%20(7).png)
Launching a mobile dessert business is an exciting opportunity to merge creativity, community engagement, and the joy of serving delicious treats. With the freedom and flexibility to operate from any location, it offers a wholly unique concept and customer experience. Perhaps no one knows this better than Katherine O'Brien, founder of Cream Cruiser, a mobile dessert bike business in Baltimore, Maryland.
Today, we’re sharing how Katherine grew a fun, summer side hustle into a full-fledged business over the course of 10 years. From identifying a niche to overcoming challenges, her story blends passion, persistence, and most importantly, learning to enjoy the ride. Let’s dive in!
Find Your Niche and Start Small
"What better product than ice cream on a hot summer day?"
Katherine’s journey began when she saw a need for ice cream in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor during hot summer days. Instead of going the traditional food truck route, she chose a more affordable and memorable approach: a mobile dessert bike.
By starting with a niche offering and using a bike rather than a truck, she kept costs low and provided an impactful experience for locals and tourists alike. When beginning your own mobile food business, think about what sets you apart and how you can deliver it efficiently.
Secure Permits and Test the Market
"They gave me the same permit as a food truck. I was the first one to ever approach them to sell something from a bike."
Navigating the rules for food businesses can be daunting, but persistence pays off. Katherine’s experience with the Baltimore City Health Department shows the importance of being proactive in seeking permits and approvals.
Once you have the necessary permits, start testing your product at local events, markets, and festivals to build a customer base and gather feedback.
Focus on Organic Marketing and Community Building
"I finally started really, truly sharing my journey, and what that has done for not only my personal life, but for my business is unreal."
Katherine built her brand through social media and by connecting with customers at farmer’s markets. Sharing her journey and showcasing her unique bike setup helped attract loyal customers without needing paid ads.
For new entrepreneurs, using social media to tell your story can create a strong connection with your community, leading to organic growth and more opportunities.
Adapt and Pivot When Necessary
"I lost all events... But now, I say that the pandemic was probably the best thing that ever happened to me."
After Katherine invested in her own manufacturing, the pandemic hit, and her wholesale clients disappeared. Instead of giving up, she pivoted back to catering, where she found higher margins and a renewed connection to her local community.
Entrepreneurship often requires quick thinking and adaptability. Be prepared to adjust your focus as circumstances change, and look for new opportunities that align with your strengths.
Build Strong Relationships and Focus on High-Margin Events
"My catering business does about a hundred thousand dollars between the months of May and September... My margins for catering are about 75%."
By focusing on catering, Katherine was able to grow her business with higher profits and less reliance on wholesale. This shift allowed her to focus on providing a unique experience with her ice cream bike at weddings, corporate events, and other gatherings.
Focusing on high-margin opportunities like catering can maximize your profitability while creating a memorable brand experience for your clients.
Stay Focused and Go All In
"Keep your head down, stay focused, trust the process, and learn from every single thing that goes wrong."
Starting a mobile dessert business is a rewarding challenge that requires dedication and flexibility.
Katherine’s story shows that with the right niche, a focus on community, and a willingness to adapt, you can build a successful and sustainable business.
…Class Dismissed!
Ready to roll out your own mobile dessert bike? A mobile dessert business can be a fun way to turn your passion for sweet treats into a profitable venture. Embrace starting small, finding your niche, building strong community ties, and being ready to adapt when challenges arise. By focusing on high-margin opportunities and leveraging the power of organic marketing, you can build a business that’s both successful and uniquely yours.
Want to hear the full interview with Katherine? Click here!
What Are You Waiting For?
Your journey to success begins now… Enroll in the Build My Money Machine course today! And if you're ready for more amazing content, click here to check out the rest of the Millionaire University podcast!
Transcript
Katherine: [00:00:00] The business had enough momentum that I sort of felt comfortable with it. I was in a place where I felt prepared to make a pretty substantial investment into the business. And then unfortunately for me, six months later, the pandemic happened. I lost all events.
Brien: Welcome to the millionaire university podcast. I'm your host, Brian, gear, and back with you today. And on this edition of the M U pod, I'm joined by Catherine O'Brien. She's the owner of cream cruiser, a mobile dessert bike business in Baltimore, Maryland. She also owns bike business university where she teaches others how to create their own bike business from her 10 plus years of awesome experience.
Catherine, welcome to the show. It's a pleasure to have you.
Katherine: Thank you so much. I am super excited to chat and share a little bit more about my story.
Brien: Me too. I can't wait to dive in because your concept is so cool to me. And so growing up, my whole family lived on the East coast. Um, I know we didn't talk about that before we hopped on Catherine, but [00:01:00] I had grandparents on the Cape.
I've got family in Boston. So kind of the Northeast side of new England. And we'd always grew up going to the beach there and there was always an ice cream guy. Now he had one of the, he was an old crusty dude with a bell and an ice cream truck. But when I saw your business, I was like, what a cool concept.
It's a dessert bike that you can probably cruise around the boardwalk or the beach, post up wherever you want and sell your, your delectable treats. So today we want to learn all about how you created your business, why you created, how you built it. What it's become today and then talk about some of the guts of your business.
What are the margins like? What's your team like? How did you hire? And of course we want to know a little bit more about bike business university as well So katherine, let's start right there. What's your story? Like what exactly is cream cruiser and how did it come to be?
Katherine: So I started 10 years ago, which is crazy This was my 10th summer selling ice cream and at the time I was working a regular day job in baltimore I was working in marketing branding and strategy.
