Without the right used ice cream truck, trailer or outlet you’re dead in your tracks. In this business, your truck and other equipment you will use in your day-to-day business is the single most important investment you will make and is the core foundation of the business itself and will ultimately determine your future in the industry. So here’s some quick start techniques for getting your business started on a shoestring…

Used ice cream truck buying secrets to grab a bargain

Buying your used ice cream truck MUST be made with some degree of sensible thought as this one decision will affect a number of outcomes in the future. For instance:

• It is the core of all of your marketing and will be attracting the eye of potential customers from every which way
• Your ice cream truck represents how customers identify your business name, products and brand
• Your new or used ice cream truck also determines what ice creams, iced treats and other products you can sell in terms of the internal equipment included and will often determine the menu options of your business.
• It also determines how fast you can operate and effectively sell items through its structure and inner equipment layout which if positioned right can exponentially increase productivity, serving times and profits.
• It will be THE biggest asset of your business proving you with a sustainable income and giving your business value both on and off paper.
• It will be the biggest single investment of your business and depending on your new or used ice cream truck specifications and budget can be a huge outlay ranging from just $500 up to $100,000+

The new or used ice cream truck and equipment you use is an essential part of running a successful mobile ice cream business and therefore it is important to know what to look for, the legal implications involved with owning and using this equipment, how to get the best deals and how to use your equipment correctly.

Negotiating your used ice cream truck

Many people when trying to negotiate on price for something will do what I call the damaging admission. They try and slay the thing that they are wanting negotiate to buy and try to damage and de-value the thing every which way possible. Well I don’t know about you but doesn’t this concept just sound and feel wrong?

I’ve found that the damaging admission rarely helps any negotiating situation and most of the time tends to cause friction between the buyer and seller and offends the seller by offending their ‘baby’ that they are often emotionally attached to, think about it, this used ice cream truck has been paying their mortgage and feeding their family often for many years, so slaying the thing isn’t always the best idea.

When negotiating I find it has always been helpful to come across as a friendly individual who has an interest in the truck, with a somewhat limited budget however is business orientated with some authority and someone who should be taken seriously. If you can ‘sell yourself’ so to speak, and get the seller to want or prefer to sell the unit to you rather than anyone else you will have a much easier time when negotiating on price and terms for your used ice cream truck.

Some simple negotiation tactics will go a long way and can often help lower the prices on pretty much all equipment and items and significantly reduce the overall start up costs.

Here is my short 6 step action plan to follow when buying or considering any ice cream truck or mobile vending cart for your business ventures.

1. Plan for Success

Have a plan from the start and know where you will trade from, who and where your target market locations are going to be, the ice creams and treats you will be offering and what equipment you will need. Preparing a business plan will dramatically increase your chances of success as it will help give you direction and also significantly help out with any financing you may need.

2. Choose

Narrow down the search for your new or used ice cream truck and equipment after establishing your plan. Know exactly what type and style of truck and equipment you will need and consider the electrical and health department requirements for that truck and equipment.

3. Talk

Interview the manufacturer or seller over the phone and ask the right questions before going to a viewing such as:

• Will they negotiate on price or terms?
• Is the vehicles engine, electrics, wheels and tyres in good condition?
• Is there any rust on the truck?
• Is it clean and presentable?
• Does everything work?
• What is the reason for selling?  and so on…

4. View

Put yourself in a health and safety mindset and know your stuff. Check that all equipment is working and legal and make sure any certificates are valid and up to date. Asses the new or used ice cream truck as a business asset and decide on the return on investment you think it will bring.

5. Negotiate

Negotiate like a pro by creating a little common ground with the seller. Express your interest (but not too much) and try to negotiate without the damaging admission trying to de-value the truck too much instead come across a serious buyer with a limited budget who is looking at other used ice cream truck and vans and concerned with the overall price.

6. Prepare for business

Educate yourself as much as humanly possible and try to immerse yourself in the industry. Learn as much as possible about the road ahead and prepare for business professionally by reading up on the best methods to use in this industry.

Many ice cream vendors fail not knowing where or even how to effectively start trading and have no idea on how to make money in the mobile ice cream vending business.

Take some time to invest in yourself and learn some quick start methods you can use today to avoid the costly mistakes and get started successfully.

