Ice cream shop or juice bar

Welcome

Have been to Budapest before? You really need to do your homework first in picking the right location for such a venture.

You are moving to Budapest to start a business, but do not know about the tax law (by law, you have to have an accountant to operate most business forms), or that you or your in store manager probably needs an OJK certificate?

And in winter, not too many people buy ice cream. You need a backup income source for your shop.

Well.... Anyway.... Good luck.

i'd run it as I want a change of career, fed up with being a software engineer after thirty two years of doing it very successfully, just fed up with it.

You have to know the difference, in Hungarian between fagyi, home made ice cream and jegcrém factöry made ice cream. This is a late reply but you will have a sucess in the summer. I'll do it. I know how to make icecream, I'll do it. I'll do that job. I can speak English, Hungarian, French, Spanish a bit, some Italian, some Latin, some Japanese, I can sell ice cream. I worked in pubs for nine years, I know about health and hygiene, I have a certificate somewhere no doubt out of date. I can do it. I'll do it.

There are a ton of ice cream shops, mostly bad but a handful of good ones.

MAMO is my favorite.

jesperss wrote:

There are a ton of ice cream shops, mostly bad but a handful of good ones.

MAMO is my favorite.

I don't know what that is. What i was trying to say in public is that there is a distinction in Hungarian, fagyi is handmade ice cream and jegycrém is factory made. For myself I like a lemon sorbet althugh the word sorbet does not seem to be used in Hungary, they make it. Lovely.

I also quite like from Aldi what we used to call a Neapolitan, I don't know what they call it as Aldi brands things weirdly but they do them, a chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream between two wafer biscuits. They are quite good. They also do a good impression of a Vienetta,.

My missus is a big fan of ice cream and why not, I am a big fan of cigarettes and vodka so I can hardly complain, and she reckons Aldi's kinda impersonation of Vienetta is spot on.

She wouldn't let me spread it over her body and lick it off though....

The beginning of summer had a new ice cream shop on the corner near the Best Western Hotel, just behind the hotel on a side st. named "Rottenbiller".
It appeared they were remodeling from the lay out of the former business, a Mexican burrito bar.
That place lasted less then one year and closed down
The ice cream shop seemed to only have a window open to sell from while the inside was being redone.
Never got too far, closed down after just the summer months.
We aren't sure if they were actually serious or just using the building as some sort of write off or whatever money laundering or fake deal because no one in the right mind would invest in just ice cream at that location, no real foot traffic and hidden.
It used to be a neighborhood bar called, "The Green Eagle" It was always packed day and night.
Bars are big in Budapest, ice cream shops not so much,  you get a cone from a sidewalk vendor for less then a buck .
Not exactly big money unless you sell cones ever 5 seconds.
Juice bars, well no info on that but they would have to costly enough to pay for the business costs.. I for one will not pay 500 forints or more for a glass of juice,I'd rather buy myself a juice machine and make them at home.
I think most locals feel the same way, you'd need to open a juice bar in an area with  heavy foot traffic around with tourists to make a go of it.
Rent for a building in such an area would probably eat up all profits for a long time to come.
We've owned and personally operated small businesses in the US and never made a killing at it.
Beauty salon and over the years a carpet cleaning business, a stall in Hawaii to sell items, 3 machine shops too.Almost forgot the import-export we started in 89 in Hungary... nightmare!
Never again, the first year usually you are losing and not gaining a thing, a business is a child, takes all your time, money and energy for years.
Whatever you decide to do, do not take on a partner.
Even family can turn on you when it comes to sharing the work load or running the business.
We had several partners in a few of our endeavors.
Either they don't work as hard, don't produce as much but want to share 50-50 or get their family involved where they do not belong.
Our import thing in Hu was great on paper but 2 of the partners involved their family where they didn't belong.
One machine shop we had a partner that was mostly all talk, wasn't a good a mill machinist as he claimed to be and lied about the hours he was working in the shop. If you can't 110% trust your partner then you're lost before you start.
Another machine shop had allot of potential but the partners girlfriend thought she could jump in a be a machinist too without any knowledge or skills.  To her credit she did enroll in school but who had time to wait a decade or longer for her to learn anything?Her mouth was too much so my husband split ways with his partner.
I mean I was married and didn't say anything about something I knew nothing about.Well that couple married in time but are now divorced, I'm still married, have to respect your partner and not try to compete in everything they do.
In Hawaii we also tried our hand at carpet cleaning, got a few contracts with hotels but we had to leave that Island  for personal reasons., tried in Hilo but not enough business there, one needs to be a jack of all trades on that Island, need to be a carpet cleaner, window washer and painter to make a go of it.
Just selling ice cream or juice doesn't seem to me to be a great deal.
If you open a sidewalk cart that might be  something but a standing building and employees, sad to say I think you're dreaming.
Lived in Budapest for 12 years and have seen so many small shops open and close over the years, most don't last the first year.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

