opening a gelato shop

[claimsguy]

Another discussion on same topic

[Your Mom]

[ QUOTE ]
pig,

One good idea is to have a frequent visitor card where you stamp the card each time people buy gelato and then once they get a certain number of stamps, they get a free gelato.

[/ QUOTE ]

genius. sandwich shops should have thought of this.

[Slider]

Your friend needs to determine if this is really what he wants to do. Does he have a passion for the industry and serving other people? If he doesn't, then he's stepping into a big clusterfuck.

Especially given his non-existent background in managing businesses. I don't think this will hinder him from starting his own business if he has the drive to work hard at it.

Location is the biggest factor.

You also have to take into account seasonality of the product. I don't know much about San Fransico Weather but what kind of demand will there be in the winter?

Other concerns in starting a place like this include theft. Not by customers but by your own employees. Definitely get an integrated POS system and have some sort of safe that counts the money like at convenience stores. Some sort of trigger when the register has over X amount of dollars in the POS machine that freezes the machines until the money is removed would be nice too.

[piggity]

Thanks everyone so far for their advice and opinions. Insofar as I'm not actually the one opening the gelato shop, and am mainly interested in the financial aspects of such an operation, does anyone know the answers to any of my original questions?

Thanks.

[Slider]

Look online for Gelato shop business plans and check out their Pro Formas and Statements of Startup Costs to get an idea of the business.

[Slider]

Or any ice cream shop.. I'd think Gelato would have a lower margin though and higher avg. sale price.

[El Diablo]

pig,

Whoa. I quickly skimmed your initial post and completely overlooked the fact that your friend is opening his shop in SF. Awesome! PEOPLE IN SF LOVE GELATO, seriously. I went to dinner at my sister's place last night and she served some chocolate hazelnut gelato from Ciao Bella Gelato Company. That stuff was delicious, but the chocolate completely overpowered the hazelnut flavor. Tango Gelato is pretty good stuff and I've been there quite a few times. There are a bunch of other gelato places, but as far as I'm concerned, those are the two for your friend to keep an eye on. Also, if he can open up ASAP, he'll probably get off to a great start, as it has been SUPER HOT here lately!

[Maurice]

You would be looking @ around $100,000 to open up a shop. You would need prolly 2 display cases and 2 industrial gelato machines-- and these 2 items are the primary startup costs. You could be looking around $40,000 just for this. He can go smaller-- maybe get by with 1 case as they range from $7-$15K.

As for revenue-- i hate to say this-- but it depends-- alot depends on the quality of your product @ location. Tell your friend to do some market research and see what the typical revenue for ice cream shops are in the area.

Costs? around $.30-$.40 per serving, plus add a bit for cones/cups/spoons/napkins. You would be charging ~2.75-$3.50 a serving. I make Gelato @ home for myself-- and i buy my ingredients from icaffe.com

But as other posters mentioned-- small shop, good high traffic location. And do tons of market research beforehand and write an in depth business plan.