There's a large furniture chain in my area that has an ice cream counter - no charge! It's mostly to keep the kids occupied while the parents shop.
- Thread starter mboydii
- Start date
I havent been on this site in a while, but I moved here and now Im starting a business. I would like your opinions before I open up.
Like the saying goes"Everything is for sale. . . at a price". Free, 100DOP, 250DOP. OP-why risk your hard earned money. Maybe your numbers are wrong? It's kinda like LOVE. Maybe this gal isn't right for you. She has pimples on her nose. Yes, she can have them removed. She is married. Yes, he can be removed. But when it is all said and done, what's in it for you?
I guess thats why theres a Ice Cream shop in every grocery store in the DR. Name one without it? Im confused on how some of you idiots even thought to comment anything at all on here. I assume, since you have free wi-fi why not say something? But damn, have you even been to the DR. Bravo has Sweet frog, La Sirena has Bon, Plaza Llama has Bon, hell even Price Smart sells ice cream.
Idiots? Not very nice for someone who is asking for opinons.
LMAO!!! He has a way he expresses his gratitude. His way or the hi way. Why do I even care he will lose his money? Well, bc I'm eating my lunch and I was looking for some comedy on-line.
No ice creams shops in any of the grocery stores in Sosua or Cabarete.
After some Googling it appears that these machines need some decent regularly cleaning with short intervals, also they have to be refilled.
So I can imagine when you have 10 of these vending machines installed it is a daily job to maintain these...maintain them good in a proper way...
I would only trust myself to do that so I would have a daytime job.
Just my 2 cents on the maintenance/refill part of this endeavour, all other aspects I leave to the "experts".
So I can imagine when you have 10 of these vending machines installed it is a daily job to maintain these...maintain them good in a proper way...
I would only trust myself to do that so I would have a daytime job.
Just my 2 cents on the maintenance/refill part of this endeavour, all other aspects I leave to the "experts".
It is not only the maintaince you need to think of, how often do you need to fill it up, cleaning the machines so it not be bacteria, put money out and a lot of other things.
Do you plan to do it yourself or rent out machines to company/store owners?
If you rent them out you neeed to educate your clients in handling the machine and in maintaince.
It is a lot of things you need to think of before you start.
-Where do you buy the ingredients?
- Do you have permission to import food, ingredients to make ice cream?
-How much will it cost in customs and shipping fees?
There are so many foreigners who think they have a good idea, but then they end up losing all their money because there is no permit. The bureaucracy here is not easy if you don't have contacts.
I also have the experience that you can be excluded as a 'gringo'.
I rounded that through hiring a dominican salesman who works for commission.
You also need to hire a good lawyer for your business.
The SMALL/BABY cone at Super Pola was 25 pesos I think. I bought one almost every time I was there at that price (cause it was really good and I knew it wouldn't last)
And, around my camp at least, there are guys riding a motobike or in a small van, that go past like twice a day, ringing a bell.
DR style icecream van.
100 pesos gets you a large cone with 3 scoops of ice cream, and 2 different toppings ( chocolate sauce, red fruit sauce, etc ).
Is it the best ice cream ? Nope.
Is it convenient ? Hell, yeah.
Now THAT is a low maintenance buisness.
No down time, no permits needed, no sanitary BS, no RNC nonsense, no machine breaking down, no troubleshooting on an Ipad with sketchy internet and unreliable power source.....
Spoiler alert though, they ain't making 5k$ a month 🤣🤣🤣🤣. And I am pretty sure banks are not throwing money at them either.
First of all,calling everyone on here an idiot will get you in trouble,second of all you are wrong about every supermarket having an ice cream shop,NONE of the supermarkets in Sosua have ice cream shops,the only one that had one failed so who's the idiot now?
My advice is to get a good accountant and a good lawyer. There are so many permissions and so many things that you have to register with so many different departments, and all of them need about a million bits of paper. And make sure that you completely understand what you need to file by what date, because if you're a second past the deadline there is always a massive surcharge.
The bureaucracy kills you. There is money to be made here, but today, just as an example, I went to DGII in Maximo Gomez as we had been told to go there to sort something out. After 30 mins wait there, was told to go to another office. 30 mins wait to see first person, she said it's not her department, go upstairs. 20 mins wait, see another guy, he says it's not their department, back downstairs to another department. And then 90 mins waiting while a woman calls about 400 different people and tries to work out who we should speak to, whilst also trying to encourage me to buy her a bottle of perfume. (Oh your perfume is so lovely, I just wish I had some like that, and here's a photo of my favourite one). Eventually "oh look it's four o'clock, home time, I will call you tomorrow and see if we can get this sorted out". All this for one little filing.
The bureaucracy kills you. There is money to be made here, but today, just as an example, I went to DGII in Maximo Gomez as we had been told to go there to sort something out. After 30 mins wait there, was told to go to another office. 30 mins wait to see first person, she said it's not her department, go upstairs. 20 mins wait, see another guy, he says it's not their department, back downstairs to another department. And then 90 mins waiting while a woman calls about 400 different people and tries to work out who we should speak to, whilst also trying to encourage me to buy her a bottle of perfume. (Oh your perfume is so lovely, I just wish I had some like that, and here's a photo of my favourite one). Eventually "oh look it's four o'clock, home time, I will call you tomorrow and see if we can get this sorted out". All this for one little filing.
I feel like this thread really took a turn when the OP called the posters 'idiots'... I thought the advice given was very useful and informative.