Margaret Schankler was a serial entrepreneur with a successful business. Then in 2011 she closed her e-commerce company in Ann Arbor and decided to start something new, an ice cream truck venture.
Hello! Ice Cream specializes in delivering sweet, cold treats from a vintage ice cream truck. The 1-year-old business is enough to employ Schankler and that's just what the Ann Arborite wants.
"One of my goals is to do something that makes people happy," Schankler says. "No one is sad to see your ice cream truck."
She adds that Hello! Ice Cream will be the last business of her career. She spent a year creating a vintage-looking ice cream truck and finding the best recipes to make her own ice cream and other overlooked but important aspects of the business. She is building it one piece at a time, just like every other company she has started.
"I look at a business as a business, it's just a different market," Schankler says.
Hello! Ice Cream has seen an explosion of interest in its first year, according to Schankler. She thought she would be doing mostly farmers' markets and other similar events, but has been overwhelmed by the demand for her to cater private events across Metro Detroit.
"It's something I thought would be a lot of fun, and it is," Schankler says.
Source: Margaret Schankler, proprietor of Hello! Ice Cream
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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