Do you want to start an ice block making company from scratch? Or you need a sample ice block making business plan template? If YES, then i advice you read on.
The type of refreshment and feeling you get when you take ice cold water cannot be overemphasized. It is one feeling you want to relish over and over again.
If you live around the equator, in Africa or in the Middle East, you might realize that the sun and heat in these places is always at its peak.
Bad enough; most countries in the developing world still battle with the challenge of epileptic power supply, so the need for ice block to help chill drinks, waters and preserve foods would always come to the fore. Ice block making business is one business venture that is easy to start and it has a very low maintenance cost.
The initial capital of starting this kind of business is relatively low; depending on how big or small you want it to be. If you are starting this business in a place where the power supply is really bad, you might have to spend more on diesel or fuel as the case maybe.
If you are thinking of starting an Ice Block Making Business, you don’t need any technical skills to get started; the basic skills that can get you started are Customer Service Skills, Marketing Skills and Business Management Skills.
The following steps will put you on the right track en route starting and successfully managing your Ice Block Making Business.
Starting an Ice Block Making Company – Sample Business Plan Template
1. Do Your Feasibility Studies
The fact that you need to do your feasibility studies before starting any form of business cannot be over emphasized. A business idea may look fantastic on paper and highly profitable but the reports you get from the feasibility studies may prove otherwise.
In order to get it right with your Ice Block Making Business, you need to conduct your feasibility studies and prepare a business plan for your ice block making business.
2. Register Your Business
Although this kind of business doesn’t necessarily need you to register a Business Name before you get started because in most cases you might be dealing with individuals at the early stages.
However, if your intention is to grow the business to a level where you would be dealing with corporate organization, then you just have to go through the huddles of registering your business and opening a corporate account.
3. Choose an Ideal Location
The location you choose to start your ice block making business gives you a prediction of how profitable the business could become. Ice Block making business thrives mostly in densely populated areas with records of bad power supply.
Ensure that you locate your business close to a place where there is access to clean and portable water. If you make the mistake of locating this kind of business in the elitist side of town; you are likely going to struggle to convince people to patronize you. Make sure you target market places, stadiums, and event centers.
4. Buy Your Equipments
The basic equipments needed to start your Ice Block Making business are Ice Blocking Making Machine or Freezers depending on how you intend starting; Power Generating Set and Water Purifier. Ice Block making machine are of different types and it comes with different capacity.
There is the Shave Block Ice Machine, Glycol Block Ice Machine and Star Block Ice Maker and the capacity ranges from 40 moulds to 120 moulds with 12 hours production time.
Just ensure that you start with the one that fits your budget, because there will always be room for you to grow and buy bigger block making machines.
5. Advertise Your Business
You are required to advertise your business to the general public so that they would know the kind of product you have to offer.
Even if the location of your business is visible enough for all to see, advertising it helps highlight the areas where you think you have an edge over your competitors.
It would not cost you much to advertise this kind of business. You don’t need a radio jingle or TV slot to get started, all you need to do is to start with handbills and fliers. You can even leverage on the social media trend to tell people the kind of product you have to offer.
6. Market Your Business
If you rely on people to come patronize you without going out to create new markets, you might likely not break even on time. Trust me; you will recoup your capital fast, if from the onset of starting your business you adopt aggressive marketing approach.
You can partner with Events Managers; since they are always involved in organizing outdoor events, they will always need Ice Blocks to chill drinks and bottled waters.
You can also go around town to locate people that operate kiosk businesses, as they are always in need of ice blocks, and you can win them over if you choose to supply them without additional delivery cost.
7. Offer Additional Services
It is important to know that Ice Block Making Business is a seasonal kind of business. There are peak periods; especially during hot season (Dry Season/ summer) and low period during wet or cold season. Knowing how to manage these seasons would help you stay in business all through the year.
What will keep you floating is to add services like helping people preserve their meats, fish, poultry and seafoods et al. You can also help people that produce ice creams in large quantity to freeze their ice creams.
The good thing about running an Ice Block making Business is that you can successfully combine it with other businesses, since this kind of business doesn’t require your presence 24 hours of the day.
Once you are done with packing the water to be frozen, it is left for the Ice block making machine or the Freezer to do its job without any human input.
Averagely it would take you about 12 hours to get solid and dry Ice Blocks, so make sure you program your business activities in such a way that you won’t have to disappoint your clients.
If you follow the 7 steps stated above and you work hard, you will sure start your Ice Block Making Business successfully and build it to a level of profitability in no distant time.