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The popularity of Acai bowls has been exploding in recent years. The number of businesses opening and being successful is exceptionally high. Starting an acai bowl business may be an opportunity for you to build a business that can support you and your family and give you freedom from your current employer.
Before you jump into an Acai bowl business, you’ll need to understand what steps are required to start it and make it a success. Otherwise, you may be flushing your money down the drain.
Before investing money into an Acai bowl business, research the market. You want to understand if this type of business is already in your town and if there is still an opportunity for you to get in before the market becomes saturated.
If you’re in a small town and already a business offering Acai bowls, it could be challenging to compete unless you’re offering something substantially different. Larger cities can sustain many of the same businesses. However, you’ll still need to ensure the market isn’t completely packed with them already.
It would be best to investigate where you will source your supplies from. Are you opening a standalone business, or is there a franchise you can become a part of?
If you determine from your research that this business could work, you’ll need to investigate locations for the business, business licensing, insurance, and costs involved to setup.
Any business should have a business plan to ensure everything is thought of and you have a plan for, what is needed to be done, how much costs will be, how you will run the business, marketing, and how you will turn a profit.
A business plan is critical when you have significant upfront costs, such as a store-front business where you’re renting and buying supplies, as failure could cost you a lot of money.
Some key things to consider for your business plan are:
● What products will you sell?
● Who will be working there, and what will they be doing?
● Market analysis that we discussed above.
● Sales and marketing plan
● Startup costs, operating expenses, and expected revenue.
● Business requirements, licenses, insurance, bank accounts, website, supplier options
Before you make your first sale, you’ll be spending money to get your business up and running. Details below are some expected costs for the equipment and supplies you’ll need.
● Register your business with your city
● Legal and accounting costs for licenses, permits, and accounting services
● Marketing and advertising the opening of your new business
● Insurance
● Rent for your business, covering the next 12 months
● Operating costs for the first three months, salaries, and bills
● Initial inventory (acai berries and other fruits, packaging)
● Buying juicers and smoothie makers
● Additional equipment such as shelving, cash registers
● Website costs
You can cut costs if you and your family work in the store and use existing or second-hand equipment. You can also partner with a local restaurant or cafe to get started. All in, your costs may reach $100,000 to $200,000 in the first year to start up your restaurant.
With high initial costs, you may wonder how much you can actually make in the business, depending on several factors. Your physical location and any delivery options you make available will be a determining factor in how much you make.
On average, an Acai bowl will sell for $7 - $15. You could also upsell and cross-sell drinks, smoothies, or other healthy items that customers may be interested in.
Depending on your marketing, your Acai bowl business can become lucrative quickly.
Depending on your location, foot traffic is often one of the most critical aspects of selling your product. For example, if you’re in a food court, mall, or other areas where people are already frequenting and want to eat, your advertising and marketing requirements will be a lot less.
Foot traffic is why picking a location to open your business should be a significant part of your business plan. Higher costs for your location may mean more revenue and a faster way to becoming profitable.
If you’re a standalone business, you will need to heavily market your company so that people are aware you are now open, available, and offering healthy Acai bowls for them to purchase.
Social media is an excellent option for marketing Acai bowls, especially Instagram. If you can make beautiful Acai bowls, there is a lot of traffic looking for these. Many businesses put effort into presenting their bowls which draw in many customers.
You can even run contests so that customers post their Acai bowls and whoever receives the most likes gets a discount or something for free. It’s a cheap way to get community involvement.
Distribute flyers in the local area, preferably with a discount or promotion to get people to come in. Your best option will be to offer something for free or a reasonable discount.
Just ensure that the free items or discounts aren’t going to cost you too much or that you set a limit on how many can be redeemed.
Delivery apps such as Doordash and Ubereats take a percentage of your profits, but getting onto these apps can be an excellent way to introduce yourself to the local area. The delivery apps bring in some money while you’re building your direct customer base.
Make sure you put a flyer or something into each package so that it’s obvious and easy for anybody purchasing from you to know where you are and what else you may offer.
An Acai bowl business can be highly profitable. Still, there is considerable cost and risk when setting up your business. Therefore, planning before spending any money is essential. Two of the most important aspects will be the location of your business and the marketing plan you have to start making money quickly.
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