A WOMAN has revealed how she decided to quit her corporate job working in sales to follow her dream in buying her own ice cream van.
Forget having a standard van, Natasha Salter, 33, from Bristol, now stands out from the crowd with not one, but two bright pink vehicles.
Two years, Natasha was keen to shake things up and try something new in life.
She told Fabulous: “ I worked for Mercedes Benz of Bristol as a new car sales executive for 5 years.
“The job became more challenging and less enjoyable during the pandemic, it also became harder to make good money so I decided to take the leap and try something new.”
Natasha said she got the idea to buy an ice cream van after meeting her partner.
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Natasha added: “I actually met my boyfriend Salvatore on the van, although I was the customer.
“He was parked up in my local town and I went to buy an ice cream and ended up with a date, and little did I know a whole change in lifestyle after a while.
“My boyfriend who is a third generation Italian ice cream man is an expert in the field and helped me source and renovate my van.
"I went for pink to make it as girly and pretty as possible, as it wasn’t my first choice for a career I wanted to put my stamp on it as much as possible."
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Natasha set up her iCandy Bristol ice cream business in 2021 and hasn't looked back.
She added: “I think my friends, family and former colleagues thought I was crazy.
“Going from what appeared to be a steady professional job, wearing suits and getting a lovely company car to serving ice cream from a pink van and wearing pink crocs daily.”
And it’s not just the pink van which attracts attention, and being a female ice cream seller does mean she can stand out from the crowd.
Natasha has racked up 48,000 likes making fun TikToks from the van on her @icandybristol account, with some men calling her “stunning” in the comments.
She added: “I get the odd flirtatious customer but nothing too bad.
“I get the occasional person who assumes I’m just a driver or a worker and if they have a query ask about ‘the boss’ and assume there’s a man in the background somewhere.”
Natasha said that it can be costly to set up a new van properly and added: “A brand new whippy machine costs upwards of £10,000 alone.”
Her best selling ice cream is perhaps what you’d expect it to be.
She added: “Everyone loves the classic 99, so a Mr Whippy ice cream with a flake and sauce.
“I sell them for £2.50 each.
“I get told very regularly how reasonable that is and how expensive the competition can often be.
“I think it’s important to look after my loyal customers especially during this cost of living crisis.
“I do get the odd person moaning about it not being 99p but I don’t think it’s been that cheap even in my lifetime.”
Natasha said the job enables her to go down to working just three days a week over the winter months, but she does have to work harder in summer to compensate.
Natasha, who gave birth to baby Luciano three months ago, explained: “I work full time from April to October.
“I look to go out a minimum of six days a week or seven if it’s good weather.
“As the winter comes I usually go down to three days a week.
“I had a baby in March of this year however so I’m juggling being a new mum and running the business at the same time.”
Natasha has been so successful that she now operates two pink vans, and her and her partner have four between them.
She continued: “I thought it looked quite calm and easy as a job but the hours of cleaning, organising, restocking etc is actually very long.
“The actual driving about selling ice cream is lovely but what goes on behind the scenes is a big operation.
“Between me and my partner we are running four vans, trips to the cash and carry and deep cleaning them all takes hours and needs to be done when we aren’t on the road so lots of late nights and very early mornings.”
When she first started out, Natasha said she had a few ice cream mishaps that resulted in Mr Whippy going everywhere.
She joked: “I was taking apart my Whippy machine at the end of a long day and forgot to release the pressure from the machine.
“When I took the lid off a whole gallon of fresh cream shot out the top and hit the ceiling and rained down on me and everything else.
“It was hilarious but took me three hours to clean. There was fresh cream in every crevice imaginable!”
Natasha works in Bristol, but said each van has its own “patch” and people get “very territorial” if you work in their section.
She said: “It’s an unwritten rule that you don’t go into someone else's area.”
In one funny TikTok, she said the “war was on” when she found herself in the same park as her partner.
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And Natasha has no plans to slow down with her ice cream business.
She said: “I will carry on with the van, I’d love to one day open an ice cream parlour and have a more fixed location but I think that might be a project once I’m not trying to juggle a newborn.”
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