In my Ice Cream Van Business Mastery program I take you step by step through the entire process, from start to finish. You’ll learn how you can successfully get into profitable pitches and locations with your ice cream van and make a great income, full time or part time, from something you actually enjoy performing for a living.

The methods, training and done-for-you templates you get inside will literally TRANSFORM your business whether you’re and experienced ice cream vendor or just beginning your business venture. Click here to take a look

You’ll discover how to get bargain used ice cream trucks and we’ll go into fine detail on and how to start, grow and expand your ice cream truck business from home on a shoestring budget so you don’t make the usual costly mistakes like many new ice cream vendors do.

You’ll know within minutes what has taken many successful vendors literally years to learn so you can get up and running fast and succeed long term.

You’ll get a pre-made successful winning ice cream truck business plan your can take to investors or your bank to get the funding you need to buy your new or used ice cream truck along with pre-written event-getting templates you can use TODAY to start getting into profitable pitches, festivals and locations. You can try it out today RISK FREE here

Listen, the most important success factor as a profitable mobile ice cream vendor relies on your ice cream truck route selection.

The biggest mistake in mobile ice cream vending is choosing the WRONG route and trying to sell to the WRONG customers. These mistakes put many ice cream vendors out of business year in year out.

Mobile ice cream vending route selection secrets

You won’t sell anything if you’re driving around in ‘empty-pocket’ or wrong market areas like elderly neighbourhoods or low income housing areas and trailer parks. It’s really quite a simple equation:

Wrong Mobile Ice Cream route = Wrong market = Empty Bank Account

Our target market here is kids with money. That’s the foundation of the entire business were in here. Finding kids WITH money and selling them their favourite treats. The trick is finding those kids with money or access to money that will gladly pay you for your ice cream goods.

Researching Your Local Mobile Ice Cream Business Routes

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Most mobile ice cream truck businesses research and planning stinks. Huge sums of money and time are wasted, and plenty of good opportunities are lost. Many of them simply drive around hoping for business to come their way. Your competitors are the blind leading the blind.

The fact is, your routes and locations ARE your business, period. Many vendors jump in blindfolded without the most critical part of the business – Research, and that’s exactly what we’re going to focus on here, planning your successful profit-pulling route.

First lets go over some Locations & Areas to Avoid:

• Any economically challenged, low income, or benefit/income support areas with household incomes below $12,000 per year.
• Elderly neighbourhood areas and retirement communities are of course not are target market here and should not be wasted any time on. An obvious one but it has to be mentioned as way too many ice cream vendors end up driving endlessly around neighbourhoods that are predominantly elderly resident’s i.e. DontWantYourIceCream.com.
• Strangely enough high income/ rich kid areas tend not to be too profitable. This is generally because of the health conscious parents.
• Directly outside of any schools is a big no-no in most countries and you‘ll usually be moved on relatively quickly. Instead focus on the neighbouring areas surrounding the elementary schools as most parents buy houses with their children’s school at the front of their mind and its often the deciding factor when moving. These routes often make a good income.

In my Mobile Ice Cream Van Business Mastery course you’ll get some fast track tools and strategies for finding money spending customers in your local area so you can easily target them and create your own profitable routes for your mobile ice cream business. You can check it out here.

Once you’ve researched and planned your routes it’s time to start testing the waters, seeing what works and throwing out what doesn’t.

Generally if you’ve done some good research just drive your routes and targeted neighbourhoods and the business will naturally come to you. All the planning on paper is really helpful however getting out there into the neighbourhoods and trading will tell you a whole lot more about where the money is.

Tracking and testing your profitable routes

As a rule of thumb give any new route you’re testing at least 7 days of trading to test if it’s a profitable route or not before giving up on it and no longer than 14-28 days if it’s a waste of your time and effort.

A common mistake made in the mobile ice cream vending business is to trade the same areas every day of the week at the same time. The fact is most kids either won’t have the money or won’t be allowed to buy your ice cream every day of the week if your hitting their neighbourhood streets daily so trading the same route day in day out will leave your target market stale.

Instead you need to give each neighbourhood at least a two or three day break as to not bother the area too much and also to give your mobile ice cream truck that ‘special treat factor’ instead of coming across as that usual daily ice cream noise in the neighbourhoods eyes/ears.

