Let’s be honest: Americans love ice cream. In the summertime, there’s absolutely nothing better than grabbing a scoop of your favorite sweet treat in a cone, sitting on a park bench while taking in the view on a sunny day.
If you enjoy ice cream, you’re like millions of Americans who can’t get enough of it. It’s estimated that the average American like yourself eats ice cream nearly 30 times a year and 40% of the time in a given two week period, according to NDP Group research.
If you love ice cream and want to share your passion for it with everyday Americans like yourself, opening an ice cream shop is the way to go. It’s not an automatic path to success, but if you can offer a fun and inviting atmosphere and plenty of sweet treats, people will flock to your shop.
With your own shop and a good business plan, you’ll be able to design your shop anyway you like. You’ll have plenty of freedom to pick the paint scheme, the color of the ice cream spoons, the bowls, the cups and everything in-between. Bottom line: if you put some effort in, your shop can be the new happening spot in town. Grandparents will stop in with grandkids for treats; teenagers will stop in after school or on dates and during the summer, there may be days where you have lines out the door. If you’ve got something unique to offer customers, word will spread quickly.
You can be as flashy or as subtle as you think is necessary, but ultimately you’re trying to show customers that you’re passionate about ice cream and you want to show the same enthusiasm they do about delectable delights. So go crazy with the menu or keep things simple; just make sure you have something awesome to offer customers when they come in.
There’s little doubt that opening an ice cream shop can be a fun and creative business venture, but it takes more than know-how and creativity to make it successful. Whether you’re opening up a shop like this or any shop for that matter, you need to realize your biggest obstacles and tackle them. Some of those obstacles can include:
- Competition
- Supply costs
- Scheduling
- Reliability of employees
- Business growth
If you master these obstacles, you can have all the success in the world. So how do you overcome these challenges? Here’s how you can master them and make them work for you:
- Invest: When a customer comes into your shop, they’re looking for a good product, an enjoyable experience and possibly something they can’t get anywhere else. If you can do that, chances of getting repeat business are good.
- Use technology in a positive way: Bottom line, technology helps businesses survive. So don’t be afraid of it and use tools like a point-of-sale system to help your business succeed.
- Get the word out: These days you can use all sorts of social media platforms to let people know you’re in business. You can easily use social media to let people know about updated menus, specials, deals, new items and all the goings-on at your shop. You can also use it post videos and other items to let customers know a little bit about you, your employees and what your establishment offers. If a customer’s curiosity is peaked, that will make them want to stop in.
- Be aware: There’s no doubt that running a business isn’t easy, but you can make it a lot less stressful by getting your inventory in order and keeping schedules straight among your employees. Anything you can do to keep everything in order is going to help in the long run.
If you’re opening an ice cream shop, don’t be afraid to have some fun with it and let your passion shine through. But also be aware that having good business plans in place and keeping things in order is also essential to success. If you can master all that and offer customers plenty of sweet, tasty treats, the sky could be the limit for your success.
