How to Start a Smoothie Business
Smoothie is a blend of fruit, milk, ice cream, and other sweetening, which have proven to be healthy drinks. The quest for a much healthier drink for children and adults has made the smoothie become a favorite drink over the years. With several types of smoothie drinks, they can be consumed at any time of the day, along with your breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and quench your taste on a hot day. These drinks have also become a healthy choice for those graving gulp of sweet juice.
The demand for a healthier lifestyle has seen people reduce the consumption of drinks that contain harmful substances. Therefore, the smoothie has become the perfect replacement because they contain natural and healthy substances. We have seen these refreshing drinks become available on our store’s shelves from homemade recipes. And with proper packaging, they have become part of the multibillion-dollar drink industry. It has grown into a multi billion dollar business over the years. And there is room for more people to come into the business, to need the need of the ever desiring consumers.
Are you thinking of starting a smoothie business? Then you are on track in succeeding in your business endeavor, for they are in high demand, especially if you can come up with the right recipes. However, starting a business requires more than getting an excellent product to sell; you must consider certain factors to ensure the success of your smoothie business.
You are at the right place to learn how to start a smoothie business and become successful. It is advisable to follow the recommendation in this article when starting a smoothie business to ensure a smooth transition from startup to being profitable.
Steps to Take to Start Your Smoothie Business
Your tasty recipes will not guarantee you profit in your smoothie business. The business requires consideration of several aspects beyond making the smoothie, and you have to carefully put all these considerations in place to ensure the business grows with its potential. Below are some of the factors you should consider in starting your business today.
Draw a Business Plan
Developing a business plan will give you direction in the business and enable you to plan according to the scale of your business. You may decide to draw a business plan before considering capital or consider the money after you have drawn your business plan. The business plan is vital for your business to give you purpose and keep you prepared for each stage.
A business plan for your smoothie business should include:
- A statement of the services you want to render.
- The objective of the smoothie business
- Astatement of planned expenses which include rents, types of equipment, raw materials, salaries, and other kinds of costs. The statement should contain both recurrent and capital expenses for the business.
- Your target and how you plan to reach out to these targets.
- The method of promoting the business
- And much more
A good business plan can be instrumental in sourcing for loans, especially seeking help from credit institutions in building capital for your business. You can get a professional to draw out a business plan to guide you in starting your smoothie business.
Capital
In any business, the capital is essential to kick start and grow to the potential you desire. You must have substantial funds for your smoothie business, which will depend on the scale of the business you wish to establish. The sources of your capital may depend on the size of the smoothie business. To build a big business, looking to serve more than ten people in a sitting will require considerable capital. In such cases, you may seek credit institutions or banks to collect loans to start your business. To obtain loans from your local bank or financial institution, you will require documents like collateral, business plan, and business registration papers. Before collecting that loan, you should consider the repayment plans. What are the interest rates, and from your calculated projections, can you meet up with the repayments while keeping the business afloat.
On the other hand, if you are rooting for a small to medium scale business, you may consider capital from your savings, contributions, or loans from family and friends. Capital is essential in starting the company, for, with the capital, your idea or recipes will not make money for you. The initial steps in starting the smoothie business are to source for substantial capital.
Read Also: How to Raise Initial Investment Capital for Small Businesses
Get Suitable Location for Your business.
Location is vital for your smoothie business, especially if you intend to open a shop outside your home. For a small scale smoothie business, you want to run from your home, finding a suitable location will not be a problem, for you can easily set up a small cart in your front yard. But starting a medium to big scale smoothie business will require you to look for a suitable location. The location will go a long way to determine the patronage of your business by customers who can access the store. In considering the site for your business, you should consider the targeted customers and their accessibility to your shop.
In searching for a location for your smoothie business, you should consider the following:
- A location with high traffic flow in a commercial area, where you can serve workers. And avoid residential areas, where patronage will be lower compared to busy areas.
- It should be spacious to occupy chairs and tables for people to sit down and enjoy their smoothies.
- Find a location close to public places like parks, cinemas, shopping malls, and stadiums.
- Get in touch with your real estate agent with a description of the location you want. Inspect these locations to ensure they are suitable locations for your business before making the down payment.
Getting Worker for Your Shop
The people you get to work for you are essential to the growth of your business. You have to create a structure where there should be proper division of services, and you should get the right people to fill in those positions. There are outsourcing agencies you can employ to help find people to fit into the job description, or you can run the interviews by yourself to choose people suitable for your business.
