My father-in-law generously lent us his snow cone machine so the kids could set up a snow cone stand. They’ve been trying to come up with ideas to earn money and he came up with this great idea. We set it up over the weekend and the kids had an absolute blast! Originally, we planned to run the stand for about 3 hours, but they had so much fun they stayed out there all day. We’ve never used a snow cone machine before so we weren’t quite sure what we were in for. As it turns out, it’s really simple and fun to use. I highly recommend it if you can get your hands on a snow cone machine.
Snow Cone Stand Set Up
For the kids snow cone stand we used this cute market cart I purchased at Target a few years back from the Hearth & Hand with Magnolia collection. The front of the cart has a chalkboard sign which worked perfectly to advertise what we were selling. To write out “Snow Cones $1”, I made a stencil on my Cricut. I simply traced the stencil onto the chalkboard with chalk. I also used my Cricut To make the “Flavors” sign. I printed everything off with white vinyl and added it to a piece of black cardstock.
Snow Cone Machine
We used this Vevor Snow Cone Machine. I was blown away by how simple it was to use. All you have to do is put ice in, turn the power on and push the arm down. Within seconds you’ve got crushed ice. We set up the snow cone machine on a folding table behind the cart.
Supplies
Here’s a list of supplies we used:
- Snow cone machine
- Stand/table
- Ice
- Snow cone cups
- Flavored Syrups
- Spoons
- Napkins
Invite Friends as Helpers
To make this whole experience more fun we invited a couple of the kid’s friends over to help out with the stand. I loved watching them work together as a team. They each had their role and they worked together so well. We had a couple of kids sitting at the cart taking orders and handling the money. The other kids loaded the ice into the machine, crushed the ice, packed it into the snow cone cup & added the flavored syrup. I will say adding the syrup could get a bit messy at times. A better job for one of the older kids 😉.
Sample the Product
Since this was our first time using a snow cone machine we had to test out our product before selling it to others. Thankfully all the kids approved and they were ready for business.
Workers in Action
This was one of my favorite photos from the day. It really shows how much they got into it and hard they worked.
Advertise
My husband made signs and put them up around the neighborhood to help generate business. They worked pretty well, however we realized there are a couple things we could improve on for next time.
- Pick one color for all signs
- Make the signs bigger so they’re easier to read
- Put the hours you will be open for business
Lessons Learned
There are so many great learning lessons from setting up a stand like this. Teamwork, handling money, interacting with customers and working hard to name a few. My husband & I were both so proud of our kids for all the hard work they put into running their snow cone stand. They were eager to help with everything from the initial set up all the way through cleaning everything up at the end of the day. It was a great experience all around! Oh, and in case I forgot to mention it, the snow cones turned out delicious!