- Business Opportunity - Thursday, September 08, 2005 After some "slightly" careful consideration, I've decided I'd like to open up a hard dipped ice cream shop in historic downtown Inverness. You see, there's the shop in Spring Hill called Papa Clyde's that makes their own ice cream. They basically put Baskin Robbins to shame with over 50 flavors! ALL home (store) made! Yum, it's sooo good. Kahlua Fudge is my absolute favorite--which is weird, because I don't like chocolate ice cream, per se, nor do I like Kahlua! ANYWAY...I'd like it to be a country-modern shop and I'd even go as far as purchasing a franchise, such as my absolute favorite, Marble Slab Creamery. If you've never been at a Marble Slab (or even ((shudder)) Coldstone Creamery) you've missed out! First you pick your flavor of ice cream. There are several different flavors to choose from. Then, you pick your "mixin's"--your toppings, or items you want mixed in. There's fresh fruits, candies, cookies, nuts, cookie dough, etc... Just about name it and they have it! Then the best part, they scoop out your ice cream, slap it on the frozen marble slab, mix your choice of "mixin's" in and scoop it up in your choice of waffle cone or bowl. They have MANY different flavors of waffle cone, like vanilla, brown sugar, chocolate, white chocolate and whole wheat are just some examples. I think Marble Slab might be a little too touristy for downtown Inverness, but would be perfect for the business clientel like myself who happen to be able to walk downtown for lunch. Plus there's shopping, like a homemade wood furniture store, exotic gifts store, Boyd's Bears/Yankee Candle store (another favorite), barber, attorney and a couple of restaurants. Love the idea--actually I think I will copyright this post in case anyone steals my idea!! (just kidding--i think) Now, what's holding me back, you ask? C'mon, I know you were going to ask! Well, for 1--$$. The initial investment whether I went with franchise vs private would be anywhere from $100,000 to 200,000. Pretty steep for an ice cream shop! 2--I would want to work there ALL THE TIME! If I had to I might hire one or 2 high school students to help out, but I would want to do it all--I'm a control freak like that. But here's the kicker, I don't want to leave my full time position to do that, and I don't see myself getting cloned anytime soon, that might get too confusing, so I'll stick with my "real" day job for now. But I still like the idea. Maybe if and when (which I doubt) I get burnt out I will! Nice to have a backup plan. FLICKER, lightbulb just went on...I could ship Chris over to Iraq for a year to finance this project! Hmmm, that's a thought. Probably not though---my mental state can barely take him being gone for 2 weeks let alone 52! Oh--and don't ask me to start a Dairy Queen. YUCK. I hate soft serve ice cream.

posted by VRA @ 1:40 PM 0 Comments: Post a Comment << Home