That's always sort of been my area of expertise um I felt [00:02:00] myself just kind of like going through the motions and living for the weekends and sort of your stereotypical like nine to fiver. And I always knew that I had a desire to create something that was my own, but never really had any plan on what that was.
At the time I was walking to work through the Inner Harbor in Baltimore and over like a hot summer day, there were so many people. That I mean, sometimes you could hardly like walk. You had to kind of like shimmy your way through. And I would always think like, there's always street vendors down there.
Like, what could I sell? Like there was such a crazy crowd that I was always kind of like daydreaming of like, there has to be something I could sell. What better product than ice cream on hot summer day. But because I had no plan, I had no business plan at this point. Like investing in a truck didn't seem realistic.
I had no intentions of it becoming a career. I thought more so just a hobby and something fun to kind of fill that creative itch and. Maybe make a little bit of cash on the weekends. So I randomly was just doing some research and found a company in Portland, Oregon that built custom food bikes and reached out to them.
And they sort of started to walk me [00:03:00] through the permit process. And I called over to the Baltimore city health department, honestly expecting them to be like, no, you cannot sell it. Like ride around selling ice cream on a bike. Like that's crazy. And I was actually surprised by their reaction. They were like, that's a pretty good idea.
I'm not sure why nobody's done that before. And they gave me the same permit as a food truck. I was the first one to ever approach them to sell something from a bike. So they essentially didn't really give me any rules. They were just like, stay out of people's way and don't park in front of another ice cream shop.
It's like, all right. So just sort of ran with it. I joined a local farmer's market. And the rest is honestly history. People love bike. People loved the products. Like you sort of mentioned previously, like it brings people back to their childhood kind of. And the whole concept just sort of worked. And again, I would say for the first, like two years really had no intentions of it becoming a career.
It was just like a summer side hustle essentially. And then people approached me to cater their weddings or bring the bike to their office and. You know, it [00:04:00] sort of just spiraled from there. And next thing you know, I was using my vacation days at work to, you know, sell ice cream early at these like weekday events that I wasn't able to.
And I mean, I can't believe it's been 10 years. It went by in a blink of an eye, but it's been a pretty exciting ride. And I've been very fortunate that. Most of the business has grown organically and it's just simply because of the community. Like the people love the bike and the product. So that's kind of how I got where I am is just by kind of listening to my customers, going with the flow and, you know, making some changes as needed.
Brien: That's so cool. Okay. So let's talk about the actual apparatus, the bike. So you said you found a random company in Portland, Oregon that makes like Cooler bikes. So was that, that was part of your curiosity. You're like, what can I sell? Maybe ice cream. Maybe I do it on a bike. And then did you just hit the old Google machine and try and find someone who was either selling or making these bikes?
Katherine: I can't remember if I found the bike and then [00:05:00] sort of decided, like, I wish I knew the answer to this, but I can't like remember if it was the bike that came first or the product, but I feel like, honestly, I found the bike and then sort of worked backwards and was like, Oh, this could be cool. What could I sell?
So
Brien: for our listeners, what do these bikes look like?
Katherine: So let's see if I can find, this is just a little painting, but it's a tricycle. So it's three wheels and there's a big cooler in the front. And then obviously there's insulation inside the cooler. I use dry ice to keep the product frozen and then it just pedals like a normal bike.
It's, you know, seven years. It's got a terrible turning radius. So if you don't plan appropriately, you might need to do, you know, some maneuvering with it other than pedaling, but. One of the reasons that my catering business started to turn into what it has is because I cater a lot of weddings and the bride and groom one time, just like, you know, it was like my second wedding, you know, early, very early in my catering days, the bride and groom asked if they could, the bride could sit on the front and the groom could pedal it into the [00:06:00] reception and make like a big surprise grand entrance.
And of course I said, yes, and they did it. I posted it on social media and like, that is the thing now, like that is what my catering business has turned into is like, Some of the times I think I simply get hired. Of course, people love the ice cream, but because they get to like pedal it in and make this cool grid entrance into their party.
Brien: Huh? Okay. Very cool. Well, yeah, I'm definitely, we're going to get to the catering part. Cause that interests me very much so, but I'm still curious. So when you first got this bike, you got the dry ice. You bought some ice cream. Like, did you go to Costco and load it up with like Nestle ice cream? And then you just picked your local beach and started riding around.
Like what did that first day or that first week look like?
Katherine: So I actually, my, our like signature item is ice cream sandwiches. So it's two cookies with a big scoop of ice cream in the middle. And I was partnering with, there's Harker brothers. And they wholesale, um, they do have a couple of retail stores, but I think they do most of their business [00:07:00] wholesaling.
So I would purchase. Two and a half gallon tubs of ice cream from them. I was making my own cookies and I was building these ice cream sandwiches and I was always changing the flavors and most of my business up front was done. And I think the very first day I ever sold anything was at a farmer's market.
And that farmer's market kind of became like my own little retail front. Like I had so many people so excited about like, what flavors is she going to have this week? And. That it just became this like game kind of, of what kind of ice cream I was going to be selling from a bike on Saturday mornings at the farmer's market.
Brien: Okay. Okay. So farmer's market was kind of your welcome to the market, pun intended, if you will. And it was, was this something that was on weekends? Was it like throughout the summer? Was it open all week? And you kind of just rolled in and posted up for five, six, seven, eight hours.