The trick is to choose a big enough regional area with multiple planned out profitable routes and alternate trading them.

For instance: Monday: Route 1, Tuesday: Route 2, Wednesday: Route 3, Thursday: Route 4 Friday: Route 1, Saturday: Route 2, Sunday: Route 3 and so on.

Each of your routes should have at least 3 good neighbourhoods with some other profitable locations added in such as school areas and popular parks and will generally last around 30-40 miles of driving depending on how much or little you want to trade.

Creating consistency

One problem some mobile ice cream truck vendors face is consistent income from their routes. One day the neighbourhood is heaving with money spending kids and families, the other it’s a ghost town.

The solution is to hit the same neighbourhoods/routes/areas at the same time to create and train your customer’s minds for consistency. For example if on Route 1 you hit one of the neighbourhoods between 4:30 and 5:30, you’ll need to trade those streets at that same time. After a few weeks the neighbourhood often becomes trained to respond and this factor alone can mean the world of difference in your mobile ice cream  business.

Trading with this consistency also encourages relationships between you and your customers and gives you the opportunity to be a friendly well known face and earn a more continual income from those areas.

In my Mobile Ice Cream Van Business Mastery Course we’ll go through some specific popular and profitable areas to target and I’ll give you the tools you can use today to track down profitable neighbourhoods, areas and routes from your mobile ice cream business so you don’t have to waste hours, days, weeks and even months on end driving around aimlessly trying to earn a profit like so many other vendors who didn’t take the time to educate themselves on the business.

You can get your copy here

Inside you’ll get done-for-you event-getting templates you can use today to start getting into profitable outdoor events with you your mobile ice cream truck business. You’ll discover which items sell best and learn how to get ice cream trucks at bargain prices. It also includes a pre-made ice cream van business plan you can use to get the funding you need to start. You can check it out here.

In the mobile food vending industry, based on your country, region and local legislations some foods and equipment (such as ice cream van equipment) require you to have a commissary. A commissary is a registered health-checked kitchen like a restaurant has.

Ice Cream Truck Van Legal Loopholes Using Other People’s Premises

Sadly you can’t just use your home kitchen. I’d like to reveal a technique to actually save thousands on renting a commissary and how to obtain a health and food safety certified preparation kitchen at no cost.

Although it would be far easier and save heaps of time for you to just clean equipment out using your home sink, the law in many parts of the world state that because there is no food safety regulations in residential homes to stop the spread of bacteria etc that your commercial ice cream van equipment must be cleaned at a registered commercial kitchen.

Most health departments, depending on which country and region you are in, will require that you use some type of registered industrial kitchen to clean your equipment correctly. This is a common practice throughout numerous states and countries for ice cream truck van businesses.

The real problem is the fact that restaurants won’t normally let you use their kitchens. It’s just not beneficial to them. Most ice cream truck van vendors don’t have the kind of budget to lease their kitchen area, plus restaurants just don’t want people in their way cluttering up their kitchen. Unless of course you own a restaurant or have a friend or family member that does, this choice is usually a no go.

How to Get a Free Ice Cream Truck Van Commissary

The big secret is to use churches and village halls. Fortunately all over the world churches and local village halls have REGISTERED health and food safety checked industrial kitchens that are practically never even used, maybe one hour a week if that.

The icing on the cake is that the people in charge of these buildings aren’t generally driven by money and by using the correct approach they’ll let you use their facilities for free. The best way to negotiate a free commissary is to approach the minister/priest of the church or organizer of the village hall/activities hall and provide an incentive to their establishment in return for use of their facilities and health checked kitchen.

You could offer your ice cream truck van catering services on a certain night of the month for their monthly or weekly conferences and charge them only cost price in return for use of their commercial kitchen. Or you can provide your ice cream and iced treats at one of their annual celebrations and again offer your goods at a 50% discount or even at cost price. This way it doesn’t cost you any outlay.

Occasionally but very rarely they’ll need convincing, so simply offer free ice creams or drinks for one of their monthly meetings, but you get the picture, these individuals are often extremely welcoming and approachable so just approach them with a fair deal and you will be set. Occasionally even a little donation to their church, charity, appeal, hall etc will be fine.

