How to Start a Rage Room Business - ProfitableVenture (2024)

Do you want to start a rage room company? If YES, here is a 20-step guide on how to open a rage room business with no money or experience.

A rage room business is a pretty green business. It is also known as a smash room or anger room business, and here people can vent their rage by destroying objects within a room. For instance, clients can break items by throwing them against hard surfaces, throwing other items at them or smashing them with a tool such as a sledgehammer.

Please note that if you intend to start this type of business, it is advisable to first look at the existing laws and zonal regulations in the country or state you reside in to know what is expected of you. You also need to pay a visit to the regulatory bodies in your country to get all the information you need before you can legally open your own rage room business in your city.

You can start your rage room business from a small town in the United States and if you are good at what you do when it comes to providing solutions to people with anger problems, then it won’t be too long before your brand becomes nationally recognized.

Steps to Starting a Rage Room Business

1. Understand The Industry

Rage rooms may consist of make-believe sitting rooms and kitchens with replicas of furniture and electronic gadgets such as televisions, DVDs, chairs, tables, and desks. In some cases, a rage room operator may allow a client to bring their own possessions to destroy if they so wish.

In the US, there are an estimated 60 of these venues, places designated for destroying household items. It is important to state that rage room safety is very important to rage room operators. This is why it is mandatory for clients to sign waivers, wear a protective body suit, mask, Kevlar gloves, close-toed shoes et al.

A report published by Wikipedia shows that the first rage rooms to open were likely in Japan in 2008 or earlier. The concept spread to other countries, such as Serbia, England, and Argentina. Today, there are hundreds of rage rooms in cities in the United States such as Tucson, Dallas, Milwaukee, Rochester, Hampton, Eugene, Charlotte, and American Fork.

The top players in the Global Anger Room industry market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value), and market share for each manufacturer are Today, Smash Therapy, SimplySmashing, Thunderdome Amusem*nts, EXIT Holdings, Rage Room of Maryland, Smash Room, Rage Room Madison Heights, and Battle Sports.

Rage rooms and other related businesses have come to stay as it is indeed solving problems for people who have difficulties venting their anger. Hence it is an industry that is very much open for new participants to come and establish their own businesses.

2. Conduct Market Research and Feasibility Studies

• Demographics and Psychographics

The demographic and psychographic composition of those who visit rage rooms is not restricted to people with anger problems, but to every adult who would want to be entertained and relax their nerves from work and stress. A wide range of clientele visit rage rooms for different purposes.

In essence, the demographic composition cum target market of a rage room is all-encompassing; it is not restricted to any gender, race, tribe, or group of people. So, if you are looking toward defining the demographics for your rage room business, then you should make it far-reaching.

3. Decide Which Niche to Concentrate On

It is important to state that there are no niche ideas when it comes to the rage room line of business because rage room business is a niche idea in the entertainment industry but players in this line of business may decide to go beyond providing room for people to smash stuff, to going ahead to make available video game house, bowling alley, BBQ joint, food and drinks court, ice cream shop and enough parking space et al.

The Level of Competition in the Industry

Irrespective of the line of business you decide to invest in, you are still going to compete with others who are into the same area of business, and rage room business is not an exemption. The level of competition in the Global Anger Room industry depends largely on the location of the business, your additional service offerings, and of course the capacity of your facility.

If you can successfully create a unique niche for your rage room business, you are likely going to experience little or no competition. For instance, if you are the only rage room business in your location that operates 24 hours 7 days-a-week services and also has robust side attractions, you can successfully monopolize the market before you start having competitions.

It is important to also state that the competition in the rage room line of business is not restricted to competition amongst rage rooms but you will be competing against all players in the entertainment and recreational industry with a key focus on easing stress and boredom.

4. Know Your Major Competitors in the Industry

Here are some of the most popular rage rooms in the United States of America;

• Rage Ground|Los Angeles’ Anger Room
• The Rage Cage NYC
• Break Room LA
• Break Bar
• SMASH*IT Breakroom
• The Relief Room
• Smash Brothers NY
• Smash Room World
• SC Riot Room – Smash Room, Anger Room
• Tantrums, LLC
• Akron’s Rage Room Ohio
• Le Smash – Smash Room
• Huntsville Rage Room.

