New Small businesses are launched everyday by well meaning entrepreneurs full of lofty hopes for grand success. And just as many small businesses fail everyday, leaving the owners despondent and broken, wondering what happened to their beautiful dream?
Why does one business succeed, while another withers and dies? Is there some magic ingredient, some perfectly balance equation guaranteeing small business success? As the old saying goes: “the devil’s in the details,” and so often, a tiny detail can make all the difference. Timing, offering the right product, launching your business in the right location, providing unparalleled customer service – any one of the elements, or a combination of them all, can tip the scale of success in your favor, making the ultimate difference between success and failure. West LA based Toppings frozen yogurt is one of those businesses that seems to have discovered the aforementioned magic ingredient and developed the perfect equation for small business success.

Toppings (kosher frozen yogurt), a thriving West Los Angeles small local business, has tapped into an undeserved niche in a predominately Orthodox Jewish West LA community and scored big time selling kosher frozen yogurt. Toppings phenomenal success is the the subject of this week’s Local Business Blitz in the first ever Marketing Expertise: Small Local Business Profile

FroYo has Jumped the Shark

Frozen yogurt has – in  the words of Jon Hein – Jumped the Shark. (Read as: frozen yogurt stores are dime a dozen, and come and go quicker than the seasons.)
Let’s be honest, no one does FroYo better than Pink Berry. Yogurtland gives it the college try, and comes 2nd with their “self-serve” concept (unfortunately imitated ad nauseum by every fly-by-night frozen yogurt joint), but Yogurtland still pales in comparison to the froyo juggernaut that is Pink Berry. Beyond that you’re left with a bunch of local joints, ranging from quite good to downright terrible, each fighting for a piece of the pie and trying to stay afloat in a crowded marketplace.

Kosher Cuisine Offers the Perfect Niche

But not so in the predominately Orthodox Jewish West Los Angeles community situated on the south-east edge of Beverly Hills, in the less than creatively named Beverly Hills Adjacent neighborhood. The area’s Orthodox Jewish domination makes this locale ideal for restaurants and food service providers catering to the orthodox community’s Kosher dietary restrictions. This unique community features all the Kosher cuisine you can imagine (and more):

• Kosher Pizza (Nagila)
• Kosher Chinese Food (Chick’N’Chow)
• Kosher Burger Joints (Elat Burger)
• Kosher Subway
• Kosher Italian Food (Pat’s)
• Kosher Deli (Factors Famous Deli)
• Kosher Candy Stores (Munchies)

And of course, Kosher frozen yogurt – which is where Toppings joins our story.

Kosher FroYo Makes a Big Splash in West LA

Debuting in the summer of 2008 on high-rent retail focused South Robertson Avenue, Toppings launched employing the oft imitated “self-serve” format, in which pricing is based on the combined net weight of your froyo and toppings (thank you Yogurtland). Featuring an all Kosher menu (remarkable easy to do with froyo), Toppings offers six flavors daily (which cycle in and out depending on popularity and demand) and about two dozen toppings.
The reaction?
In a word – Toppings was a HIT!
Orthodox Jewish or otherwise, neighborhood residents flocked to Toppings. The lines were long and steady, the seating area was constantly packed to capacity, and supplies were routinely running short. The word-of-mouth buzz was off the charts.
And Toppings made this all happen with nothing more than a “coming soon” sign in the window, and a grand opening event (also promoted with a simple sign in the window). No website, no neighborhood mailings, no flyers – basically using none of the media or tactics I would prescribe for any new small local business looking to make a big splash in their chosen neighborhood.  To this day, Toppings only maintains a very sparse  “temporary website” seemly motivated by their expansion to a second location in the Los Angeles coastal neighborhood of the Pacific Palisades.

Three Keys to Toppings Success

So how did they do it? How did this fledgling frozen yogurt store (by all accounts a played out retail concept) founded using the life savings of a husband and wife team (with no prior business experience) succeed? And not only “succeed,” but become one of the communities most prosperous small businesses?
Topping’s success is predicated on three key factors:

The Three “Ls”: LOCATION –  LOCATION – LOCATION

Opening  their business in the high-rent retail district situated along South Robertson Avenue (between Olympic Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard, on the border of Beverly Hills, Beverlywood and SoRo) was a very risky proposition, especially with an unproven business concept and inexperienced operators.
This high profile location, however, proved to be an incredible boon to their business. Everyone in the neighborhood routinely travels this section of Robertson, both on foot or by car, and once the Toppings buzz got going and the lines started growing, every passerby was itching to know what was up with all the hubbub. And once they discovered Toppings delicious froyo goodness, the kept coming back, and told their friends too!
A risky move, but a risk that paid huge dividends.

Niche

In the words of Marketing Guru extraordinaire and bestselling author Seth Godin, Toppings discovered their very own Purple Cow:
FroYo is nothing new.
Neither is self-serve froyo.
Moreover, kosher food service in this predominately Orthodox Jewish neighborhood  is certainly nothing new. And many of the community’s Kosher food service establishments have failed.
But the kosher frozen yogurt concept in this niche market proved to be the perfect formula for small local business success!

Toppings hit on an unversed niche in a wide open marketplace and they ran with it, taking the ball all the way into the end zone (and I’m pretty sure they’re still doing a touchdown dance).

Otherworldly Customer Service

It’s tough to say which of the “three keys” are most vital element of Topping’s success. I can tell you, however, that without the otherworldly customer services of Toppings husband and wife ownership team, they would never have reach such enviable heights.
Having sunk every their every last penny into the business, the duo were forced to  operate the store all by themselves (with a occasional staffing help from their parents). But here again, this “limitation” paid off, as they are two of the warmest, most down to earth people you will ever meet in your life. Both remember your name every time you walk through the door, chat you up about the latest goings on in your life, ask for your opinions and advice on new flavors and toppings, and generally make you feel like you just stepped into your living room to enjoy some delicious frozen yogurt.
Perhaps you can chalk it up to desperation, because financially speaking, they had no option but to succeed. But if you ever meet these two beautiful people, you’ll find their sincerity genuine – an attribute you can’t fake – no matter the circumstances.
Tweet them up.  follow them on Facebook. Or peruse one of their 100+ 4-5 star Yelp reviews, and I think you’ll see what I mean.
If you’re ever in the area, stop by, the frozen yogurt’s great and the owners, are a joy to meet – they immediate make you feel like you’ve been best friends for decades.