Deep Dive Into Buena Vista’s #1 Ice Cream Shop: The BeeVe
By Faith Bowen
Have you ever found yourself considering being a business owner? Have you felt like you might be too far along in your academic career to switch over to business? Did you know that you don’t have to go into business to become a business owner? We interviewed Madeleine Wells (owner of The BeeVe), and asked her some questions about her business and how she got it to where it is today. Hopefully this article will help you hear a successful business owner’s experience and encourage you to learn about what it takes to start a prosperous business.
Psychology Major Turned Ice-Cream Shop Owner
Madeleine chose to get her bachelor’s degree in psychology. She originally chose this major because she wanted to pursue a career in therapy. I asked Madeleine is she was still interested in therapy and she replied,
“I do eventually want to pursue therapy but I felt as though opening The BeeVe was what I needed to do after graduation.”
Although it wasn’t your traditional path of getting your typical business degree and then starting up a business of your own, Madeleine is very pleased with her decision to major in psychology. She says,
“Every single person I’ve talked to says that psychology is the second best major in business.”
She says she’s thankful she majored in psychology for two reasons. One, her psychology degree has helped her better understand customers and two, it has helped her communicate with her employees in a very effective matter.
Creating a Community
Madeleine decided she wanted to start her business towards May of 2021 while she was finishing up her degree. Her original intent was just starting a Buena Vista gift shop but realized because of how small BV is, it would be hard to keep up and decided to pair it with delicious ice cream. When Madeleine came to Buena Vista in 2016, she immediately fell in love with the quaint town. Madeleine states,
“When I was a student here, there weren’t a lot of places to come down into the community…I wanted to create a place college students in BV could go to because I didn’t have a place when I was going to school.”
She says one of her main purposes in opening up her shop was her need to give back to the community. In Spring of 2022, she started working and developing her business. Opening day was September 30th, 2022.
Madeleine says the best way to advertise in a small town is word of mouth. She does this by offering magic spoons. Madeliene says,
“It’s important to have distinctive and memorable merchandise. For example, we offer magic spoons that change colors when dipped in ice cream. People are going to talk to their friends about things that they remember and feel are worth mentioning.”
Another way Madeleine is advertising her business is through SVU. She plans on signing a contract with the university to advertise her business at the athletic sporting events. The last main thing Madeleine has done to advertise her business is make the store colorful and inventive. Located at the corner of Main Street, the store aims to catch people’s attention as they pass by.
I asked Madeliene how much time she spends working on her business each day. She said,
“In the beginning it was around 8–10 hours a day but now that she has more of a routine and employee help it has gone down to about 1–2 hours.”
As every business owner does throughout their career, Madeleine has made a few changes to how the structure of her business works.
Small Business in a Small Town
She said the biggest thing that has changed over the past year has been employee management.
“At first, she would kind of just ask people to come in and help once in a while because I physically could not scoop ice cream for 80 hours a week. But throughout the last year, it has kind of developed into writing a full on employee handbook, opening and closing checklists, and new training hire guides.”
She emphasizes the importance of making sure all of her employees know how things work and the specifics surrounding the business.
While opening her business, Madeleine heard countless times that most businesses that fail will fail within the first year.
“You have to know where you stand with your business. Keep your head above water for the first year so it can be successful that first year. Once you’ve made it past that first year, you have a much higher chance of success.”
This first year of being open, Madeleine has worked really hard to stick to this policy. She wants to ensure the sustainability of what the business has to offer and encourages other future business owners to do the same.
Can we give a huge shoutout to Madeleine really quick? Just being able to talk to her and write this article helped me see all the different routes you can take to open up your own business. She mentioned that she didn’t even get her degree in business, which I found extremely interesting. Although she said she wished she would’ve taken more business classes so she didn’t have to teach herself certain things, she is grateful that she chose to major in physcology because she knows that degree helped her get The BeeVe to where it is today.
Her strategy is golden. If you are thinking about opening up your own business, have something specific and special about your shop. What makes your business different from the rest? What’s something about your business that is going to get people talking? Memorable advertising is a crucial element in business success. If there is just one word you remember or take from this article, make it sustainability. Especially that first year of being open, it’s extremely important that you sustain your business.
If you eventually decide business ownership is the pathway for you, I hope you refer back to some of the tips and tricks that Madeleine used to make The BeeVe Buena Vista’s #1 Ice Cream Shop.
