As a child, you were always excited for the ice cream man. I mean, who honestly wasn’t prepared for anything frozen from an ice cream cup filled with a banana split to a Ninja Turtle ice pop with gumball eyes. It’s a haven for kids when they hear the jingle of your ice cream truck. However, as the economy has changed, you may have had to revert to a storefront to attract business. Don’t worry though, this could be a blessing in disguise for you. You can still inspire the world, one ice cream cup at a time.
How to Prepare Your Truck Business for Storefront Business
Unlike your truck, you will be dealing with a higher influx of clientele who will have higher demands. Unlike with your ice cream truck, where you could easily do everything without receiving too much criticism, you have to be a bit different with a store front. You have to make sure you are investing in the right supplies ranging from cups for ice cream, ice cream spoons and all the in between dealings involved. Think hard and make sure everything has the right supply with it. Appearance is going to mean everything in your business.
Go to a Supply Chain Store to Help Reduce Costs
You don’t have to spend a fortune on these supplies either. With the advancement of technology and the boom of startups in recent years, the competition for supply chains has grown. You will have good options available to you that will help with reducing costs when purchasing in bulk. As an ice cream shop, it’s okay to have a bulk of items laying around — as long as they stay in their package. Keeping the ice cream cups in the package will ensure that they stay clean and fresh until they are ready to use. If you have the money and the space to store the products, stock up on as many as you can. This will keep you afloat for the first few weeks as you determine just how busy your business is going to get, and can really determine what your product intake and outtake will be for stocking and inventory reasons.
When you are first starting up, you don’t want to have too many worries on your plate. That’s why it is mainly recommended to buy things like your ice cream cup and spoons from supply chains. You will see just how cheap you can get per unit when you buy in more bulk. Keep that in mind so that you make the purchase that will help cut costs the best when you?re first starting. Even if the initial output cost is higher than the original output, both the short-term and long-term success of your business may ride on business decisions like this.
Hire Employees if Needed
As a previous truck owner, you may have been able to deliver those wonderful sundaes in an ice cream cup by yourself, but that may not always be the case for your business. You will want to run your business at least six (6) days a week, seven (7) if possible, so that you can maximize revenue. You want to still have a life, so hiring some trustworthy employees could be a great option for you. You want people who care about your business and want to help you advance it forward. The more time you invest in the hiring process, the better you’ll feel taking days off and allowing others to run it for a few days out of the week. Isn’t that supposed to be the perk of being a business owner anyway?
Keep this in mind as you go through your business plan. You want to put in a budget for the employees, coming up with hourly wages, number of employees needed and the overall hours needed to be worked at said hourly wages. Make sure to count the total number of wages slightly higher in your business plan as a safety precaution. If you can make numbers slightly higher than your expected costs, you give yourself leeway during your model to negotiate pricing with employees. Certain employees may require more pay.
Use this to grow your business, one ice cream cup at a time.
