What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business?
Here is a checklist to start a food truck business, so welcome to marketing food online. In this video, I want you to give me 15 minutes of your time and I'm going to give you the 30 steps. That's right, 30 steps covering everything you need to know if you want to open a food truck business. We're gon na get to those 30. All right, so welcome back to marketing food online, guys. If you are looking to create a food truck business, this video was probably the best video I have ever made about food truck businesses, getting started, understanding what you would need to do, and literally being honest about every single step. Give me 15 minutes and I'll walk you through the 30 things you need to know to successfully launch your food truck business and start making money. So let's dive right into it. I don't want to waste any time. Make sure you hit the subscribe button and the bell notification if you're brand new to our channel.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
Let's get to this list at number one. Check your experience in working with food right off the bat. If you are not used to the food industry at all, if you're brand new to the food truck industry, or even just food in general, you may love to cook at home. You may have some experience cooking for friends and family, but make sure you check your experience if you don't have the type of experience that you think you are secure enough to start a food truck and get some training if you need to work with a food truck to start with before you even launch one. There's nothing wrong with checklist checking your own checklist of what you know and what you don't know. It's a good thing because if you dive into a food truck business not knowing certain things, you could have been better off if you got a little bit more experience. There's nothing wrong with that. So number one, check your experience in the food truck or food industry. Number two, your food truck business name, so you need to check and verify that the name of the food truck you're trying to get is not already taken or is one that's already branded or trademarked. Number two is to ensure that you run a name check. Check a business day check in your state to find out specifically if that name is already taken.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
And of course, if it is, then you have to go to plan B and figure out a different name. There's a lot of food trucks that actually dive into creating a business. They need to have a food truck name check done for the business itself. So don't try to create anything beyond this point. And number two, the most crucial step, is, of course, finding out if the name you want to use is already taken. Number three, register your company. So make sure you have a business license in the city and the county where you will be working. The reason why I say city and county or county is dependent upon where you are going to incorporate and create your business. If you're within city limits, You may have to just check with your city. There's a certain county that you're living in. That may be the county you need to go into. So double check and make sure you've got the right business license in the right city or county that you're actually in. Number four. The most important thing, crucial to all your financials moving forward, is to open a business bank account for the food truck business. Now you need to, of course, check numbers two and three prior to doing this. So number four is your business bank account. If you are just a sole proprietor and you're just starting your own food truck business, don't incorporate your personal accounts with your business accounts for accounting purposes and tax purposes.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
That's going to be a little bit of a problem, okay? You want to separate your transactions for your business from anything related to your personal account. Four. Open that business account. Five. Secure a POS system hardware. So number five is also very important, because a lot of food truck owners, especially when they first start out, just want to take cash for whatever reason. But you really lose out on the opportunity even though there are transaction fees. Of course, there's a POS system. They're really, really beneficial in many ways. Some of these POS systems can also run information and even excel spreadsheets showing you data on what's selling well on your truck and what's not selling well on your truck. These are great to have for inventory purposes. They even integrate perfectly, with integration with inventory of what you have on the truck at a certain event. So when you go back to the same event, you can focus on what really sells and what doesn't. If you have a variety of food items that you're selling, many POS systems nowadays actually keep track of that. That data, that information, is really crucial for you to scale your future business. secure a POS system hardware, so that would be the actual unit where someone inserts their debit or credit card into it.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
That's the POS system that you need to get. Number six, you need to get a POS merchant account. Now to help you guys out by the way, all of this information I have down here, if you're not familiar with the hardware, or even how to get a merchant account, I'll have links in the description down below to help you get all of this equipment, all of these services to make it super simple for you. Okay, so number six: apply for your POS merchant account. Damian, what does that mean? He just told me to get the hardware. Well, when you get the physical hardware, the unit where the card will be inserted, You also have to have a POS merchant account that's going to be the processor for the POS unit. Okay, so as an example, you might be familiar with PayPal. Okay, so for anyone who transacts anything, there has to be a company that handles the transaction itself. The hardware will be nothing if you don't have a merchant account because it won't function. So you need to make sure you apply for what's known as a POS merchant account.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
