subject: Guidelines To Open An Authentic Italian Gelato Shop [print this page] Italian ice cream is renowned and appreciated worldwide.
Open an Italian gelato shop could be truly easy and successful if you follow the right steps.
Italian restaurants have flooded towns and cities and saturated the market. Italian gelato shops still have the opportunity to conquer new customers.
Your dream is to open an Italian gelato shop. Do you really know what it takes?
Here you are some useful guidelines.
First, you should take as much information as possible on gelato culture. If you cannot afford a trip to Italy (which would be ideal), just look up on the web for videos and articles about Italian gelato.
You will soon discover that Italians would rather have an ice cream cone if they are having the ice cream on the go, while they prefer a big coppa (cup with more than two scoops and usually whipped cream on top) if they sit in the Gelateria to eat the ice cream.
Italian ice creams are different in substance and flavors, as they are more natural and less complex. For instance, a typical Italian ice-cream flavor is lemon and it is made without any milk or cream; it is closer to a popsicle than to an ice cream. Even chocolate is less rich and somewhat bitter.
When you think your education on ice creams is completed, you can start considering the physical space in your area where to open your business (and you think it would work!).
Bear in mind that a shop along the street looks much more Italian, but a business in a shopping center can have a lot of customers also in bad weather, wintertime and late at night.
It is taken for granted that you should verify if, near where you presume to open your future gelato shop, there arent similar businesses.
Why this? It is obvious that, when starting, you do not want to be immediately in conflict with long established shops. It would be better to choose an area where you can start building your own clients base.
Verify if in your town there is a little Italy or an area where a large portion of the inhabitants have an Italian heritage: in affirmative case, you should prefer a shop in these neighborhoods or in a location near by.
You should also think about skills, qualifications and licenses.
Usually local authorities ask for proofs and authorizations to open a shop and you need to know which laws regulate this matter.
A truly Italian Gelato shop needs to have a qualified Ice-cream maker . In big cities, there could be Italian associations that may organize courses. If you do not live in a big city, you might take the opportunity to visit Italy and attend one of the best courses available; alternatively, you may ask a qualified Italian ice cream maker to teach this art.
Afterwards, you should get in touch with Italian institutions and associations to verify if you are entitled to special loans or financial aids from them, as you are about to open a business that will promote Italy. It is best doing this kind of search at this stage (before writing a business plan) to know immediately if you can count on some extra money for your opening.
Then you need to get in touch with an expert to draw your business plan.
The best idea would be hire someone who has already experience on providing expert advices to ice cream shops. If you are not able to find such a professional aid, you might ask an Italian ice vendor for its opinion and experience and then find a financial expert.
In your business plan you must include shops fitting and equipment. As far as fitting is concerned, you can try to do the best you can with local furniture industries. Equipment, instead, is a very delicate matter as to produce Italian gelato you will buy special machines, probably different from the ones used to make normal ice creams. This machines are only produced in Italy and so you will need to find suppliers of Italian industrial machines and be sure they are reliable.
Being abroad it is not easy to find names of Italian companies.
The web is full of websites that provide just addresses, but what you need is more than that.
You need companys name, its business description and, above all, its financial data.
When importing goods that will be the engine of your business, you want to choose the best suppliers to be sure you can rely on them and on their products.
