hello all!

[maghe]

good morning!

i am a newbie to this forum and to the ice cream business. so new that i just opened my very small mom and pop shop 2 days ago:) the basics: 500 sq ft. in a newly built ( and still filling up with retail shops) town center in a fairly upscale " self-contained" neighborhood. we make the ice cream at the shop with our batch freezer from ET. we have 14 flavors - some of which will rotate out. i look forward to sharing ideas with you and learning from those who are experienced in the ice cream business.
maggie
maggie's ice cream

[ICP]

Hi Maggie!

Welcome to the forum and congrats on opening your first shop! Have you done any "grand opening" advertising? How has business been since your start?

Make sure you try to get involved with your local community. Even if it's just sponsoring a kids baseball team. It's a great way to give back and your team will likely stop by for ice cream after the games so you'll make your money back.

Also - business in the winter months tend to slow if you live in a colder climate. Make sure you have some programs in place so you can make it through the slower times. Ice cream cakes are a good idea and also brownies or other baked goods.

Do you currently have a customer loyalty program in effect? This will also help keep customers coming back with a buy 5 get 1 free program. You can also collect their email addresses so you can keep contact with them over the winter and offer them "specials" or "new flavors" so they will have a reason to come back in during the winter.

[DanielleO]

Hi Maggie,

Welcome! How'd you find out how to make your ice cream? Did you do a training course? Buy a recipe book? Or just wing it?

I'm still in the research phase, trying to find out if I should make my own ice cream, or just have a supplier and private label or just sell a brand ice cream.

[maghe]

ICP and Danielle:

Thank you for your " hellos".... i ll answer ICP first: wont answer alll but i ll give you a brief summary. we are very involved in the community already believe it or not. i tried to do everything and i mean everything using our local people. e.g. small family business to build my cabinets - not big name ppl or home depot. used local printing co. to make business cards - didnt make my own at home...etc etc... almost everyone of those that i used to get the shop up and running have come in for ice cream and/or come back with kids in hand for more. ..... i ve already called the schools and i will offer a free cone coupon for kids who have achieved something and deserve a freebie. and am working on other ways to be involved. chamber will help with grand opening in sept.... radio is coming to our town center to do remote broadcasting etc etc... so we are trying very hard to get our name our there with our community

Damielle: after researching and reading various ice cream forums i decided it would be better to make the ice cream. more hassles yes... worth it yes... when ppl hear the word" homemade" it really gets em! to get started i went down to florida and took a class ( i need to take more classes though and i realize that) on how to make the ice cream.... i read everything i could on making ice cream... there are books out there on how to start your own ice cream biz as well as many recipes in a lot of the books. you can easily google them.

making your own ice cream costs more money up front and requires more equipment of you. batch freezers ( those hi-tech churns) are very expensive ... you can just google " batch freezers" and get an idea of how much they cost. But, I do believe it is worth the money to make your own. ... maybe ask around your area and just do an informal survery and ask people in your community if homemade ice cream would make a huge difference in whether they would walk into your shop or not..... anyway thats my .5 cents.... good luck in your research ! :)

[ICP]

Wow, sounds like you have all your bases covered Maggie! Great idea getting involved in the community and hiring local small businesses to help you. I am sure they will be your loyal customers for a very long time.

Also great idea with getting your local radio station to help with your grand opening.

Another way to keep the radio mentioning you would be to find out when the popular DJ's birthdays are and to send them an ice cream cake with a nice card/note attached. If the cake is good enough (which I'm sure it will be), they might just mention it on air.

Definitely keep us posted on how your grand opening goes and any problems you might encounter along the way. Hopefully we can help!


Re: Danielle
I agree with Maggie. Making your own ice cream is what will set you apart from others and the freshness is unmatchable.

[DanielleO]

Damielle: after researching and reading various ice cream forums i decided it would be better to make the ice cream. more hassles yes... worth it yes... when ppl hear the word" homemade" it really gets em! to get started i went down to florida and took a class ( i need to take more classes though and i realize that) on how to make the ice cream.... i read everything i could on making ice cream... there are books out there on how to start your own ice cream biz as well as many recipes in a lot of the books. you can easily google them.

making your own ice cream costs more money up front and requires more equipment of you. batch freezers ( those hi-tech churns) are very expensive ... you can just google " batch freezers" and get an idea of how much they cost. But, I do believe it is worth the money to make your own. ... maybe ask around your area and just do an informal survery and ask people in your community if homemade ice cream would make a huge difference in whether they would walk into your shop or not..... anyway thats my .5 cents.... good luck in your research ! :)

Thank you for the information Maggie. Yeah I've been checking prices and it seems for a brand new batch freezer I am looking at $20K for a new one and around $10-15K for a used one ... which brings up another question ... used equipment vs. brand new equipment. To me used saves money up front but will probably end up costing me more in the long run.

Ahhh so much to think about...

On a side note: Does anyone know of a really good recipe book out there?

[maghe]

ICP .. thanks for your words of encouragement and advice!!! there is no way to tell if all the things we are doing are right or will pay off but i am sure going to try like heck to make this work!!!!

danielle: yes after much research i decided to buy only new equipment or " nearly new" to start the shop off with for the very reason you stated: used equip can hurt you in the long run ( or even short run) But i did it the " walmart way" i searched endlessly before finding the right person to get my equipment from when it came to " nearly new" because i had been warned that those in the used restaurant equipment business could be sharks and take your money. ( i am sorry if this offends any restaurant equip. dealers/sellers but this was told to me on more than several occasions). so i searched the internet and made a gazillion calls for months before deciding on which equip. i would purchase. i also negotiated. you don't have to pay full price on everything ( some things i couldn't negotiate) but i ALWAYS tried. the one thing i bought absolutely NEW was the batch freezer that makes the ice cream... you don't want to risk that breaking down on you - if it does you are screwed. i didn't have the funds for a large batch freezer so i bought a smaller one that was not as expensive as the larger ones ( if interested you can contact emery-thompson freezers - they are very helpful and have a smaller version of the large batch freezers)

re: recipe book. there are many recipes out there offered from those who sell flavors and there is the book" how to get into the incredible ice cream business" ( i think thats the name) which has a number of recipes. the book quite frankly is way overpriced, so i would suggest getting it from amazon or some other discount internet book store.

good luck!!!!

[DanielleO]

thanks for the info Maggie! I really appreciate it!