The Free-Commissary Script

“Hi there, my name is (your name), I run a local mobile ice cream truck van business and need an area where I can wash up a few of my utensils and equipment at night or late afternoon. I don’t have a registered commercial kitchen area that is a legal commissary but your building does and I was wondering if it would be possible for me to use it as it would not take me that long and it is very unlikely to interrupt any of your activities.

I don’t have too much money I can offer you but here’s something I could do for you. (insert your offer right here e.g. What if i came out to your conferences once or twice a month and served up some delicious ….(ice cream products) to have at your meetings. I wont charge you my normal prices, in fact, I’ll only charge what it costs me to buy in, it’ll be a great trade of services for that both of us, and will be fun, what do think, sound fair?”

Simply change this script to match your ice cream truck van business and go approach your local churches and village halls. You may have to adjust your offer just a little to make certain it works for both parties. Tell them you will cater for their monthly youth club, village hall meetings, club meetings or whatever gathering they have on.

This free commissary technique and script will set you up head and shoulders above your ice cream truck van competitors.

Nearly no-one does this and lots of mobile food and ice cream truck van vendors pay large fees to rent industrial kitchens, so keep it under your hat for now

The Hidden Earnings Behind This Technique

Using this technique you’ll also meet lots of new possible customers who will nearly always request you to cater for THEIR party or celebration. You see, most churches and village halls will have yearly celebrations and they will often ask you to park up your ice cream van and sell your ice cream and frozen treats, which of course can often be very lucrative events

Events can includes things like sports games, Xmas celebrations, birthdays, anniversaries and all different types of club celebrations and events, good money to be earned from this one, utilize it.

These tips should get you started, but if you want to MASTER the ice cream truck van business, to the point that you can get started quickly and earn a small fortune from your own local town then you need to go get yourself a copy of my home study course Ice Cream Van Business Mastery. Grab a copy here

In it, I’ll share with you killer tips on how to start, grow and expand your own profit pulling ice cream truck van business without being shut down by the authorities or risking huge amounts of your hard earned money.

This course is the best way for you to drastically improve your financial success in your own mobile ice cream truck van business and you can start using the quick start methods, profit systems, done-for-you success templates and money making techniques and start implementing it all into your own business as soon as tonight. Simply click here to get your RISK FREE copy

Okay, listen up. I’m about to share with you a technique that can literally double your ice cream van sales. This one trick creates BILLIONS in income around the world for franchises, chains and successful food business. In fact, big franchises make it compulsory that their employees do it because they know how powerful the results are. What is it…?

The Up-Sell

Up-selling to customers who’re currently buying from your ice cream van has to be among the simplest, cheapest and fastest ways to increase your ice cream van sales at no extra cost. What better prospects to sell more products to than customers who are buying?

Ok, so here is what to do…

Every time a customer purchases anything you make it COMPULSORY to UP-SELL them another related item, be it the large ice cream rather of the normal size or just asking if they want an extra product to go along with what they’re currently buying.

When it comes to increasing your ice cream van sales with up-selling there are 3 main modes you can use:

1: The first is to Up-Sell in sizes.

Anytime someone is ordering you simply ask if they want the medium, large or supersize version, seeing that you offer these options. You will have fantastic success simply by making it compulsory when someone orders any ice cream or drink to simply say ‘large one yes?’, it’s often best to not even mention there is a smaller/cheaper option unless necessary, also the medium version you offer can simply be named the ‘regular’ for ease. Up-selling in sizes like this you will usually end up with much more medium and large sized product sales as oppose to a ton of smaller product sales.

2: The second is to Up-Sell to your customers group.

When people go to mobile food outlets and ice cream vans they usually do so with a group of surrounding friends or family members and often just one or two of them are actually buying. An great technique to increase your ice cream van sales is to merely ask the rest of the party if they’d like anything as well. A bulk order discount like a ‘5 for the price of 4’ or a free item will generally persuade a group of prospects into a profitable bulk purchase, and most likely turn them into repeat customers for the future.

3: The third is to Up-Sell duplicate or related products.

Whenever a customer is buying, you simply ask if they would like 2 for a discounted price or just offer a complimenting product such as a cold drink to go with their potato chips. A useful tip is to mentally remember a few select products you can discount to use in your Up-Sells.

Up-selling offers are endless and can literally double your ice cream van sales once you implement them into your business, and what’s best THEY COST YOU $0!

