Smoothie Drink Business Plan – How to Start a Juice/Smoothie Shop

These days you go anywhere around the streets of United States and you will find various juice and smoothie shops selling various drinks of various fruits and flavors. These shops attract numerous people who are health conscious.

Earlier people who would gulp down non-alcoholic drinks over a conversation like Coca-Cola now prefer smoothies and juices. The health conscious generation has made this business lucrative and amazingly successful.

Office going individuals, school and college going students and people out in market areas prefer smoothies and juices regularly for rehydration. With such immense popularity this business has become a success with limited resources and investment.

United States has seen an immense growth in this sector with a market of $2 billion which is expanding at 2.9% growth rate employing more than 36000 people all across USA.

Smoothie and juice business can be opened in two ways. The first way is a proper outlet in a shopping mall or chain store and the second is a mobile shop based on a food truck concept or temporary made shop on the subway. 

The first type can have additional cost attached since renting a space in a mall or shopping street is a bit costly while the second one is a bit cheap and you get lots of advantages over the former one.

Smoothie and Juice Business: An Overview

Smoothie and juices are basically liquid extracts of fruits along with other mixtures like ice cream, chocolate, berries, dry fruits, etc. with added flavor that not only makes your drink healthier but also adds flavors to it making it a preferable tasty drink.

There are various options to choose for yourself among various fruits, vegetable, chocolate milk, cream and ice cream. They come with various combinations and flavors. From small, middle to large range. 

Though there is not fixed varieties that can be available at such shops but you will get some standard items at nearly all shops. Every such seller in its capacity tries to add some special items to woo his customers.

The good thing about this smoothie shop is the affordable price at which they offer such items. Though the rates in malls and prime shopping centers can be high given the expensive nature of the market, rent, etc. 

Starting your own Smoothie/Juice Bar

Many a times when we visit such shops we often get intrigued at their success and try to calculate how much money they mint every day from these businesses. One part of our mind often entertains this idea of starting one’s own business but such businesses cannot be opened merely by fascinating thoughts.

In order to open your own business it is important that you not only look at the fascinating side of successful earnings but also at the hard work and the planning that is required to open such business. 

Only when you are convinced that this business is for you and you can make an impact in the market through your business then you must proceed ahead. To proceed ahead is to plan about your business thoroughly.

The first step that you must take is to make a business plan for your smoothie business. This plan should be thoroughly expresses and extensively explained in order to tough all necessary points.

Below are the key points that should be explained and researched in detail. These points form the basic structure of your business plan and that will guide you towards the inception and success of your business. 

Key Features of Smoothie and Juice Business Plan

There are various facets of a business that cannot be understood in a simple way unless you take the pain of going into the details. Some aspects of business though they may not be very critical at prima facie but do impact your business. 

All such aspects need to be examined and understood in detail while you are writing your business plan. Some of the key features that should be given special importance are given below. 

• Learning the Business from Inside and Outside
• Through Research of the Market and Feasibility Study
• Ask yourself some Questions
• Brief Details about your Business
• Your Target Market and Location
• Resources Required for your Business
• Workforce or Labor Requirement
• Tools, machines and Equipment
• Capital Investment Required
• Return on Investment
• Summary and Future Prospects

Learning the Business from Inside and Outside

Before making any move it would be beneficial for you if you try to learn the basics of the business. Two methods can be used. The first is learning from outside which implies that you observe few such smoothie bars, interact with their employees and owners and ask them questions. 

You will also be required to thoroughly research through various research papers made on this business. Analyzing the market, the earnings of each shops, their concept of business, location, etc. 

The second method is to learn from inside. This method gives you a confidence boost since you become a member of this business by being an employee of any of these smoothie shops. Work for at least 2 or 3 such smoothie bars and gain experience.

Your one year of working will give you ample of ideas and insights that you will be able to start your own business with confidence. 

Through Research of the Market and Feasibility Study

While working as an employee you will gain the understanding of how to start and run such business while your research over the smoothie market will help you understand the market.

Any such business is spread over a cluster that can be identified as regional, state and country level. United States has a market of $2 billion employing more than 36000 people. 

You must research the market in all the clusters to understand how the market really works. When the is the peak season of the market, how preferences for juices change with change in season, what impact locations make, who are your target market, etc. 

Feasibility study is a similar concept but it goes much deeper than a normal research. This method uses various scientific methods which is generally used by professionals. So if you want to can hire an expert to do a feasibility analysis of your business.

Ask yourself some Questions

After going through the above two steps you will get a deep insight of the smoothie and juice market. This will also propel you to ask some questions to yourself. 

Whether this business is the right choice for you? 

