This week’s inspirational entrepreneurs produce one of my all time favourite off farm enterprise products. It’s a food product and it’s called ice-cream. As I write we are enjoying the lazy hazy days of summer with temperatures set to soar even higher this week across Ireland and the UK. So grab yourself a Ben and Jerry treat, kick off your high heels (and whatever else you fancy) and take a few moments to get inspired by 2 amazing entrepreneurs who were once a startup like you too.
Ben and Jerry Ice Cream is a huge business now, but they too started from humble beginnings. After splitting the cost of a $5 correspondence course on ice cream-making from Penn State University, they combined their $8000 life savings with a $4000 bank loan, leased an old gas station building in Burlington, Vermont, and opened for business on the 5th of May, 1978. 35 years later (can you imagine what they’ve been through darlings?), they are still going strong and celebrating.
When you hit a stumbling block, it’s not the fall, it’s how you react to the block that matters. Sometimes things happen for a reason. Did you know that Ben & Jerry’s was almost a bagel company! However, thankfully for us, Jerry and Ben hit a stumbling block too and couldn’t afford the fancy bagel making equipment. They didn’t give up though. They re-assessed, re-modeled their business and settled on becoming ice cream producers instead.
We as startups and, particularly those considering off farm enterprise or food producing, can learn a lot from Ben and Jerrys entrepreneurial innovation. Whilst their fabulous ice cream product became popular in the local community for its amazing flavour, Ben had no sense of taste. He relied on what he called ‘mouth feel’. This is how the chunks came to be in the ice cream. Chunks of chocolate, fruit and nut became their signature and was unusual for ice cream of the time.
They too had to learn to work together and cope with artistic differences. Whilst they disagreed over the size that the chunk should be, they both agreed that they wanted to enjoy themselves. Jerry’s mantra was ‘if it’s not fun, why do it?’. We could all take a leaf out of his book.
Other lessons learned included the very important lesson in record keeping, particularly with regard to keeping accounts records. In the early days they both admit that they were abysmal at book-keeping. At this stumbling block, they again took stock and After two months they very bravely closed their store. They hung a sign that said ‘we’re closed to figure out whether we’re making any money’. Disappointingly, they discovered that they weren’t.
Once again they excelled in their entrepreneurial drive and by 1979, began wholesaling pints of ice cream out of Ben’s Volkswagen campervan.
Fast forward to today and Ben and Jerrys ice cream is now a global phenomenon. They’re not shy about their mission statements either. Their social mission statement states that they wish “to operate the company in a way that actively recognizes the central role that business plays in society by initiating innovative ways to improve the quality of life locally, nationally, and internationally”.
You might also be inspired by their product mission statement which is “to make, distribute, and sell the finest quality all natural ice cream and euphoric concoctions with a commitment to incorporating wholesome, natural ingredients and promoting business practices that respect the earth and the environment”.
You can access all their latest news on their Facebook page.
Surely the most inspirational entrepreneurs yet?
