Anyone in the sno-ball stand business?

Sounds about right

Ice- will you buy it or make it?
The ice makers are expensive but you’ll always have ice and can sell to others.
You’ll need a freezer to store ice too. Get a deep freezer.

Labor will be your big issue. Kids like to work there but are unreliable.


Good luck with it

Every sno-ball place around here is slammed during the summer. There is a train caboose stand that didn't open this year. I was thinking about asking if they want to sell it.

Find the right location and i could see you making a killing. Product is pretty cheap to make as well. If you had a mobile one that could travel and park it outside sporting events on hot days like pretty much anywhere in the south. Big Money.

I would definitely get the ice block making machine. Chest deep freezer is fairly cheap in comparison.

Me, my wife, and 2 kids went to a place near us and all got smalls, it cost about $10. They were horrible in comparison to those in Louisiana, but they had a steady stream of business.

If you average $10 per sale, recovery of a $30k investment is about 3000 transactions. Obviously there are more costs that I haven't accounted for yet to estimate turning a profit. Here in Texas, you could start in say April and sell through October. Cut it short and say being open for 6 months, so for 180 days you would need 16.6 transactions a day to break even. So you would need at least two seasons before seeing a profit.

In that business it’s not about getting your starting costs back, as much as it’s about justifying your time. You’ll either pay labor or you have the opportunity cost of spending all your personal time there. Make sure you factor in what you’re worth per hour. You’ll be surprised how much time you pour into a small business.

Maybe you should test the waters and just buy the block ice at first? You can hand make them with bread loaf plastic containers for free. But it’s timely. I’ve done it before.

You’ll need a 3 sink compartment set up to conform with LDH regs.

Location is critical. And never as easy to find as it seems it would be. But once established you have it made.

And make a snoball in a timely manner so no one stands in line. Folks lose a lot here. Drivers see long lines and keep going. It should be made in a minute flat. I’ve done it before. I’d get two machines for a good business.

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I was thinking about asking if they want to sell it.

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I know him and asked. He wasn’t interested lol It would crush right there though. Definitely a shortage in that area.

It's a cartel in Boise. Hopefully that's not the case where you're located. It's incredible cashflow if you can get the licensing.

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kona ice trucks

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I'm surprised I haven't seen someone do something similar to this, but also double it as a traveling margarita/daquiri truck.

Let us know how it goes if you do it.

There are some stands in Nola/Metairie that have been around forever and they have to be killing it.

Someone mentioned the number of transactions a day and I bet Sal's in Metairie does 200-300 a day during summer and spring and fall a decent number as well.