Causeway Dairy Bar | Application Preview
Causeway Dairy Bar is applying for government grants to assist in acquiring essential equipment for their new ice cream shop. This funding will help offset the costs of purchasing high-priced equipment needed during their first year of business and reduce reliance on loans, which come with steep interest rates.
The business plan focuses on evolving into a primarily soft-serve ice cream shop over the next five years, adding more machines and flavor options while offering a mix of hard and soft-serve in the initial years. They aim to expand their menu with additional food options, creating a convenient spot for lunch and dinner.
The owners have encountered challenges securing loans due to their young ages and lack of established business credit, despite having experience running successful ventures on the Causeway for the last four years. The grant will ease the financial burden as they launch their business.
In terms of competition, Causeway Dairy Bar will be up against Lakeside Dairy Bar, which offers limited soft-serve options and no food, and a new gelato shop that specializes in desserts. They believe the gelato shop will not significantly impact their market since it does not offer quick meal options, which is where Causeway Dairy Bar will shine. Targeting boaters looking for quick meals, they plan to provide unique offerings that existing competitors do not have.
Causeway Dairy Bar's competitive edge lies in its diverse soft-serve choices and a small food menu, which will attract a broader customer base and encourage increased spending per visit.
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General Information
Business Registration Number: 92-1780126
Location: Biddeford, ME, United States
Length of Operation: 1-5
Number of Employees: 1-10 Employees
Annual Gross Income: $100k to $250k
Annual Gross Expense: Less than $100k
Open to Loans: YES
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Funding Usage
We will use this funding to help purchase all of the equipment that comes with opening this new ice cream shop. This is our first year in business which means we have a lot of equipment to purchase over the next handful of months. Loans will be necessary as most of this equipment is expensive, so this grant could help alleviate some of the loans.
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Business Plan
Over the next five years, we hope to transition to mainly being a soft-serve ice cream shop by getting more soft-serve machines to have additional flavors. The next 2-3 years will be a mix of both as we save money throughout the years to buy additional units. We hope to add more food options in the future to create a one-stop shop for lunch/dinner on the Causeway. We have tried many banks and loan companies to receive a loan for this business. Most have either denied us because we are too young or we do not have business credit, we are 22 and 23 years old. We each have our own business's now that has been operating on the causeway for the last 4 years. We both have a lot of business experience and both have business degrees, but the interest rates on loans for the new business are incredibly high. We will use this funding to help lower the debt we take on in the first couple of years of our business being open.
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Self Identified Competition
On the causeway, there is one other ice cream shop called Lakeside Dairy Bar. Our location has received much higher foot traffic in the years prior with the previous owners. They also specialize in more hard-serve ice cream with only 2-3 soft-serve options. Lakeside Dairy Bar also has no food options at their establishment. Next, there is a new Gelato business opening on the other end of the causeway this year. In years prior it was another hard and soft serve ice cream shop but now under new management as well. We think this will be fine for our business as Gelato is more of a specialty dessert and won't be bought as much as regular ice cream. The gelato place will also have no hot food options at their location. Other than that, the only other competitors will be the restaurants in the surrounding area. The restaurants will offer way more food options than we will but that's fine. We are aiming to offer quick and delicious meals that you can't get at a restaurant. Many boaters do not want to sit at a restaurant for 2 hours in the middle of the day to eat lunch. But on the causeway that's your only option, there are no quick food options. We aren't expecting food sales to become our biggest sector but we think it'll add a boost to our average spend per customer. As I said in the above section, we are going to be offering some new things to our shop that lacks in others. There is no ice cream shop on the causeway that has many soft-serve choices. While we all have hard-serve options we will attract groups of people who want hard-serve and soft-serve. We also will be the only ice cream shop offering a small food menu. Because no other shop offers food, this will bring people into our shop for both food and ice cream.
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