Katherine: It was every Saturday morning because of the day job.
I really only had weekends available to be out there hustling, but it was every [00:08:00] Saturday morning and it started at 7am, which might sound a little bit silly for selling ice cream at 7am, but it actually worked out really well because I was. Playing around with different flavors and I would do some like breakfast themed ice cream sandwiches and kind of like tailored to the time of day, but also I had a lot of people that once I started to build up some demand and I had like a little following of people who are always wanting to try the products, people would bring coolers and bring them to like barbecues or birthday parties or, you know, whatever they had going on that weekend.
So, I mean, I'm so fortunate that that farmer's market was such a good, like it was right in my neighborhood where I lived. So like I had. I had a good network of people already, but that network just continued to grow. And I still, to this day have people that I meet that are like, Oh, I remember you from the farmer's market in 2015.
And. Yeah, so I would say that farmer's market is a huge, huge, huge part of my journey.
Brien: Oh, cool. I love that. Well, so let's talk about how you started to actually grow this thing because it Started as a side hustle and then [00:09:00] you turned it into your big business here At what point did you realize that you could leave your day job and turn this into your full time?
Katherine: So this was like a good and bad part of the story. I was kind of just going with the flow for the first three and a half years. And I had actually hired. A local, like very small batch manufacturing company to take over the production of the products, just because I was fortunately selling them faster than I had the ability to make them on top of working a full time job and being out at the events.
And I developed a relationship with this little manufacturer and we sort of just became friends. Family, you know, they, I swear I owe 90 percent of my success to them. They truly taught me everything. And then I think it was towards the end of 2018, maybe the beginning of 2019, this family run business came to me and said they were looking to sell their small pre made dessert manufacturing company.
And they wanted to know if I wanted to buy it. And of course, at first it was like, no, you know, like I work a day [00:10:00] job. This isn't a real business. Not, not really into that, um, but sort of sat on it for a few days. And it was kind of one of those like. Once in a lifetime opportunity sort of that I would have been kind of silly not to go for, but that meant transitioning from like a small organically growing business into like, I actually had to make an investment into this.
And that was scary, but that's when I ended up deciding it was time to quit my day job. The business had enough, you know, momentum that I sort of felt comfortable with it. I was in a place where I felt prepared to make a pretty substantial investment into the business. And then unfortunately for me, six months later, the pandemic happened, I lost all events.
I was wholesaling at the time to casinos and stadiums and hotels and sort of all the first places to close their doors. So it put me in a pretty tough spot. And at this point right now, I have zero regrets about it because it taught me everything. I feel like that an entrepreneur needs to learn most of the time you have to learn those kind of lessons the hard way.[00:11:00]
I feel like I did that. I feel like I came out on top. So now. I say that the pandemic was probably the best thing that ever happened to me, but if I could go back and do it again, maybe we'd leave that part out. Yeah. So that's sort of how I, you know, I kind of, unfortunately how I made the transition to doing it full time.
And, you know, as the pandemic happened, I really had no choice, but to just. Go all in with every single ounce of energy that I can find inside. So, but it worked.
Brien: Yeah. And you said, so this business that you bought, they were your supplier of your ice cream and your sandwiches.
Katherine: Yeah. So they're a dessert ingredient manufacturer.
So they make like the pieces that go into the ice cream and they make, you know, the different flavorings that people use to make their ice cream. But they had started a smaller sister company making pre made desserts. because I had so many people. Like small business owners, such as myself come to them and say, like, I don't want your ingredients.
Like I need somebody to just make the finished product for me. And it was still such a small scale manufacturer that [00:12:00] like the order minimums are extremely small. My products are still made by hand. So like all the pieces that were very important to me, like my product is never going to be a handmade or a machine made product.
Like it's a handcrafted product. And so the fact that they could take over. Doing that for me was pretty amazing. But so they were looking to separate their ingredient business and their pre made dessert business. So they wanted to solely focus on ingredients. So I took over the pre made dessert manufacturing company, took back on the production of my own products, and then took over some other private label customers as well.
And that's when I really thought my next step was to jump into like wholesaling. I was like, I want these products to be in every grocery store. You know, I want my brand to become a household name. Um, And that was probably the silliest thing I could have ever done, but you learn,
Brien: but it became your own in house distributor, uh, manufacturing, right?
So now massive benefit to you is you're buying your own product, right? Like it's, it's all you. Wow. Okay.
Katherine: Yes. And that's what I like it. [00:13:00] Everything worked out the way it should have. I am so incredibly grateful for the pandemic and all those struggles because it truly like led me down this like windy, crazy path to like where I feel like I need it to be.
And yes, making my own products is amazing. And my margins because of that are so incredibly good, but it's, I feel like it's important to keep in mind. And what I always tell like my bike business university students is that like, Yes. Making your own ice cream. The margins are so much better, but the investment that goes into making your own ice cream, like you have to be prepared for that.
Brien: Yeah, absolutely. I imagine that's, I mean, margins are a huge part of it. And while we're talking about the business math and the margins here, what do the margins look like for your business? And what does a business like yours do in terms of top line?
Katherine: So my catering business and again, this is just catering because hopefully next year we'll be talking double these numbers as I bring back my online store and everything.
But my catering business does about a hundred thousand dollars between the months of May and September. And my margins are for, and [00:14:00] this is again for catering where I charge like service fees and you know, delivery fees and costs to rent bikes. So there's lots of, so like 50 percent of my invoice for a catering event is fees.
