I think some kind of financial return on hardware should start immediately.
The opportunity cost of tying up ones capital means at the least that capital should pay interest until the costs of acquisition are fully amortized, at which time the actual ROI for a given capital item can be realized. Some business models treat interest as a general business expense rather than as a cost directly tied to an individual purchase but I tend to look at each major acquisition based on total costs regardless of how they're classified later.
One of the lessons we've learned after a few decades: serious bar/club operators have a budget for sound & lights & video. They're gonna buy everything they need and spend as little as feasible on maintenance, but ultimately they understand their business of selling booze runs on eyecandy and audio.
Everyone else is a broke mofo trying to do stuff on the cheap, without a supporting business plan, and they want to rent or lease because they don't have cash or real credit available. These are folks that tend to not pay their liquor taxes or rent or fines and get padlocked by the State Dept of Revenue prior to the auction.
There have been at least a dozen threads here at the LAB/Lounge about the various business and operating models in dealing with clubs, most of which boiled down to "if you didn't sell the rig outright to the club, i.e. meaning they owe you money or gear, you must be able to legally prove what is yours to regulatory agencies or a judge, who will decide if you can get your stuff back or if you'll be bidding at the auction..."
We had systems in a couple of places that went belly-up. One time was lucky, a part time employee of ours was driving past and noticed the landlord and a locksmith at the club at 10am. He called us and we were there with a truck and a copy of the rental agreement to show the landlord. We got our stuff. The club owner hadn't paid his bar rent in 3 months...
Another time we got a call from a bar employee. "Come and get your shit before the Dept of Revenue gets here." That wasn't nearly as pleasant but we eventually got all our stuff back.
Since Tim brought up the auction thing again let me clarify. We sold 4 systems to a chain franchisee. We made money on the gear, the install, the subs etc. Then we entered into a contract to maintain those systems and staff the shows.
We made it a good three years before they went belly up. Not only did I get the subs back, amps, a really nice commercial BBQ, ladders, UPS's, a cash box, a safe. You get the idea.
It probably was a more than .10 on the dollar BTW. But still was a steal.