Economic Analysis

When it comes to starting a rage room business, you just have to get your costing cum economic analysis right if your intention of building the business is to generate profits, grow the business and start competing at the national level.

When conducting costing and economic analysis for your rage room business, you just have to examine these key factors; place, property, pricing, and promotion. As a matter of fact, you have to continue to review these key factors at regular intervals while running your rage room business.

It is important to state that security and facility and equipment maintenance costs are some of the most important factors contributing to the overall cost of running a rage room business and should be considered as a major factor when carrying out your costing and economic analysis.

5. Decide Whether to Buy a Franchise or Start from Scratch

There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to choosing how you intend to start a business. Basically, you should be guided by your overall business vision and mission statement.

Although there are very few rage rooms that are into franchising, if you are looking towards starting a rage room business, it will pay you to start from the very scratch because you can hardly get a franchise of rage room business at an affordable price.

Besides starting a rage room business from the scratch is might be stressful initially but it is profitable and can run on autopilot when compared to other similar businesses.

With rage room business, you should just try as much as possible to secure a good location, and ensure that you update your make-believe sitting rooms and kitchens with replicas of furniture and electronic gadgets such as television, DVDs, chairs, tables, and desks.

Then leverage every marketing tool within your disposal to market your rage room. Please note that most of the big and successful rage rooms around started from scratch and they were able to build a solid business brand. It takes dedication, hard work, and determination to achieve business success.

6. Know the Possible Threats and Challenges You Will Face

A common challenge is that many rage rooms are subject to extreme revenue volatility throughout the year. Besides, if you decide to open your own rage room today, one of the major challenges you are likely going to face is the presence of well–established rage rooms, anger management counselors, and of course other players in the entertainment and recreational industry in your target market location.

The only way to avoid this challenge is to create your own market by concentrating on a small community from the start. Some other threats and challenges that you are likely going to face when you start your rage room are mature markets, a bad economy (economy downturn), and stiff competition.

So also, unfavorable government policies, seasonal fluctuations, demographic/social factors, and the downturn in the economy which is likely going to affect consumer spending for leisure services such as rage rooms, and of course emergence of new competitors within the same location where yours is located.

7. Choose the Most Suitable Legal Entity (LLC, C Corp, S Corp)

You have the option of either choosing a general partnership, or a limited liability company which is commonly called an LLC for your rage room business.

But if your intention is to grow the business and welcome visitors from all across the United States of America and other countries of the world, then you should choose Limited Liability Company, LLC, or even a general partnership. That is the most suitable legal entity that will cut it for you.

In the rage room industry, LLCs are common and are recommended by all experts based on the scale of most rage room businesses. When you form an LLC, you will be getting a straightforward business structure that will protect you and separate your personal and business assets through what’s called the corporate veil.

8. Choose a Catchy Business Name from the Ideas Below

Normally, when it comes to choosing a name for your business, you should be creative because whatever name you choose for your business will go a long way to create a perception of what the business represents.

Typically, it is the norm for people to follow the trend in the industry they intend to operate from when naming their business. If you are considering starting your own rage room business, here are some catchy names that you can choose from;

• Calamity Calmer® Rage Room, LLC
• Smash House® Rage Room and Bar, Inc.
• Left Behind® Anger Room, Inc.
• Dollar Moore™ Rage room and Company
• Fun Zone® Rage Room and Bar, Inc.
• Green Zone® Rage Room and Bar, Inc.
• Cally Cruz® Anger Room, LLC
• Me Alone® Rage Room and Bar, LLC
• Tell Therapy® Rage Room and Pub, LLC
• Lincoln Moore® Rage Room and Bar, LLC.

9. Discuss With an Agent to Know the Best Insurance Policies for You

In the United States and in most countries of the world, you can’t operate a business without having some of the basic insurance policies that are required by the industry you want to operate from. Thus, it is imperative to create a budget for insurance and perhaps consult an insurance broker to guide you in choosing the best and most appropriate insurance policies for your business.