Versus the cost of the product. I'm in my margins for catering about 75%, which again, has not always been that way, but over the years I kind of take a step back every single winter and like reevaluate, like how I can get costs down after 10 years of doing that. I have a pretty good little business model.
Brien: Yeah, you're telling me 75 percent margin. I don't think anyone's going to cry over that. That's for darn sure. That's awesome. Okay. So let, let's talk about how, so you're, you continue to grow. You can kind of buy out your own, you know, manufacturing company. What did the growth of cream cruiser look like?
Did you start hiring a team? Did you have managers? Did you have multiple bikes? Um, were you more focused just on the catering and the, the weddings type of gigs, or were you guys still cruising beaches and boardwalks?
Katherine: So right after I purchased the manufacturing [00:15:00] company, I immediately brought on a full time production guy.
Um, you could kind of, I guess, I mean, he probably actually does more than I do. So he brought, you could call him a manager and he was my only full time staff. I had lots of people that helped part time with different events and sort of more as like on, like on call kind of schedule. But right after that, like in that transition, like I thought my next thing was going to be jumping into wholesale.
So I pretty much put all of. Not all of my eggs in the wholesale basket. Like I sort of thought cater, like I'd outgrow catering sort of, and I thought that like wholesale was going to be like, what made it for me. And it turns out I was totally wrong about that. So I, for, I spent way too many years just really going after the wholesale business to learn that that is a very hard business and the margins are certainly not 75%.
Brien: Yeah.
Katherine: So it wasn't until I would say like, probably like the beginning of 2023 when the life had really started to kind of like go back to [00:16:00] normal. And that's when I like Trent doesn't back to like, no cater catering. That was super like catering is Where the money is catering is what makes me happy And it just was like clear to me at that time that like that needed to be my all in and I still have in regards to I guess your question about staff like I still have a full time production guy and Just a couple of people that help with events here and there.
It's a pretty, we're a small team, very small team, but I'm very lucky with the people that I have. They are just as all in as I am. So it makes it pretty easy and wonderful.
Brien: Awesome. So are your events still is like the bike still kind of the thing, or do you guys, I mean, When you're catering, you guys are the kind of the dessert section, right?
So if you're at a wedding, you're catering the desserts and the bike is kind of like the, the photo op type of thing, or you guys bring it in all sorts of. I mean, I imagine it's gotta be a lot of desserts you bring in. It's not just in the bike.
Katherine: No, the bike's pretty much the thing. We do offer options where like we have like [00:17:00] different cooler setups, you know, if it's a smaller event, people don't want the bike.
We also, you know, just every once in a while, like drop it off to the caterer and then, or the caterer that's like actually doing the food for the wedding and then they'll serve the ice cream. I would say like eight times out of 10 people want the bike. The bike is, you know, like you said, a photo op, they can ride it in.
It's an experience and it's got a pretty cool little community in Baltimore of people that just have known it over the years. And it's sort of fun to, you know, for people to surprise their local guests with like, and a lot of people recognize it. So it's the bike is. Bike's more important than anything.
Brien: Okay. So maybe I missed this part. Is there like a portion of your business where the bike is deployed on weekends at the beach or is that that was how it started? And then if the, I mean, the margins probably may have. Become in the catering side of it and doing events.
Katherine: So actually when the beaches near me, they don't allow street vendors.
So that was kind of part of my plan. You've probably seen lots of stuff on social media about like, I [00:18:00] used to bring, cause I had a lot of wholesale accounts at the beach. So I'd bring the bike as like a promotional opportunity sort of, but the beaches in Maryland and Delaware that are close to me, they don't allow any.
It's my understanding. They have one ice cream truck, a good humor truck who has been. Doing that route for so many years that he's just like grandfathered in. And I'm sure he pays the city gobs of money for his permit for that reason. They won't allow any other street vendors at the beaches. It was different in Baltimore.
I did lots of just riding around, which I know Baltimore gets a bad rap, but it wasn't always that bad. Um, so I probably wouldn't ride it around the streets of Baltimore now, but 10 years ago, it was a little bit different. So there's lots of just like cruising around. In Baltimore, but unfortunately I was never allowed to at the beach.
Brien: Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. So this is kind of like the, the classic, the hotdog carts, right. In the bigger cities where they post up on a street corner and put out their umbrella and serve hotdogs all day. Right. It's just with you as ice cream.
Katherine: Yeah. And I had, again, because I was working a full time job, I had a [00:19:00] couple of people that either, you know, worked at like hotels or nurses that kind of had schedules that are a little bit different than mine, but And they would just like on a random tuesday call me be like, hey Do you mind if I take the bike out and go try and sell some ice cream?
And I was paying them a dollar per sandwich that they sold So it was like incentive for them to just go out there and get in front of as many people as possible And it worked great for me because I was you know, only paying A commission, essentially. And I had like a group of people that would, you know, or a Friday night, for example, they'd be like, Hey, we've got nothing to do.
Can we take the bike up? Sure.
Brien: Yeah. So what was it ever part of your plan to like build a fleet of these bikes and just deploy them throughout Baltimore, throughout neighboring cities? Or is that, did you, was that something maybe you evaluated as something, A, I either don't want to do, or B. Maybe it wouldn't be what you wanted it to be.
