We grew up here and are proud to be locals who love the Mount’s energy – the sun, the surf, and the sense of community. That’s why we’ve built Yomi as a space to chill, hang with friends, and where everyone can enjoy something that makes them feel good.
What inspired you to start the business?
I worked at the Department of Conservation (DoC) for seven years as a project manager, and after all of the redundancies and funding cuts I just started thinking about something else. I lived in Australia for quite a few years and we go over there all the time because my sister lives there. Frozen yoghurt and acai bars are all the rage in Australia, and every time we’d visit we thought it would be awesome to have in the Mount.
After a bit of research, more trips to Australia, and my wife having our first child, the idea just kept evolving and evolving until we opened the business.
Yomi’s Mount Maunganui store has seven different frozen yoghurt flavours, as well as acai, along with a buffet of different topping options.
How does the store work?
So Yomi is self-serving. We have machines with seven different frozen yoghurt flavours, as well as acai. You can pick as much or as little of what you want, and then there’s all of the toppings.
We’ve designed the toppings bar so everyone can build their bowl their way. We’ve got a freezer section full of frozen fruits for that classic smoothie bowl feel, then a fridge section stocked with fresh fruits and premium yoghurts. We also have a crunch zone, as well as a sweeter section. Healthy if you want it, indulgent if you don’t.
We’ve also got coffee from Supreme. Compared to our other competitors which are more focused on the afternoon, we open at 7am, so we thought that if we really want to tap into that breakfast market it makes sense to do that as well.
How are you balancing the business with starting a family?
My wife loves it, she’s the one who designed everything and the one that makes everything look good. She’s been super supportive, and brings down our little baby all the time. He is the chief taste tester at the moment. She’s actually a pilot and will be heading back to work soon which is exciting, but all of our family lives here so we’ve got our parents to help out. My dad’s become like a fulltime employee.
Yomi, founded by Michael and Rachel Sparrow, is a self-serve frozen yoghurt and açaí bar where you can create exactly what you’re craving.
What’s been the biggest highlight since you started the business?
Probably just how the community has gotten around us. There’s been lots of people on social media raving about us, and over the past few weeks we’ve had quite a few businesses reach out to do collabs and stuff, which is pretty awesome. We’ve had queues out the door most of the last seven weeks since we opened, which has been really good.
There’s definitely been a couple of hiccups, especially with suppliers as we didn’t realise how big the demand was going to be. The first couple of weeks we thought “Yep, we’re going to run out of frozen yoghurt tomorrow”. Mango is our most popular flavour and we just keep running out because our supplier runs out, so it’s definitely been a learning curve to over order.
What would be your advice to a budding entrepreneur wanting to start a business?
I’d say three things. First thing is to do your research. We have 70 toppings and for each one I had to go to multiple suppliers to figure out price differences and things, which took a really long time.
Second thing is surround yourself with people who know what they’re doing. I’ve never run a business before, let alone a hospitality business, so it pays to get help.
The last thing is probably the more money you put into something, the more it pays off. It’s scary to invest upfront, and we were trying to cut costs everywhere, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Do you have a small business story you want to share? Send your pitches to tom.raynel@nzme.co.nz.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.