When Jerry went back to New York, Ben offered him working together. They wanted to sell bagels; however, the equipment for making bagels was $40,000. For this reason, they had to give up selling bagels. They had a second choice which was making ice cream.
They attended an ice cream making course in Penn State University with $5 tuition. It was actually a correspondence school via mailing. After attending the course, they decided to find a location for the shop. They had two priorities on choosing the location. One was a large college population, and another was a warm weather condition. They eventually chose Saratoga Springs, but while they were collecting enough money to rent a shop, another homemade ice cream shop was opened. For this reason, they had to change the location, and finally they decided on Burlington, Vermont. After choosing the location, they worked on a business plan. Jerry had enough money which was $4000 to invest; however, Ben had only the half amount of $4000. For this reason, he wanted the rest of the money from his father. Ben’s father was happy to give money to his son because he thought that his son was going to be a businessman. Fred Burgess, a local banker, suggested that they needed to sell other things besides ice cream in Vermont in order to sustain the business in the winters. They were convinced, and they put whatever they needed in the described menu including soups, crepes, and brownies and the décor on the business plan. When they finished writing the business plan, which demanded a $20,000 loan, increasing the total amount of investment to $28,000 in the business, the pairs went to Merchants Bank to see Fred Burgess. Fred liked Ben and Jerry’s ideas, intelligence, and willingness, and he wanted to give them a chance to show themselves. After the approbation, co-founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, of Ben &Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream opened their first store on Saturday, May 5, 1978. (Lager, 1994)
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