A shaved ice business plan sets out where you'll sell and when, what a cup costs and sells for, the stand and the ice shaver, and the year month by month, which for most stands means a season and a long quiet stretch. The ice and syrup are the cheap part, a few dimes a cup; the person at the window is the biggest cost, and the weather decides the rest. That makes the plan a plan for the summer: how many cups on a hot day, how many hot days, and enough cash put aside in July to carry the stand through the months it's closed. In the example below, a stand in Wichita sells small and large cups, toppings and event bookings from April to October, and ends the year about $26,600 ahead on $64,100 of sales, after paying $15 an hour for everyone at the window. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, the season, the startup budget, and a free template.
The short version
- Describe the business in a paragraph: the stand, the location, the season, the goals.
- Cost a cup with the staff in it: ice and syrup are cents, the window hours are dollars.
- Sell a large cup and toppings: they leave more for the same minute at the window.
- Book events: a flat fee for two hours fills slow weekdays and travels to the crowd.
- Plan the year as a season: put aside cash in the summer for the closed months.
- Shaved ice is shaved from a block, finer than a crushed-ice snow cone, and holds the syrup.
- TaroStack keeps flavors, cups and syrup counted, at the stand and the storeroom. More below.
Part 1: the business description
Riverside Sno Shack, a made-up shaved ice stand in Wichita, Kansas, I use in these examples, writes:
Riverside Sno Shack sells shaved ice from a roadside shack near the river trail, open from April to October, with 30 flavors, cream toppings and ice cream centers, and a trailer setup for parties, schools and company picnics. In our first season we plan to book more than 25 events.
Part 2: what a cup costs
| Per unit | Small, 12 oz | Large, 20 oz | Topping | Event, 2 hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Block ice | $0.10 | $0.15 | ||
| Syrup | $0.18 | $0.30 | ||
| Cup, spoon and straw | $0.15 | $0.20 | ||
| Cream, ice cream or gummies | $0.30 | |||
| Staff at the window, $15 an hour | $1.69 | $1.69 | ||
| Event: 100 servings of supplies, two staff for 3 hours, gas | $153.00 | |||
| Card fees, 3% | $0.12 | $0.18 | $0.03 | $10.50 |
| Variable cost | $2.24 | $2.52 | $0.33 | $163.50 |
The staff line is what the plan turns on: one person at the window for 9 hours a day through a peak month is about $4,050, spread over about 2,400 cups, $1.69 a cup. On a slow day the same hours cover fewer cups, so the stand cuts its hours in April, September and October rather than paying for an empty window. How to read a cost like this against the price is in what is a good food cost percentage.
Part 3: customers and prices
| Product | Price | Variable cost | Contribution | Margin | A month at full speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shaved ice, small, 12 oz | $4.00 | $2.24 | $1.76 | 44.0% | 1,600 |
| Shaved ice, large, 20 oz | $6.00 | $2.52 | $3.48 | 58.0% | 800 |
| Toppings: cream, ice cream center, gummies | $1.00 | $0.33 | $0.67 | 67.0% | 800 |
| Event booking, 2 hours, up to 100 servings | $350.00 | $163.50 | $186.50 | 53.3% | 6 |
A large cup leaves twice what a small one does, because it takes the same minute at the window and a few cents more of ice and syrup, so the menu board shows the large first. A topping is 67 cents of contribution for a few seconds' work. An event is a flat $350 for two hours and up to 100 servings: it's booked and paid ahead, and fills the weekdays when the stand is quiet.
Part 4: the season, month by month
Fixed costs are $530 a month, averaged over the year: lot rent for the season ($250), off-season storage ($50), insurance ($60), power and water ($60), permits and inspection ($25), marketing ($50), and software and card fees ($35). Month 1 is April; the stand reaches full speed in June and closes after October, with a few spring-break days in March:
| Month | Small | Large | Toppings | Events | Sales | Profit | Cash, year to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr | 560 | 280 | 280 | 2 | $4,900 | $1,991 | $1,991 |
| May | 1,120 | 560 | 560 | 4 | $9,800 | $4,511 | $6,502 |
| Jun | 1,600 | 800 | 800 | 6 | $14,100 | $6,725 | $13,227 |
| Jul | 1,600 | 800 | 800 | 6 | $14,100 | $6,725 | $19,952 |
| Aug | 1,440 | 720 | 720 | 5 | $12,550 | $5,925 | $25,877 |
| Sep | 720 | 360 | 360 | 3 | $6,450 | $2,791 | $28,667 |
| Oct | 160 | 80 | 80 | 1 | $1,550 | $270 | $28,937 |
| Nov | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$530 | $28,407 |
| Dec | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$530 | $27,877 |
| Jan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$530 | $27,347 |
| Feb | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$530 | $26,817 |
| Mar | 80 | 40 | 40 | 0 | $600 | −$223 | $26,594 |
The year's sales are $64,050 and the profit $26,594, on top of $15 an hour for every hour at the window, the owner's included. The four closed months and a slow March use about $2,350, which is what to keep aside from the summer. A wet June is the risk: cut June in the template to 60% of full speed and see what the year looks like. How to plan stock for a season is in seasonal inventory.
Part 5: the startup budget
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Used shave ice shack | $6,000 |
| Block ice shaver | $1,500 |
| Ice freezer | $800 |
| Syrup bottles and pumps | $250 |
| Flavors, first order | $400 |
| Cups, spoons and straws, first order | $300 |
| Sign and menu board | $400 |
| Permits | $300 |
| Card reader | $100 |
| Working cash | $2,500 |
| Total to start | $12,550 |
Health departments treat a shaved ice stand as a food business: it needs a permit, and generally a handwashing sink, ice made from drinking water and handled like food, and syrups from approved sources. Check with your county before buying a shack, because what it needs to pass inspection decides which shack to buy. This is general information, not legal advice.
Get the template
Download the shaved ice business plan workbook. Four sheets: your products with price, variable cost and monthly volume at full speed; the year, month by month, with sales, profit and cash, and month 1 set to April; your fixed costs; and your startup budget with working cash. Change the share of full speed for each month to match your season. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Thirty flavors made from concentrate by the gallon, cups and spoons by the case, the shack and the event trailer both drawing on the same storeroom, and a hot weekend that empties the blue raspberry. A sheet can't say how much concentrate is left, which flavors to mix before Saturday, or whether events or the window earn more.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps flavors, cups and syrup counted, at the stand and the storeroom.
Syrups as recipes. Each flavor's syrup is a recipe of concentrate, sugar and water, and units convert: concentrate bought by the gallon, used by the ounce. Mixing a batch takes them off stock at what you paid and gives the cost of a cup's worth.
The stand and the trailer. The shack, the storeroom and the event trailer are sites, with transfers between them, so the cups loaded for a party come off the storeroom's count and the leftovers go back; a stand that runs like a food truck can start from a food truck inventory spreadsheet. Counting works on a phone with no signal, and the reorder list works in days of cover so the cups don't run out on the Fourth of July.
And what each line earns. Event bookings are sales orders for their date, and margins are reported by product and by customer, so the parties and the window can be compared.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Blue raspberry concentrate left | Shake the jug | Stock by item, counted on a phone |
| Cups before the holiday weekend | Found short | The reorder list, in days |
| What went out on the event trailer | A list on the dash | Transfers between sites |
| Events or the window, which pays? | A feeling | Margins by product |
Recipes, counting and margins by product and customer are on every plan, from $49 a month; up to three sites, the shack, the storeroom and the trailer, are on Standard at $99. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.