Hey /biz/ for about a year now i've been going stupid over

>>1399693
well it seems like at this point no one is going to stop you.. but a few words of warning.

restaurants and food service places can be like hell to make profitable. I'm sure you've seen kitchen nightmares before, just imagine that like 3/4ths of all startup restaurants turn into that and die off.

and turning a hobby into a business? also a horrible idea. think of middle aged women who want to open a cafe, or a little trinket shop? or people who say they've always wanted to own a diner? it never ends well. they always borrow beyond their means and slave away until they manage to sell the place at a loss.

if you feel you have an objective grounding that your icecream is good.. and there aren't many icecream shops around where you plan to setup, or the competition isn't strong.. then you can go ahead and try. market aggressively locally in your community and use facebook to do outreach. use friends/family/church goers as some of your first customers and hopefully your ice cream isn't shit and they recommend you to their friends/family.

good luck, i hope you don't plan on going too far into debt to launch this project of yours. make sure you aren't lazy about advertising because that will fuck you. get a facebook page and a website.

>>1399693
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

>>1399693
These places fail so often that you may want to just buy someone else's failed business. Don't expect to make any more than minimum wage after all the time you put in.

Let me just suggest that you put out feelers to see if you actually want to make it a business. Ease your way into mass production. If you enjoy it, keep scaling up. If not, you still have a hobby.

Sell a few novelty things around holidays, and see if you get any traction. Things like strange flavor combinations, or some other specialty gimmick that you can't easily buy in stores. You can charge a bit of a premium for novelty items. As an example, I've had strange flavors like black sesame seed, various fruit and veggie mixes like cucumber kiwi, spinach mango and other stuff. Sometimes it's really good, sometimes it's awful, and sometimes it's just not for me.

Being weird lets you see if you want to find a niche, and lets you keep things low key/experimental. You can always go back to running a seasonal stand with normal stuff in a high traffic area. Who knows, maybe you'll like doing the weird shit, and it turns out to be profitable, and then you've got yourself a gimmick that makes you a regional attraction.

>>1399693
Food service places, on the whole, generally underperform the market. Also people in this industry earn shit all.

Lots of good advice here. One thing I'd add is to beware of/avoid increasing fixed costs like building leases. This is what kills restaurants.

Stay lean lean lean. No commitments.

Why not open an ice cream truck?

>>1399709
>>1399804
>>1399843
>>1400149
Thanks I'll take all this in mind, if I end up doing it i'm probably a year out as i don't want to rush into it only to crash and burn.
>>1400150
I had an idea of selling out of a food truck using liquid nitrogen doing made to order sundaes but food truck's don't seem to do very well where I live.

You need to watch out for the seasonal aspect as well, chances are you won't be selling shit in the winter. If you want a physical location, you might want to partner up with another seasonal business

>>1399693
go for it bro. also, do research on trendy ice cream / iced / chilled consumables on other parts of the world as well. it helps with your inner sparks too.

>>1400209
From what i've seen in my area what few ice cream shops that are here seem to do well enough during the winter excluding extreme cold or a bunch of snow.
>>1400243
Yeah was gonna have italian ice/sorbet as well just because the profit margin on it is ridiculously good.

>>1400209

You could also consider a baking cakes/cookies or whatever on the side, that would make up for the lack of activity in the winter and increase profits.

if you have a bricks and mortar location, why not partner with a low equipment needs hot food company like pizza or tacos. think about food truck kind of food. that way people will come to your place for one or the other items and get both.

having worked in hospitality for years, i wouldn't start down this road if it was my main means of providing a living for myself and my family. it can be good fun and interesting, but the bureaucracy involved and small margins make it too risky for me.

>>1400248
Interestingly enough my mother used to sell pies and cakes about 15 years ago and I keep trying to get her to open a bakery with me so that'd be a good idea, if I could get her to go along with it maybe a dessert shop could be better
>>1400250
I'm not sure I follow what you mean with the partnering, like I buy some of their stuff wholesale and resell it along with the frozen treats or what?

>>1399693
Open a shisha cafe, just sell drinks and smoke, no stupid food. Get rich.

The word my nigger - MEAT ICE-CREAM
Get me some vanilla steak swirl and I'm yours.

>>1400831
wat
>>1400825
so a bar?