If you are starting an ice cream parlor, it is likely that you will require a business plan at some point. The experts at Pro Business Plans have extensive experience working with ice cream parlors to create professional plans for investment and strategy. This article provides information on what is included in an ice cream parlor business plan and how it is typically structured.
Ice Cream Parlor Business Plan
Business Plan Articles
Ice Cream Parlor Business Plan
There are several things to consider if you are preparing a plan for an ice cream parlor. Among the most important are the location, the style/operations structure of the facility and overall positioning. For instance, some ice cream parlors take a community oriented approach, whereas others are based on a franchise or attempt to start a franchise. The unique aspects of your ice cream parlor should be outlined in your business model and form the basis for the assumptions outlined in your financial projections and structure the nature of your marketing plan.
Business Model
The business model section of an ice cream parlor business plan is designed to provide information related to how you are uniquely different than other parlors and dessert options. Just having a general ice cream parlor may not be enough to be competitive in the market. For instance, you may need to provide an atmosphere component or focus on the positioning from another angle, such as being organic and/or healthy centric. Investors will want to understand how your ice cream parlor is uniquely different from the competition and the method in which you will effectively secure your position in the market.
Location
When it comes to selecting an optimal location for an ice cream parlor, it is critical that one be selected that balances a strategic location with affordable cost. Being in a high traffic area does not necessary mean that you will benefit from significantly higher profits. An ice cream parlor must effectively balance the price of the rent per square foot with the amount of targeted foot traffic that it will receive. By targeted, we mean customers that may be prospective ice cream customers rather than those that may be at a busy airport, for instance.
Operations Plan
The operations section of the ice cream parlor business plan is designed to demonstrate that you have the resources, or a strategy to acquire and apply the resources needed in order to grow the company. The operations strategy section depends on whether or not you are starting a franchise, or purchasing an existing ice cream parlor. While the operations process is relatively simple, a small vendor issue can always quickly escalate and cause problems later-on. Therefore, it makes sense to outline a clear path to profitability that your company can benefit from rather than having an ambiguous future left up to fate.
Marketing Plan
The marketing strategy for an ice cream parlor business plan is generally based on a number of factors including the promotions strategy, market-entry strategy, and customer relationship management. The latter is more important if your ice cream parlor is dependent upon a regional market rather than tourists. Nonetheless, customer relationship management is far more important than it was before the introduction of the Internet.
Market Entry
The market entry strategy for an ice cream parlor is largely focused on public relations as a way to alert the market of your company’s entrance into the market and opportunity to grow. The nature of your market entry strategy will depend upon how you expect to position yourself early on. For instance, many smaller parlors that target the regional market focus on engagement with community events and developing loyalty through regional engagements and ones that are less dependent upon locals may seek to establish a reputation to drive tourists.
Promotions
There are many things that may be done for an ice cream parlor to promote itself in the market. For instance, it may use seasonal coupons to balance low season with high season or using pay-per-click advertisements on Facebook or AdWords. This may be particularly interesting if your business plan is for banks and they are interested to learn whether or not your company is capable of meeting its financial obligations consistently throughout the year. If your plan is for investors, they may also want know that you have a proven promotional strategy that is easily reproducible through a franchise model.
Financial Projections
The financial forecasts for an ice cream parlor are likely to be requested by financiers for any capital injection that you may seek. However, a reliable financial model can also help your company to form estimates about the future relating to how your business will perform over the course over the next three to five-years. This will enable you to make such internal decisions of how to balance rent prices with location or expected return on investment relative to other opportunities. In general, there are two methods of preparing financial forecasts including projections based on historical performance and those based on comparable performance of other ice cream parlors.
Revenue Projections
The revenue forecasts for an ice cream parlor is designed to provide information related to how the company will generate revenue over the next three to five-years. These projections largely depend on the location and region. For instance, an ice cream parlor location in a dense tourist are of Florida would benefit from year round demand with peak season in Summer. However, an ice cream parlor located in a small rural community in the Midwest would likely have almost completely stagnant growth in the Winter months, which should be reflect in the forecasts accordingly.
Budget Forecasts
The budget estimates for an ice cream parlor are most effective if they are based on third-party quotes and forecasts from reputable firms. You may want to receive quotes from construction companies and vendors in order to have an actual cost lineup rather than forming holistic and ambiguous assumptions about the future. Even using estimates from similar ice cream parlors can lead to misleading information as no one parlor is the same. The costs for constructing and square footage expenses in one part of a city can vary wildly from another, along with the wages expenses, and requirements for sales & marketing.
What is Included in Our Custom Ice Cream Parlor Business Plan?
Speak with an Advisor
Pro Business Plans is a team of professional researchers, writers, designers, and financial
analysts. Speak with an advisor today.
Speak with Sales (646) 866-7619