Ray and Angela Rahaman are the proprietors of Rent-A-Tent, one of the best-known local enterprises offering services and facilities associated with the hosting of public functions. The Rahaman family has a track record in business that long pre-dates the establishment of Rent-A-Tent in 2002. Ray’s grandfather was the founder of the well-known Red Spot Beverage Company and in his heyday Ray used to be one of Guyana’s best-known racing car drivers in Guyana. In ‘another life’ he engaged in various entrepreneurial pursuits including construction and mining.
The decision to establish a rental facility for equipment and services arose out of a reassessment of their business ventures just over ten years ago. Their mining and construction enterprises were “underperforming.” The Rahamans decided that that way forward was to wind up those operations and consolidate their assets into a company which they named Rent-All. The idea behind the new company was to rent the equipment which they still owned to other business enterprises.
The inspiration for Rent-A-Tent arose out of a visit to Trinidad by the Rahamans to participate in a motor racing event there. Ray says he was impressed with the dispersal of huge, comfortable tents around the race track and recognized that there might be potential in such an investment back in Guyana. The Rahamans consulted with the proprietor of the Trinidad-based firm and on their return to Guyana took the decision to add tents, chairs and other event-related accoutrement to their rental inventory. At the same time the establishment was renamed Rent-A-Tent.
The growth of the market for the services which Rent-A-Tent was offering was to come through travel by potential clients to the Caribbean, North America and elsewhere where they begun to discover that outdoor entertainment had assumed a new orientation; more than that the growth of affluence in the Guyanese society was leading to a search for new, more refined ways of entertaining themselves.
The Rahamans say that their investment has been more than worth the while. The demand for the services which they offer may have given rise to considerable competition but Ray and Angela are holding their own in the industry. Demand has grown way beyond Georgetown and its environs and Rent-A-Tent has expanded its services across Guyana into areas such as Lethem, Charity, Linden and Berbice. ‘We go as far as the road will take us,” Ray says.
Ray says that the pursuit of excellence in an industry that has been good to them is a constant preoccupation. Some of the services that they offer were patterned after those provided for the wedding of the famous American golfer Tiger Woods in Barbados some years ago. Ray says he believes that success comes from following the best examples. “We have to have a sense of what people want,” he says.
A tour of the Rahaman Park facility at Houston reveals that Rent-A-Tent offers its customers more than one hundred items. These include air-conditioned dressing rooms, linens, cooling systems, tableware, lighting plants, chairs, tables and tents.
Angela insists that in their line of business Rent-A-Tent offers a one-stop shop; more than that the Rahamans have expanded their outfit beyond renting the accustomed facilities. The range of services now includes security, bar and catering services and menu planning. “We put together events from start to finish,” Angela says.
Part of the Rahamans’ service strategy is to continually enhance their inventory. One of their most recent additions is a self-contained, air-conditioned trailer equipped with rest room, mirrors and marble sinks. For the time being at least one of these will have to be enough. Ray says that it was not an inexpensive acquisition. “In a competitive and evolving industry we are determined to try to raise standards,” he says.
Rent-A-Tent is a member of the America Rental Association. Affiliation to this organization is their way of keeping in touch with global developments in the industry. They attend at least two conventions annually where they gain access to the latest facilities and services available on the international market. The industry also has its own magazines and journals and also makes information available through the internet.
When you ask the Rahamans about their company’s share of the local market they respond by saying that they are “comfortable” with it. In a society where business people have long been masters of understatement, it is their way of saying that fortune has smiled on them. Ray points out, however, that the demand for the services provided by the sector is sometimes so great that companies are compelled to work together. “There are about twenty days in the year – we call them blackout days – like Christmas Day, Mash Day, Old Year’s Day and a few other when the demand reaches a peak. All of us in the industry would then be required to put our resources together.”
The Rahamans say that over time they have positioned their company to handle major functions at short notice. “Once there is a road to get us there, no place is too far for us,” Ray says. He recalls that the company was given a mere two days notice to move its tents to Lethem to facilitate Guyanese and Brazilian officials, including the Presidents of the two countries, for the commissioning of the Takutu Bridge.
Weddings are the bread and butter of the industry and Rent-A-Tent is positioning itself to take advantage of anticipated changes in the law that could significantly increase the number of couples who travel to Guyana to tie nuptials. The romanticism associated with getting married in the Caribbean aside, the Rahamans say that cost is also a factor. This year so far Rent-A-Tent has done around forty weddings. Some of them have been pretty large, catering for as many as 2,500 guests.
Ray says that Rent-A-Tent enjoys the strategic advantage of being a debt-free company since the enterprise was established with resources from a gold-mining operation. “Being debt-free allows us to compete more effectively,” he says.
Rent-A-Tent employs approximately forty full-time employees though the Rahamans say that invariably “extra hands” are required. Four of his six children are involved in the business.
Ten years after launching the Rent-A-Tent enterprise, the Rahamans are about to significantly expand the service which the company provides by investing in a multi-million dollar air-conditioned banqueting hall to accommodate approximately 800 people. The facility is being erected at Rahaman’s Park on the original site of the Red Spot factory. He says that the first phase of the facility is expected to be completed in December and that its completion will enable the company to provide physical accommodation for major public functions and private events.
