An Important Little Item

If you are a shaved ice or snow cone concessionaire, you should always use nightcaps on your syrup bottles. These handy little items are an important "savior" for your flavors when your stand is closed or not very busy. Nightcaps are a simple way to keep ants and other bugs out of your syrup bottles.

Nightcaps are a small expense that yield very favorable results for stand owners. Go to 1-800-Shaved-Ice.com and order some for your stand!

Cotton Candy in the News

I found this interesting bit of information while surfing around on cnet. Looks like paper, has a picture of cotton candy and tastes like cotton candy. Kind of interesting, huh?

If you're interested, click on the "Related Stories" to find out more about Homaro Cantu and his Chicago restaurant Moto.

If you're interested in making, selling, or eating REAL cotton candy, please visit us at CottonCandyExpress.com!

Another Perspective on Shaved Ice

I always enjoy reading the thoughts and observations other people have about shaved ice. I found this post this evening and thought it was a good one to share. The pictures she includes of her "adventures with Taiwanese shaved ice" are awesome. Tasty and mouth-watering are the words that initially come to mind for me!

Check out the full article here. Be sure to read the comments too. All in all, it is just good insight from a shaved ice customer's perspective.

Valuable Customers Deserve Quality Products

Do you value your customers? The natural response to that question is , "well of course I do!" But, do you SHOW them how much you value their patronage? Again, the normal answer is, "why yes, I offer them excellent, friendly customer service." Now, do you show them how valuable they are through your products? Some people (if they're honest), will have to answer no to this question.

While it's important to be fiscally responsible and purchase goods that do the job well without breaking your budget, it's also important to make sure your goods and products are worth the money people are paying for it.

One good example of this in the shaved ice and snow cone industry is syrup flavors. Companies will invest thousands of dollars into machines, equipment, advertising, flashy cups or bowls, but then purchase the cheapest syrup flavors they can find.

The flavors you put on your snow cones or shaved ice is the most important part of what you are selling to the customer! Cheaply manufactured syrups generally taste...cheap.

Why not reward your customers with the best shaved ice and snow cone syrups possible? 1-800-Shaved-Ice.com has over 70 flavors of ready to use syrups and concentrates available. Our flavors have won first place in national taste tests!

I encourage you to order a couple of bottles to do your own taste test. We're confident that, after tasting our quality flavors, you will order more flavors from us.

Reward your customers with the best shaved ice and snow cone syrups available from 1-800-Shaved-Ice.com.

Snow Cone and Shaved Ice Directory

I've been thinking about creating an online directory of snow cone and shaved ice vendors that is associated with our blog here. The directory would be created with two distinct categories: fixed locations and mobile operators. I would also like to include a Google map for those stands with fixed locations. The reason I think this would be a good idea is because I constantly see people posting questions in forums, blogs and other locations asking if someone "knows of a good snow cone stand in Phoenix" or "looking for shaved ice in Macon." So, let's create a comprehensive directory that will help customers find your location!

So, if you're the owner of a shaved ice or snow cone business and would like to be included in our directory, please leave me a comment here so I may contact you when I'm ready to get it going.

Thanks!

Ingenious Method of Making Cotton Candy

I found this article today over at Gizmodo. Someone snapped a great picture of a cotton candy vendor in China. Apparently, the floss head spins via pedal power. Pretty clever idea huh? To read more about it and see the full picture, please go to Gizmodo.

If you're interested in viewing cotton candy equipment that is less 'labor intensive', please go to CottonCandyExpress.com. We feature the best machines available on the Internet!

Creative Marketing

We've talked about creative marketing ideas several different times here in the blog. I feel that it marketing your business really can't be emphasized enough. Creating and keeping customers is the lifeblood of your business.

Previously, we have discussed the importance of "Free Day" for our own shaved ice stand years ago. Because of the tremendous impact it had on our own business, we at 1-800-Shaved-Ice.com strongly encourage the owners of shaved ice and snow cone stands to do the same thing.

If you think it's a crazy idea, here's another interesting tidbit about a guy who basically did the same thing:

"H.J. Heinz (2002 revenues of $9.4 billion) gave away samples of his pickles at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. His booth was stuck in a low-traffic location, so he hired kids to pass out tickets that promised a free souvenir for visiting his booth to get a pickle."

Maggie Overfelt, "A World (Fair) of Invention"
Fortune Small Business (April 2003)

As you are looking to your opening day for the Spring of 2009, I would encourage you to consider opening up the season with a free day. It's a great way to kick off the season by rewarding loyal customers and attracting new ones at the same time.