Number seven, Application for Taxpayers' ID for your business. Make sure that your business has a taxpayer ID now. In a lot of cases, if I'm not mistaken, it's an employer identification number. This is going to be purchased, not purchased. Actually, you get this directly from the IRS website. The EIN stands for employer identification number. It's kind of a social security number for your food truck business. That's going to be the way that the IRS distinguishes your specific business. If your food truck business has a unique business entity itself, Number eight, food truck registration as a commercial vehicle Now, keep in mind that this actually varies slightly. Every county and city is a little bit different. But as a food truck owner, you may have to actually register your vehicle as a commercial vehicle. Not simply as a commercial, not as a generalized truck itself, or a vehicle. So it could have a specialized vehicle operated commercial registration, okay, so double check. In most cases, that's going to be true everywhere we go, but there might be some variations out there.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
Number nine, obtaining a food handler's certificate, Now, 99.99% of the time, you will be required to obtain a food search certificate, as will your employees or those working with or for you.Damian, what does that mean? Well, if you go to a restaurant, most of the time you'll look on the wall, and when you go to the restaurant, you're going to be graded by the health department. Number one, then you're going to see a certificate known as ServSafe, which is the biggest one, I think, in the US. ServSafe is a company that issues food handlers' certification. It's basically a course to help you understand how to handle, prepare, store, and keep food in order for it to be safe for people to consume. Okay, to put it simply, a food handlers certificate program covers sanitation practices, keeping items refrigerated at what temperatures, keeping an eye on the freezer, handling food properly, and cooking to the proper temperature. tip, make sure you have the correct type of driver's license for your commercial vehicle. This is something that is super unique only to you, of course, the food truck industry. Believe it or not, The Department of Motor Vehicles will actually issue a specific type of license for a food truck. Now, you need to keep these two very, very important, super important guys in mind.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
If you have an employee who's driving your vehicle and they are just licensed non-commercial vehicle and they get into an accident or something happens, God forbid, but if they do, that does happen. That could be a huge potential problem. For you, as the future owner, if you're not there, if you're not the one driving. So ensure that everybody who is driving the vehicle has this type of license so you don't have any problems. Number 11. Now in each city and county that you operate in, you may actually need to have a permit for a business license, and number 11 is to ensure that you've got the right business license for the city and county you want to be in. You may have to because if you drive over a city line or county line, you may have to do that. Number 12 is a no-brainer when it comes to truck insurance policies for your company. Simply put, your business needs to have a liability insurance policy in place and you need to make sure that you have at least the state minimum for that food truck business. Number 13. If you have an office, keep in mind that you may have an office somewhere, which is actually a great idea because you can write this off as a tax expense.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
Don't operate necessarily from home if you can rent a small space and you can use that as an additional write-off for your business. You're going to have furnishings, office equipment, and all that as well. So keep that in mind. You need to function as a legitimate office, so you may have to invest in office furniture for your food truck office. Number 14, market research. So check the area where you want to produce your food products out of your food truck. Be sure to try to create something that's not in existence. If you have an opportunity, Go to different food truck events to see what's around in your community. Try to create something that's unique that no one else is doing or take your own spin on something that's old. If you want to do hot dogs, don't just do hotdogs, do something that's really unique or high-end, a lot of toppings, you know, create something that's unique, but market research will help you create a menu that's not like everyone else. Number 15: investment funding, so funding funding funding, you need to figure out how you're going to buy your future business, whether you're going to access credit cards, loans, or even family or friends.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
There's nothing wrong with checking with other people if they want to. If they believe enough in your business, let them invest in it. But also tell them, hey, I'm going to generate some sales and I'm going to pay you back with interest. That's going to help people like family or friends know that this is legitimate. This is serious, and you're going to do everything you can to succeed. Number 16 You can apply for bank loans for your startup, but actually do not. There are specific rules for food trucks and even food truck startups. Try to get yourself a bank loan if you can use other people's money and get a great rate. Hey, why not? Number seven is to create an employee handbook. Now, this doesn't have to be 7000 pages, guys. But if you have employees, or if you're looking to create jobs and have others work for you, an employee handbook is simply stating Hey, this is what I expect from you for cleaning. This is the process I'm going to implement and we're going to have for serving our food and storing the food. This is the type of customer service we expect. You can do that. As a matter of fact, you can Google it and you can download free templates of employee handbooks and then use that as a basic generalized understanding of what's being responded to with respect and what needs to be done for them on their behalf. So understand that every employee and you're going to have expectations. If you can spell that out in an employee handbook, you're going to be better off for it. And what about number 18?