The beginning of summer had a new ice cream shop on the corner near the Best Western Hotel, just behind the hotel on a side st. named "Rottenbiller".
It appeared they were remodeling from the lay out of the former business, a Mexican burrito bar.
That place lasted less then one year and closed down
The ice cream shop seemed to only have a window open to sell from while the inside was being redone.
Never got too far, closed down after just the summer months.
We aren't sure if they were actually serious or just using the building as some sort of write off or whatever money laundering or fake deal because no one in the right mind would invest in just ice cream at that location, no real foot traffic and hidden.
It used to be a neighborhood bar called, "The Green Eagle" It was always packed day and night.
Bars are big in Budapest, ice cream shops not so much,  you get a cone from a sidewalk vendor for less then a buck .
Not exactly big money unless you sell cones ever 5 seconds.
Juice bars, well no info on that but they would have to costly enough to pay for the business costs.. I for one will not pay 500 forints or more for a glass of juice,I'd rather buy myself a juice machine and make them at home.
I think most locals feel the same way, you'd need to open a juice bar in an area with  heavy foot traffic around with tourists to make a go of it.
Rent for a building in such an area would probably eat up all profits for a long time to come.
We've owned and personally operated small businesses in the US and never made a killing at it.
Beauty salon and over the years a carpet cleaning business, a stall in Hawaii to sell items, 3 machine shops too.Almost forgot the import-export we started in 89 in Hungary... nightmare!
Never again, the first year usually you are losing and not gaining a thing, a business is a child, takes all your time, money and energy for years.
Whatever you decide to do, do not take on a partner.
Even family can turn on you when it comes to sharing the work load or running the business.
We had several partners in a few of our endeavors.
Either they don't work as hard, don't produce as much but want to share 50-50 or get their family involved where they do not belong.
Our import thing in Hu was great on paper but 2 of the partners involved their family where they didn't belong.
One machine shop we had a partner that was mostly all talk, wasn't a good a mill machinist as he claimed to be and lied about the hours he was working in the shop. If you can't 110% trust your partner then you're lost before you start.
Another machine shop had allot of potential but the partners girlfriend thought she could jump in a be a machinist too without any knowledge or skills.  To her credit she did enroll in school but who had time to wait a decade or longer for her to learn anything?Her mouth was too much so my husband split ways with his partner.
I mean I was married and didn't say anything about something I knew nothing about.Well that couple married in time but are now divorced, I'm still married, have to respect your partner and not try to compete in everything they do.
In Hawaii we also tried our hand at carpet cleaning, got a few contracts with hotels but we had to leave that Island  for personal reasons., tried in Hilo but not enough business there, one needs to be a jack of all trades on that Island, need to be a carpet cleaner, window washer and painter to make a go of it.
Just selling ice cream or juice doesn't seem to me to be a great deal.
If you open a sidewalk cart that might be  something but a standing building and employees, sad to say I think you're dreaming.
Lived in Budapest for 12 years and have seen so many small shops open and close over the years, most don't last the first year.

Yeah I have not been there that long bur you do see them close down a bit sharpish. I am sure I could make a better go if it.

What it requires is something called dedication, which Hungarians seem to lack. The just cannot be bothered, everytbing is too much trouble. And so this is why my house looks like a piece of rubbish, because I spend days painting, putting new lamps in it, and I know the leccy is fine but it will take me two more years to get the roof fixed, the windows fixed, but I have made a start. I was up a letra ladder just this morning getting the leaves out of the gutters that have not been done for five years.

The way to get started is just to get starred. That is all you have to do. You put one foot in front of the other, and keep your back foot moving. That is all you have to do, keep your back foot moving.

That is all you have to do, keep your back foot moving. Eventually you will get where you want to go. You just keep that back foot moving, and you will get there.

Sounds like The Harlem Shuffle rather then a business plan!
Yes, having your own business is great for anyone who wants to keep busy every waking moment of their life.
No rest, always a worry, not for me at all.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Sounds like The Harlem Shuffle rather then a business plan!
Yes, having your own business is great for anyone who wants to keep busy every waking moment of their life.
No rest, always a worry, not for me at all.

Oh, I have that. It is called a wife.

Ice Cream shops only tend to operate in the summer months, they rarely operate throught out the year.  So what seems they have given up or not made a go of it, they are just taking a break in the colder months. They wuill have moved to another job and come back when it warms up.

SimCityAT wrote:

Ice Cream shops only tend to operate in the summer months, they rarely operate throught out the year.  So what seems they have given up or not made a go of it, they are just taking a break in the colder months. They wuill have moved to another job and come back when it warms up.

Perhaps so but the spot near us is now up to lease for the 3 rd time in less then 2 years.
Start up costs are a huge expense if you need to go through it every year.
When I opened up my beauty salon I had allot of costs for advertising having a custom banner made up, decorating costs and supplies.
Had to dip into our savings to make ends meet the first 3 months.
I gave it up after 3 months time, it was too stressful for me.'At the exact same time my husband had his own machine shop so 2 new businesses at once was far too much to handle.
Dang we used to have allot of energy and drive it seems, these days the thought of getting up for any job makes me cringe.