These 3 ideas are only the tip of the iceberg…Over the years I’ve figured out MANY systems, techniques and methods for increasing profits in the mobile ice cream and food vending industry.

In the Ice Cream Van Business Mastery program you’ll learn about the best products to stock which up-sell practically every time.

You’ll learn which are the most profitable products and items to up-sell your customers so they can enjoy buying more from you and how to price your menu effectively to increase your ice cream van sales and profits.

You can grab your copy here

This is a story about a man on a mission to create a profitable ice cream business from scratch using some great savvy marketing techniques and motivated entrepreneurial spirit. Duncan’s story shows us how a simple ice cream business gave him his first start in business and lead him to his £300 million+ fortune of what he is today.

Duncan grew up in Clydebank and in his early teens he joined the Navy. He left the Navy at 19 after a disagreement with a commanding officer and lived in Jersey where he gained a reputation as a bit of a party animal.

He moved to Jersey after losing his licence for drink driving as some told him his driving licence would still be valid there. He tried to get a work as a bartender, but thought if he can’t then at least he can drive a taxi with his licence. He founded a bar job and made some friends in this bar. Working in the bar meant he had the mornings free, so he’d often start the day on the beach.

Whilst in Jersey he also did other occasional jobs, like deck-chair attendant, hospital porter, lorry driver and long hour night shifts at a bakery. He survived on a tiny amount of money and it was virtually impossible for non-residents to start a business in Jersey, unless they’re incredibly wealthy, so there was no incentive to do anything other than part-time jobs.

It was when sitting on the beach of Jersey one Sunday morning he had picked up a newspaper to read when he read the story about a man who’d started a business on a shoe string and gone on to become a millionaire (it was Sir Alan Sugar).

It was then that Duncan boldly told Gail, his then girlfriend that they were moving back to mainland Britain to become millionaires. At first she thought he was joking, but never have truer words been spoken.

Mr Bannatyne thought to himself, “if this Alan Sugar guy can do it, then so can I”. He moved to Stockton-On-Tees with his now ex-wife Gail and with barely any money to his name, no resources and no business skills bought an ice-cream van for £450 from a car auction and at the age of 31, started his own ice cream business.

It was called Catweasel and was an old Vauxhall viva ancient van that broke down quite a few times. He started the ice cream business as he knew he did not need any staff, and didn’t need much capital and seemed an easy business to start without much business knowledge. And so it was born… ‘Duncan’s Super Ices’. The only problem was, he was too tall to stand up in it properly. The only way to stand up properly was without shoes, so he drove round in his socks.

Most ice cream business in the country served soft ice cream as it was easier to serve. Duncan decided to serve hard ice cream in scoops. Although most people said it would not work as he cannot sell them as quickly as hard ice cream he imported a special scoop from America that is strong and can quickly serve hard ice cream so had a much more efficient ice cream business.

This scoop left a little indented mark on top, like a smile. He then later on filled this smile with strawberry sauce and added some aniseed balls for eyes. Suddenly he realized he could charge 20% more for an ice cream with a face. These face ice creams became very popular with kids and Duncan’s ice cream business got off to a great start.

He then cleverly gave names to all his ice creams using popular children’s TV characters such as the Muppets and began getting faster and often found himself holding 8 ice creams in one hand.  He was loving the ice cream business, he loved kids and was starting to reap the rewards it produced.

Duncan’s marketing and personal approach ensured his customers kept coming back. He’d take pictures of the kids and display them on the van so when they heard or saw him pull up kids would race out to see the photos of themselves and always end up buying something. For some reason in the early eighties it was fashionable for kids to wear jumpers with their name on them which made the personal service a tad easier too.

A competitor turned up and started to make life difficult for him, but Duncan soon managed to eliminate his competition and decided to buyout the competitor’s ice cream van. He now had two vans and staff…

From street vending to concession stand vending he decided to take these two ice cream vans to a local park in the hot summer days and sell his ice creams there.

Duncan bid around £2000 for a concession contract at a popular park and decided to park his vans there and sell ice cream during the summer months. To trade from the park he needed a license which he soon obtained from the local council.