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
Next up, the food truck logo. Obviously, you're going to have a brand. You're going to create a business brand. You want to have a food truck logo? So if you can't create one, check the links down below. You can go to fiverr.com or go to some of these Upwork websites and have one made for you for like 4050 bucks. It doesn't have to be expensive. You work with a great artist or graphic designer, but you need to have a food truck logo and a brand concept in mind. Number 19 To create a future wrap Now this is the exterior part. This is the part that goes on the outside of the vehicle. Again, you want to incorporate your brand, your logo colors, certain fonts and letters and texts, etc. So, when you start your small business with a food truck, make sure you have a food truck wrap. But again, guess what? I've got links for that as well. Guys in the comments section, even on fiverr.com They have literally companies that specialize in food truck wrap designs. You can get one from them for you. Number 20. Seek and hire a really good chef or cook right off the bat. Now if you want to go the food truck route independently as yourself just starting off, that's great, but I would highly recommend if you can find yourself a good chef or a cook or somebody who wants to do some business on the side, maybe on the weekends and pick up extra hours.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
Get yourself a really good chef because they may have great input and help you create and design a menu that would really help you sell. Don't be afraid to ask for help, creative advice, or creative ideas from others. It's a great way to grow your own business, too. Of course, you need a food truck, but guess what? You don't have to buy one. There are companies out there where you can rent them for a certain period of time to even see, you know, check out and test the waters to see if a food truck business is really right for you. You don't have to invest 6070 HKD 80,000. Don't get scared of all these people saying it's going to cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars to start. No, you can lease or even rent one. Take it out. Try your menu, use it for 678 months and see how it works. There are lease and rent places where you can get a food truck. Next up, number 22. You must buy your cups, cutlery, and other serving accessories, such as utensils and plates, among other things. Keep that in mind. For your budget reasons, you need to understand you're going to have to invest in this right off the front. And these are going to be items that you can obviously dispose of as people use them.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
But you're going to need cutlery and such. 23. creative website Believe it or not, you need to have a website for your food truck. "Because down the road Guess what? You're going to watch the other video that I have here on my channel about merchandise and the multiple ways you can create income streams with one food truck. I did a handful of videos. You're going to check those links out. In those videos, I'm going to explain to you how to create different streams of income while you're at a food truck event. You can be selling merch on a website with you doing nothing. Yes, drop shipping, print on demand websites for your food truck business. Number 24. If you need it, you will have a fire inspection as well. This is kind of like a 99% item that happens pretty much across the board. Fire inspections will most likely cost you between $100 and $200. And what you're going to do is you're gon na have a fire truck probably come in, they're gon na take a look at your truck, ensure that it's wired correctly, ensure that there's nothing wrong with your generators, that they're your equipment and utensils, everything that's in there is properly set up and is working perfectly. Okay, Number 25 Creative menus specific to the type of food you want to serve Don't sit there and force yourself to create a menu and then decide halfway through that you cannot stand.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
If you want to get into a food truck business, create a menu that's something that's fun for you to do. You're going to be doing it for hours every day. Create something that you love to make, that you're really good at, something that you can call your own, because that's going to make your business run much smoother than forcing yourself to produce something that just sells but it's not something you really enjoy making. Next up, number 26. Always have the right documentation on your vehicle at all times. Now keep in mind, if your state, city, or county actually requires specific documentation to be on your truck, which it normally does, you're going to need to have that presence, okay. You need to always have it because a lot of times, if you go to a food truck event, you need to show proof of a lot of things. If you register for an event, they may ask you to You know, God forbid you get into an accident again. You're going to have to have documentation. Make sure that you have these items on your truck. Next up, number 27, inventory log. You need to keep track of what you're selling, guys. Don't just randomly buy ingredients, sell out of a bunch of stuff and not know what's selling and what's not.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
Having an inventory log is something that is a no-brainer, but it's very simple to put together. You can do whatever you want with an Excel; you can create it and ensure that you understand what inventory is coming in and what inventory is leaving, just like any other business. Now I know I said "give me 15 minutes." We're almost there, guys. I've got a couple more and then we're wrapping this up. Make sure that you have a copy of your inspections on your food truck. This is something that now sometimes sporadically leaves, like in the restaurant industry, where the health department may actually show up without notice. And if they need some documentation that you don't have and you know you don't have it on your vehicle, you could get into trouble. So ensure that you have a copy of your inspections as well.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
That kind of goes in with the other one we mentioned earlier. Maintain records with your commissary kitchen that you have been assigned to in our address. What I mean by that is that most food trucks need to have a commercial kitchen, or commissary, as it's called. You need to be attached to one of those. Make sure that you've got that documentation. It's updated to show proof you know the health department pops up. Hey Damien, Where's this documentation? I got it right here. You'd be better off just keeping copies of everything in your car, and you'd be better off. Next up is number 30 social media accounts. You need to be on all the platforms. Yes, even though it's a food truck. They mean, how can I use social media? No, no, no, no. Social media is a huge asset for you. It's going to be a huge thing for you to have your own food truck because you can engage with customers. If you're creating a local brand, get those customers to take pictures and upload them when they're at an event. Give them a reason to give them something free. You know, every picture you upload, that's going to help people know who you are. Give your brand and awareness online and then, like I said, down the road, when you start selling merch, you have websites, ecommerce ties into that social media. right? If your food truck posts videos, pictures, images, updates, and menu items, it must have a social media presence. Hey guys, I'm going to be at this event on January 26. Make sure you're there. Send out pizza information to people who are following you on social media. Lastly, check out online food truck websites. So I actually have a handful of videos here. I'm going to put some links down below where we actually show you additional food truck resource websites that have blogs.
What are some things you need to consider before opening a food truck business
They have additional information about how to sell and how to market not only us here on YouTube, but we've got a lot of great other websites that we did reviews for. We've got videos on that. So these are the 31 things. I actually love it more than 3031 other things that can help you get your food truck up and running. If there's something on here I missed and you guys don't know, let me know down below in the comments if I may have missed it. I don't think I did. I've pretty much covered everything you're going to need to get this up and running. And if you guys have ever had a successful food truck, check out these videos here. Here's some additional food truck information to help you get started with your food truck business. And I appreciate you watching. Give us a thumbs up if this list helped you out. I truly appreciate it guys. I'll see you on the next video. What are some things you need to know?