Trust me as both an ice cream consultant and writer of ice cream business plans, now in my 45th year I know all too well truer words have NEVER been spoken. Having and USING a business plan is vital to the ultimate success of YOUR ice cream business. In addition when one refers to the “ins and outs of a successful business” this phrase translates to the following:

EITHER know the ins and outs OR know WHERE to go to get the ins and outs to run your business.

On the subject of business plans there are generally two ways to

achieve this objective:

1. utilize a business plan software program (Ice Cream Profits biz plan software is your BEST bet!! I heartedly recommend and endorse it.)

2. have a professional business plan writer write your business plan

The difference between the two choices above will be cost.

Most small time ice cream operators can do just fine with the Ice Cream Profits business plan template. If you feel you need a custom prepared business plan you may wish to contact this article writer at johntroland@msn.com or 800-840-4320 for more information.

Once you have written your business plan and your ice cream shop is “Open for Business” there is no more important facet of your business than the recordkeeping. TIP: Do NOT keep “good” records; keep GREAT Records!! It is necessary indeed to keep GREAT records for several reasons:

1. provide you with detailed financial info that will enable you to make prudent business decisions on an ongoing basis
2. provide you, and also your accountant, with the necessary financial info to be utilized in preparing your business financial statements: Balance Sheet and Statement of Income and Expenses as well as financial projections for future periods
3. provide you with all necessary data needed to prepare accurate and complete tax returns utilizing all tax deductions you are entitled to
4. have detailed backup financial data available in the event your business tax return is selected for an I.R.S. tax audit: TAX TIP - insufficient and incomplete tax info could result in I.R.S. disallowing in whole or in part certain business expense deductions

Finally a suggestion that will certainly insure you of far greater success in your ice cream shop business: hire a good accountant that specializes in working with small business owners. Trust me – it is one of the best moves you will ever make and will help insure that your business thrives in the years ahead.

Everyone has traditional holidays favorites whether it be a main dish or a dessert. Itʼs something special that is carried on from year to year. Here
are the 3 that I picked and formulated into a creamy dessert. While I chose to make gelato, these can easily be converted to traditional ice cream as
well!

	Tres Leches: Pieces of white cake ʻSOAKEDʼ in a combination of condensed milk, sweetened condensed milk , and heavy whipping cream. Make sure to soak the cake thoroughly; freeze at +10 F; then cut into 1/4 inch cubes. Fold into a clean, plain ice cream base straight from the batch freezer. I made this as a gelato and garnished the top with a vanilla candy drizzle.
	Harvest Berry: Mix cranraisins, walnut pieces, and crushed oatmeal cookies in equal parts. Fold into finished ice cream base straight from the batch freezer (the base can be mildly flavored with vanilla extract). I made this as a gelato and garnished the top with a chocolate stracciatella topping.
	Gingerbread House: Make a gingerbread base by flavoring with gingersnap cookies and a little added molasses. Fold candies: chocolate chips and M&Mʼs and more gingersnap cookie pieces into the ice cream extracted from the batch freezer. As a gelato, I garnished the surface with dollops of whipped topping with pieces of gummy ʻDOTSʼ in the centers.

The contest is in progress at the moment. Customers are sampling and placing their vote for their favorite. Itʼs close!

This contest not only added 3 new flavors to our menu, but brought our customers in for some fun and interaction. Guess what the prizes will be!!

Continue the holiday spirit and feel free to add your recipes to this blog!

Happy Holidays!

Debbie

What’s going on in the community?

Fundraisers for charity! Pick the charity that you can relate to and get involved. There is no shortage of fundraising events: April–Empty Bowls for the Second Harvest Food Bank: May–Taste of the Town for Family Services; June–elementary school fundraiser. These were on the local scale. Go for national programs such as Race for the Cure, March of Dimes, or Make-a-Wish. In these events, you are giving ice cream to get recognition. Your product is tasted, your ice cream cart is seen, and hopefully someone inquires about catering.

Schools and kids! Funding for education is being cut so our schools have to make up the deficit. Spring festivals are a time when kids can have fun while raising money for their schools. How many schools can you contact to be a vendor? You can donate a percentage of sales and gain exposure to potential customers. Donate a certificate
to reading programs to bring kids to your shop! Donate to raffles and auctions to bring more people to your shop. Make sure you put a coupon in the dining books that schools sell. It’s a BOGO deal—but it brings traffic into the shop even though the coupon book sells for $25, the school gets money, you get customers, and the customers get a great deal!

