Starting a Business on the Beach

[dreardon]

My question involves business law in the state of: I want to rent kayaks out on the beach. To start I had a plan to have two Kayaks and sit next to them. I would then have a sign up sheet to reserve hour time slots throughout the day. Advertising would consist of a we rent kayaks sign. People would come to me. I do not plan to pressure or try to rent them to people.

Is this soliciting?

Are there any laws that prohibit me from doing this?

[flyingron]

There are most likely laws that restrict or prevent you from doing this.
How about filling out the name of the state that you are thinking about operating in. You'll probably also need to tell us which beach.

In addition to the regulatory issues, you do know that if someone injures or kills themselves on one of your rentals you could be sued (possibly even successfully).

[Conrad Hunter]

Concessions on beaches are typically regulated by the city or county. There are licensing procedures and probably a vote is required by a city or county council. You would not want to run such a business without setting up a corporation or LLC for liability purposes. You would need to get an occupational license, which generally means you need to have a physical business location too which would qualify for a business occupational or occupancy permit. The legal authority will require you to have all necessary permits and substantial insurance. Typically the slots for vendors and concessions on a beach are put out for bid.

About the only way around that is do it from a truck parked near the beach in a legal parking space. Depending on the beach, that might not work well at all. Also, you would need a mobile vending license from the city or county (here they are very limited and go for 75k or so) and would have all the same problems basicly.

You might have to collect and pay sales tax on the rentals, depending on your state, so you'd need to get that set up.

Probably you would also need to have your own emergency response boat, equipment and training, or contract with someone else for that, again all with the necessary approvals. It depends on how big beach concessions are in your city or county how far the regulations go.

On an economic basis having a couple of kayaks or even 4 would not be practical.