Open your own ice cream parlor - How to realize your dream

Ice cream parlors and ice cream parlors are popular with both children and adults. This is no wonder, since ice cream is one of the most delicious desserts in the world and has a long history.

How can you realize your dream of owning your own ice cream parlor?You can realize your dream if you really deal with the history, the, equipment, the ingredients and recipes. But you should also think about the commercial part, which involves some work. Get tips from professionals who already have experience. So your dream should no longer remain a dream.

Already in ancient China was known a kind of fruit ice cream and also Marco Polo described in his books the production of ice cream from snow and saltpeter.
In the Middle Ages, however, the treat was reserved for kings and the upper class. Later, over the years, thanks to the development of the ice cream machine by the Carpigiani brothers in Bologna, the famous Italian gelato was born.
Fortunately, until today there has been this great development and just about anyone can enjoy a scoop of ice cream at will and whenever the desire arises!

The best reasons to open your own ice cream parlor

Most people with a sweet tooth have probably stood in an ice cream parlor, seen the delicious flavors and all the happy faces, and thought to themselves, "I'd like to do that too!"

It's not only in Italy, where you can find delicious gelato on almost every corner, that ice cream is a popular way to cool down, especially in summer.

In fact, opening an ice cream parlor is a common dream.

And why not?
After all, starting an ice cream parlor or ice cream shop looks like the perfect job to many: Not only are you your own boss, but you're sitting right at the source of the most delicious ice cream specialties!

You can test the latest ice cream products and flavors, all while your store is a popular destination for young and old alike.

In addition, the growing appreciation for artisan, homemade premium ice cream means that there is a much better chance for a small ice cream shop to catch on than there was until a few years ago.

But before you get into ice cream making, there are a few tips you should keep in mind and also important questions to ask yourself.

In the following article, we reveal the most important tips and tricks you should know before you open your own ice cream parlor.

We also edit the most important questions you should ask yourself to make sure that starting an ice cream shop is really right for you.

The best approach to understand the world of ice cream

Is training as a specialist ice cream seller or producer necessary at all?

Anyone who wants to work as an ice cream supplier or open their own ice cream parlor does not need special training, as is often assumed.

Nevertheless, it can be of great advantage to be familiar with or to have already gained experience in the field of gastronomy.

But even without any experience you can successfully open and manage an ice cream parlor.

Where there's a will, there's a way

The best way to learn something new is probably always to just try it out for yourself. That definitely applies to the ice cream business as well.

Honestly, you can read a book about ice cream parlors or ice cream parlors and learn a lot about ice cream production.

But until you've worked in an ice cream parlor, you probably won't experience what it really means to face a customer directly, greet them and serve them.

You'll also probably never learn from reading books and magazines what the perfect consistency of ice cream should be when serving.

Make your own experience!

So if you want to understand the ice cream industry better, the best thing to do is to work in an ice cream parlor for a while first.

This will give you a feel for staff, orders, marketing, and inventory. The list goes on and on, and no one can teach you more than someone who has been running their own ice cream shop for years.

While there are countless ice cream franchises, most ice cream parlors are family businesses with a lifespan of several decades, so it shouldn't be hard to find a good ice cream parlor to learn a thing or two from.

You don't even have to work in such a business for long.

Get tips from the expert

However, the more time you can spend with a successful business owner, the more know-how you can naturally take away for yourself to successfully run your own business in the future.

So use the learning phase that you can spend in an ice cream parlor with foresight. Ask all the important questions that are on your mind.

Take on as many tasks as possible while looking for ways to make the business more efficient.

What to do when there is no time to gain experience?

However, if you don't have the time to take an internship or a job at a successful ice cream parlor, there are other ways to familiarize yourself with the knowledge you need.

Turn to experienced professionals

For example, you can turn to a company like Krä Eistechnik, which can tell you countless tips and tricks and save you from many mistakes thanks to professional advice from experienced experts.

This way you are not alone in the huge mountain of to-dos and you can save a lot of time, which you can put into the implementation of the first steps.

The many years of experience in starting up ice cream parlors as well as in advising already existing ice cream parlors will also help you to focus on the essentials and to start already with structure and a lot of previous knowledge.

