Business Ideas | Small Business Ideas: Ice Cream Parlor

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Ice Cream Parlor | Business Ideas

Ice cream parlors (or parlours) are places that sell ice cream, gelato, sorbet and frozen yogurt to consumers. Ice cream is typically sold as regular ice cream (also called hard-packed ice cream), gelato and soft serve, which is typically dispensed by a machine with a limited number of flavors (e.g. chocolate, vanilla, and "twist", a mix of the two). It is customary for ice cream parlors to offer several ice cream flavors and items.

Ice cream parlors sell ice cream, frozen yogurt, sundaes, milkshakes and banana splits. They feature take-out and sit-down service, although most chain stores have mostly take-out customers. Ice cream parlors stay open year round in warm weather locales and typically remain open only during the spring and summer in colder climates.

On a hot summer day, nothing beats a refreshing scoop of your favorite ice cream. The treat is a favorite around the nation, but is particularly appealing in the Southern states when the sun is blasting and the municipal pools are open. Starting an ice cream business can be extremely lucrative, as long as you have researched other ice cream businesses in your area and developed a detailed business plan.

Types

Parlors vary in terms of environment, some only have an order window and outside seating, while others have complete indoor facilities. Additionally, some parlors have drive-through windows. Some parlors remain open all year round (typically in warmer weather locations) and others in colder climates stay open only during warmer months, particularly from March to November. Parlors in major metro areas, including those in colder climates, often remain throughout the year to satisfy high consumer demand for frozen ice creams, yogurts, and sorbets.

Things Needed

Store location
Market research
Business plan
Permits
Start-up capital

Instructions

Develop a business plan for ice cream parlors. Include your market research, target audience, design ideas for your shop, potential locations around the city, advertising techniques, how you intend to finance the business and your competition. Present your business plan to financiers, starting with your local bank, to procure funding. Check business plan publishers like entrepreneur.com. Determine the licenses or permits you'll need by visiting your state's official website. Look for financing in the form of a business loan, or use savings or even your credit cards.
Decide on a location. Choose a space close to a park, school or entertainment venue to attract a high number of customers. Devise a catchy name or theme for your ice cream parlor unless you want to purchase a franchise.
Contact ice cream parlor owners. Ask them how they got started and observe how they run their shop. Work or manage an ice cream parlor to learn more about the day-to-day operations. Put together a list of the equipment and supplies you'll need to open the business. Consider the prices and types of soft serve ice cream machines, parlor tables and chairs, coolers, freezers and display cases. Then stock up on ice cream mix, cones, toppings, and fruits for your opening day.
Decide whether to invest in a successful or up-and-coming franchise or start your own independent ice cream shop. The benefit to starting a franchise is that you will have built-in help to guide you through the process of starting your business. Franchises typically provide the store layout and design, ingredients, supplies and employee training. However, they can require significant upfront capital. Starting your own business allows you the freedom to determine exactly how much money you can afford to invest.
Research other ice cream or mobile businesses in your area to help you get an idea of the type of business you want to start and ideas for designing your store or cart. A low-fat, frozen yogurt shop may do particularly well, particularly if you intend to set up shop in an area that has a high interest in healthy living.
Contact your city’s health department to learn the requirements and costs associated with obtaining a permit or mobile permit if you intend to operate an ice cream cart. Equipment, lighting, garbage, plumbing and ventilation requirements; rodent and insect control; and access to restrooms will be considered for a physical location. Keep this information with you when looking to rent commercial space so you don’t invest in a place that will require costly adjustments.
Develop a list of products that you will sell with your ice cream, such as bottled drinks, cookies, waffle cones and toppings. Research equipment costs for carts, condiments, walk-in coolers, walk-in freezers, soft-serve machines, storage shelves, a soda machine, tables, chairs, fudge warmers, prep tables, mixing bowls, pasteurizers (if you'll be making your own ice cream) and ice cream vendors or dairy farmers.
Create a menu and advertising plan. Concentrate on the way you want to present your business. Attract kids by serving ice cream bars, sundaes and cones with funny names. Add hot foods like sandwiches and hot dogs to the menu to bring in more sit-down customers.

Tips

The city of Houston has a small-business packet that can help you get started on the administrative aspects of starting your business, such as obtaining a business license, sales tax permit and federal identification number and learning tax requirements.

