How I was a co-owner of an ice cream production. From cooking in the kitchen to selling the business

In 2015, my partner and I decided to open our own business. At that time, none of us had a clear idea of what kind of business it should be. We only knew the direction – food, and what next – was unknown.

I decided to tell the story about our project in the format of short, funny (now they seem funny), but significant, and maybe even key stories in our business life.

“Why are you squeezing your boobs? It's all easy!” Waffle period

At that time, we realized that we needed to do something, we decided to buy waffle irons and try making waffles in them. Simple equipment and a product were decisive in why we decided to cook exactly this. I remember how I suffered for a long time over the fact that for this we need to invest 2 thousand rubles, and yet, I took this heroic step. The waffles turned out delicious, but another problem arose: where can we sell them now? I started thinking, and remembered that I had a friend who was a more experienced entrepreneur, and I thought that he could give me some advice.

At that time I was working in a large state enterprise and I did all my work-related matters during my lunch break. And so during one of my breaks I decided to visit his coffee shop hoping that he would be there and I would be able to talk to him, but he was gone. I ran to him during my break for three days and finally met him. I briefly told him about the waffle irons and that we didn’t know how to sell the waffles we made at home. He said that we needed to go to the spring and summer city festivals, especially since it was spring. I thanked him and left. Then we doubted for a long time whether to participate in them or not, since it all seemed so complicated to us: we needed to set up a point, get some permits, somehow cook in a safe place, etc., etc. When I realized that I didn’t know how to solve all these problems, I went to my business godfather again. Having told him all my fears and doubts, I received the following answer: “Sereg, why are you kneading your boobs, everything can be done much more simply!”

I picked up the phone, dialed the organizer of the nearest festival, said that there were guys who could be taken to the festival and that's it! Then he told us to pay the registration fee and participate calmly. And to all my fears, he said to take it easier, do your job honestly and there will be no problems. And that's what happened in the end. To participate in that festival, we spent about 30-40 thousand rubles on purchasing a tent, ingredients, kitchen utensils like spatulas, containers, etc. Our first revenue was about 50 thousand rubles, and this was good money for us. We were very happy with the money we received, although we understood that we had only, in fact, recouped our investment. Then, we decided to try to participate further, and did not miss almost a single one, until waffles ceased to be in demand in the heat, and people began to ask for ice cream. More on this later. This is approximately how we looked at the events

4 freezers in the hallway and 3 refrigerators in the kitchen. Cooking at home

As you understand, we didn’t have any money to organize a more or less sane production, so we decided to make ice cream at home in the kitchen. We searched the Internet for how to do it, added my partner’s culinary talent and we got craft ice cream. The first ice cream was made with the purest village cream. Because of this, the ice cream turned out to be very fatty. The process was simple: we took cream with milk and condensed milk, whipped them with a planetary mixer, added natural jams or toppings and froze them in the freezer. We started receiving our first orders from Instagram. Over time, through various collaborations on this social network and word of mouth, more people began to learn about us, and more ice cream began to be needed. In

At some point, everything stopped fitting in our regular freezer and we had to buy another old Soviet freezer, then another one and another one. So, soon we had 4 freezers in the hallway and 3 refrigerators in the kitchen. The apartment where we cooked was on the 13th floor, so all the ingredients and deliveries had to be carried by hand, going through all the doors and elevators that are in all residential buildings (it was incredibly annoying). At that point, our revenue began to grow rapidly, we reached a turnover of about 100 thousand rubles a month, but I still worked in the same state enterprise as at the very beginning of our journey. Back then, we didn’t keep proper records, we just looked at how much money was on the card, if there was enough money to buy ingredients, then it was okay, we continued working.

this is the kind of horror that happened in my house

Lifting a 200 kg shocker to the 7th floor. Cooking in a rented apartment

When it became clear that the next freezers would be installed in the place of the bed, it was decided to move to a more spacious rented apartment, where the mini-workshop would be. We began to have stores and coffee shops as partners, to whom we supplied our products for sale (this is when they take it for themselves and pay for what is actually sold). For them, it was necessary to issue a more stable quality of the product, so we began to acquire more professional means. This is how we got our first Italian freezer and the first shock freezing cabinet.

But since we didn't expect to have a stun gun, we rented an apartment on the 7th floor for the workshop. Naturally, neither the doorways nor the elevator were designed to accommodate a device the size of a huge closet and weighing almost 200 kg in the living space. But the main shock for us was that when it was delivered to us and unloaded at the entrance door, it was simply gigantic in its packaging. Considering that the delivery vehicle had already left and we were left alone with this closet worth almost 300 thousand rubles, we had no options other than dragging it upstairs. With the help of movers and belts (not for movers, but special rigging belts), this closet was removed from the packaging, then placed in the elevator and squeezed millimeter by millimeter into the doorway of the apartment-workshop. It was quite stressful, since if the stun gun hadn't fit into the opening, we would have had to lower it down and decide where to put it next. But now we had a more professional set of equipment for production.

this is what our ice cream cakes looked like

What's the point of producing in an apartment, why not a workshop?

We invested all our revenue back into the project, so we had no extra money. The cost of the apartment with utilities, where the workshop was, was about 10 thousand a month, the wage fund was about 60 thousand, plus ingredients and related expenses, all together it came out to a little more than 100 thousand, and the revenue at that time could be 150 and 200 thousand a month, so it even seemed to us that we were making money. Around this time, I finally quit the state enterprise and devoted myself entirely to our project.

How the shopping center terminated our contract for criticism. We are moving to a normal workshop

We lived in such an apartment workshop space for about a couple of years, and when the question arose about the need for more employees, it was decided to look for premises for a normal workshop. Quite quickly we found a 140 sq. m. premises, in which, by the way, the production still lives to this day. We did repairs, with great difficulty recruited a small team and started working. With the growth of the number of contractors, we were faced with the task of optimizing the path of the product to the client, and for this we need pick-up points. We opened a pick-up point in the very center of the city and then decided to take a risk, for a lot of money for us (rent for a small point was about 120 thousand per month) we opened a second one in the largest shopping center of the city, investing about 500 thousand rubles in it.

BUT!

Suddenly, Covid hit and everyone went into quarantine. Sales stopped, but rent didn't. At the time, we thought it was extremely unfair, and we started talking about it directly on all of our social networks, which by that time already had about 20,000 subscribers. For some reason, we didn't even imagine that among all of these subscribers there could be the managers of this shopping center who monitor the content. And after we posted a series of stories on this topic, the very next day, management representatives contacted us, and after short negotiations, they gave us an ultimatum to get lost in all 4 directions. There was nowhere to go, and we closed this outlet.

What now?

My partner and I left the project in March 2023 for many reasons. These were both external reasons, such as: the closure of Insta, the redistribution of the client flow, for which we were not ready, and internal ones – I moved to another country, severe burnout from this project, as well as the thought that everything would have to be started, so to speak, from scratch. Initially, we just wanted to close and sell the equipment, but in the end it turned out that we were offered money for all our assets by almost the first buyers who contacted us. We thought about it and realized that this was the best option, and formalized a deal to sell the business to a large city restaurant chain.

What conclusions have I drawn from these 8 years of managing ice cream production?

if you have an idea, then start doing it in any form, then you can finish it
Don't waste money, every expense must be justified
If a hypothesis on paper does not bring the desired effect, then in reality it will never bring it
make a product conscientiously and for your customers
always meet the client halfway
keep track of business finances
Be honest with your employees – first their salary, then yours