Krä Eistechnik will not only advise you on the production of the most delicious ice cream specialties and the necessary equipment, but will also offer you support in planning the premises.

Processes and walkways are included in the planning so that your ice cream parlor is not only appealing to your customers, but also provides a pleasant and functional workplace for your employees.

Here you can choose whether you want to contact a Krä expert directly by e-mail, phone call or video call. You can also make an appointment in advance.

The right preparation is everything

In any case, be sure to prepare your ice cream dream with the right information and tools.

Because if you really want to open an ice cream shop, the following are just some of the questions you should ask yourself.

Opening an ice cream shop may be your lifelong dream, but you shouldn't rush into it - especially if you want to sell frozen desserts.

You have a lot to learn about the business before opening an ice cream parlor, but if you're determined and willing to learn and put a lot of work and time into your dream, there's nothing standing in your way!

And if you can already answer the following questions, you're well on your way to becoming the ice cream vendor you've always dreamed of being.

Are you really ready to open your own ice cream shop yet?

Whether you should really dare to open your own ice cream parlor or ice cream cafe depends on several factors.

The very first question you should ask yourself before opening an ice cream shop is:

1. do you love ice cream?

It's not just about how much you like ice cream on a hot day, but the subtleties of flavor, texture, delivery and more.

You'll be dealing with ice cream and everything that goes with it every day in the future.

Today, the choice of different types of ice cream is immense and your customers are faced with a huge offer, so you first have to convince them to buy ice cream from you.

While individual craftsmanship is gaining more appreciation again, as mentioned earlier, if you want to compete with the Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's of the world, you need a product that is not only high quality, but also distinctive.

After all, you want to give your customers the best of the best and keep them coming back.

It doesn't have to be the case that you know about every little step from the start, as that can also develop as you work as an ice cream vendor.

2. do you know your product or do you already feel it?

Ice cream comes in many different qualities. Of course, you know that already, because you yourself are an ice cream lover through and through.

Some ice creams are light and fluffy, others are dense and creamy. It always depends on the ingredients and the way they are prepared.

If you want to offer your customers the best quality, you should know what makes a difference in the production of ice cream.

For example, there is a term called air impact, which stands for the amount of air that is in each sundae.

The more air, the fluffier the ice cream. The less air, the denser and creamier the ice cream.

But be careful: too much air means that there are not many flavoring ingredients left and the ice cream becomes bland and tasteless.

With too little air, however, the ice cream can no longer be penetrated even with the hardest ice cream scoop! In addition, it is no longer delicious-creamy on the tongue, but simply rock-hard.

This is just one of the basics to understand the world of artisan ice cream.

3. do you cope with the seasonality of your operation or are you flexible enough to work around it?

Seasonality is an issue that can only be circumvented in the ice cream industry with a lot of creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.

Because the reality is that one of the biggest challenges of running an ice cream shop is the fact that you usually only make money six or seven months out of the year. Nevertheless, you have to cover many running costs throughout the year.

You should make sure in your planning that you consider the seasonality of your business and make an assessment of how drastic that seasonality might be in your potential location.

After that, it's best to think directly about how you ultimately want to deal with it.

After all, if you're going to open an ice cream parlor in a city with a colder climate and longer winters, the business is bound to be seasonal if the supply remains the same.

Even if you're open year-round, you'll most likely do the bulk of your business in the summer months.

The key takeaway from this is that you should be able to grow your business quickly and efficiently in the summer, put money aside during that time, and then run a lean, efficient operation in the winter.

If you want to bypass seasonality, or rather flexibly adapt to it, then you should be creative and adapt your offer in winter.

In this article, you'll find ideas on how to ensure high sales even during the colder months of the year.

4. Are you ready to face the daunting paperwork?

If you want to open a business that serves food or even alcohol to customers, you should get used to a heavy workload of paperwork.

Depending on what the requirements are from the government agencies in your state, you may have to go through several layers of bureaucracy.

Regulations can vary from city to city, but a few things are always the same. First, you must apply for a business license. Also, be sure to check local health and safety regulations to make sure you can pass a health and safety inspection at any time.

