A simple ice cream business model. Work less earn more.
Startups play a major role in the economic growth of a nation. Nowadays, startups become a trend in India. Most people showing interest to launch a Startup but have to shut it down in the first five years. One of the reasons behind a failed startup is focusing on the maximum return of their investment instead of growing a successful business. They have to focus more on return because a huge amount of money is invested.
But what if there is a way to start your startup at zero cost? An Ice Cream Business Model. You just need to utilize your mind.
# How to Think
Ice Cream Business Model
Everyone likes the mouth-watering delicious flavor of ice-cream in hot summers as well as in freezing cold seasons. It means the ice-cream business is not bound to any particular season and it is evergreen. In India, there are many ice-cream trolleys on the roadside standing the whole day and waiting for customers. The place where more and more customers reach, the more and more ice-cream trollies stand there and their revenue is divided.
In India, poor and illiterate people use ice-cream trolley to earn an average of 500 to 1500 rupees in a single day and they have to pay a particular amount to the owner of the trolley from their earning.
So, now the question arises, is the ice-cream trolley (shop) is only for poor people who can start to sell ice-cream using trolley shop. How can one become a billionaire by starting an ice-cream selling business with no extra investment?
How to make easy money through ice cream business model
Early Stage of Startup
Suppose a person wants to start a business on ice-cream with zero investment (or with zero pay) and that person is you. You can get a small ice cream trolley from the company at 25000 rupees and a big at 40,000rupees. This will be a one-time cost. It is security money you will get it back after returning the trolley. You have to pay an extra 1000 to 2000 rupees to buy and sell ice cream from the market. Now your ice-cream business journey starts here.
Before going further you need to understand what type of business you are entering in and how you can increase your sales by implementing good marketing strategies and you need to scale up your business later.
Tips to grow your business
- You need to analyze your product. Type of product, durability, etc.
- You need to understand the market by analyzing how, when, and where people prefer to purchase ice-cream.
Understand the Business Model
Ice-cream is sold in summer as well as in winter season. People of all ages love ice-cream. A particular company makes ice-creams and the trolley person sells it. So, by understanding the market, it is very clear and obvious that, you do not need to experiment with the product as it is ready-made, focuses on the sales, here is the game.
Ice cream trolley people need to understand the market and take action upon it, but they don’t. The reason behind it is a lack of information (not lack of knowledge because knowledge comes from experience) and courage. But they do not know how simple it is.
It is not a complete figure of an ice cream business model, it is only understanding the market.
How to increase sales without having a knowledge of sales and marketing in free of cost
You have an ice cream trolley and you know the market. You want to increase your sales. Before focusing on the sales you need to attract customers or gather people around your trolley shop. Now the question is that, how will you do this?
This is quite an interesting part of the whole business. To attract customers, you can try many different creative ideas like buying a hot air balloon. A giant ice cream cone-shaped balloon can be bought at rupees 5000 to 10000. People will see this very huge balloon from far away and attract towards it. They will find it interesting and will get surprised by seeing it. Now you can easily approach them to sell your ice cream. How simple it is.
The Trap
If your sales getting high day by day due to this unique idea, in a few days you will observe the drop in sales and you are losing your customer. The reason is, everyone keeps an eye on a successful business and always tries his/her hands on that business to have more profit which results in a replica of the business and customer distribution.
If you don’t want your business to be copied then you need to create an entry barrier for others. Because you are moving from Red Ocean to Blue Ocean you need to make a trap for everyone else in your domain.
Making an entry barrier for your competitor
To make an entry-barrier for your competitor you need to understand their strength and weaknesses. Your competitors are other ice-cream sellers, who are illiterate and financially weak. But never underestimate anyone. Here are a few points that discuss their strength and weakness.
Strength
- They are selling a branded product
- The product quality is the same as your product
- Product’s price and profit margin are the same
- As they also have trolley they can move to the crowded area quickly (if customer not reaching to them, they reach to the customer)
Weakness
- Lack of marketing and sales skills and knowledge
- People are poor and mostly illiterate
- They are of close mind set
- Lack of creativity
Keeping the above points in mind, making an entry-barrier will be very easy for you to know the strength and weaknesses of your competitor.
The most important factor of a successful startup business
The skills
Most startups do the same mistake, they do not focus on the core part of the business and try to run the business on investment. Make your own path by separating yourself from all other trolley men. You just need to learn the skills of making the ice cream. The art of creating a new variety and delicious ice cream will boost your sales.
You can make creative ice cream by mixing two or three ice cream together. You can also try ice cream and cake. These new creative ideas will surprise your customer and increase curiosity among them.
The idea is to learn the skills of making different and creative ways to make ice cream.
Flashback
If you go to the flashback, at the time when you actually wanted to start an ice-cream trolley shop. At that time, you first needed to take 1 to 6 months of course of making different varieties of ice cream.
What we learn from here is that before starting a business learn the core skills on which your business depends on.
Conclusion
In India, a startup is a new trend. Now everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, which is a very good thing. But the problem is that 5 out of 10 startups fail in the first 5 years and the other 5 in the next 5 years. This is happening because of the one main reason, they do not focus on skills, and they just want to make quick money.
Starting a business by learning some skills and making your product according to market need and starting it on a small scale with a very little amount of money will increase the chances of a great and successful business in the future.
Note: this part is ending here, I will explain how this business can go to a billion dollars business in next part of this article.
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