How We Sold Our Ice Cream Store
"So now my wife and I had to decide what to do with the ice cream store."
So the year is 2021 My Cancer Resection operation is now behind me and I am Cancer free and getting better every day. The bakery, the bakery property, and the original bakery location in Brick, NJ have been sold. So now My wife and I had to decide what to do with the ice cream store.
Even though I was physically getting better I couldn’t really help all that much at the store except to do the bills and the ordering. This put more stress on my wife and to be honest I think we were just tired after operating the store for 15 years at this point.
“Up to this point, the store had grown every year for 15 years.”
So we sat down and decided that we should sell it. Up to this point, the store had grown every year for 15 years. We thought covid was going to be devastating but we actually had our best summers during covid. People were all cooped up in their houses and everyone wanted to walk down to the local ice cream store just to get out of the house. We set the store up so that it was super efficient. The line moved extremely fast and as soon as the customers paid, we moved them outside where they could wait to hear their names for their orders. It was awesome.
“We decided to sell after 15 very successful years which we thought was a great way to go out”
Even though we had conquered Covid and we were constantly growing we decided to sell after 15 very successful years which we thought was a great way to go out. Now we had to go through the actual process of getting the store sold. Similar to selling the bakery, many of our friends and our competition had asked us if we ever thought of selling to contact them because they would be interested. So I gathered all of the information about those people from the past and I either called them or emailed them with the specifics of the sale.
“So I reached out to several of the interested parties and………. Crickets”
We were very specific on the price because we knew we wanted to sell both the property and the business altogether. We did not want to be landlords just in case we were going to move out of state. So I reached out to several of the interested parties and………. Crickets. Just like with the bakery everyone wants to be considered but no one comes up with the cash. So now we decided to list the store with the same family of Realtors that had sold it to us 15 years earlier.
We were asking top dollar for the store and the property because we knew that it was a good buy but was the market going to see it that way? Well, luckily it did. It wasn’t long after the store hit the MLS that we started getting calls on it. Some of the prospects were only interested in buying the business or buying with a lease option both of which we had no interest in. We wanted it to be a clean break. The whole enchilada.
“It‘s super important to operate as if you will never sell it.”
So just like everything else in life, the pace started off really strong and we had a bunch of showings. Then things got a little quiet. So now we started to get a little nervous. Is the price too high is there a lack of people with the funds? Being in the wholesale baking business for so long I saw my fair share of food establishments being bought and sold. One of the lessons I took away from seeing these businesses change hands is it is important to have patience and it is super important to operate as if you will never sell it. I saw so many times that the owner wanted to get out of their business so bad that they let the buyer dictate all of the terms and once you let that happen your finished.
I knew this was going to be a long process so I was prepared for anything. I knew we owned a valuable piece of property with a profitable business so now we just had to wait for the right buyer to see that also.
“Well, my friends you came to the right business.”
A few weeks went by and we received a message from the agent that she had a couple that wanted to see the store. She explained that they were not from the area but they did own a summer home in Lavallette a few blocks from the store. So off to the showing we go. The couple was very nice and they explained they were going to be retiring soon and they wanted a business that was seasonal and had a good cash flow. Well my friends you came to the right business.
We checked all of their boxes and they checked all of ours. So off to the closing you say, not so fast. They wanted to get an SBA loan to purchase the property and the business. I’m not going to bad mouth the SBA loan process. What am I talking about……………. of course I’m going to bash the SBA loan process. It sucks. I have had several SBA business loans over the course of my business career and every time it’s like getting a full mouth root canal.
“At several points, we thought the deal was not going to get done”
This time was no different. We started the sale process in June 2021. We didn’t get a signed contract until August 2021 and we did not close until February of 2022. At several points, we thought the deal was not going to get done and we would be running the store this summer of 2022. Luckily we gave the government 2 kidneys and a liver and the buyers had to auction their two children but we were able to finally close.
“The transition period went extremely well and they are thriving”
Since the new owners were not previously in the ice cream business they negotiated a transition process in which we would train them and their incoming staff on our processes and procedures. This stage went amazingly well because the new owners were very receptive to learning and they were very self-sufficient. I was expecting the transition process to be long and arduous because they were never in business before but the exact opposite was true. They came in straight away and picked everything up very quickly and even added some new signature products right away which I wouldn’t normally advise but it was a perfect fit for the store.
Conclusion:
All in all the transition period went extremely well and they are thriving in their newly obtained business. We couldn’t be happier