Outdoor events go from April through early Fall! What better time to sell ice cream than the first warm day of Spring, the hot days of Summer, or the beautiful, sunny Fall days before the leaves begin to drop off the trees! There are festivals in the streets, in the parks, near the water! In April, we worked Arts Unleashed for the Humane Society; in May we did a Celtic Festival in celebration of the Highland games; in May–the beginning of local wine festivals! Coming in June a local celebration of historic Bethania; in July, Independence Day celebrations of course in the local park; in August the beginning of Fall Festivals and more!

Go PRIVATE too. Ice cream and summer go hand-in-hand. Office parties, weddings, graduations, birthdays are all occasions that NEED ice cream! The every day pool party or a neighborhood gathering are also occasions screaming for ice cream!

These are just a few ideas. Feel free to add your ideas to the blog.

May you prosper this season!

So, how do you choose the best location for your shop?

This is always a tough question to answer specifically as different location demographics and factors come in to play.

The 5 most important factors that determine a good site are as follows:

1. Traffic Patterns
2. Site Visibility
3. Access
4. Proximity
5. Appearance
6. Size

It is also important to note that ice cream is mostly sold between 4pm and 10pm. Most high foot traffic areas (malls and downtown) are generally dead during these hours, so sometimes having a high foot traffic area isn’t enough.

With 2009 rolling in, we closed for January to clean, to do taxes, and to gather our thoughts for another season. BUT with the news, the reports of businesses closing, the domino effect of this influencing every aspect of running a business, we began to feel the unstable financial environment. The immediate reaction was fear. Fear breeds inaction, the need to believe that reality could not be! But in a small business, the entrepreneur has the drive to survive. With suppliers demanding payment up front,  with banks making loans impossible to get, with minimum wage increasing, with ingredient costs ever rising . . . action had to be taken. With one step at a time we began to feel more in control, and more positive in attitude.

We saved money in two important ways—-in food costs and in labor costs. First, we worked more hours ourselves and saved the labor hours for our employees when absolutely needed. We also revisit hours of operation for the shop. In the Winter months, fewer hours are needed as the demand is less. We closed more at the beginning of the week, than at the end or the weekend when we were more likely to be busy. In food costs, we tried to keep inventory low. We did not sacrifice quality, just did not order unless absolutely necessary and tried to use what we had without any waste. These were the steps which had immediate impact on controlling cash flow without which there would be no business to run.

NEXT we decided to promote, promote, promote actively. In this situation, I found that I started doing things I had always planned to do, but never implemented the ideas. There are the immediate things that were done. For the economy, our economic stimulus plan was to make Sundays, family time—-when everyone could come in and receive 10% off any purchase that day. Our regular promotions, a Buy One Get One Free coupon in a local coupon book and our weekday, after-school special of Buy One Get One-half off, continued to be MORE successful in these times.

More aggressive approaches to current programs are being taken. I am reaching out to schools in their accelerated reading programs with a Blue Ridge incentive. School fundraisers always occur in the Spring and Fall so contact schools and introduce yourself. For past catering clients, I am emailing a message to book again with an offer to keep prices the same as last year. Listen to other caterers that you work with to get referrals or ideas about other events that you might participate in.

I also prepared a press release to local media to write an article about various promotions by businesses in today’s depressed economy. A lengthier article is in progress to promote our shop, its uniqueness to our city with a history and description of products to our shop. This will be distributed to local magazines in hopes of getting it published during the ice cream season. You must plan ahead to get the article out in April for a June/July/August issue. Simple flyers or posters are being made to hand out during caterings; to leave at our city visitor center and chamber of commerce.

We have made it through the first quarter of the year which is the slowest for an ice cream shop. Now the approach of the peak ice cream season is in sight, however, we will continue to implement cost saving practices due to that lingering fear of a depressed economy as well as another minimum wage increase for our state coming only one year since the last one. We keep on taking steps to stay in business. Our community has always been supportive and I feel strongly that together we will come through this all.

Shop owner,

Deborah Lee

We are also excited about our new blog section where we will have ice cream industry experts, shop owners, consultants, and marketing professionals posting tips and tricks of the trade.

We hope you enjoy this site and find the information here helpful.