How to Open a Frozen Yogurt Shop: A Comprehensive Small Business Guide

To open a successful frozen yogurt shop, you need to focus on a thorough business plan, legal requirements, the perfect location, and the right technology. Key steps include crafting a mouth-watering menu, buying the proper equipment, hiring staff, and creating a bulletproof marketing plan.

If you’ve made up your mind or are undecided about opening a frozen yogurt shop, we’ve got you covered! In today’s article, we will take a deep dive into how to open a frozen yogurt shop.

A frozen yogurt business is an establishment that sells a frozen dessert similar to basic ice cream. However, it substitutes cream with milk and introduces live bacteria to keep it from melting too quickly. The origins of frozen yogurt can be traced back to New England, USA in the 1970s.

To open a frozen yogurt shop, start with a business plan, licenses and permits, location, and menu. We walk you through every step below:

A foolproof frozen yogurt business plan should contain an executive summary, company description, market research, products and services, sales and marketing strategy, and more. We break down every section of a business plan for how to open a frozen yogurt shop below:

1. Executive Summary – The executive summary is the first section of your business plan, but research has suggested that it should be prepared last. This section summarizes the entire plan and highlights the key points of your business. You should list your goals, explain what your frozen yogurt business is about, and identify your target market. 

Example of a frozen yogurt shop executive summary:

“[Brand Name] aims to bring a delightful frozen yogurt experience to health-conscious consumers in [Your City]. Our shop will offer a wide array of premium, non-fat, and low-calorie yogurt flavors, topped with fresh fruit, nuts, and organic sweeteners.

We will differentiate ourselves by providing unique flavor combinations and catering to various dietary preferences.

The target audience includes health-conscious millennials, families, and fitness enthusiasts. Our prime location near schools, gyms, and residential areas will ensure high foot traffic. We will utilize social media and local partnerships to build brand awareness.

With a focus on quality, innovation, and exceptional customer service, [Brand Name] aims to become the go-to destination for a refreshing, guilt-free dessert experience.”

You should also add what makes your location unique on your homepage, for everyone to see. With GloriaFood’s website builder, adding this information is a piece of cake. You can build your own frozen yogurt website in seconds, with zero tech knowledge.

2. Company description – Give a brief description of your frozen yogurt company, including its location, the goods you sell (such as flavours, toppings, and drinks), and any special features you might have (like organic ingredients, portion control, or self-serve alternatives). Provide information about your ownership structure and any executive team members. 

Examples of what to add in a frozen yogurt shop company description:

• Location and ambiance: [Brand Name] is strategically positioned at [Shop Address], a bustling hub surrounded by schools, gyms, and residential complexes. The bright and modern interior design creates a cheerful atmosphere, featuring comfortable seating and a self-serve yogurt bar as the centerpiece.
• Frozen yogurt menu: We offer an extensive selection of frozen yogurt flavors, ranging from classic favorites like Vanilla and Strawberry to exotic options such as Matcha Green Tea and Salted Caramel. All our yogurt is sourced from local dairy farms, ensuring freshness and superior quality.
• Special ingredients and flavors: [Brand Name] will introduce seasonal flavors and unique ingredients, such as superfood toppings (acai berries, chia seeds), organic honey, and locally sourced exotic fruits.

3. Market Research – Market research is fundamental to understanding who your customers are and what they want. Evaluate your target market’s demographics (gender, age, and lifestyle), as well as their frozen yogurt preferences. Identify your local competitors and evaluate their advantages and disadvantages. 

Example of a frozen yogurt shop target market:

• Health-conscious millennials: This demographic seeks indulgent treats that align with their dietary preferences, such as low-calorie, dairy-free, and vegan options.
• Families and young parents: The shop’s location near residential areas and schools makes it an ideal destination for families. Parents are often on the lookout for healthier dessert options for their children, and frozen yogurt fits the bill perfectly.
• Fitness enthusiasts: With the rising popularity of gyms and fitness studios in the vicinity, our shop targets health-conscious individuals who value nutrition and calorie control.
• Students and young adults: Located near schools and colleges, the shop can attract students seeking affordable and tasty treats.

4. Products and Services – List your flavors, toppings, and any other products you will be selling. Think about adding seasonal flavours or limited-time promotions to keep customers engaged. 