You should employ people with knowledge in nutrition and health, for they will be essential in running the business. Get qualified people in every area of the company to ensure the smooth running of the business. In certain areas, such as management, you will need people of experience to assist in running the business.
Get Your Business License and Insurance papers.
To be on the safe side with the authorities, you have to register your company with the appropriate agency. In the food and drink industry, some health concerns will require you to register the business with health and safety guidelines in place. You can get all the information regarding the registration of your smoothie business going through the appropriate government channel. The government agency will provide you with all the certifications needed to run your business according to the law.
For the smooth running of the business, you must consider creating a separate bank account for your business. With the business bank account, you can calculate your tax returns as you apply for your tax identification number. By considering the complete registration of your business, you will ensure your business’s legitimate running according to the requirement of the law.
Get your entire insurance document ready and up to date for the smooth running of your business. There are instances when your business’s insurance documents will be requested, thus, endeavor to get them ready and updated regularly.
Decide what will be on Your Menu.
There are various types of smoothies, and you should set your menu according to the popular smoothie. A correct market analysis will help you determine the kind of smoothies that sells faster and incorporate these smoothies into your list. Some common types of smoothies include orange banana, strawberry, and standard mixtures of popular fruits.
In your smoothie shop, you can also include snacks like cakes, pies, burgers, and much more. These additions to the menu will help increase sales as customers will prefer to eat meals along with the smoothies. To get it right as a starter, you can check how your competitors arrange their menus and try to fit your recipes in a manner that will suit the consumers’ demands.
Promotion of Your Smoothie Business
As a startup, you need to promote your business to create the necessary awareness or what you have to offer. Let people know what you have to provide through the use of colorful fliers, digital marketing, and other forms of traditional marketing. One quick way to get customers to visit your smoothie store is to offer discounts, giveaways, and other incentives to encourage people to have a go at your smoothies. The competition is swift, and your targeted customers may be accustomed to getting their smoothies from another store. These first incentives will drive them to your store to taste your smoothies that will get them hooked.
Read Also: Developing A Marketing Strategy For Small Business
You should also consider your business presence online with an increase in the use of social media platforms. Create a business account on each of the popular social media platforms to reach out to targeted customers and communicate directly on these platforms. Hiring a social media or digital manager may cost too much, so you can handle it for a while.
The promotion of your business is an ongoing process that should be continued through its running. When the company continues to grow, you can outsource the services to a professional who can adequately handle the promotion and customer services for the business’s growth. Another promotional aspect to consider is the television promotional advert. Television adverts have continued to be a successful way to attract customers, especially during popular television shows of sports programs. Also, get in touch with the latest trend by incorporating promotion through online platforms like YouTube.
You should also consider sponsoring events where your brand will be promoted in popular televisions shows and sports events. The use of famous entertainers and sportspeople has been common to promote products, and you can take advantage of such offers. With these famous stars, you can gain wider audiences in creating awareness about your smoothie.
The Equipment Needed for Your Smoothie Business
The smoothie business requires some specific equipment to keep the smoothie fresh and healthy for the consumers. You must invest in the proper pieces of equipment, which include:
- A refrigerator for keeping your smoothie cool and refreshing. The fridge will also help store your fresh fruits and other materials that will be needed in preparing the smoothie. Before getting a refrigerator, you should note that it is not the regular refrigerator for your home use. Get a food service unit refrigerator, which has been custom made for such business. They are appropriately protected against wear and tears, so they are durable with the purpose of the usage in consideration.
- The blender is essential equipment for the smoothie business. And since you will be making smoothie drinks for several customers, the home use blender will not be capable. Get an industrial mixer that can quickly make fresh juice out of the fruit to serve your customers.
- You should also get a commercial juicer that can extract large volumes of juice from fruits and veggies. With these juicers, you can guarantee fresh juice to the satisfaction of your customers.
- Install big size sinks and dishwashers to clean up your utensils. You should ensure that this equipment is easy to use and placed in a safe area. For safety and health purposes, get dishwashers and sinks that are easy to clean, so mold will not accumulate on these types of equipment.
- Your store should have a dry storage area where you can store utensils like cups, spoons, straws, napkins, and other stuff.
- Since you will be dealing with sales, a point of sales POS system is required. The system will help you keep track of your transactions and manage other financial aspects of the business.