Because occupational safety and ergonomics in the workplace are also extremely important topics that you should deal with as a manager.

What you need before you can officially open an ice cream parlor and what you should pay attention to, you can read in this article.

Each state also has its own regulations and special permits, for example, for remodeling. You will have to comply with some special regulations or obtain permits in advance. Be sure to check with the local authorities beforehand - many rules are a matter of discretion and can be interpreted quite differently by one authority in a city than in the neighboring municipality.

You will also have to deal with tax issues and you should definitely hire a tax consultant. It is also helpful to have a lawyer on your side who is familiar with contracts and other legal issues in the catering industry.

5. can you also hand over the reins?

Those who start their own business would prefer to take everything into their own hands.

But even the most ambitious and structured entrepreneurs can't do everything at once, and certainly can't run the place entirely without help in the long run.

If you don't learn to divide up your work and hand off tasks to others, you will later be completely burned out and eventually be unable to accomplish anything at all.

In addition, you should always be able to keep the essentials in mind and not have so many tasks to work on at the same time that you are completely overwhelmed.

Handing over tasks can take some effort, especially in the beginning. But you will learn to be more relaxed and to trust employees.

Even if some things are not executed according to your ideas, nobody is perfect and even you make mistakes now and then.

So you're going to have to accept giving up control in order to continue to be in control of the big picture.

So if you dream of running your own business and being your own boss - you should never forget that you may end up being someone else's boss too.

This leads us to the next question, namely:

6. do you have the confidence to lead a team?

If you want to grow your business, sooner or later you will have to hire employees. Maybe you are already starting with a team.

Whether from the beginning or at a later stage, as a managing director you should have certain skills or acquire them during your self-employment.

Successful management of a team involves distributing tasks and maintaining an overview.

You will also be responsible for setting goals, communicating their implementation in an understandable way, and then monitoring them.

Moreover, you will have to motivate your employees from time to time to give their best in order to ensure satisfied customers.

An experienced team leader will also be able to resolve conflicts and problems or know how to recognize and resolve them as they arise.

But don't worry, you'll learn a lot while you're working as a team leader, because no master has fallen from the sky yet.

Don't be too hard on yourself if you make a mistake or two in the beginning, stay authentic and approachable even as a boss and admit your mistakes.

Much more important than a team leader without mistakes is a team leader who shows appreciation and empathy to his employees.

Let your employees know that if they have a problem, they can always ask you for advice and you will work with them to solve the problem at hand.

7. do you already know the best location for your ice cream parlor?

You may think that a downtown location overlooking the street is the best choice for an ice cream parlor.

A central location, a lot of foot traffic and people who walk right in after looking at your store window. However, you should not forget that a location in the city center also means that you will have to pay a high rent all year round, while you may not have customers all year round.

So it might be worth looking for areas that are only heavily used in the summer (e.g., parks, beaches, lakeshores, riverbanks) but may offer a lower rental rate in the winter due to less traffic.

Be sure to spend enough time to thoroughly research the potential location of your ice cream parlor, as the success of your ice cream parlor may depend on it.

Not only the rental prices or a lively area should be decisive in the choice of location, but of course also the already existing offer of ice cream parlors, ice cream stands, bakeries or pastry shops with ice cream counters.

8. do you know about the preferences of your target group?

What you should decide which flavors you will offer

The choices you think are obvious may not always be the ones your customers would make.

You can offer the best of the best when it comes to the flavors of your ice cream, but if they aren't particularly appealing to your customers, it will be hard to attract repeat customers.

So you should try to have something ready for every taste or serve certain trends.

To get a feel for popular ice cream flavors or trends, you can do research by visiting other ice cream shops in your city or region.

Pay attention to which flavors are used up first at the end of the day.

Which varieties are still around and melting away in their containers?

Think about what special flavors you could offer that no one else is offering to set yourself apart from the crowd.

Of course, you can also scour the internet and use hashtags on social media platforms to find out what's trending with the younger generation right now.

For example, some ice cream shops, such as the Italian chain Grom, focus on offering simple and few flavors in a high-quality and classy way.

