Today we’d like to introduce you to Wade Rubinstein.
Wade, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I wanted to spend time on something that would make a positive difference in the world and specifically within my community. In my previous profession, as a systems engineer, this sense of purpose was lost on me. I was in telecom, so the job was ultimately about communications, but the interaction with the final consumer was very distant. However, with ice cream the interaction and the feedback are instantaneous. You get the smiles and you get great feedback in the community.
I asked myself, “What do I want to do with my life?” and ice cream came to mind as a great opportunity to create something that I really love. As I thought about it more, I realized that my community in Concord, MA, had no ice cream shop in West Concord. So I started to talk to people in the community, and several people I talked with said, “I had thought of starting an ice cream shop in West Concord” or “I would love to open an ice cream shop.” I talked to many people who said that this is their dream as well. In fact, a task force in Concord had done a survey of what people wanted in the community and the number one thing people wanted in West Concord was ice cream; that was number one on the list.
Things seem to happen for a reason and the pieces were coming together. I was thinking about ice cream, the community was thinking about ice cream. Opening Reasons to be Cheerful was a high risk. It was totally different from what I had done in the past, but by then I had been thinking about it, dreaming about it for many years. And, you know, sometimes you just have to fulfill your dreams and Reasons to be Cheerful was my opportunity to fulfill my dream.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This is my first attempt at a food and retail business, which means that I’ve had to learn everything along the way. I have been fortunate to meet several people with more knowledge than me in this area. In particular, my ice cream maker who has immense experience in the food business and is just incredible. When I first started planning to open the store, I worked with many other local ice cream shop owners who helped me learn the ins and outs of what it takes to run one in New England. Fortunately, New Englanders eat more ice cream than anyone else in the world.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Reasons to be Cheerful – what should we know?
Reasons to be Cheerful has been voted Concord’s best ice cream for the past six years (every year we’ve been open). We make all of our ice cream (plus sorbet and yogurt) on-site in small batches every day all year long, which allows us to make exciting new flavors available weekly. From our ice cream, we can make any flavor into a frappe or malt, add some whipped cream and homemade hot fudge for a sundae, or swirl it with any topping for a signature Swirl Freeze. As a dessert cafe, we also offer fresh baked cookies! And for those who need an extra kick in the morning, we make coffee every day using beans from another local business, Karma Coffee Roasters.
A large part of our business is found in ice cream cakes. Rachel, our decorator, creates beautiful cakes from the same ice cream we serve every day. She does everything from So Simple (and No Cookies) to elaborate Star Wars cakes. You should check out the gallery of her work on our website if you’re having a birthday soon. There’s no better way to celebrate!
Our involvement in the community is probably what I am most proud of. Reasons to be Cheerful is a neighborhood cafe where you can connect with people and enjoy the sweeter things in life.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
The mission here is to put a smile on every customer’s face. That mission is what motivates me. It’s literally my mission statement because that’s our job.
There are four things that I came up with for our primary values at Reasons to Be Cheerful and I ask questions around those values. The four values are safety, customer satisfaction, product, and consistency.
In terms of safety, the questions I ask is “How can I make this a safe environment for my employees and my customers?” Maintaining a safe environment for the employees and customers involves a lot of training so another question I ask is “How can I best train my employees?” To that end, we have management ServSafe certified and are continually training our staff in the best practices for food and customer safety.
The next value is customer experience which requires outstanding service. You know the saying that “The customer’s always right.” I convey that to my employees and I want customer service to be 100% satisfactory. I frequently ask the customers how their experience was and what we could be doing better. If the experience is positive for the customer, the chances are they’ll be back a dozen times in a year. Over the course of 10 years, they’ll be here a hundred times. It’s a multiplier. I constantly ask if we’re doing right by customers. Reasons To Be Cheerful treats customers like people instead of sales and we hope to continue to build positive relationships. Occasionally we do receive negative feedback, which we use as a learning experience and turn it into a positive one.
Reasons to Be Cheerful’s third value is the product. I want the product to be phenomenal, and it is. I want my employees and customers to love our ice cream so much that they tell all of their friends about it. To do that, we have to make our ice cream as good as it can be which means we’re not cutting corners. Here is where we have to ask, “How can we make this product good?” and then “How can we make it better?” I’m always looking at, and sampling, our ice cream to make sure we’re putting our best flavors forward.
The last point is consistency, meaning that the customer experience should be the same from one scoop to the next. Consistency comes in two parts, the actual ice cream and the experience around it. We’ve succeeded in making Concord’s best ice cream and we’ve never forgotten the customer and are always working to make the customer experience better. We want our shop to be so good that customers bring their friends to try their favorites.
Contact Info:
- Address: 110 Commonwealth Ave
Concord, MA 01742 - Website: www.cheerful-reasons.com
- Phone: 978-610-6248
- Email: wade@cheerful-reasons.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/cheerfulreasons
- Facebook: facebook.com/reasonstobecheerful
- Twitter: twitter.com/cheerfulreasons
- Yelp: yelp.com/biz/reasons-to-be-cheerful-west-concord
Image Credit:
Tyler Smith
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