5. Sales and Marketing Strategy – Your sales and marketing strategy is how you plan to attract and keep customers. To increase foot traffic, think about utilising social media, loyalty plans, and collaborations with nearby businesses. You could also create discounts or special offers to attract attention during slow times. 

6. Financial Plan – This section includes all of the documentation that projects sales, expenses, cash flows, etc. You should pay particular attention to this section as investors and banks examine it to make sure your business is a secure investment. 

7. Operations Plan – This section details the day-to-day operations of your frozen yogurt shop. What are the store’s opening hours? Who will manage the store? How many employees are going to be hired? Give as many details as possible about how the shop will run smoothly. 

8. Risk Analysis – Identify potential risks, such as supply chain issues, staffing shortages, and seasonal demand fluctuations. Explain how you plan to deal with these risks, like freezing summer fruit so you have some for the winter. 

Learning how to open a frozen yogurt shop can seem daunting. Here’s your chance to let your creativity shine. Try to be original and choose a name that is easy to remember and catchy. Here are some examples.

• Yo’ Gut likes this 
• [Your Name] Frozen Yogurt’s 
• The Yogurt Gallery 
• Frost Bite Frozen Yogurt 
• Frozen Yogurt Factory 
• Yogurt Fairies 
• The Frozen Yogurt Shop 
• Scoop full of Heaven  

If you need help coming up with a creative name for your frozen yogurt shop, you can use these name generators:

• NameFatso
• NameStation
• BrandRoot

Here are some of the licenses and permits you may have to obtain before you open your frozen yogurt shop:

• Business licence – Every business needs to get this licence before it can begin operations.  

• Employer Identification Number (EIN) – This type of license is for tax purposes. It is a unique number assigned to your business that lets the tax authorities know the exact business that is paying tax, because there can be more than one business with the same name.

• Mobile food vendor permit – If you’re planning to open a mobile frozen yogurt shop, then you’re going to need this permit. The requirements to obtain may vary from state to state, so please check with your local authorities. 

• Food handlers permit – This licence more often than not requires some food and safety training. Since you and your staff will be serving the public, it ensures the techniques and storage methods you use keep them safe and healthy. Important note: This permit will be required for each employee. 

• Building health permit – This permit is issued to brick & mortar food establishments. It usually entails an inspection of your facilities to show the public that your shop is deemed safe and fit to serve frozen yogurt. 

Location! Location! Location! This can be the making or breaking point when you learn how to start a frozen yogurt business.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when looking for a frozen yogurt shop location:

• Keep an eye out for foot traffic and visibility. Choose a location with high foot traffic to increase your chances of attracting new customers.
• Choose an area where the demographic is more likely to have a sweet tooth, like a college campus or a mall.
• Visibility is just as important. Look for locations where your store is visible from the street or an area where your signage is likely to be seen by a large number of people.
• Check out the competition in the area. If there are too many frozen yogurt shops around, yours might not be able to become successful.
• Ensure that the location is easy to reach by foot, car, and public transport. Having a parking area is a huge plus.

When it comes to your menu, the creation of new flavours and toppings are two important factors driving the frozen yogurt market industry forward. 

Customers are constantly being introduced to diverse and new culinary trends. Therefore, they anticipate more interesting and varied flavour combinations.  

Don’t be afraid to step out of the box and introduce new flavours, especially during seasonal promotions:

• In the summer, introduce fruits like strawberries, raspberries, and cherries.
• In the autumn, introduce exciting flavors like matcha and salted pistachio.
• In the winter, use warm inviting flavours like cinnamon, cranberries, and pumpkin.
• In the spring, include flavours like passion fruit, guava, and mango.

With GloriaFood’s menu builder, you can easily change your menu each season in just a few clicks. Moreover, if you use the entire GloriaFood ecosystem, these changes will be automatically propagated to your POS menu as well.

To speed up service, you should get a QR code menu. These menus reduce wait times and errors to help you serve more customers daily. This, in turn, leads to greater customer satisfaction and more returning clients.

When it comes to your frozen yogurt pricing strategy, it boils down to what model you choose: self-serve or brick & mortar.

• If you’re going the self-serve frozen yogurt route, then your pricing strategy is going to be by the ounce. Select a price for each flavour, and separate prices for the toppings that each customer might add on.
• If you’re going the brick & mortar or mobile frozen yogurt truck way, consider setting a flat price for each flavour. Each topping should be priced differently according to its cost.