Others, like the ever-popular Ben & Jerry's, like to experiment with unusual and crazy flavors and combinations.

The only way to find out what you ultimately want to stand for, what suits your taste and at the same time will be well received by your clientele, is to simply try it out and offer it.

Stay innovative and open-minded to new trends or ice cream creations, it usually pays to embrace change and try new things.

So maybe it's time to invest in some equipment, get going and start selling.

You can start as a small stall at your local farmers market to test if you can find your niche.

Are you still convinced after all these questions that you are made for the job as an ice cream seller? Then you can read in this article how the first steps in opening an ice cream parlor look like and especially how much start-up capital you need.

Get more helpful tips on how to successfully get started in the ice cream business.

Unusual tips to increase your sales

Whether you've already taken the plunge into self-employment or you're still fully in the planning stages, you'll learn valuable tips here for generating revenue in times of idleness or even in addition to your main business.

Dare and share your knowledge!

It can be a very satisfying experience to teach others new things and share your own knowledge.

Especially when it's a craft that produces some of the most delicious food in the world, you'll always find plenty of people who want to learn it firsthand.

• Workshops or courses:

If you make the ice cream yourself, then you have all the necessary premises and machinery to hold courses or training in your ice cream parlor. You can give one-time taster courses or hold seminars with several dates.

Since you have a steady flow of people in your ice cream parlor during the summer months, you can put up posters in your ice cream parlor to promote your classes yourself.

Ice cream making is a fascinating process for many people and many an ice cream lover would give anything to get behind the secret of making creamy ice cream. Courses also allow you to interact directly with your clientele on an eye-to-eye level, and at the same time you can ask the participants about their taste preferences or wishes.

Of course, you shouldn't give away your best-kept recipes! But you can pass on a few of the basics without worrying.

If you're worried about losing customers this way rather than gaining them, you can relax.

The instructions and recipes you pass on to your students should be suitable for making ice cream with the simplest tools that anyone has at home. Even if your students have a small home ice cream maker, the ice cream they make at home will never be as good as the ice cream you make in your ice cream parlor.

After all, you work with high-quality industrial machines from manufacturers such as Carpigiani and Co. and also use refined recipes.

In addition, you now offer a wide range of varieties, where the whole family can get their money's worth.

A trip to the nearby ice cream parlor on a sunny day is also no quick substitute for homemade ice cream.

• Children's birthdays:

Events for children's birthdays or other celebrations are also a varied way to earn additional money and make your ice cream parlor better known.

In the process, children can create their own ice cream flavors, experiment with food coloring and learn how to handle different ingredients.

• Online workshops:

One exciting way to generate passive ongoing income is through the online world.

There are already courses on the web on a wide variety of topics and you can learn more in any field through online workshops. So why not create a course with the topic "making ice cream"?

What could be better than doing the work once and then being able to sell a passive online product forever?

Sure, it's a lot of work, requires planning, and a high-quality camera to film the production steps. You should be at least somewhat familiar with video editing or be willing to learn it.

But in the long run, it will be worth it and you can also offer your online courses at a discount to real-life participants of your courses, so they can refresh their knowledge anytime.

• Create your own website and write blog articles:

As with almost any other topic, you can start your own blog on the side by creating texts on various topics.

This way you can promote your website and draw attention to yourself. You can give insights into your workshops via video or photos, publish new ice cream varieties and thus arouse the curiosity of your customers.

Other ways to increase your revenue

• Delivery service or to-go concepts:

Above all, to earn all your costs in winter, you can also deliver your ice cream or offer a pick-up service.

To do this, you should put your ice cream in containers or think of creations with wafers that can be easily packaged.

Also to provide the dessert at events, you can come up with different offers.

Whether you want to expand your offerings with ice cream bombs, cakes or other specialties, your creativity is needed here.

Furthermore, you can supply canteens or team up with catering companies, providing the most delicious dessert at weddings, birthdays and other festivities in your area.

• More tips:

For example, you can read this post about how to design your menu to be appealing in every season, how to adapt special offers and your décor to the season, and more.