Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Hayes.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
As a young entrepreneur, I enjoyed spending time with businessmen that had more experience than myself. I soon discovered a cigar lounge was a great place to do just that. There’s something about smoking a cigar with other individuals that encourages great conversation. As I learned more about the industry and the people involved on a daily basis, I fell deeper and deeper in love with it. I found myself finishing most of my workdays in a cigar lounge and always dreamed of having a place of my own one day. I thought it would make a pretty cool retirement job. Little did I know that I would have the opportunity to transition so early in life. In 2014, at thirty years of age, I had the opportunity to sell my business. During the process of the sale, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I would do next. While I didn’t believe operating a cigar lounge would be how I spent the rest of my career, I felt like it would be a great place to work on my next venture. I purchased Renegade in September of that same year. I hired a full-time operator and spent many hours at the lounge meeting new people, handling marketing and learning the industry. After a few months, I decided to dedicate the next year to running the business myself. I believed there was lots of room for improvement and numerous opportunities that needed to be explored. Seven years later, I’m still at Renegade running the day-to-day operations and honestly believe we still haven’t scratched the surface of what’s possible.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Every business faces its own unique challenges. That being said, there are even more hurdles in an industry that is heavily regulated. In addition to industry-specific regulations, you also have marketing challenges. You’re forced to find more creative ways to build an audience when your product is prohibited from advertising across most marketing platforms.
The emergence of Covid also presented unique challenges, but it forced us to find new ways to reach our customers. While our brick-in-mortar experience is still a large part of our business, we now offer e-commerce, mail-order and subscription options for our customers. Ultimately, we want to serve customers in a manner that is most convenient to them.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
From the outside, a cigar lounge may look like a simple retail business. However, if you pull the curtains back a little, you’ll see there’s much more involved than just selling cigars. We try to create a special customer experience by offering unique cigars, a variety of events, and building camaraderie among lounge members. It is equal parts hospitality and artistry.
We also get the opportunity to work with top manufacturers from around the world. This has allowed us to create unique cigar blends that cannot be found anywhere else. When I created our first cigar, it was more of a passion project. Little did I know that it would become such a fundamental part of our business. While we still support and sell all of the popular brands, a lot of our customers now prefer our proprietary blends. We’ve been able to build customer trust over time and really work hard to consistently provide members with truly unique cigars at a tremendous value.
In addition to offering customers a wide selection of premium quality cigars, we also strive to provide an environment that is inviting and comfortable for them to be enjoyed. We strive to provide a lounge environment that fosters a friendly atmosphere for all customers. We do this by bring people together in unique ways and providing them experiences they can’t get anywhere else. This ranges from simple things such as hosting a potluck, a spirit and cigar pairing to more elaborate experiences like taking twenty customers on a cigar tour in Honduras.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
We love doing business in Dallas, Texas as a whole offers a business-friendly climate access to a talented workforce and easy access to global markets. Some of the smoking regulations present challenges, but ultimately, it is more friendly than a lot of other markets.
Contact Info:
- Email: brandon@renegadecigars.com
- Website: https://renegadecigars.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandonhayes/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.hayes.332
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Renegade_Cigars
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR75VtS99mwkNkcoorMOkrw/videos?view=0
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/renegade-cigars-richardson
- Other: https://linktr.ee/RenegadeCigars