Self-serve, which allows customers to create their own ice cream treats, is a great way to compete with chains such as Baskin-Robbins or Maggie Moo’s, which offer traditional, behind-the-counter service.

Reference

Ice Cream

Business Ice Cream

1 comment:

Ice Cream ParlorDecember 12, 2013 at 12:48 PM
How to Open an Ice Cream Parlor, Ice Cream Parlor Business
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Easy Tips and Ideas to Start Business

Although anyone can start a business, many people fail because of a bad product or improper research. If you want to start your own business, you can improve your chances for success before you even begin. In order to make your business successful, start strong and make sure that your idea will hold out for the long haul.

Have a Good Product

Ensure that you plan to sell something useful. Although you may think that your product is important or special, that doesn't mean the general public will agree. Ask friends, family and strangers what they think of your product. If they don't seem that interested, ask them why. With their suggestions, you can either improve the product or scrap the idea completely. According to Brad Sugars of Entrepreneur magazine, most small businesses fail because they sold a product that didn't have an adequate market. This also applies to small businesses that provide a service. A lawn-care business might be useful for part of the year in a northern state, but it is in-demand year-round in the south. Consider whether people will actually want to use your service and get constructive advice from those not afraid to give their opinion.

Research Local Businesses

Research local companies before starting up your own business. This will not only give you an idea of the amount of competition you will have, but it will also help you price your product or service. If you're looking to start a wedding photography business, you may find during your research that the market is over-saturated in your area. If not over-saturated, you should contact each business and ask them for a price list. Alter your prices so you can stay competitive with the competition in town. Researching similar local businesses will also help you decide where to locate your business location. Try not to start up a store or office close to another business of your type. If your small business is located away from similar business types, this will cause locals to choose you over businesses that are farther away from where they live.

Get Professional Advice

You may know someone who has started their own successful business. Ask him for advice and listen to his stories of how he started his company. You may gain useful advice on the good and bad ways to start a business. Local entrepreneurs can also introduce you to local product providers or advertisers that you may not have met without their help. Accept any advice with open arms, especially if the advice is coming from someone successful in the area.

How to Calculate Business Start Up Costs

Starting a business in no easy endeavor. It takes a great deal of research, perseverance and hard work. While sweat equity will make your small business more successful, you will most likely need real capital to get the business started. Before you start raising capital and/or investing your own funds, the first thing you need to do is determine the total start-up costs.

Step 1

Determine your costs of sales. For most small businesses this means inventory, the cost of raw materials, manufacturing equipment, shipping, packaging, and warehousing. However, not all businesses sell products. In this case, the cost of sales is primarily the direct labor involved in making the sale. For example, to open a small shoe business entails purchasing enough inventory ($10,000) to stock the store.

Step 2

Determine professional fees. Planning your business structure, i.e., limited liability corporation or general partnership, means hiring an attorney. There may also be the need to pay an attorney for help with establishing trademarks, copyrights, and patents. In this scenario, that puts total professional fees at an estimated $20,000.

Step 3

Determine technology costs. Technology can greatly reduce the cost of labor for small business if used effectively. Most small businesses require computers, printers, cell phones, website development, Internet access, software applications, information security, data storage, and outsourced information technology (IT) consulting. If the cost of technology is $10,000 to start, add an additional $5,000 a year for maintenance (hint: maintenance is not included in start-up costs).

Step 4

Determine administrative costs. This varies with business types and may include items such as business insurance, office supplies, product packaging, parking, rent, express shipping, desks, chairs, fax machines, phones, or anything else necessary to operate the business daily. A good estimate for start-up administrative costs would be $5,000 for the first six months.

Step 5

Determine initial sales and marketing costs. Now that you have your product, you need to let folks know about it. Sales and marketing costs generally include marketing materials for presentations, printing stationery, business cards, advertising, trade show events, and public relations. These initial sales and marketing costs can add up to $3,000.

Step 6

Determine the wages and benefits needed to secure a staff. This includes employee salaries, benefits, workers compensation, and payroll taxes. Let's put the cost of wages and benefits estimated at $20,000 for the first three months of business.

Step 7

Add all costs associated with starting the business for a total. Be sure to only include business start-up costs that will be incurred in the first three to six months of operations. For this example, the calculation is: $10,000 + $20,000 + $10,000 + $5,000 + $3,000 + $20,000 = $68,000.

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