These home deliveries turned into interactive, fun activities for parents to do with their kids. For employers to send to their staff who were newly working from home. They became a new 'virtual' way to celebrate holidays and birthdays that everyone was missing. They cheered up people who were alone and in need of a sweet distraction. The notes that were written on the cards would melt my heart daily. It was the only light going on during such a dark time.
For as stressful as a time that it was and no matter how much we were criticized for not 'staying home', playing ding-dong-ditch with ice cream is something that I will remember for the rest of my life. We were dressed in protective gear from head to toe, would send a text when we were on the way, run up to the door, ring the doorbell, drop the treats on the porch and sprint back to the car as fast as possible. It is so strange to think about, but I feel so grateful that it happened for two reasons.
1) Because the community came together. The community stepped up and supported those who needed it. It was a feeling of unity and support that I had never experienced before. From the minute that we launched our online store, our people showed up. People being family, friends, neighbors, college friends, people I grew up with but haven’t talked to since high school, customers who I met back in 2015 when we first started at the Fells Point Farmers Market and more! The online orders came from people who I had some sort of a connection to. Back then, I promised to throw a party to repay the favor and I still stand by that. One day when the time is right, the party will go on!
2) Having an online store is something that I always wanted to do. Shortly after I started the business, I spent pretty much every penny I made in one summer on a very expensive label printer with the intention of offering custom labeled sammies to personalize orders and ship them to customers. Great idea right? Terrible execution on my part. The timing was not right so the project failed miserably. So when COVID hit and we started the home deliveries, the time was finally right. We quickly did some testing, sent out some practice runs (view some of our round one failure boxes here and please feel free to laugh) and began shipping through UPS. The online store still has a long way to go, but it's pretty cool to look at what has come from such a yucky situation. Our website is 100% self taught, I am proud that we have hired no one to help other than good old google and youtube. If I can do it, so can you :) Check out some of my resources below to help you take the leap to the online world!
⇢ Download our 'Brick and Mortar to Online Store In 5 Steps' guide
⇢ Download our 'E-Commerce Holiday Planning Checklist'
⇢ Download our 'Guide To Shipping Frozen + Perishable Products'
And don't forget to shop our ⇢ 'Cream Cruiser Holiday Gift Guide'
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Canva
⋙ Canva makes it SO simple to make professional looking marketing + social media materials. There is a free version which is still incredible resourceful or a paid version for $12.99 that has many more features (the best $12.99 we spend each month!). I also use Canva to create ALL of the graphics for our website, social media, menus, marketing fliers, and sometimes even photo editing (with almost the click of a button...it's too easy). Combine your Iphone photography skills with Canva's resources and you are officially a pro!
⋒ When in doubt......google it! Having printer issues? Google it. Can't figure out how to edit a pdf? Google it. Need inspiration for a pastel holiday color pallet? Google it. Need to remove the white background from an image or logo? Google it. Can't figure out how to upload a document to your website? Google it. There are often 100% free solutions to all of the above and more on the good old world wide web, it just sometimes takes a little research.
♡ I am a big believer in bringing back good old Pinterest! Every time we launch a new product, a new campaign, a new website, or anything that requires creativity and fun branding......I ALWAYS start a Pinterest board for it first to let my imagination run wild. Before photoshoots, I make a board with all of the shots that we want to achieve. When we launch a new product, I create a board with all of the packaging designs that I love. When we build a new website, I always create a board to help funnel our ideas, pick the best colors, and make sure to include everything it needs. Pinterest may be a thing of the past for some.....but it is a GREAT tool for organizing ideas. It is a simple + fun way to pull all ideas together and build a quick little vision board.
Shopify
⇢ I highly recommend the Shopify platform for anyone who is building or running an e-commerce business. It is very easy to use and my biggest advice is to refer to the google machine again. If you need an to add apps to customize your products and product pages, google or look up on Shopify to see which come recommended. Do research on your own before hiring someone. I bet you can figure it out :) Some apps that I have added to our Shopify site: Product Options by Bold (to select flavors, sizes, add notecards, gift messages, upload photos for custom labels and more), Order Delivery Date so the customer can choose their delivery date, Promo Banner to add a countdown or promo to the top of your website. Download the Mailchimp, Quickbooks, Facebook and Instagram apps to sync. If you are patient with the learning process, you will thank yourself later when you are in full control of your website. You got this!
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Fun fact....when you own the business, you don't look forward to Friday's anymore because what is a weekend?? :) I feel so lucky to be doing what I am and I wouldn't change it for the world.
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Every day is different. Every week is different. Every season is different. And no matter how hard I try to plan in advance, prepare for the unknown, things never go as planned. Sometimes more planning is better and sometimes less planning is better. Moral of the story.....you need to always be on your toes, always be ready to adapt and most importantly.....get comfortable being uncomfortable. It will truly never get easier, you will just get better at handling it.
One thing that I have been very proud of since the day that I started this business 6 years is not being afraid to try something, fail, and then try again. I have bootstrapped most of this business, worn more hats and done more jobs than I previously even knew existed and created / followed what I like to call the DIY Business Model. Don't hire out...take the time to learn the job yourself first. You will thank yourself later.
My goal is to share the real highs and lows of entrepreneurship and also some small biz tricks that I have learned along the way. If I can manage to inspire just one person to take the leap to chase after their dreams.....then this will all be worth it!
Follow along the upcoming weeks as we give you the inside scoop of running an VERY seasonal ice cream business. The off season consists of organizing, rebranding, budgeting, learning new things and trying to get as creative as possible to not only stay afloat throughout the winter but also to make next season as best as it possibly can be.
For even more of a behind the scenes look into a 'day in the life' looks like, check out our Instagram @creamcruiser and my personal Instagram @kobrien302.
- Katherine
follow us on instagram
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learn more about us on youtube
behind the scenes blog
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