It is necessary to find out if there is indeed a market plus adequate demand in the area where you choose to operate. Select a storefront in a street corner or in a shopping mall. It could be a 1000- to 1200-square-foot shop in a busy commercial area. It has to be aptly designed to accommodate a customer care area, a DVD display area, and a storage area.

You could also consider taking up dealership of a particular popular brand of DVD player as a side business, offering customers who purchased from you a free membership to your extensive DVD database. However, make it clear that late charges or penalty for returning the DVD later than agreed on has applicable penalties.

You will have to buy at least 450 to 500 DVDs, making sure you buy a minimum of 4 copies of each. You could work out a system to rent all copies for the initial 6 weeks with a condition they are returned the next day itself or perhaps sell 3 copies after 6 weeks and rent the other with a condition that it is returned within 3 days or some other viable structure. Be sure to visit your competitors to find out how to rate the membership fee, any late charges and the rate for the different categories. You could also install a vending machine. You will have to watch reviews and reports on how movies fare in the box office before investing in DVDs. This will help you from being stuck with many movies nobody is interested in renting.

List all equipment, such as a computer, printer, bar code reader, credit terminal, TV and DVD player, furniture, display racks, vending machines and buy them after comparing prices of various vendors.

Hire a helper if necessary to deal with customers, such as reminding them if they are late in returning. Invest in services or products designed to help new ventures succeed.

Advertise and promote your business by designing good strategies. Listing in the Yellow Pages, advertisements in newspapers and distribution of leaflets in your area can help. These are a few basic facts about DVD rental business start-ups.

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