Katherine: I've thought about it. I do have two bikes just because there are, you know, on many occasions we are double booked. And I think I would say before the pandemic, when the, like the bike, like before I transitioned into that wholesale mess, the bike [00:20:00] was, you know, at the beginning was obviously my focus. And I think that was definitely a part of the plan then.
And I had like so many, you know, as I mentioned, like teachers and, you know, the people that were wanting to help, but I definitely think prior to the pandemic, that was a plan now. I feel like I'm. I don't want to call it like in the lazy entrepreneur phase, because I'm still definitely like hustling just differently.
And I feel like the thought of now of managing multiple bikes kind of gives me a little bit of anxiety. And I feel like what I'm doing right now is just working so well that two bikes is perfect.
Brien: Yeah. Okay. So how many events throughout the high season do you typically do? Like, I guess in a, let's say in a month span.
Katherine: In a month span. I mean, it's, it's funny because it's like Memorial day and labor day. Yeah. are slammed July. Realists, like I would say beginning of summer and end of summer, I don't know, maybe four or five events a week. And then July is pretty quiet. And I'm not sure that's because in Maryland, it's like super [00:21:00] humid and, you know, like wedding slow down because people don't want to be, you know, standing out there baking in the heat.
I do a lot with colleges. So like. Graduation and back to school are super popular. And then there's just like this lull in July. So I would say maybe July, like two events a week, and I could probably ramp that up if I wanted to, but yeah, the colleges are definitely my big thing. Like I do a lot with Johns Hopkins university and they'll call me, you know, a week before and be like, Hey, can you come next week for 2, 500 people?
And I'll sit there and hand out 2, 500 ice creams. To the students talk up and then come back the next day. And it's like, there's a huge rush for them. It's like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. All the colleges for beginning and end of summer.
Brien: Okay. Wow. So in 20, so 2, 500 people. So you got to bring like a truckload of ice cream cookies, don't you?
Katherine: Yeah, pretty good system. We have a big cargo van. We have this like massive blue. I [00:22:00] mean, they're like. Half as tall as I am like huge coolers that we can probably fit like 800 to 1000 ice cream sandwiches in so we keep Those stocked try and park the van close by and just kind of like refill the bike as needed And again, we do have two bikes and occasionally i'll bring two bikes for that But to be honest most of the time it's easier, you know with one to just restock that one versus worrying about restocking, too That's also the beauty of the I sell only pre packaged products You I was like, we're not scooping anything on site.
Like it's super easy. You know, you're just like one after the other handing them out to people. And luckily there's not really lines and it moves pretty quick.
Brien: Right. And I imagine with your catered events, the organizer pays you your fee in advance. And it's like, you don't have to take credit card payments or from each individual person, you're just handing them out, right?
Katherine: Yeah, exactly. And a lot of times with Johns Hopkins specifically, who again is my biggest catering client, they'll have like an incentive for the students. Like, okay, you know, scan this QR code, you have to like download the app that they're [00:23:00] trying to promote. So it's like the students have to do something really quick that they can do on their phone in three seconds.
And when they do that, they get the ice cream. So yeah,
Brien: It's
Katherine: a pretty good little
Brien: Pavlov's dog reward system there, right? That's very cool. All right. So I want to talk about pricing. What was it hard for you to figure out what to sell your products at? Or did, did pricing fluctuate or was that pretty easy for you?
Katherine: It's definitely fluctuated over the years. I started out again, 10 years ago, I was selling the ice cream sandwich for 5. Mainly for the fact that it was just easy. Like, because I was at a farmer's market dealing with cash, like Five dollars was just simple and then I think I did five dollars for The first two years and maybe the third year I increased to six And it's, it's, I wish I had one to show you, but it, it's like a, it's, people call it like the size of a cheeseburger.
Like it's a pretty large ice cream sandwich. It's very clear that it's handmade. So I've never really had people complain about the price. And now I actually sell them for seven and [00:24:00] that's obviously just, you know, as especially post pandemic, things got like incredibly expensive. Seven dollars is my go to for the sandwiches.
And then I do sorbet push pops too, which I sell for six. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a pretty fair price, but I don't think starting at 5 I think was also very fair, but I think the increase has sort of made sense over the years.
Brien: Yeah, absolutely. And I think in today's day and age, seven bucks for a quality large size ice cream sandwich sounds pretty reasonable.
Katherine: Um,
Brien: probably even on the east cause maybe you could get away with more because everything's more expensive there too.
Katherine: Right. You can sell this for 12. Well, that's like a little.
Brien: That's great. So was there ever a time when you were like, cause I don't know about you, but I get shiny object syndrome as an entrepreneur many times, even in a single month or day, but were there times where like, well, maybe we could expand this into ice cream, like actual scoop ice cream. And then like, Different types of products.
Cause I noticed that you only sell the ice [00:25:00] cream sandwiches and the sorbet push pops. Was that your goal to keep it very narrow? Or did you ever consider expanding out?
Katherine: I definitely have considered when I was really diving into wholesale, I was doing, you know, selling three gallon tubs, five liter pans. I tried like making little like parfaits.
So I definitely have tried many things over the years. And, but yes, I do have shiny object syndrome and sometimes, and maybe that's like, just, Like I said, like eight years, you know, it sort of took eight years for things to kind of fall together. And I sort of think these last two years I've really only been focused on the sandwiches and the push pops because that's, What works and I've finally learned enough lessons the hard way to just remember to stick with what works I very much have shiny object syndrome.