- Other equipment and tools you will need may include ice machines, knives, cutting boards, and other accessories.
- These pieces of equipment will ensure you run the business smoothly, making refreshing drinks for our customers. They also help you to manage your business appropriately while meeting the needs of your customers.
Keep a Steady Supply Chain
In running your smoothie business, you will need a steady supply of fruit and veggies to keep the business running. Since the fruits and vegetables should be kept fresh enough, you will need it frequently delivered, for they cannot be stored to produce the same refreshing effect as required.
You can build a business relationship with farmers to ensure a steady flow of the products. Get as many contacts as possible and spread the supply chain among these contacts, so you keep them, regular customers. It is essential to do this if one of your supply chains fails, and you can rely on the others based on the steady business relationship you have created with these suppliers.
Read Also: How To Start A Wine Shop Business
Safety and Health Tips for Your Smoothies Business
To keep your smoothie business running, maintain health and safety as your number one priority. The safety precautions you set up in your store will keep your employees and the customers safe. And with government agencies probing the food and drink industry, placing the proper safety and health precautions will keep your store from being shut down for safety and health violations.
To keep the business safe and clean, the following tips will be vital.
Maintain Regular Cleaning Schedule
There will be high traffic to your store as projected, and you will need to keep the place clean always. You will need to recycle or clean the cups, spoons, and plates used for reuse. Keeping up with the high traffic and maintaining a conducive environment will require regular cleaning of the place and the accessories used in eating and drinking.
You will need cleaners and dishwashers to keep the environment clean all the time. They should be on standby to clean the floor and wash the used accessories. These activities should be done discreetly as possible and not too apparent to the customers. Also, you should get the right cleaning utensils that will make cleaning effective and efficient.
Waste Disposal
Food and drink business requires a proper waste disposal system. The waste should be wrapped into bags, properly sealed before disposing of it on a waste disposal system. There should be an indoor wastebasket inside the store where users can drop lost waste and avoid littering it. They can drop disposable cups, paper plates, and disposable wipers on these baskets.
While food or drink remaining should be disposed of and covered, at the end of each day, the waste gathered should be disposed of outside to prevent rats and other crippling animals from feasting on them in the stores. The health and safety regulatory body requires a proper waste management system for those operating food and drink shops. And your business will come under supervision from time to time; thus, you must have this in place to prevent the shutting down of your business.
Maintaining the Proper Temperature in the Store
The temperature in different store places is essential in maintaining proper hygiene and keeping the customers satisfied. First, you have to maintain the appropriate temperature where you store your fresh fruits and veggies, to prevent them from going bad. Store them in a place that is cold enough to keep them in the right condition. Too much heat may make them go bad fast.
On the other hand, you should maintain a hot temperature where you carry out the washing and cleaning of the accessories used in preparing the smoothie and serving the customers. The heat will help kill germs and make it easier to remove stains and other remnants.
The places where the customers will sit to enjoy the smoothie should be cool enough. You want them relaxed, not in a hurry to leave, enjoy the smoothie, and order more. The air in the region should be circulated appropriately with a lovely ambiance to create a relaxing environment.
Running Your Inspection
To keep everything in order and ensure you are always prepared for inspection by the authorities, you should run your check. You can employ a health and safety professional to help keep things in the right manner and run a personal inspection of the property regularly. In this business, you cannot afford to take health and safety for granted, and your store will be shut down for the slightest violation of the required health and safety rules.
Keeping a clean and hygienic environment will prevent the buildup of germs and bacteria, which may harm your customers’ health. You do not want to create such an impression about your business, which will affect your brand, a situation that may affect the market for a long time.
Read Also: How to start an Online Game Business
Conclusion
The smoothie business has grown to a multi-billion dollars business over the years. Some franchises have established themselves in the niche. However, there is still room for business owners to build a profitable business making a smoothie for the ever-demanding customers. It is a demanding business that needs you to be on your toes daily, monitoring activities, and ensuring that your smoothie’s quality improves. The company requires you to be up to date with the latest trends in the industry and use the latest technology to enhance your product and its services. The amount you will need to start the business may vary according to the company’s location, the scale, and the standard you want to place on the company. And that is why a specific range of amounts cannot be specified for you to start your smoothie business. And you can also consider your capital in determining how much you want to spend to start up your store.