When I was a kid, my favorite item from the Ice Cream Truck (aka The Ding-Ding Man) was the banana popsicle. There was nothing like it for a refreshing treat on a hot summer day.
I recently re-discovered them in the grocery store where they’re sold in bags of 18 for the unbelievably low price of $2.28 — just 12 cents each.
Frozen water and flavoring may be cheap but think of all the businesses that need some fraction of that fraction of a dollar. The company needs to pay the workers who make the popsicles and the central office that hires and pays those workers, industrial equipment, the electric bill, water, freezers, and flavoring. The frozen mixture needed to be formed around sticks, wrapped in cellophane, bagged in plastic — and someone had to pay for all that. It was shipped — via a more costly refrigerated truck — and placed on retail shelves, requiring payment to the drivers and their rig, the stockers, the sellers, and all the infrastructure that surrounds those purchases. How many popsicles did they have to sell to make this a worthwhile venture?
Before you set out to offer a program or service, keep the big picture in mind. Frozen water and banana flavoring may cost next to nothing, but the additional costs to make it a viable product are great. Similarly, it may be tempting for you to offer something that “doesn’t cost anything” in the immediate moment, but unless you can offset the investment of resources in the whole process you may be better off letting someone who can do it at volume take the lead. Sometimes, enjoying the fruit of another’s labor is best.