I go through phases where i'm like, oh I want to open you know, like the chipotle of ice cream sandwiches sort of where It's like you go in and you pick your toppings and that is not something I really want to do But sometimes it's hard to remind myself that I don't want to do that. [00:26:00]
Brien: Yeah. It's one of those things I'm sure many of our listeners can relate is where one day you're like all going home and doing something different.
You got this idea. It's going to be amazing. And then maybe a day or two passes and you're like, I'm glad I didn't act on that. Cause I don't think I want to do that.
Katherine: It's funny, the little town that we're living in Colorado that I was just telling you has 400 people. It's the cutest little town in the whole entire world.
It's lacking an ice cream shop. It, you know, it has like your basics, like one bar, one pizza shop, and you know, a little general store, but what it really needs is an ice cream shop. And every single person I meet when they find out what I do for a living, they're like, you got to open an ice cream shop.
And there's times where I'm like, yeah, yeah, that I totally should. But one, the town is 400 people, so I can't imagine the return that I'll get on that investment. And also like, I feel like every entrepreneur works to get to, and by no means am I saying like I've made it and you know, but like to get to the point where your business kind of just works.
That's not something that every entrepreneur gets to experience. I sure hope that they do, but I feel like [00:27:00] I'm finally to the point where I can sort of enjoy being a business owner. And I need to remind myself often to stick to that. Like you've worked hard to get to this point. Now it's time to chill out a little bit.
Brien: Right, right. Well, and you said your top line per month in your seasonal, I forget what she said earlier, but that's, I mean, that's a heck of a business in like half of a year, right?
Katherine: Yeah, it's I'm very fortunate. And then again, sort of my off season project is the bike business university stuff, which
Brien: right.
Yeah
Katherine: Yeah,
Brien: well, so let's talk about that. That's next on my agenda because I'm really interested to hear more about bike business university What was the impetus for that? When did you start that? And what does bike business university look like?
Katherine: So I started About two years ago and it really just started cause I was like sharing.
I just, I started the, the ice cream bike lady, social media account, and just kind of was like sharing my journey. It was as I was going through that transition of. You know, coming out of the pandemic, cutting out the wholesale and [00:28:00] just like, what the heck am I supposed to be doing sort of thing. And I started sharing my journey.
And at that time, simultaneously, like catering started to come back and it really, you know, when something's taken away from you, you don't really realize how much you miss it until it comes back and you, you know, you sort of fall in love with it all over again. And that was catering for me, like hearing, starting to come back.
And I was really realizing like wholesale has never been a passion of mine. Like these pink bikes right here, like this is my passion. And it really just reignited that. So I started sharing that journey on social media and I had so many people, I think, cause like the mobile industry is kind of. I think like an ever growing industry at this point and people were Looking to kind of like fill Sort of the same way as me like fill a creative void They had kind of lost during the pandemic and as I was sharing my journey of how I started the business I had so many people be like wait, I want to do this.
How did you start? Where did you get the bike? You know just Question after question after question that I started taking on like one on one clients [00:29:00] and helping them. I don't know if coaching or consulting, whichever is the right term, but helping them like physically working one on one to help them build a business.
And then I just had so many people inquire about that and I kind of maxed out pretty quickly. Ended up transitioning that to taking everything that it was giving these one on one clients into like a pre packaged pre recorded program. And that's how bike business university came to life and launched it.
I think it was May of last year. And I actually launched, I did a presale before I even created it. Cause it's like, I don't want to create it if nobody's going to buy it. And so I did a presale within like. The first week I had like, I don't know, however many people signed up for it. And I was like, Oh my gosh, we got to make this happen.
Yeah, it's transit. It's turned into more than I ever could have dreamed of. It's, I felt like social media is, has this like wild way of pulling together the people that, you know, are kind of like meant to be with you sort of. And it's just, I've connected with hundreds of people all throughout the country.
And the program has evolved so much. I'm always updating it. So like [00:30:00] every time I think of, you know, something else that's worked for me or my business, or like pop that into the program. So once people have access to it, once they become a student, they get all the updates and it's turned into a really cool community.
Like we do monthly zoom meetings. It's such as everybody's inside is so supportive and is like sharing what they've learned and, you know, firsthand experience and. It's truly turned into more than I ever could have dreamed up. I felt so lucky.
Brien: Awesome. So you've created a small army of other bike business entrepreneurs.
Katherine: Yeah. I hope one day to make this community just as big as the food truck community, but one day at a time.
Brien: Yeah. Okay. So you've had students where they come in, they learn from you and they, so you have prerecorded course material. You have a online community on the backend. Is that where you're kind of, you said you have a monthly zoom call, but are you doing like Ongoing coaching or if someone has a question, do they, they can reach out in, in a online forum or what does that look like?
Katherine: So they do have, I have a Facebook group, which is very interactive, but I [00:31:00] also, you know, uh, I don't know if mentorship is the right word, but when you, they get mentorship from me too. So anytime they have questions, they can email me and I'm happy to help at any time throughout their journey. I know I'd say most people are, most people are pretty interactive about it.
Like people aren't shy with asking questions, which I love. The monthly Zooms are so much fun. It's like. More so the people in the community kind of like teaching each other essentially, which makes me feel really good that like, they're just happy to, it's really inspiring. It's definitely really inspiring to hear everybody's excitement about their new business.
