One of the biggest questions that I get all the time is how much does it cost to open up an ice cream shop Wilson and that's the reason why I'm shooting this video for you. We're breaking down the cost of how to build an ice cream shop and that ice cream shop is precisely ours. So you're definitely in luck. Make sure you guys keep watching. Hey guys, it's Wilson here. Your friend in helping you build a successful, thriving restaurant and small business. I just want to give a major, major shout out to these people who actually inspires us to do these content for you because I read every single message that you guys post and that's the community that I want to be able to create a positive environment that supports each other out. So make sure that you guys leave us some comments in the section below. Email us to be featured up here once again. Now without further ado, let's dive right in. The first expense that we're going to cover is renovations and this expense can vary from $10,000 to over millions of dollars depending on the concept that you have. For our ice cream shop, we chose a location that has everything already built out. So then that way we can minimize our renovation costs. Some areas to consider would be interior of your location, exterior of your location, the plumbing, the washroom, whether it's already built out or not, and also the HVAC, the ventilation system. All in all, we spent $20,000 on these different types of improvements. Now depending on the type of restaurants that you're building and the offerings that you are putting out there, you can actually start an ice cream shop with minimal amount of structural renovations for your shop. So for us, that's at $20,000. The second type of expense that you should look out for is equipment. For us, the first major equipment that we're looking at is the ice cream machine. Now depending on what your forecast of your volume is like, you might need different types of machines. Initially, for us, we spent $20,000 buying one of the lowest tier of the ice cream machines. Three months into operations, when we had lineups out the door, we actually had to pay double the amount to buy top of the line machines that way we can actually produce more ice cream and to satisfy the different demand that was coming in. So in turn, just because we chipped out, that means we have to buy a different machine for us to make sure that we make back the money. So make sure you guys do your calculations, do your forecast, and not cheap out on something like this, because that's your money maker. Now on the note of the cost of running these machines, they can vary from $20,000 to $50,000 so it really does vary quite a bit. And something that I do recommend is for you to actually look into financing options. Now some might be thinking, why would I be paying extra percentages and interest to finance? Well the reason is because you want to make sure you have cash flow. If you spend all your capital in just buying machines and equipment, you're going to left with zero or very, very little cash flow for you to operate. What if it takes you six months in order for you to collect a pool of great loyal customers? What if it takes you a year? If without cash flow, that can actually push you out of business and that's the reason why a lot of restaurants go bankrupt because of cash flow problems. And that's the reason why I do recommend you to consider financing or even leasing equipment even at an interest rate because that would give you a lot more cash flow to play with. All in all, for us we spent $35,000 in equipment because we started to lease our equipment. Now some of the equipment that we purchased and lease would include under the counter cooler. That's where we keep all our condiments. We bought an ice machine for our ice cream. We also bought a stand-up freezer for us to stock all the milk in there along with the tables, along with the counters and the chairs that we had. And that's why what we spent on our equipment costs. The third expense that we're going to look at are the supplies, the different types of supplies that's needed in order for you to fulfill your offering. Supplies such as napkins, branded local cups, spoons, forks, utilities, all these different types of supplies. And all in all, we spent around $3,000 purchasing these different supplies for our offering. Next up is branding, branding such as our wall graphics, our outdoor signages, our business cards, brochures, and all these things add up to around $5,000. And branding, I would say, that can vary from $5,000 to $10,000 depending on whether you have a designer in-house or you're just going to outsource a lot of these designing stuff. So for us, we were able to actually operate at a very, very lean scale because our partner was also a designer. So he was able to design a lot of things for us. And in turn, we were able to really keep all our cash flow into our project. If you guys find any value from this video, make sure you smash the like button so that way I know this is the content you like. Now back to regular programming. The next cost is labor. Now this can vary tremendously depending on how you log your hours. For us, because our whole team was involved in building up this project and we did not have outside investment, we did not calculate any of the hours that we spent in conceptualizing and doing the run-arounds and doing the project management, we didn't calculate any of those cost. Now that is not the best practice out there because if you have an investor investing, let's say $200,000 into your business. You should be able to log every single hour that you use to plan and to execute on this because it's just part of doing the right business practice, right? But for us, it's a little bit different because we as partners founded this company together and we all put in equal amounts of work and that's the reason why we did not charge the company for every hour that we spent. We spent $5,000 in this category and mainly the $5,000 was to hire outside help. We're talking about runners, we're talking about training, we're talking about people that can actually, that we need to pay by the hour and that's why we budgeted around $5,000 for this type of expense. Next up is miscellaneous and that includes all the licensing, permits, so on and so forth and that accounts for roughly, I would say $1,000 because the city permits is around $500 hours and at the end of the day, I would actually account for more for miscellaneous because oftentimes you don't know the expenses that you would bump into depending on where you open up your ice cream shop. And finally, the last expense that we should consider is the rent. For us, we're able to find a really good location in a small little shop around $600 per feet and that came at a cost of $2,000 per month. Now you may be wondering, Wilson, is this all the expenses that I should be considering when opening up an ice cream shop? No, you should also consider your runway. Now what is a runway? Imagine that you're a restaurant or your ice cream shop that you're opening does not have any revenue whatsoever for six months. Typically speaking, people budget around from three months to six months of a runway. Why is that the case? Well you want to make sure you have enough cash flow in your bank to sustain six months of time with no business because you don't want to start and open up your business. Maybe it's a really rainy month. Maybe it's very difficult to get people come to the doors and you just don't have enough cash flow to sustain running your business and unfortunately before you even get any customers whatsoever, you have to close your doors because you don't have enough money to pay your labor, you don't have enough money to pay for your rent. Now that's the reason why having cash flow is super, super important and that's your runway. Now how do you calculate your runway? Typically speaking, to calculate your runway, you need to add up all your variable expenses on a monthly basis. Items such as your labor, your labor that includes your cashier, your brewery's style, just to operate your ice cream shop. Also your rent, your monthly payment of your rent and that is it. So for example, if labor costs us around $3,000 a month and rent costs us $2,000 a month, that's a runway of $5,000 that you need in order for you to actually keep your doors open $5,000. So typically speaking as I was saying, you would want to budget it to around three to six months of a runway. So that varies from I would say $15,000 to $30,000 as a runway, a chunk of money that you don't touch and you just leave it in your bank so that way you can start building up your ice cream shop. So there you are, the total cost that goes to around $100,000 to start my ice cream shop. I really hope that this gave you insight on what are the different types of expenses that you should forecast and budget for. Now depending on the type of ice cream that you're creating, whether it's soft serve or gelato, the machinery that is needed is completely different and that's the reason why that startup costs would be completely different as well. So this video only acts as a reference point to show you some of the costs that we've encountered. If you guys are wanting more on how do you start a ice cream shop with step-by-step instructions and the framework that we followed over an hour of training, definitely go into the description below and go sign up for our free masterclass training. Now I really hope you enjoyed this video, make sure you subscribe along the journey, smash the like button to show us some support. I'll see you guys in the next video.