Here are some of the basic insurance policies that you should consider purchasing if you want to start your own rage room business in the United States of America;

• General insurance
• Health insurance
• Liability insurance
• Risk Insurance
• Workers Compensation
• Building/Property Insurance
• Overhead expense disability insurance
• Business owner’s policy group insurance
• Payment protection insurance

You can contact the following leading insurance companies in the United States of America to purchase the needed insurance policies for your rage room business;

• Allstate Insurance Group
• Liberty Mutual
• Progressive Insurance Group (PGR)
• Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC)
• New York Life Insurance Company
• Lincoln National Life Insurance Company
• MassMutual (Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company)
• Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company

10. Protect your Intellectual Property With Trademark, Copyrights, Patents

If you are considering starting your own rage room business, usually you may not have any need to file for intellectual property protection/trademark. This is so because the nature of the business makes it possible for you to successfully run the business without having any cause to challenge anybody in court for illegally making use of your company’s intellectual properties.

On the other hand, if you want to leverage these business opportunities within the industry and also to protect your company’s logo, unique concept, and other documents or software that are unique to you or even operation concepts, then you can go ahead to file for intellectual property protection.

If you want to register your trademark, you are expected to begin the process by filing an application with the USPTO. The final approval of your trademark is subjected to the review of attorneys as required by USPTO.

11. Get the Necessary Professional Certification

When it comes to operating a rage room business, you do not need to have any formal training or special certification before you are allowed to open and operate a rage room business in the United States of America. All you need is informal training that will expose you to the in and out of managing rage room business and also effectively running the business.

On the other hand, if you come across any form of certification that can aid you to conduct your rage room business, then by all means try and pursue such certification.

12. Get the Necessary Legal Documents You Need to Operate

It is a fact that you cannot successfully run any business in the United States without the proper documentation. If you do, it won’t be too long before the long hands of the law catch up with you. These are some of the basic legal documents that you are expected to have in place if you want to legally run your own business in the United States of America;

• DBA
• EIN
• Business and liability insurance
• Federal Tax Payer’s ID
• State Permit
• Certificate of Incorporation
• Business License
• Business Plan
• Employment Agreement (offer letters)
• Operating Agreement for LLCs
• Insurance Policy
• Online Terms of Use (if you have a website)
• Online Privacy Policy Document (basically for online payment portal)
• Company Bylaws
• Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)

13. Raise the Needed Startup Capital

Starting a standard, secured and well-equipped rage room business is relatively capital intensive even if you choose to launch the business on a small scale and you only have a handful of full-time employees on your payroll.

Leasing a standard facility that can accommodate the number of rooms you want, your customers, staff members, and of course equipping the facility are part of what will consume a large chunk of your startup capital, in essence, if you choose to start the business on a small scale, you will still have to source for fund to finance the business.

No doubt when it comes to financing a business, one of the first things you should consider is to write a good business plan.

If you have a good and workable business plan document in place, you may not have to labor yourself before convincing your bank, investors and your friends to invest in your business. Here are some of the options you can explore when sourcing for startup capital for your rage room business;

• Raising money from personal savings and sale of personal stocks and properties
• Raising money from investors and business partners
• Sell shares to interested investors
• Applying for a loan from your bank
• Pitching your business idea and applying for business grants and seed funding from, the government, donor organizations, and angel investors
• Source for soft loans from your family members and your friends.

14. Choose a Suitable Location for your Business

Starting a rage room business comes with its own challenges; it is a business that cannot be started in any location. As a matter of fact, you will need approval from the local council and other regulating authorities in the city you intend to open your rage room business.

Generally, in business, it cannot be overemphasized that the location you chose to start your business is key to the success of the business, hence entrepreneurs are willing to rent or lease a facility in a visible location; a location where the demography consist of people with the required purchasing power, and lifestyle.