Brien: Yeah. Do you have any stories you can share from a student of yours who has gone on to create this type of business or do they run the business in a very similar fashion to you or do they do You know, put their own personal twist on it.
Katherine: Everybody definitely puts their own personal twist on it. And I think that's my favorite part about it is seeing everybody's like when they get the bike, seeing their brand and it's like hearing everybody's story that goes into the brand.
So I think most people, you know, go with the [00:32:00] sandwiches and pops and inside of bike business university. I teach you how I teach everybody how to like replicate my exact products. Cause I feel like those. Have been a huge part of what got me to where I am. So people typically stick with the sandwiches and pops, but they put their own twist on the flavors, of course, and the brand.
I just, I love seeing everybody's brand and you know, I give them inside. I give templates for like labels and that kind of stuff. So it makes it very easy to put their own twist on, you know, they just have to like swap out colors at their logo. But everybody's brand and they're like hearing their story behind their brand is probably my favorite part about
Brien: awesome So what's the general startup cost if I were to say catherine i'm all in i'm going to go start a bike business What what would you say are the startup costs to do that?
Katherine: I typically tell people to plan for fifteen thousand dollars. Although that's most of the time a little bit Over the top, it can be done for, I would say, 10, 000. I started mine 10 years ago for a little over 8, 000. Of course, you know, things have increased a little bit, but I would say 10, [00:33:00] 000 is more than enough if you keep it simple.
And that's one thing I really preach to my students is that like starting small and, you know, growing as time and money allow, it's probably for a business like this is probably the best thing that you can do. And of course. Some people want to like invest in a van at the beginning and, you know, kind of do the, like over the top of the bells and whistles, but I actually encourage you not to do that and just sort of get scrappy and, you know, creative with your either renting a vehicle or borrowing a vehicle as long as possible.
Because keeping that startup cost down is in my opinion, the A huge part of what's going to make it successful.
Brien: Right. So a business like this, you can become profitable or get your ROI on your initial investment relatively quickly. Like if you're doing it when you're starting out, I mean, tell me if I'm wrong, but when you were starting out, you were probably, Doing the one, two, three, four, 5, 000 a month type of revenue.
And then over time, you started growing it to 10 and 10 plus pride. I mean, I guess the earning [00:34:00] potential of this within one year is really dependent on how much effort and how much hustle that the, the bike business owner puts into it right off the rip. Is that accurate?
Katherine: Yes, absolutely. I again, I started for a little over 8, 000 and I made every penny back my first season And I but I 100 percent agree like I was out there every single Saturday morning I was you know spent every waking moment marketing on social media and networking and you know Trying to just build the brand in the community and I 100 percent agree that I mean, you get out of it what you put in, not just with this business, but any business, but in this specifically, cause like it takes time, like being, like being out at events and, you know, farmers markets and festivals, like that's a huge part of the marketing that goes into getting the catering clients as well.
So I a hundred percent agree that being a hundred percent committed and all in, and you know, the crazy lady that can't sleep at night. Cause all you think about is ice cream sandwiches. Like that is.
Brien: [00:35:00] So this can really become a, a 10, 000 a month business in no time at all. I shouldn't say no time, but rather quick time.
Katherine: Yeah. I mean, I know some people like some of my students that are committed to putting the hours in and are already within six months, like booking catering events and weddings, and really all it takes is like, I would say like Three, four event, like catering events a month to have a 10, 000 plus dollar business.
So it's doable, but
Brien: yeah. And is the, the, the average catering event, like if you're catering a wedding and it has 200 people at it, what's your average invoice look like when you're walking away from that type of event?
Katherine: So it comes down to about 10 per person with the cost of the product and the fees that I charge.
So for 200 people, it would be about 2, 000 invoice. And I, at this point, it hasn't always been this way, but I have a minimum. I won't come out for less than a hundred. Like if you want the whole ice cream bike experience, there's a minimum of a [00:36:00] hundred. And
Brien: a hundred, a hundred people, a
Katherine: hundred
Brien: people. Yes.
Okay. Gotcha.
Katherine: And then we have smaller options. Like I think I mentioned previously coolers and you know, if people don't want the whole, the whole setup. But I would say my average invoice price. is probably 1, 500 to 2, 000. Obviously, aside from the college events that are for thousands of people, those are a little bit more.
Brien: Right. Right. And does that include like delivery and onsite employees that are doing the work?
Katherine: Yep. Exactly.
Brien: Okay.
Katherine: So I charged 6 and 7 per ice cream sandwich and push pop. And then I charge a 500 I call a bike rental and service fee, which includes like the staff and the bike. And then I charge a minimum of 150 delivery fee and that's based per mileage, like how far we're going.
Okay. Perfect.
Brien: Okay, very cool. So you look at it, if you do four weddings a month at an average ticket of 2, 000 or 1, 500, you're looking at an anywhere from six to 8, 000 business and that [00:37:00] you can mix in however many other events you can handle in between. So that's pretty awesome. I mean, the, the catering business, there's a lot of money in the catering business and there's a lot of opportunities.
So I love hearing that. And one thing you mentioned that I can't believe I haven't asked yet as a, I own a marketing company, so I'm surprised I didn't ask, but you mentioned marketing. When you were starting out in currently now that you're 10 years into this, what did your marketing look like? What does it look like today?
I mean, it sure sounds like you started awfully organically. Did you invest in any other forms of marketing along the way?