That first summer he made £18 000 in the park. Duncan describes the summer holidays in the park as ‘some of the easiest money he has ever made’. The amazing thing was, no other ice cream business phoned the Council for a license. He was new to this whole business and thought if he could see this opportunity, why did no one ever think of this? The reason: everyone in the country selling ice cream was happy with selling enough ice cream to turn a decent profit and live from that, however Duncan was not…

By this time Duncan and Gail had their first baby girl together. A great thing about the ice cream business he said was that business didn’t really start until after 3 o’clock when the kids finished school for the day, which meant plenty of time with the new family.

He carried on building his business earning £10,000+ per week in the summer months and read somewhere that he was earning more than top airline pilots were getting paid!

By his second baby daughters birth Duncan could afford a car with ‘electric windows’ and had already been able to move his new family to a much bigger five bedroom house from the earnings of Duncan’s Super Ices.

Towards the end of the second year Duncan had a turnover of around £300,000 a year of which about £70 000 was profit that he took as a salary. This is the equivalent of about £120,000 today. He had quickly gone from a £450 van bough at auction to a six van thriving 300k per year business in just two short years. Not bad for a small ice cream business!

Duncan Bannatyne shows us that anyone with a little hard work and initiative prepared to take the dive and go for it can earn a small fortune in the ice cream business. Now in his late 40’s he is a multi-millionaire with a personal fortune far exceeding £300 million all starting from a small mobile ice cream business.

The fact is, the ice cream business holds great opportunity for anyone to start on a tiny shoestring budget and make a profitable income from home in an enjoyable business.

Inside my Ice Cream Business Mastery home study course I walk you through the simplest and most effective strategies on how to get started without risking or loosing huge sums of money and how get into all kinds of profitable events and routes with your ice cream business.

You can get yourself a copy here

You’ll learn how to get the funding you need to start, find bargain ice cream trucks, attract more paying customers to your ice cream van and get the pre made templates, tools and systems to easily manage everything in your ice cream business so you can avoid losing money or getting shut down by the authorities and succeed in your ice cream business long term. Simply click here to get your copy.

While you might not need a fifty page ice cream business plan template that spells out the particulars for your ice cream van business plan, however each and every business should be taking advantage of the direction provided by a bullet-proof business plan. So here’s the 4 essentials you need…

Many new vendors ice cream van business plan spans dozens of pages, however you can get your message across in a 5 page ice cream business plan template.

Here are 4 of the essential components in a simple ice cream business plan template. We’ve highlighted the 4 essentials to help you streamline and simplify your ice cream business plan.

There’s no “perfect” page count for your ice cream business plan, but there are numerous crucial components that ought to be included. So to start off, divide this ice cream business plan template into four sections:

1. A Descriptive Summary of Your Company

2. Your Marketing Strategy

3. A Financial Management Plan

4. Your Management Plan

Descriptive Summary of your Company

This area of our ice cream business plan template will share the who, what, when, where, why and how of your ice cream van company. It should include:

• The legal stuff (sole proprietorship versus LLC, etc., explain why this set up is the best for the business and be sure to mention any licenses, permits, etc. required to start your operation)
• The TYPE of company you’ll be running (in this case, a mobile ice cream vending business)
• Provide details about the products you’ll offer and the service(s) you’ll provide to your community
• Describe your business in the terms of how you acquired it and the type of company it is. Creating your own independent van is different from buying into an ice cream van franchise. Did you buy a current business? Make these details clear.
• Profitability points. Why will your business make money? What opportunities are there for growth? How will you seize these opportunities?
• What hours of operation will you have? Will you work 12:00-6:00, 7 days a week? Half days during the week (afternoons) and full days on the weekend? Explain your schedule and why it was the best (or only) option.
• Special training or knowledge that qualifies you for the job at hand.

Your Marketing Strategy

Since we have already devoted a great deal of space to your marketing strategy in our ice cream business plan template, in this section, I’d like to dig a little deeper into the product/service section of your Business Description. While we only devoted a couple of words to it earlier, there are actually a number of nuggets this section should include in your ice cream business plan:

• What you’re selling. Don’t stop at stating “novelty pre-packaged ice cream products”, say which ones, who makes them and why they beat the alternatives. Be sure to mention the other items in your product line up too.
• The local demand for what you’re selling. Mention fetes, festivals, pitches, private parties and local routes where you believe there to be a demand for your products.
• What makes your ice cream van or truck different from (and better than) that other ice cream trucks or parlours down the road? Get specific!