If you make the mistake of renting or leasing a facility for your rage room business in a not too visible or hidden location simply because it is cheap, then you must be prepared to spend more in promoting the business. It is important to note that a business facility in a good location does not come cheap hence you should be able to allocate enough funds for leasing/renting in your budget.

If you are new to the dynamics of choosing a location for your rage room business, then you should feel free to talk to a business consultant or a realtor. Most importantly, before choosing a location for your rage room business, ensure that you first conduct thorough feasibility studies and market surveys.

The possibility of you coming across a similar business that just closed shop in the location you want to open yours can’t be ruled out.

This is why it is very important to gather as many facts and figures before choosing a location to set up a rage room business. Having said that, these are some of the cities in the United States of America where you can locate your rage room business;

• Los Angeles, California
• New York City, New York
• Las Vegas, Nevada
• Orlando, Florida
• Chicago, Illinois
• Dallas, Texas
• Washington, District of Columbia
• Boston, Massachusetts

15. Hire Employees for your Technical and Manpower Needs

When starting a rage room business, you will need make-believe sitting rooms and kitchens with replicas of furniture and electronic gadgets such as televisions, DVDs, chairs, tables, desks et al.

In setting up a small office for your rage room business, you will also need a computer, printer, software apps, telephones, pager, photocopier, scanner, and fax machine. These machines, equipment, tools, and instrument can be purchased as fairly used especially if you are limited finance to meet your budget.

When it comes to choosing between renting and leasing a facility for your rage room business, the size of the facility you want to own, and your entire budget for the business should influence your choice. Besides, you will need a facility that is in a serene environment, a facility that is big enough to accommodate the number of visitors and staff working for you.

As regards the number of employees that you are expected to kick start the business with, you would need to consider your finance before making the decision.

Averagely, when it comes to starting a standard rage room business on a large scale, you would need the services of the following professionals; Chief Operating Officer (you can occupy this position), Marketing and Sales Executive, Accountant, Disc Jockey, Facility Manager, Rage Room Instructors, and Assistant, Front Desk Officer, Security Guards, and Cleaners.

Over and above, you would need a minimum of 5 to 10 key staff members to effectively run a medium-scale but standard rage room business

The Service Delivery Process of the Business

The service delivery as it relates to a rage room business depends on the organization and what they stand to achieve. Basically, a rage room business that is ready to welcome customers primarily places gate fees and perhaps ticket fees. Before customers are allowed to come in, they are expected to pay a gate fee or subscribe by paying a membership fee for a period of time, and, in most cases, they also pay to order for drinks and food et al.

Rage room owners generate revenue by buying objects of glass, ceramic, and other destructible materials at as low a price as possible, arranging the content in the rage room, and being paid by customers to commit pleasurable havoc by smashing the items in the room.

A Rage Room makes money by charging more for the experience than the cost of acquiring the breakable objects that will be arranged for destruction.

Overhead costs must also be covered. It is important to state that a rage room business may decide to improvise or adopt any business process and structure that will guarantee them efficiency and flexibility; the above-stated rage room business process is not cast in stone.

16. Write a Marketing Plan Packed With Ideas & Strategies

The fact that the entry barrier for starting a small-scale rage room is not too high means that there is bound to be more players in the industry no matter the location you choose to start yours. In essence, you must come up with a unique and fun-filled facility if you must carve out a market for yourself in your community, city, state, or country.

So, when you are drafting your marketing plans, make sure that you create a compelling company profile. Aside from your qualifications and experience, it is important to clearly state what you have been able to achieve in time past. This will help boost your chances in the marketplace when marketing your rage room. Here are some of the platforms you can utilize to market your rage room business;

