Carl Rupp, Co-Owner of Snowie LLC has been a key player of the shaved ice industry for over 30 years. Between Carl and his brother Gordon, it would be hard to find another two men that have a stronger focus on innovation and improvement. In 1979, Carl Rupp built his very first shack out of cedar wood in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also built his own snow cone machine for the business.

Snowie Shaved Ice grew from one small road-side stand to a world-wide industry over the past 30 years, helping thousands of people start their own small shaved ice business and gain extra income. From one flavor to 50, Snowie has taken the world by storm with cart and kiosk locations all over the United States, Mexico, Canada, and even South America.

Recommended Next Steps:

1. Contact Snowie by calling 1-877-4-SNOWIE (Tell them StartOpp sent ya), or fill out the contact form below.
2. Research locations and events in your area that you feel would be a good selling spot.  Snowie will help you with the rest.

(Full interviews coming soon)

Contact Snowie

One of the greatest challenges that we face in this industry, is trust. There are too many, “get rich quick” schemes that spoil the discovery of true opportunities by real and interested entrepreneurs.

Our mission is simply to eliminate this gap!

The StartOpp Formula

When you view an opportunity that is featured on StartOpp.com, you are gaining insight into four different perspectives of that business.

1. The corporate or creator’s perspective
2. The viewpoint from their number one customer
3. A brand new customer’s perspective
4. and last… your view.

You will first be introduced to the corporate entity. Those who have created the opportunity and know the very ins and outs of the business. The problem in the past, is that you have only been exposed to this side, and really only what they have chosen to say in the form of advertising.

Our videos are very real, yet exciting at the same time. You get to sit down with the very creators and listen to their stories, experiences, successes, and trials. They will answer their most common questions and concerns. They will share their viewpoint on the business, which is usually packed with passion as it was literally created within them. It is crucial for you to witness this perspective, just as crucial, you might say, as possessing a seed when desiring a crop. Yet this is a perspective that you often miss when just speaking with a sales rep over the phone.

Next, you will witness the incredible perspective of the number one customer. This viewpoint is equally as powerful as the corporate perspective, and usually will have some unique takes on the business. It is quite rare for the business to be run exactly like those who originally created it. More minds simply create a better product. It is our experience that when the opportunity is provided as a foundation, people will do incredible things to take their own business to the next level. Sometimes these innovations get shared with the corporate entity, but often they do not. And it is very rare that this information will ever make it to you.Following that perspective you will meet someone much like yourself. Only they are one step further in the process. They have already spent days, weeks, and sometimes months and years on the phone for hours with multiple sales reps, visiting trade-shows, reading online, anything they can do to muster up the courage to take the next step… and buy into that opportunity. You will see how this company has treated them, how they have helped them come to the decision to move forward. You will experience their first days in the business and how they are already taking on their own form.

Lastly, you will get to interact with the featured opportunity by sharing your viewpoints, your knowledge of the business, advice you wish to leave for those interested in this opportunity. You will get to submit further questions that may not have been answered in the video which will be answered by the featured company themselves.

Business Opportunities that choose to be featured on StartOpp.com will be able to have and use the video for their own promotion in any form they wish. They will be featured on StartOpp.com as well as every channel, page, cast, and tweet associated with StartOpp.com including but not limited to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, WordPress, FriendFeed, digg, etc. Their feature will also go out to all subscribers of the video podcasts and blogs. Every video is pre-formatted for the iPhone so it can be viewed online, and also automatically downloaded to subscribers phones for mobile viewing.

If you are a business opportunity/franchise or know of a business opportunity/franchise that you would like to see featured on StartOpp.com please feel free to contact us via our contact page or call 1-864-MY-START

If you are new to the site we welcome you. We make videos about business and franchise opportunities and deliver it to you to evaluate via professional video. Watch our What is StartOpp video to learn more.

People will usually turn to a franchise or an opportunity because they are looking to either free themselves from a world that owns their every moment, or they just lost the security of that world and are looking to replace the comfort that it provided, but not necessarily the lifestyle.

When people begin to make this step, they will often migrate to what they know, what they are familiar with, and where they inherently feel they can succeed. This then naturally gives them a leg up on the success factor. When you combine that with the training and turnkey solutions offered by an opportunity or franchise, they stand a very high chance of succeeding.

Franchises and Opportunities are often a very smart way to begin the venture out on your own, simply because… you are not alone. You are more or less opening an extension of a business that has often been functioning well for many years. While franchises often collect royalties, and people tend to frown on those royalties, you have to take a step back and realize what they are offering you. It is in their best interest that you succeed. There are many reasons for this, but the most obvious two are that you are a reflection on their business as a whole, and they will not be able to collect royalties if you are not profitable.

Although it may sound cheesy, I also believe that passion plays a role. When they talk about franchises and opportunities scaling upwards, they are usually speaking about their expansion, not the extreme success of an individual store. Although I believe they would find that success as each of these new stores maintain a passion that may not be present in older locations.

When something is new, we tend to put everything we have into it. I have a friend that works in the insurance industry. I asked about his early days and he proceeded to tell me about the endless list of cold calls that he dreaded to make each and every day. However, those calls provided him with a clientele that now support his family and lifestyle sufficiently. So why do the cold calls end? Why not continue that pain at least a little longer to enjoy a more lucrative lifestyle?

There are more reasons than we simply want to relax and enjoy those rewards earlier. Maybe we simply do not have time now that our existing clientele consumes it. But I do suggest that there is a level of passion in our business that we no longer possess when time has been our most enduring companion.

One thing we like to point out at StartOpp.com about franchises and opportunities is the fact that businesses always get better when more people are involved. It is one thing to take the basic structure of a franchise which allows someone to stand on the shoulders of another in their very beginnings, and quite another when the culture of those newbies begin to slightly take on an identity of their own and help shape the future entity of the franchise itself. This structure helps to create an immunity for almost any economy.