend belly dancers and specials. You can get your tobacco packed in an apple or and orange head and they also serve turkish tea, mint tea, turkish coffee, and american coffee (they have a latte machine but it doesn't get much use, if any). The have a fridge with cans and bottles of non-alcoholic beverages to buy. I think they could have prepackaged food under their license too but they don't. You might be able to buy some hummus and bread from someplace else and just sell it there... chips, candy, etc might be a good option too. They also have keno, a few big flatscreen tv's, and a retail section. 
 

They are doing well. Hope that helps.

[Pavo21]

first, i thought you were in cali, becuase thats what it says on ur profile. 

 

Also, facebook does promote "cafes and lounges" which is what you are right? lol

 

www.facebook.com/cherrybombhookah

 

also yah well even if people say on u should have tangiers or fumari or nak, not always true. i mean how big is the tangiers crave out there. possibly not to much. but still worth a shot. and tangiers is cheaper then starbuzz but not cheaper then af well its hit or miss with AF.

 

And second yes coyote said it post cards. drop them off at place go walk in promote the brands u use along with a deal on the card saying 10% off or something when u bring in the flyer. 

 

You said there is a college close. go hit up some students or some you know and tell them to put there name on the flyer. for each flyer that is brought back u give them idk a dollar. so if they drop off 100 and 5 people bring in a flyer thats good for you. and then they make idk 5$ for like no work at all. but then they will come to your lounge and bring there friends.also yelp makes a big difference.

[nadous]

Thank you for your response, I live in Sunnyvale, Ca, my brother is the one who runs the place in Charlotte, NC. So by saying facebook promotes for 'Cafe and Lounges', did you use the build my audience or creating my ad features? it seems like Facebook is not letting me use any of them. i really like the idea of the flyers, as soon as i print some i will try to do it. So as for the Tangiers, what are the most liked flavors?.

[Teddy Zou]

oh man, where do I even start...

 

I start my first hookah lounge 3 years ago and we have grown to 3 locations now. So first if you whatever your are doing is failing then change it completely. Don't just try little things here and there, it won't be enough to tell you what's really going on and what's working.

 

I saw some posts here about social media and college students. Those are good ideas but make sure you identify your market. If you are going to go after the college scene then make sure everything fits around that. We have a heavy college student crowd so we tend to cater our service, music, EVERYTHING around that. The downside is that we don't have many older customers coming in. 

 

One thing that we do with colleges and have been pretty successful are fundraisers. So beside posting up flyers, you have to get someone from the school (hire some college student) talk to different frats, sororities and student clubs and have them host fundraisers at your place. Basically they invite all of your friends out and you kick 20% of all their bills back to that organization. It's also a tax right off. Yes, you are losing a little profit but that's priceless marketing. 

[Pavo21]

haha. I dont know to many lounges that dont target college students lol, they are pretty much the people that keep us running, if they aren't in college its that age group 18-25, i know a couple lounges they havea good group of older people come in but they are also a cigar lounge so that makes a difference. 

[Pavo21]

Thank you for your response, I live in Sunnyvale, Ca, my brother is the one who runs the place in Charlotte, NC. So by saying facebook promotes for 'Cafe and Lounges', did you use the build my audience or creating my ad features? it seems like Facebook is not letting me use any of them. i really like the idea of the flyers, as soon as i print some i will try to do it. So as for the Tangiers, what are the most liked flavors?.

 

well im not sure how popular the hookah world is in NC, i dont know anyone on the forum that is from that area, besides mush and he thinks its a waste of time and money, but evey town is different and situation. but i dont promote, first go from your friends on ur own facebook then also when u make flyers put it on that, but when a customer comes in tell thme like us on facebook we will be putting specials on there and promotions. and tangiers..anyflavor. just contact eric if u have questions about prodcut tangiers.us has wholesale info. 

 

but popular at mhy lougne is 

cane mint

kashmir peach/cherry/apple/ guajava

white summer mixed fruit

all the newer birquq stuff 

and what ever we have on hand gets smoked up also. people like likea big variety, instead of just the popular 10 ya know. also try and smoke it all so you know what it tastes like and what mixes well with it. with any tobacco really. so you know your product.

[Chreees]

I can design you an ad if you'd like, for a reasonable price. I am a graphic designer for a regional advertising classifieds newspaper. I also design ads for online and direct mail. Just trying to help you out while you're starting up, and to give me something cool to work on on my slow days at work!

[Pavo21]

i will vouche for chris, because he is awesome, and if i dont who knows what will happen. but keep us updated on how things progress with your families business

[Teddy Zou]

any luck with all the help here? 

[Coyote]

Yes I was curious about what happened to the lounge. Hopefully it worked out ok for him.

[nadous]

Sorry for the late reply, Thank you , Thank you very much for your advice, We have tried couple of things and for sure it helped the business a lot. we even got 2 more reviews on yelp, one of them was filtered by yelp, but it is ok. We are trying to improve the business more.I will keep you posted if it gets better.