“Anyway, as far as the Little Jimmy’s business goes, I have to say that they have been such a great bunch of people to work with. They are always available to answer our questions and give us advice about events and ideas on how to do them etc. We live in Eastern Pa and are only about an hour from them in Elizabeth NJ so we went down there last time we needed to restock just to meet them. What a great family owned business. Everyone was so nice and friendly, they all came out from the office to meet us and talk about the business and so on. Very nice people.

At the beginning of the year my wife and I were in negotiations on buying an Italian Ice store business. It was like a Ritas type business only not a franchise. The asking price was very high and it looked like they were generating some nice money. We decided not to pursue it when the numbers just didn’t work out the way it looked on paper. Some creative accounting was going on. So when that fell through, I remembered something I had seen a couple of years earlier and I showed it to my wife. She was interested and we decided to pursue Little Jimmy’s.

We are very glad that we did. One thing nice is that we were able to get into this without any huge loans, or franchise fees. My wife has since quit her job and is doing this full time. I’ll admit its alot of work and for us most of it has been on weekends, but it has been really great.

The selling of the ice is not the hard part of the work. It sells itself pretty much. The people love the carts and the setup. They love the ice..
much better than sno-cones or that type of stuff. We were actually doing a big festival in Allentown PA and some women came up to our stand with sno-cones because thats who they passed first and when they saw us they stopped. My wife gave them samples of our ice and they actually threw the sno-cones out and bought from us. It was pretty funny. I just wish I had my video camera then.

The hardest part of the business is the paperwork involved between the differant townships, counties, and so forth. They all have differant rules and requirements. Once you have that figured out, you will be fine. And most people are really willing to walk you through the paperwork required for each event.

We had to get insurance for some events, Food safety certifications for some, etc. We have had a lot of luck doing school and community functions where we donate to the organization a portion of our sales back to them. It really is a good selling or marketing way to get the business out there.

Little Jimmy’s also gave us leads on events and four or more pages of events in our area to check out. And the stuff you can find on the internet is never ending.

When we started out, we also created an LLC. This way the accounting is not tied into your personal taxes and stuff like that. Plus it adds some protection of your personal assets.

I’m probably being a little long for what you wanted but I am very excited about this business and hope that I can get out of the corporate world at some point also. Its alot of fun to see the kids with Blue lips and tongues from the Blueberry ice and smiles on their faces. My whole family has gotten involved with this. I have 2 kids, a daughter who is 24 and a son who is 20 and they have helped us as well as my sister and her daughter who have also helped us at events. Everybody chips in to help.

Best sellers for us are Blueberry, Cherry, Mango, Lemon, Grape and Strawberry. Oh yea the green apple is also very popular.

Anyway I hope I didn’t bore you but I am very excited about the business.

I would like to keep in touch with you and see what you decided and how you are making out. I am attaching a flyer and a picture of our first event setup at a local middle school.

Our information is on the flyer.

Good Luck!
Jim Edmonds, PA

DM

I’d like to see a forum for promotion ideas. One I come up with is for sporting events. Someone comes out with 5 disc rings (or just frisbees, but disc rings are way cooler) who will toss them in the crowd. The PA announcer goes on and says five lucky fans will win a free Little Jimmy’s Italian Ice, whoever grabs these lucky discs can redeem them at the Little Jimmy’s stand for a free Italian ice, and he’ll only throw them to the LOUDEST FANS IN THE BUILDING. It’d really get the crowd going. The team should welcome it as they need activities during time-outs in the game, and it’s free advertising.

Dennis Justice

This is a great idea. Looks like we can only leave comments and not our own blogs but still - I like it

I am almost in business guys! My freezers arrived today (of course one was broken but replacement comes Saturday), the cart and supplies arrive tomorrow, and the Ice delivery guys called me an hour ago for next Wednesday delivery.

I will be selling at the local waterpark on weekends three days later! Can’t wait. Thanx for everything!

Michael Liebert
The Frozen Rainbow