How to open a frozen yogurt shop without the equipment? When purchasing this, you need to consider two areas, back-of-house and front-of-house.

Back-of-house frozen yogurt shop equipment:

• Refrigerators and freezers 
• Sinks and cleaning supplies 
• Storage containers
• Utensils
• Labels 

Front-of-house frozen yogurt shop equipment:

• Frozen yogurt machines 
• Refrigerators
• Toppings and dispensers 
• Cups, napkins, utensils, and bowls 
• Seating 
• Frozen yogurt POS 

A frozen yogurt POS system is the combination of hardware and software that simplifies daily operations.

It enables your frozen yogurt shop to accept a wide variety of payment methods from credit and debit cards to smartwatches and digital wallets. Moreover, it speeds us service, so you can serve more customers faster.

Look for a POS system that not only lets you accept payments fast, but also make menu changes, manage staff, analyse insightful reports, and run most of their day-to-day operations from one simple dashboard.

When it comes to a reliable frozen yogurt POS system, you should look no further than GloriaFood POS. Here are the features that will help you optimize your daily operations:

• An advanced, sales-focused layout & color-coded menu categories that enable quicker order input & payment processing. 

• A robust payment device that enables you to accept debit or credit card, smartwatch or mobile payments. 

• Easy tipping for exceptional service. You can set your own fixed tipping percentages or a fixed dollar amount. 

• Offline Mode: Open checks and take payments even when the internet is down without missing a beat. 

• Easy stock tracking so you can hide items from your menu or mark them as out-of-stock in seconds. 

• A dedicated restaurant analytics module that details how your business is performing & helps you increase sales. 

• Speedy credit card processing payouts. Money is deposited in your local bank account each day. You will receive the money in your account, within less than 2 business days. 

Thinking of how to open a frozen yogurt shop? You can’t do it without the right staff. Running a successful frozen yogurt business requires finding the perfect balance between hiring enough employees to provide excellent service, all while avoiding overstaffing.

During the hiring process, you want to look for candidates who can not only do the job but also stick around. In addition, you want to look for someone who aligns with the core values of your business.

In the training phase, you need thorough material and an adaptable training approach that can cater to the learning differences of each employee.  

To make your life easier, we have integrated some staff management features into the GloriaFood POS: 

• Oversee and manage restaurant employees from a single dashboard. Add, remove, or update employee information as often and as fast as you need. 

• Enable the training mode to allow new hires to learn the ropes and explore the POS features without the fear of them “breaking the system.” 

• Track your employee’s financial transactions. The POS ID assigned to each employee notes and stores their financial transactions. 

• Assign user roles to every employee. Managers can get access to edit transactions and process refunds, while employees get the functions that are necessary for day-to-day operations.

• Enable instant POS log-in with RFID cards.

Let’s say you have successfully implemented the 8 steps above on how to open a frozen yogurt shop. How do you get customers to buy from you? That’s where a marketing plan comes into play.

A frozen yogurt marketing plan should focus on strenghtening your brand, attracting new customers, and win over their loyalty. It can include a variety of marketing channels, from your website to social media.

GloriaFood’s built-in marketing tools can help with online and offline promotion.

Designed to convert visitors to customers. Creating the website is so simple that you can do it in 10 minutes, without a web developer.

An easy-to-use feature that allows you to craft almost any promotion possible. Create promotions that reward customers with a certain fulfilment type i.e. delivery or dine in, or provide discounts to customer that have ordered with you a certain number of times.

No more need for an expensive graphic designer. Create eye-catching flyers with just a few clicks. Distribute them around the neighbourhood and watch your sales soar.

Set your email campaigns on autopilot. This feature automatically sends emails to customers who abandoned their carts, encourages customers to place a second order, and re-engages customers who have not ordered from your frozen yogurt shop for a long time.

Now we’re at the finish line. You know how to open a frozen yogurt shop and there’s just one more step to take: hosting a soft opening. A soft opening is a form of trial run.

It allows you to test out your menu, customer service, and atmosphere. Most importantly, it allows you to gather feedback and make the necessary changes before your grand opening.

This is typically an invite-only event that takes place one week or many weeks in advance of your grand opening. Invite your friends and family and have your employees invite theirs too.

Leave a feedback box and form in a visible area and encourage the attendees to be brutally honest about their experience.

