What are the challenges in an ice cream business?
I’m assuming here that this is from startup, not a question regarding an established ice cream business.
On the financial front, mostly the same as faced by any small new business. Investment capital; and cashflow, to name the two big ones.
One the food regulation side, there are various Environmental Health aspects to get to know, and to comply with. Lots of them.
Then there are the various skills that need to be learned and studied regarding the techniques involved in making ice cream. These are numerous, and some quite technical. A short professional course will be helpful with this, but won’t provide all you need to know. Every instructor will have some different views on what is the best approach, and these differences can be substantial.
There is also the big challenge of making outstanding ice cream. If all you want to make is mediocre stuff, then that will be easy, and the enterprise will probably fail. Who wants mediocre ice cream? Do you have a chef’s instincts and taste buds? Are you passionate about making that Chocolate recipe as good as you possibly can? Are you prepared to make dozens of different batches, to find out how to make a superb Chocolate ice cream?
Then you have to figure out how to reach your market, and to develop that. If you are in a city, the market is just outside your door. If you are in the countryside, you will need to bring the ice cream to the customers in some way.
And if you are going to present the ice cream in tubs, you will need to design your tubs and get them printed. A bigger challenge (especially the design work) than you might imagine.
And you must decide which machinery to use. And you will learn from costly errors along the way. Start with a good Batch Freezer, that is for sure. Continuous Freezers are for large, more established operations that want to churn out well in excess of 1,000 litres of ice cream every day.
Finally, make sure you have a good supply of top quality milk.