Your Financial Management Plan

Even if wooing prospective investors is the LAST thing on your mind, getting your financial management plan down on paper in a solid ice cream business plan is still a great way to guard yourself against potential financial pitfalls. It takes away the dangers of guesswork and short-sightedness.

Essentially, your Financial Management Plan needs to include:

• Your Start-Up Budget – all of the costs (legal fees, permit costs, equipment, insurance, marketing/advertising, personal paychecks, payroll, utilities, etc.) involved with getting your company off with the ground. Even if you’re well beyond the start-up phase, this section ought to still be included as a reference (especially if you’ll be thinking about expansion in the future!)
• An Operating Budget – a budget for the first (or, in many cases, the next) three to six months of operation. Includes items like: personnel, insurance, van rental/payments, depreciation, loan payments, ad/promotion costs, legal and accounting costs, miscellaneous expenses, supplies/inventory, payroll, utilities, taxes, fees, maintenance and repairs – essentially each and every cost associated with the successful day-to-day and month-to-month operations.

Other topics you might want to address here include:

• Loan applications filed
• Capital equipment and supply list
• Your balance sheet
• A break-even analysis (how long it will take to recoup your investment and start making a profit)
• Profit/Loss statements
• Your accounting system
• What inventory control system you’ll put in place, etc.

Once these details have been ironed out in your ice cream business plan, it is time to move on to your…

Management Plan

The final major component of your ice cream van business plan will be your administration strategy -something that will likely be considered a little scarce if you’re a one person operation.

Despite that, it should still be given time, space and consideration within the planning phases of your new company. Common components of a management plan are provided below, but keep in mind that not all will apply to your ice cream vending businesses (unless, of course, you’ve transformed it into a bona fide ice cream vending empire!).

• Your background/business experience and how it will positively influence your efforts
• Your strengths (and how to maximize them) and your weaknesses (and how you’ll minimize them)
• Identifying each member of your administration team (if any)
• Team strength and weaknesses (if applicable)
• Management duties and responsibilities and who defines them (if applicable)
• What (if any) assistance does your franchiser offer and how long will it last (again, only if applicable)
• Plans for hiring/training new staff, how much you’ll pay, when, terms, any benefits, etc.

Again, not all of the list items will apply in your business, but the ones that DO apply are certainly worth mentioning in your ice cream van business plan.

These are the four main areas of focus in ANY business plan. Additionally, though, there are many other components you can include:

• An executive summary (To be written last. Basically a summarized, condensed version of the whole ice cream business plan. Make it stand out, as it might be the ONLY thing seriously read by the people reading it)
• Supporting documents (things like your last three years’ tax returns, bank statements, relevant contracts, leases, etc)
• Financial projections (physical charts, tables, spreadsheets, etc. combined with explanation that supports your projections)
• Cover sheet (your logo, contact information, titles – yours and the document’s, etc)
• Statement of Purpose (components include your mission statement, goals and objectives, value statement, eyesight statement, etc)
• A table of contents (before your executive summary but after your cover sheet)

Your ice cream van business plan isn’t just a finance raising or promotional tool, it’s also a powerful goal-setting exercise that can totally revolutionize what you’re able to accomplish in your ice cream van business.

Create a solid business plan like any other business would. Many ice cream vendors perceive the ice cream truck industry as somehow outside the rules of other businesses and a detailed  ice cream business plan is not necessary? That is usually the mind frame that leads to failure.

Many entrepreneurs fall at the first hurdle when it comes to setting up their ice cream business and creating a solid ice cream van business plan.

Unfortunately 80% of businesses without a business plan fail in the first 1-5 years. Writing out an ice cream van business plan on your own can often take days, weeks even months to finish, and hiring a professional to create your ice cream business plan can cost $1000,s.

The good news is, you can fix this for your ice cream van business right now.

In my Ice Cream Van Business Mastery course you’ll get a complete done-for-you fill in the blanks successful ice cream business plan template you can take to the bank or investors to raise the capital you need to get going. You can check it out here.

You’ll be able to save heaps of time and $1000’s of your own money using my quick-easy ice cream business plan so you can get the funding you need fast.

Click here to check it out RISK FREE now.