• In 2024, the global market share of frozen yogurt was estimated to be around USD 1.87 billion, with the United States controlling 47.41% of that share.  

• Frozen yogurt business profit typically yields margins of between 15%-20%. Of course, that is dependent on a number of factors, including location, demographics, quality of products, etc. 

• In the United States, frozen yogurt shops churn out an average annual revenue of $750,000 and $800,000. 

• Frozen yogurt shop owners generally see annual earnings between $100,000 and $200,000. 

Opening a frozen yogurt shop can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $700,000, depending on the scale of the operation. Now, let’s get to the nitty-gritty of frozen yogurt business startup costs.

 These include everything from finding the ideal location to purchasing energy-efficient appliances. Each step needs careful planning: 

• Securing prime real estate in a location with high traffic in an urban area will set you back anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 per month, which is dependent on the area and the demand for your product in that area. Open one near a retail mall, close to a gym, or on a college campus or elementary school. Gaining recurring clients and building client loyalty is paramount to your goals. 

• Another substantial initial cost is going to be frozen yogurt equipment. Specialized frozen yogurt machines and energy-efficient yogurt equipment are necessary for quality and consistency. These goods typically cost between $15,000 and $30,000, depending on their features and capacity. 

• Another expense is the initial stock of ingredients and toppings. It can cost between $3,000 and $5,000 up front to purchase organic ingredients, probiotic-enhanced cultures, and a variety of different toppings. 

• Licenses, permits, and insurance are also initial expenses that you will incur. To safeguard your investment and prevent expensive interruptions, it is important to set aside an adequate budget for a food establishment licence, health department inspections, and liability insurance. These can cost anywhere between $5,000 to $10,000. 

• Branding and marketing costs should not be ignored. You should budget between $10,000 and $25,000 for these activities, regardless of whether you are investing in traditional print media, social media marketing for a frozen yogurt business, or a full branding campaign. This investment is necessary to draw in a health-conscious, urban consumer who appreciates both style and quality.

Before opening a frozen yogurt shop, you should know that the main options are a full-service set-up, a self-service setup, or a food truck set-up. This decision will shape your daily operations, business structure, and customer experience.

Self-service setups are generally becoming more popular because of their many benefits, which include reduced labour expenses, a more engaging customer experience, and improved operational efficiency.  

• Mobile frozen yogurt truck – These trucks work best in locations that attract a lot of people. Concert halls, parks, and festivals are all excellent examples. The primary advantage of a mobile truck is that it is easy to move from location to location without restrictions. Remember that laws in various states and counties must be considered if you’re thinking about purchasing a mobile frozen yogurt truck. 

• Self-serve frozen yogurt shops – The idea is that customers make their own cups with whatever yogurt and toppings they want. Once done, they make their way to the checkout counter, where the cup is weighed and the customer is charged by the ounce. One major advantage of this concept is that it requires fewer employees, hence reducing overhead expenditures. 

• Full-service frozen yogurt shops – This is where an employee fulfills orders for customers. The customer walks to the counter and makes their choices from a menu. Some advantages of this method are that less product is wasted, and you have more control over the customer experience. 

To make money at a frozen yogurt shop, focus on marketing your business to new and returning clients, lowering costs, and keeping the menu fresh and interesting. Here are some ideas you can try:

• Target new and returning customers with dedicated promotions: Whether you’re encouraging new customers to place their first order with a 10% discount or rewarding customers who have ordered at least 5 times with a free dessert, GloriaFood’s promotions module can help you create targeted promos in just a few clicks.
• Lower food costs by keeping track of your inventory: Use the first in, first out (FIFO) method to ensure that you use all ingredients before they expire. Keep track of menu items stock in the GloriaFood POS so you know when it’s time to repurchase and avoid over or underordering.
• Rotate yogurt and topping flavors according to seasonality or food trends: Persuade customers to come back to try your new flavors, while still keeping fan favorites on the menu. With GloriaFood’s menu builder, you can add new menu items, remove old ones, update prices, descriptions, and more in just a few clicks, without the need to keep reprinting old menus.

Remember, starting any new business venture can be a daunting task. However, with everything laid out, you now have a plan for how to open a frozen yogurt shop. Next, it’s time to do the footwork.

Let us know what the first yogurt flavour you’ll be adding to the menu is – we’re dying to know! 

To discover more tips & tricks that can help you as you set up your frozen yogurt shop, check out the resources below.