Katherine: Not really. Social media has always been obviously a huge part of it. And I sort of feel like. Going back to like day one, it was like right at that time where Instagram was kind of becoming a thing, you know, it was less reels and you know, the fancy stuff, it was just posting pictures of, but it kind of turned into a little game of like, where can I find the, you know, where can I find her?
What's she going to have? And so social media was a huge part of my marketing and then really just being out at the farmer's market. Like it kind of sounds silly, but like the [00:38:00] right people that come to the farmer's market and it's like the relationships I've built at that farmer's market. Introduce me to other people and other opportunities.
So I think just being out there and people seeing the bike is also a huge part of what really helps my marketing. I never really did any kind of paid advertising. I've been fortunate to have a couple like articles published and stuff that have really helped. And that's something that I tell my bike business university students is like, it's okay to like, ask for that stuff too.
Like you got to put yourself out there. And. Those sort of opportunities can be life changing. So it certainly doesn't hurt to, you know, to ask for it, but yeah, it's really been pretty organic. We're a lot of word of mouth and I think I've mentioned, but like, I'm very lucky that I have a good repeat group of catering clients.
And it's like, I think one thing that's incredibly important to me is my relationships. I take those so incredibly seriously. And that's been a huge part of. Like building those [00:39:00] relationships to book more events and sell more products and just watch the opportunities kind of come based off of my network.
Brien: Yeah. Yeah. That's some of the coolest stuff when you hear businesses that have been able to grow to the level they're at without doing much more than organic marketing work and a little bit of social media. But also just being out there being present and being seen at the end of the day, especially when you're starting out, that's the number one ways you just got to get out there.
So I love hearing that. Awesome. Well, Catherine, this has been a ton of fun. Your business is still super interesting to me. I feel like there should be a cream cruiser out by me here in Ohio, but cause you guys would absolutely crush at these events, but I want to make sure that all our listeners are able to get in contact with you or check you out on social or Definitely be able to check out bike business university.
What are the best ways to do so?
Katherine: Cool. So bike business university is the website is bike business university. com. There's a ton of information there. And then the account where I really, you know, share the real [00:40:00] raw behind the scenes and, you know, give you a sort of insider look on the business. That Instagram account is ice cream bike lady.
And then if you're interested in my actual ice cream business, cream cruiser on social media or website is just cream cruiser.
Brien: Awesome. I love it. And if we could leave our listeners with one piece of advice from you, what would it be in terms of starting a business and getting after it from your years of experience as an entrepreneur, you could distill it down to one piece of advice.
What would that be?
Katherine: Oh, man. I think my biggest piece of advice would just be to like, Go for it. Like you have to kind of like, we were just talking about, like, you have to fully commit. I see a lot of people nowadays that like start and give it six months and are like, I can't make this work. You know, I've tried and it's not going to work.
Like it takes so much longer than six months. So I think my biggest piece of advice would just be to like, keep your head down, stay focused, trust the process and like learn from every single thing that goes wrong, because there's always incredible opportunities on the other [00:41:00] side of the Those struggles and those challenges.
Yeah, I guess like, you know, you said one but like part two You know Not be afraid to put yourself out there And I think that was the biggest lesson that I learned in the last two years with this ice cream bike lady account is that like I'm incredibly introverted. I'm shy. I'm like, not good at this kind of stuff.
But like, I finally started really, truly sharing my journey and what that has done for not only my personal life, but for my business is unreal. And I like encourage everybody so much to. Use social media for what it has the opportunity to do for not only you, but for your business as well.
Brien: I love that. I love that consistently taking action and not being afraid to let your flag fly.
Right. Just get out there and do the thing. We're all, we're all only here one time. You might as well have a heck of a time doing it and share our journey with others. Awesome. Well, Catherine, this has been so cool. Thank you so much for joining us. Absolute pleasure and best of luck to you in the future with Cream [00:42:00] Cruiser and with your new move to Colorado.
Katherine: Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it and hopefully we'll talk soon.
Brien: Sounds great. Thank you.
Katherine: Thanks.
Brien: All right. Big thank you to Catherine for joining us today on the Millionaire University podcast. I had a great time learning about Cream Cruiser and Bike Business University. If you love the outdoors, if you love catering, you love serving others, this is such an awesome concept for a business that you can start on the side.
For not a ton of startup capital and you can grow it to honestly as big as you want to take it because I can talk about the catering industry. We have a couple of clients of my own that are in the catering industry and the money is there. There is abundance and there is business to be had. And if you do it well, you have a great product, you have a great service and you have great people representing and serving under your banner.
You can really knock it out of the park in catering and Catherine's twist on it with the cream [00:43:00] cruiser, the bicycle, such an awesome way to go about it. So thank you to Catherine for joining us. This was an ultimate pleasure of mine. Guys, if you enjoyed this episode and you think maybe someone else in your network would enjoy it, please go ahead and hit the share button in your pod player and send it via text to your friend, your family member, colleagues, coworkers, whoever it is.
Who you think would enjoy it. All right. We're going to be signing off here for millionaire university. We're working on all sorts of cool things right now. If you recall from some of our past episodes, we launched our foundational course, the build my money machine. We have that underway. Doors might open up again here in the near future, but.
We're not sure when we're taking care of our founding members. We're getting everybody started and it is an absolute blast So keep that in mind for the next iteration of build my money machine We want you to be a part of it But until then I cannot wait to see you on the next episode of the millionaire university podcast Go out there and keep crushing it my [00:44:00] friends
Comments