Is it profitable for you?

Are you driven by passion or sense of business? And there will be various more questions that will come to your mind. For all such questions you need to find a concrete answer and only after this if you are convinced and confident that you should go ahead to start then you must go ahead.

Brief Details about your Business

What is your business all about? Mention such details extensively. What are the niches, items and cuisines you aim to sell to your customers? What is the method of preparation you will use? 

Write about them in detail while consulting someone experienced in this field. Also mention the details of your business regarding the ownership of your shop or food truck, money that you have as capital, number of employees in your business, etc.

Mention about the goods and services you aim to avail, the cost that is involved, pricing, equipment you will use, methods, flavors, etc. 

Your Target Market and Location

What is your target market?

Are you targeting school going students or are you targeting college or university level youngsters? Is your target mostly confined to working professionals who take a break or come for conversation while gulping down smoothies? 

Or it targets everyone generally who happens to cross your shop? 

Much depends on the location of your business. Is your business located at a crowded market place or it is located near a school, college, university or various offices? 

You can choose the location by understanding the market of the place you aim to start your business at. Also care to note the existence of other smoothie bars at such places. Competition reduces the profits and therefore you must choose your location smartly.

Resources required for your Smoothie Business

It is time to gather and manage resources necessary to start your business. Firstly, if you are going to use a store space for business you need to renovate the shop as per the requirement.

You can use similar designs as used by other smoothie shop with a unique theme that looks cool and attractive. A good infrastructure with standard furniture, glasses, screens, etc. attracts customers. 

Secondly, if you are using a food truck or a roadside stall then you need to build it as per the requirement. You can use similar designs and modules as is used by standard food truck brands. Use of graphics, themes and fonts should be attractive and classy so that your customers have positive experience of your stall.

Your experience and guidance of experts can help you in managing all these resources and building your stall. 

Tools, Machines and Equipment

There are various machines, tool and equipment that are used in the smoothie business for preparing various cuisines, beverages and smoothie. Some of them are:

• Ice Machine
• Shaker
• Citrus Juicer
• Refrigerator
• Multifunctional Juicer
• Automatic Fruit and vegetable peeler
• Cash Register/point of sale
• Blender
• Showcase
• Bar Counter
• Closet to Store Inventory
• Microwave, Gas Stove, etc. 

Based on your requirement you can also have other equipment as this list is not exhaustive but illustrative. You can own most of them and can rent few of them at initial stage of your business.

Workforce and Labor

It is obvious that you cannot alone run the business therefore it would be wiser for you to hire few staff who will serve, cook and manage the business. The size of your workforce depends on the number of customers you cater every day and the size of your business.

You should hire staffs that are multi talented so that they can handle multiple works at a time. Service is one such important factor that impresses your customers and boosts your revenue therefore insure that your service remains impeccable.

Good service requires standard presentation of whatever service you render. Your staff should be polite to customers, should here their orders at first instances and serves as quickly as possible. 

At the end of the day your customer should feel satisfied not only with what you serve but also how you serve.

Capital Investment Required

After doing proper research and conducting feasibility analysis report you will get a proper estimate of expense that you have to incur in order to start your smoothie business. 

Try to minimize spending where it is possible. Like you can go for a second hand food truck base rather than a new one. You can lease the business space, lease costly machines, furniture, etc. 

What you must not compromise while spending is the quality of your product and service along with presentation. A proper standard helps you in building a brand of whatever business you do. 

This can be understood by looking at various such shops that are running at your vicinity of the same product or service but there will be one shop that most people recommend. This is because of the uncompromising nature of the product and service they render.

Return on Investment

This is determined by the capital you have invested along with the pricing of goods and services. Revenue is the central theme for any business and your business to should focus on generating revenue. 

A harmonization between standard and qualitative product and service offering and revenue generation should be made. Cutting cost on miscellaneous expenditure and value addition of products can give you good returns.

For your smoothie shop, also offer some fast food items especially as snacks which will work as a value addition. Some addition of flavor or mixture in your juice or smoothie also enhances the price. 

Make sure whatever you offer is value for money. Don’t charge too much nor too less. At the end of the day your customer should be satisfied. 

Summary and Future Prospects

Plan a bit about the future of your business. Future doesn’t always denotes 15 or 20 year plan but 1-5 year plan in case of this type of businesses. 

Do you aim to remain as you are or you aim to expand your business? Expansion generally denotes adding more products and services in your business or opening another such shop at some distance. 

Even an overview of such future prospect will be enough. This helps you in raising money through loan, earnings from your business and investment from investors. If you have some future plan you can start to save money for such plans.

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