How a Mission Statement Can Drive Your Small Food Business
You might think that a mission statement is only something a big stuffy company would take the time to write. But this is not the case. Taking the time to think about the ultimate purpose of your business can help motivate you to continue to grow the business and provide a heightened sense of accomplishment. Mission Statement: What is it? According to Dictionary.com, a mission statement is defined as a formal summary of the aims and values of a company, organization, or individual. So essentially, why are you doing what you're doing... In this case in a small food business [...]
A Food Truck Story Worth Passing Around the Table on Thanksgiving
What do you do for your Make-A-Wish when you’ve beaten cancer? If you’re 13-year-old Lucas Hobbs, you step inside a food truck and prepare a free meal for the Minneapolis police. Lucas and the O’Cheeze food truck (think grilled cheese sandwiches) pulled up outside of City Hall, last July, roughly seven months after Lucas went through treatment for Stage 3 Hodgkin lymphoma, according to the Star Tribune. Lucas is now in remission. “Sometimes it’s not that thankful of a job,” the boy said, referring to the job of a police officer. But Lucas hasn’t stopped with police officers. Prior to [...]
Should You Start a Food Truck in Retirement?
As more baby-boomers approach retirement, they begin to ask the question "What's next?" If you're thinking about to retirement and that starting a food truck would be a fun way to make some money, you're right. It can be a terrific way to supplement your income, get involved in serving your community, and build a business on your own terms. But make sure to do your research about the business model first! Consider this hypothetical exchange between a current food trucker and customer for some additional perspective on what building this type of work is involved in starting a food [...]
Dog Treat Trucks Becoming Big Business
(Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/q8DgZ) Humans aren’t the only foodies in town. From Boston to Chicago to L.A., the dogs have upped their game when it comes to cuisine, and the food truck industry is hereby put on notice. Now is the time when owners of “doggie treat trucks” are staking their claim as “first” in their local markets. Many doggie food truck websites have made that claim. Of course, there’s always a bit of risk being first to market, but given how the dogs (and their owners) are responding, it seems like a pretty safe bet. Check out these examples of dog [...]
RAM Sprinter Style Van Food Truck with Low-Profile Hood
Recently there has been a trend towards smaller, even more mobile food trucks. These smaller sprinter-style vehicles can have a few advantages to the business owner: 1.) They are easier to navigate and can be parked in smaller spaces. 2.) If you need to drive frequently for either catering gigs or deliveries, the savings in fuel cost could be in the thousands of dollars per year. This recent build is one such example of a RAM Sprinter Style van food truck with a low-profile hood. As you can see in the video below, the concession window and shelf is built [...]
Food Truck Regular Maintenance Checklist
Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. It’s a mantra that all food truck owners have to live by. The number one issue with mobile vendor costs is not finding a location, keeping food consistent, social media, what have you; I mean, they ARE important issues. But if there’s one bane to your existence, it’s going to be all the times the truck breaks down and all the parts that end up needing to be replaced/fixed. Thus, putting in effort to properly check and take care of your vehicle on top of all your other duties is a heavily important step to curb all [...]
Reader Review: The Food Truck Handbook by David Weber
Probably THE definitive guide, if there ever was one, for an overall span of everything one needs to know in starting a Food Truck business, David Weber’s ‘The Food Truck Handbook’ seems to launch itself as the first go-to resource for every suggestion on the subject. ‘Start, Grow, and Succeed in the Mobile Food Business’ is the moniker given, and from what we can tell through reading through that’s exactly what it well help you do. The text is packed with 34 chapters on basically every subject one can think of regarding the startup, maintenance, running, and growth of a [...]
How to Make Money in the Winter with a Concession Business
As has become so popular to say nowadays, Winter is coming, and for Food Truck owners particularly this shall signal big changes to their work environment, and very important decisions that must be made. We’ve already discussed what needs to be done if choosing to keep your truck in storage to ride out and ignore the poorer winter business Here, but what if you wanted to stay open in the cold season? It’s a difficult road, and even in some of the best cases (and again, this is mainly considering that you’re in a area that actually has cold, snowy [...]
How to Protect Your Food Truck from Theft
By now many in the food truck world have probably heard about the stolen Taco Truck that lead police on an hour long chase from Salinas to Monterey! But what they may not have heard about is the many other thefts and reports which have popped up throughout the years. A Tulsan Family truck which contained all their savings, a Satay truck that was lost and suddenly turned up in Maryland, stories like these aren’t particularly uncommon throughout the country. They’re rather ideal targets for thieves, mostly handling cash sales and often parking in locations without security cameras. Which only goes to [...]
Seven Recipes You Won't Believe Were Made on a Food Truck
You gotta love food from a truck, there’s a reason that we have whole businesses based solely around building, following, helping, and even just plain talking about them! It’s not even about the simple pleasures; chefs far and wide have taken their modern, quality-focused techniques, fresh ingredients, and hardcore work ethics and applied it towards a small-housed operation for amazing prices. Thus was the movement started in cities like Miami and LA about a decade ago, transforming one’s thoughts of an industry filled with nameless white vans touting tacos, burritos, and simple sandwiches to one of creative and exciting intrigue. [...]