• Introduce your rage room business by sending introductory letters alongside your brochure to youth organizations, sports clubs, schools, corporate organizations, households, and key stakeholders in and around the location where your rage room business is located
• Print out fliers and business cards and strategically drop them in offices, libraries, public facilities, airports and train stations et al.
• Making your first impression count positively to those making use of your rage room business for the first time
• Make use of attractive handbills to create awareness and also to give direction to your rage room business
• Advertise your services in community-based newspapers, local TV and radio stations
• List your business and products on yellow pages ads (local directories)
• Leverage the internet to promote your rage room business
• Engage in direct marketing and sales
• Encourage the use of word-of-mouth marketing (referrals)
• Leverage the internet to promote your rage room business
• Join local chambers of commerce and industries around you with the main aim of networking and marketing your rage room business; you are likely going to get referrals from such networks.
• Engage the services of marketing executives and business developers to carry out direct marketing for you

17. Work Out a Reasonable Pricing for your Services & Products

One key factor that will help you offer your gate fees, membership fees, or services at the right price is to ensure that you get a good bargain when buying make-believe sitting room appliances, kitchens with replicas of furniture, and electronic gadgets such as televisions, DVD, chairs, tables, and desks et al, and channel your efforts towards marketing and promoting your brand name.

You can also try as much as possible to work with independent contractors and marketers; it will help you save costs for paying sales and marketing executives. So also, if you are able to secure a business partnership as it relates to getting referrals, then you will be able to get the right pricing and of course, maximize profits from your business.

18. Develop Iron-clad Competitive Strategies to Help You Win

The rage room business line of business is not a competitive industry, but you must come up with a unique and highly creative strategy to be able to outsmart your competitors in the industry.

Part of what you need to do in order to stay competitive in the industry is to ensure that your facility is a state-of-the-art entertainment center with multiple attractions based around entertainment and stress relief. Providing customers with experience in a safe, clean, monitored environment, with multiple revenue centers and the ability to turn visitors into customers quickly.

In other to stay competitive in this industry, you must ensure that you offer anger management counseling sessions, that your clients are always comfortable (homely), secured, and always ensure that you pay attention to details when carrying out your job.

The truth is that if there are fluctuations in the services you provide, customers can choose to shift allegiance and settle for other options available.

19. Brainstorm Possible Ways to Retain Clients & Customers

When it comes to business, no matter the industry that you choose to pitch your tent in, one of the easiest ways to increase customer retention and perhaps attract new customers is to produce results and satisfy your customers always.

If your customers are satisfied with your facility and service delivery, they can hardly source alternative service providers.

If your services and customer service fluctuate, you are likely going to struggle to get your customers to retain your services. Ensure that you offer your customers incentives if you want to retain them and of course continue to generate repeat sales from them and also attract new customers.

Part of what you need to do to achieve this is to track progress, results, or outputs with the aim of improving on them quickly as the case demands. When it comes to managing your customers and building a loyal clientele base, you should purchase customized CRM software.

With a customized CRM system, you can easily stay in touch with your clients (you can carry out quick surveys, you can introduce new products and prices to them without any hitch, you can felicitate with them on their birthdays and other anniversaries, you can keep track of their progress, you can send bulk SMS and customized emails and above all, you can easily receive compliance and feedback from them).

20. Develop Strategies to Boost Brand Awareness and Create a Corporate Identity

If you are in business and you are not conscious about boosting your brand awareness and communicating your corporate identity, then you should be ready to take on whatever society portrays your business to be.

One of the secrets of larger corporations is that they are willing to spend fortunes year in and year out to boost their brand awareness and to continue to communicate their corporate identity in the way they want people to perceive them to be.

No matter the industry you belong to, the truth is that the market is dynamic and it requires consistent brand awareness and brand-boosting cum promotion to continue to appeal to your target market. Here are the platforms you can leverage on to boost your brand and create a corporate identity for your rage room business;

• Place adverts on both print (newspapers and entertainment magazines) and electronic media platforms
• Sponsor relevant community-based events
• Leverage the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote your rage room business
• Install your billboards in strategic locations all around your city or state
• Distribute your fliers and handbills to target areas
• List your rage room business in local directories/yellow pages
• Advertise your rage room business on your official website and employ strategies that will help you pull traffic to the site
• Position your Flexi Banners at strategic positions in the location where your rage room business is located.
• Ensure that all your staff members wear your branded shirts and that all your vehicles are branded with your company’s logo.