So you think you're ready to start a successful food truck business? I will cover some of the myths around the idea that food trucks are easy, money-making businesses that anyone can do. Welcome to Marketing Food Online, YouTube's premiere food entrepreneur channel. With over 800 food business videos, we give you unlimited access to resources, videos, and more to help you get your food business started. Be sure to subscribe and hit the bell notification to get all our videos every week. Let's get started. Running a food truck has its successes and many more failures.
Food trucks do not magically succeed, nor do they fail out of the gate. Knowing as much about how to succeed can contribute dramatically to your food truck's success. Just because you start a food truck and park it, does not guarantee success. Today, you have to have a mix of food truck cooking skills and social media marketing skills. Have goals that are both realistic and not overly optimistic.You need to pursue the dream, but have a head for reality and work hard, as well as be patient. Running a food truck is easy. To succeed with your food truck, you will need to be on the streets five to seven days a week, week in and week out. If there is any chance to be part of a local food truck event, you should make plans to be there as well. Owning a food truck means working a majority of your waking hours, especially at the start of your business. Running a food truck includes extremely long hours, no matter how good your staff is. The success of your mobile business is directly related to the amount of time and effort you put into running it. Myth:
You can make millions running a food truck. Due to the large number of food trucks within this industry that have been seen popping up everywhere, many believe it's a get fast money scheme within the first year. Yes, food trucks can earn a lot of money. However, most of them typically spend almost all they make. Unfortunately, your fixed costs do not change, and your bills come to you every month. Many food trucks can make large amounts of money, but the overall profits are spent on running the truck and paying the fixed amounts that, like any other business, come every month. Your employees need to be paid as well. Every time a food truck event rolls around, you have to fill it with the needed food, fuel, and food truck business insurance. You will also need to rent a commercial kitchen, which is a huge portion of your expenses. You can earn a decent living as a food truck owner only if you intend to work in the truck. Many people think they'll open a food truck and draw a paycheck without actually cooking, managing, or working at the service window. Just because you have a passion for cooking doesn't mean you should start a food truck.
Having rave reviews about your food from family and friends is one thing, but having a customer who is dishing out hard-earned money to buy your food is another. When a meal is not prepared the way it should be, are you ready for that? Can you handle making a bad experience great? Before draining your savings, 401, or making out your credit cards, try to host a few events for those who are paying customers, not family.
Getting feedback from those who are not in your family will do wonders for your plan, making sure people are willing to pay and enjoy your food. With a little experience, do you think you're ready to run a successful food truck business from the ground up? If you have some expertise in the cooking or chef world, it does not mean that your business side would lead to a successful food truck. Owning a food truck is more than a full-time job. It does not go away when you park the truck. Myth: Having a food truck will make you an overnight celebrity chef. Owning a food truck does have its own mystic to it, but the idea that you're going to be the next Food Network show host is not rooted in reality.
The drive to be a food truck owner should be for the challenge of owning and succeeding in the food truck industry. Myth: Food trucks have numerous advantages over brick and mortar restaurants. Many restaurant owners complain that the food truck industry has lower than normal overhead and costs, giving them a better chance of success. Way before food trucks became popular, restaurants always referred to this as some form of business advantage. Many of the new food truck owners that have come into the industry realize the consumer is looking for a fair value and the business model for most food trucks delivers on this idea.
However, the bottom line is that if food trucks do not serve quality products, their followers will stop showing up, the same way they stop frequenting restaurants that serve inferior products. Myth: The food truck does not pay rent. Running a food truck has its own expenses and they may not be exact like those of a restaurant, but they do exist just the same, like food, employees, licenses, permits, insurance, and numerous others.
Yes, they may be on a smaller scale in dollar amount, but they are still there just the same. Like that of other types of eateries, it all adds up to a lot of money, month in and month out. Food trucks thrive in high-traffic areas. When you can easily pick and move to a new location, you should always have the option of being on transit, and the option is where the money is.
It will always be best to find locations that have high foot traffic, touristic places, and/or large outdoor events. Food trucks do have loyal followers. The difference lies in their devotion, and as shown to date, food truck followers will follow their food wherever it goes. So, if a food truck has a dedicated following, it can go anywhere and operate, thus creating new trendy areas. Running a food truck must be bad for the environment and cause more tie-ups with cars in the community. The local restaurants in the area began to spread the idea that somehow, the food trucks in their communities were to blame for this. But the funny thing is, food trucks operate sitting still and are mostly found at food truck events, not causing tie-ups.
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Because food trucks spend the majority of their operating time parked in a lot or on the street selling their fare, the point of creating more traffic seems moot. Another way to look at this argument is from the standpoint that food trucks use social media to inform customers of their location from day to day. Many of their sales come from people already in the area. The longer the food truck industry is popular, the more likely it is that technology will help it to become greener, too. For example, many trucks around the United States already run their vehicles off the vegetable oil they produce to cut down on oil costs for fuel and emissions. Myth: Food trucks are not inspected by the health department. If you think food truck owners are immune to health department inspections, think again. All food vendors, no matter the type of stationary or mobile, are subject to regular inspections and must follow very detailed guidelines. Food trucks, like many other food businesses, have the following exacting and similar guidelines for health department inspections: Sometimes, these inspections can be random, and those are the ones you have to be ready for. Not all inspections will be scheduled or expected. They can also shut you down for repeated violations and not meeting the guidelines set out by the department. The unique thing about food trucks is that they also have inspections of the commercial kitchens they use. And those also, like the food trucks and/or restaurants, follow the same guidelines. When you operate a food truck and use a certain commercial kitchen and your kitchen has violations, you as a food truck owner can be shut down as well. If you then have to find a commercial kitchen for your food truck business to operate from while the kitchen gets its new inspection and passes, So do you have questions about starting a food truck, or do you have experience that will give us some comments and hints down below? We would love to hear your story. If you have questions, let us know. We'll answer them as quickly as we can. Thanks for watching Marketing Food Online, helping you get your food truck business up and running.
Thanks for watching Marketing Food Online, and if you are looking to create your own food truck, start a home-based food business under the Cottage Food Law, start a packaged food business, private label your own food products, sell on Amazon, get your own online store or sell food online, remember to subscribe and check out these videos for more resources. Take good care of it.