day 667 | february 23, 2013 | Ice Cream Entrepreneurship

Red was pretending to give away free ice cream at the playground. Kids were lining up at her booth, taking turns to order various ice cream flavors one at a time. She takes it so seriously, that she also operates a pretend ice cream plant by the slides, where she pretend manipulates some levers and knobs, and pretend directs her employees. 

Lesson 1: Find what you love, and do it!

Looking at her, she obviously loves running her factory, definitely more than interfacing with her "customers." It takes her more than a couple of minutes to address one customer (she takes her sweet time at the plant and orders her customers to "be patient!" and mumbles to herself). Surprisingly, the older kids were still there, lining up, and happy to wait for their ice cream. 

Lesson 2: Discerning customers understand that good things take time to make right. (Perhaps that. Or maybe, if you've got a monopoly, people are more willing to accomodate your quirks.)


Swamped under the volume of orders, she seeks help from her big sister. Roo readily agrees, happily manning the counter and expanding the offerings with more ice cream flavors, and venturing into cakes and pastries too. She even happily shares a menu for the for the other kids to choose from. Roo's in her saleswoman element, while Red's happily focusing on her preferred role of plant manager. 

Lesson 3: It's not likely that you'll be equally interested in all aspects of the business. Delegate and empower others so that you can Focus on What you Love.  

A boy orders vanilla ice cream. Roo takes the order and keeps the customers entertained, while Red cranks it up in her ice cream factory. With clear role segregation and operational guidelines, Roo and Red work with surprising synchronicity. They jointly deliver the order in a record-setting 15 seconds. And that's one more happy customer, pretend ice cream in hand! 

Lesson 4: Review your operations and work out processes to improve efficiency. Everyone appreciates good and fast.

Before the boy could walk away though, Roo seizes an opportunity. "Wait! That will be 1 dollar, please?"Big smile.

Lesson 5: Monetize!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Soooooooper cute!! I wish those kids would come play at our playground. We have too many of the "bang! You die!" Kind here!

libpuritan said...

Buzz us when you find yourself in Bushman Park again! I may not be able to make it, but the little ones can go! :)

trishie said...

That is so cute. I love watching kids role play..they are so creative.

trishie said...

PS: I am hosting a Bits of Brit giveaway currently(open to Singapore residents only), so I really hope you will enter: http://www.underlockandkeyblog.com/2013/04/bits-of-brit-giveaway.html

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