How much money can i make selling shaved ice

New shave ice business Click here for shave ice product news and annoucements as well as contests and prize giveaways!

Forum rules The shaveiceshaveice. This forum may only be used to post information and questions pertainting to products offered by H. Hawaii and it's subsidiaries. No profane language, rascism, spam, pornography, as well as any improper postings and conduct that is not accepted by the general public is allowed. Thank you for visiting.

Shaved Ice & Snow Cone Syrups

I would appreciate any feedback on my conclusions. Please understand that I love the product and the business potential and am not here to knock the shave ice business.

In fact, I hope you can help to set aside some of my concerns. I think most people get caught up in the bells and whistles part of the proposition and may forget to drill down to the business realities. I started out by researching machines, supplies and trailers - the fun part.

It was here that things started to look a bit grim. The first reality was the actual COGS, given by many suppliers as anywhere between 14 cents and 22 cents per unit sold. Of course, that is just for the ingredients and supplies needed to produce a shave ice. But if you want a real COGS, you have to factor in many other elements, including: In addition, some may have to rent a storage unit for the trailer and hire temp employees for big events where the real monry is? The second dose of reality came when I began to research events.

Local festivals and street fairs are cheaper, but the potential customer base is smaller too. Not to mention losses from rain out days - no refunds from events on rain days.

Best Ice Crushers to Use in - How to Make Indoor Parties Fun

The easy part is getting into this business, the hard part is staying totally focussed on booking and placing your trailer in the best space week after week, in events where the fee structure and crowd volume converge to allow reasonably good profits. But these seem to be few and far between.

If you are going to piddle arounnd and do this part time, you may as well save the initial investment and just get a job - do the math. Another thing to consider is the weather. I live in central Florida and thought I was in shave ice heaven, weather-wise.

And many of those events told me that shave ice does not do real well at their Oct to March events. So, for maximum product conditions you need to book events in hot weather and there just aren't that many events.

Remember, your competition, who has been doing this for years, will also limit your ability to get into "good" summer events, with a good space. I need some encouraging news from experienced vendors.

What has been your experience with events and their fee structure? What kind of events have you found to be profitable? How many ices do you sell on average at a decent event? How many events do you do each year? How long did it take you to break even? The reason we chose shaved ice as a primary item to vend it the basic cost of building the product to sell.

With shaved ice you have ice and syrup as compared to a hotdog where you need the hotdog, bun, condiments, and toppings. Now if you do get rained out then with shaved ice you have no loss especially if you have a way to keep you ice frozen. An event with an estimated attendance of nets to customers.

We then take the average of that number and divide it into the total fee to see how much to add on to the retail cost. The Fourth of July weekend was our first time selling shaved ice. We live in Georgia and like your state we experience warm weather several months out of the year. We used to live on Orlando many years ago and I remember buying the Christmas tree wearing shorts. The beauty of shaved ice is that you can offer different flavors and toppings throughout the year. Generally speaking August is the worst time of the year to find a festival.

In July there is always a fourth celebration going on somewhere. In the past as food vendors we worked the March to May events, a couple throughout the summer and started back in the fall for the September to November events. Also remember many schools have spring and fall festivals during the school year.

Also we have found that the more it cost to vend a product the less number of competitors you have. Anyone with a grill and a fryer can vend hotdogs, burgers and fries, but very few of these vendors will move to the next level.

Right now it is a weekend warrior business and we plan on keeping it that way until retirement. No matter how I slice it, I just can't make the math work.

I took a week and researched all of the decent fairs and festivals in Florida and Georgia, and some in MS, AL and TX. Let's say we take the high end of your customer count for an event - for a 3 day event, or per day. And all of this is on top of your initial investment of 10K to 15K. These estimates are assuming you sell ices a day, or 10 an hour for 10 hours. That seems a little optomistic to me, especially for the smaller events.

And what if bad weather wipes out one or more days of an event? Maybe my math is wrong though In that scenario, the math works very well.

But that is selling 30 ices an hour, or one every 2 minutes. I wish you much success Jody and I hope you will keep posting your results, I would be very happy to see you succeed and prove me totally wrong! I have another idea of how this business might work and I will post another thread under "Co-op shave ice".

We have never had to pay for any Health Department fees. We are looking into a couple of events next year that require a local inspection and a small fee. There is also some additional cost in getting to and from the events, meals, and for extras.

Bottom line is this a perfect full time or even part time venture? I am sure there are more failures than success stories.

Potential Earnings in Shaved Ice Business | yfyrurusus.web.fc2.com

I think that being a food vendor is something inside of you. Although in any business, it is best to obviously make money from it. You cannot really keep on factoring every dime and nickel into a shave ice business. A lot of shave ice business owners are more towards the passion of conducting a business where they can bring joy to others without losing in the process but enough to sustain itself. I am not denying the fact that I have come across many ppl who makes tons of money from selling shave ice, but to make a living off of it will take a lot of time and commitment.

And love doing what you do.

I'm going all the way back to aabbzog's first entry Some suppliers do break down COGs individually as it is done on an income tax Schedule C. Equipment, supplies, maintenance, mileage etc. All together it is considered business overhead. You can find a delivery site lease for less than a month. Maintenance is minimal in this business The occassion blade sharpening, minor repairs on your trailer,maybe some signage, etc.

Freezers and block ice shavers are extremely reliable unless you're unlucky. An average Shave Ice business can easily sell blocks in an 8 hour shift or day pending the location, so let's use 6 blocks. If you buy your equipment used or at a good price, you could potentially pay off your entire initial investment in one season.

You're right about getting into some of the events however, I recommend shooting for the local events at first. The Shave Ice business is a low-risk, high-profit business and you can make as much money as you have energy. These numbers are not made up, but I know they will vary from location to location. Hope I at least got you thinking again about getting into the biz I didn't get into State and Federal taxes and Social Security, Self-Employment tax, etc.

I know, I've seen me do it. Selling 10 an hour is Pessimistic NOT Optimistic Mom, Dad, Junior and Sissy walk up and you have sold 4 at a time. I have a profitability spread sheet where you can enter your own numbers if anyone wants to send me their email to get it. People can fire holes into any business model and build anxieties and never make a move.

A true entrepreneur will see the potential in a business model and see ways to earn profit, ways to find tax deductions, etc. It's always best to identify potential pitfalls and hidden expenses before getting into any business, but you have to look at the positive sides as well and the potential to earn higher than expected profits.

That's why entrepreneurs are willing to take a chance The Shave Ice business is about as cheap of an investment anyone can find to own and operate their own business.

Not only is it easy to get into the business, it typically hold's a solid "turn key" business resale value and can provide owners a relatively easy business-exit strategy. It's a chance to "Be Your Own Boss," implement your own ideas, create your own marketing strategies, set your own work hours and work environment and not have to cater to "the man. Who is online Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest. Board index All times are UTC Delete all board cookies The team Contact us.