thread Re: Ask a Super Seller: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

Ask a Square Champion: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

Tom — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 20:58:33 GMT

On August 5th, at 11am PT / 2pm ET, @pessosices hosted a Q&A in the Seller Community. He's been in the food & beverage business for 17+ years and has extensive experience with Square Loyalty, Square Register Hardware, Square Payroll, and Sales Reports. Learn more about his story below:

(view in My Videos)

Hey friends!

My name is Pesso, your Q&A host! I opened up Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream (www.pessosices.com) in Queens, New York, in 2004 with my dad, and we've been running it together ever since.

I'm excited to answer your questions about me, my business, and how I've used Square to expand and improve my business. I've learned a lot from other sellers, so I'm thrilled to be here to give you another business owner’s perspective, and help out where I can.

Here's more about me and my Ice Cream shop:

• My dad and I make every single flavor of our homemade Italian Ices, Ice Cream, and Gelato ourselves, right in the back of our shop. We've come a long way in the last 17 years, and using Square products since 2012 has helped us tremendously.

• My favorite thing about using Square is how I’ve used the Data and Sales Reports to do everything from finding & cutting low performing products, to figuring out our optimal store hours and staffing, and more. We also use Square Loyalty to reward our frequent customers and as an incentive to keep them coming back. This also works great with the Square Register Hardware that has sped up our service tremendously. On the back end of our business, Square Payroll has been an absolute lifesaver to save time on administrative work, so I can focus on ice cream making.

•. I've also been a Square Champion since 2016, which means I've been here in the Seller Community every week since then, answering questions, writing articles, and helping small business owners like yourself.

I'm excited to answer your questions, so feel free to ask me about my experiences in business and with Square. I’ll be replying to your answers within this post, but I’ll be posting a video of myself as a conclusion and roundup.

Thanks for joining, and I’m looking forward to seeing and answering your questions!

-Pesso

P.S. I am just a small business owner like you, so I can't help with any account based questions, but I am great at helping with business strategy ideas and for making Square products work for you!

Example Questions:

How has Square Payroll helped you? Is it worth making the switch?
Square Register looks really cool. How has it been working for you?
Staying in business for 17 years is a huge accomplishment! How did you make it work for that long?

Re: Square Super Seller Q&A: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

pessosices — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 23:26:06 GMT

Thanks so much, @Tom !

I’m super excited to be a part of this and answer some questions from some great sellers!

Re: Square Super Seller Q&A: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

isabelle — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 00:50:49 GMT

Pumped for this @pessosices @Tom ! Great video 📹

Re: Square Super Seller Q&A: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

MJD — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:26:23 GMT

Hey Pesso.

How would you suggest introducing the loyalty programme to my business, or would it fit any business model or are some businesses better off without it?

Thanks for doing this Q&A, Can't wait to hear your answer!

~Matt

Re: Square Super Seller Q&A: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

gypsy50 — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 00:11:57 GMT

I am still learning things about square. Can I scan items to add to my inventory?

Re: Square Super Seller Q&A: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

JustinC — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 12:44:33 GMT

Can't wait @pessosices !!

Re: Square Super Seller Q&A: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

ColdFront — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 14:26:07 GMT

How do I watch this? Fellow ice cream shop owner here, but this is my first time ever clicking on the community page. I'm looking forward to it!

Re: Square Super Seller Q&A: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

Helen — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 15:27:05 GMT

Thank you so much for hosting this Q&A @pessosices! I have a question - this last weekend I noticed a lot of small businesses with 'help wanted/hiring now' signs. What tips can you share for business owners who might be struggling to hire enough staff this summer, and to manage wait times or customers' expectations?

Thanks again!

Re: Square Super Seller Q&A: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

pessosices — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 15:40:48 GMT

Thanks so much, @isabelle ! I'm super excited too!

Re: Square Super Seller Q&A: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

pessosices — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 15:41:12 GMT

Thanks @JustinC ! Me too!

Re: Square Super Seller Q&A: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

pessosices — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 15:42:30 GMT

Hey @ColdFront !

This Q&A is just going to be text-based here on this thread. So ask any question you may have, and I'll answer them all on Thursday. You can follow along live as my answers come in, or hop in afterwards to read all the responses and watch my little conclusion wrap-up video.

Looking forward to seeing what questions you may have and how I can help!

Re: Ask a Super Seller: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

Minion — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 10:57:19 GMT

Hey @pessosices , Looking forward to seeing this! 17 years, that's an achievement. 👊

When you are closed down from October-February, do you use any Marketing campaigns to keep in contact with your customers during your off season?

P.S. If you can Overnight a Sample Pack , (for testing purposes), just six hours north that would be pretty awesome! 😂

Re: Ask a Super Seller: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

porktaco — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 16:06:53 GMT

@pessosices thanks for doing this! Looking forward to tuning in.

Re: Ask a Super Seller: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

HC_Charlie — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 16:11:23 GMT

Hello @pessosices thanks for doing this Q&A, I've already learned a lot from your past articles and feedback in the boards. My question is: was there anything you did/didn't do that maybe held your business back from growing in the early stages of your business? FYI I'm about 2 years into my current retail store location and trying to constantly grow customers as much as I can.

Re: Ask a Super Seller: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

VanKalkerFarms — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 16:17:21 GMT

What is something you wish you could do better in your businesses and how can you achieve that?

What do you feel is holding you down and you wish you could let go from your business (not profitable, takes to much time for the return, etc), and why have you dropped it or not dropped it?

Re: Ask a Super Seller: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

TCSlaguna — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 16:20:18 GMT

Hey @pessosices ,

I was wondering how you use Square Reports to determine the optimal product mix. How do you determine the right balance between providing a sufficient variety of products and proper product turnover? How does customer feedback change your decision?

Thanks for all the input and feedback you provide in the Seller Community. We definitely learn a lot from your experience.

Re: Square Super Seller Q&A: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

BofBArtStudio — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 16:39:24 GMT

Hi Pesso

A couple questions.

How do you track which products don't sell well? The report in Square shows top sellers, but is there a good way to see lowest sellers?

Also, what percentage of sales do you do in cash? How do you track repeat cash paying customers?

Looking forward to your q&a

Re: Ask a Super Seller: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

alexandriak — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 16:43:46 GMT

Hi there!! Can't wait to see what your answers are to some of the above questions!

what are some of your best marketing plans that you've seen return on?

Re: Square Super Seller Q&A: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

homeprogreen — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 17:54:12 GMT

Great idea to do this. I do have a question for you in regards to Square Register and the loyalty program. I just switched over to the register yesterday and 1 thing I noticed with loyalty running on it is it doesn’t give you the automatic pop up asking the customer if they want to redeem the reward they have available like Square Stand used to do. It does prompt customers to enter an email to sign up for marketing emails. Did I miss a setting I need to change for it to work or is this just something that’s not available on Register?

Re: Ask a Super Seller: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

Doran — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 19:27:59 GMT

Super excited about this!

How do you integrate Social Media with Square to market your shop?