Food Truck Business Guide for Beginners

By Warwick Trucker

Do you have a passion for food, love people, and have daily contact with them? Are you ready to devote yourself exclusively to this passion and work hard to get what you want? Have you ever heard about Food Truck Business and want to discover every single aspect of this new business trend?

 

If the answers are YES, keep reading because this guide is perfect for you!

 

A food truck is equipped with supplies for cooking and selling food. You can sell frozen and prepackaged food or have a kitchen on board to prepare food from scratch. The Food Truck Business is one of the most promising start-ups that are affordable and extremely cheap. 

 

If you want to start a very lucrative business with low capital and love food and people, a food truck business is perfect. Nowadays, most celebrity chefs, budding entrepreneurs, and successful restaurateurs are running this business thanks to the countless perspectives it brings. A food truck is truly a perfect option to free yourself from traditional office or store business activities.

 

In this exhaustive guide, you will discover:

• Why Food Trucks & What Is Food Truck Business
• Reasons Why People Love Food Truck, and then they'll love you
• Food Truck vs. Restaurant
• A Step-By-Step Guide To Writing A Business Plan tailored specifically to your food truck business
• How To Find Your Niche, and why this is essential to your success
• Helpful Common Food Truck Questions Answered

... & Lot More!

 

You may have probably heard that around 50% of start-ups fail in the first year. That number is considerably lower in the food truck market, but knowing how to avoid failure is key to setting up a prolific business.

 

This book is a valuable tool that will help you better plan the management of your business, providing you with updated information on laws, regulations, licenses, authorizations, initial investments, possible earnings, and much more.

 

Failing is impossible if you follow the precious information inside!

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Warwick Trucker
• Release date: May 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781803610573

Book preview

FOOD TRUCK BUSINESS GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS

Discover How to Set Up, Operate, & Manage a Financially Successful Food Truck Operation to Transform Your Passion in a Profitable Job. Detailed FAQs Section

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Warwick Trucker

© Copyright 2021 - All rights reserved.

Warwick Trucker

The content contained within this book may not be reproduced, duplicated or transmitted without direct written permission from the author or the publisher.

Under no circumstances will any blame or legal responsibility be held against the publisher, or author, for any damages, reparation, or monetary loss due to the information contained within this book. Either directly or indirectly.

Legal Notice:

This book is copyright protected. This book is only for personal use. You cannot amend, distribute, sell, use, quote or paraphrase any part, or the content within this book, without the consent of the author or publisher.

Disclaimer Notice:

Please note the information contained within this document is for educational and entertainment purposes only. All effort has been executed to present accurate, up to date, and reliable, complete information. No warranties of any kind are declared or implied. Readers acknowledge that the author is not engaging in the rendering of legal, financial, medical or professional advice. The content within this book has been derived from various sources. Please consult a licensed professional before attempting any techniques outlined in this book.

By reading this document, the reader agrees that under no circumstances is the author responsible for any losses, direct or indirect, which are incurred as a result of the use of information contained within this document, including, but not limited to, errors, omissions, or inaccuracies.

Table Of Contents

Introduction

CHAPTER 1: The Food Truck Business

CHAPTER 2: Reasons Why People  Love Food Trucks

Maneuverable On Wheels

Fast and Moving

Cool Factor with the Taste of Assured Profit

Freedom to Play with the Menu

The Comfort of Parking Anywhere You Want To

Compact Simple and Efficient Kitchen

A Truck Can Go to Where the Clients Are

Compared to an Independent Restaurant Overhead Expenses Are Much Lower

Serving Extraordinary Food That Makes Clients Happy Will Bring a Grin to Your Face

CHAPTER 3: Reasons Why You Should Open a Food Truck Instead of a Regular Restaurant

Location

Travel

Weather

Responsibility

Size

CHAPTER 4: Starting a Food Truck  with No Experience

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Opening a Food Truck

The Most Integral Factors of Starting a Food Truck Business

CHAPTER 5: Writing a Business Plan  for Your Food Truck

The Local Food Truck Marketplace

Cost Leadership Strategy

Differentiation Strategy

Location Strategy

Hybrid Strategy

Food Pricing

Use of Strategic Partnerships

Planning for Food Quantities

Sample Business Plan Template

CHAPTER 6: The Most Successful Ways to Secure Funding Without Making a Dent in Your Own Wallet

Sources of Debt Capital

Sources of Equity Capital

CHAPTER 7: Choosing and Buying a Food Truck

Renting Versus Buying

Buying a Food Truck

Exterior Design

Interior Kitchen Layout

Truck Types

Choosing New or Used

Proper Driver’s License

CHAPTER 8: The Secrets to Finding  the Right Customers

Offer Something for Free

Let the Order Line Be Longer Than the Pick-Up Line

Offer Items from Your Catering Menu

Always Ask if They Would Like a Drink

Advertise Your Menu on Social Media

Make Sure the Spot’s Worth It

CHAPTER 9: Location—Where to Park and Where to Meet Your Customers

Unique Events

Business Districts

Ranchers Markets

Road Parking

School Campuses

Truck Parks

Shopping Districts

Bars and Nightclubs

Corner Stores

CHAPTER 10: Licensing, Permits and Regulations

Employer Identification Number

Business License

Automobile License

Health Department Permit

Fire Certificate

Types of Regulations You May Encounter

Best Practices

CHAPTER 11: How to Ensure Your Business Passes Inspections

The Purpose of Health Inspectors

Types of Inspections

Basic Inspection Guidelines

CHAPTER 12: Ways to Expand Your Business

Hiring Staff

Ensuring Long-Term Success

Growing Your Business

CHAPTER 13: What Are My Purpose and Goals? What Will I Serve?

The Most Asked Question About Our Menu

Layout of a Menu

How Much Should I Charge?

CHAPTER 14: The Most Common Mistakes That Lead to Food Truck Failure and How to Avoid Them

Lack of Planning

Doing Everything Yourself

Poor Service

Ignoring Budgeting

Poor Marketing

CHAPTER 15: Common Food Truck Questions Answered

CHAPTER 16: How to Market Your Food Truck Before Opening, How to Prepare for Opening Day, How to Market After Your Truck Opens

Set Up Weekly Specials

Be One with the Community

Hold Contests

Celebrate Often

Have an Inner Circle

Feel Free to Market Yourself

Keep Networking

Make a Good Investment in Your Staff

Put a Good Price Tag on Your Food Items

Tips to Sustain the Successful Run After Setting Up

CHAPTER 17: Purchase Your Food Truck Equipment and Supplies

Conclusion

Introduction

F

ood trucks in many ways seem like an overnight sensation. Sure, selling food on the street has been around for ages. Ice cream trucks and hotdog stands are nothing new. But the real fun has come from a new twist on an old concept. In recent years, food trucks have gone from selling fries, hotdogs and ice cream, to becoming something else entirely.

Fresh and exciting paint jobs combine with innovative and creative new food. All types of cuisines are now served off trucks and their popularity is no doubt expanding. A lot of people, myself included, have looked to this new market as a possible business venture for themselves.

What’s not to love? You get to set your own hours, your own prices, make your own food, control what you sell and reap the rewards; all while having fun serving food on the street. Whether you’re a chef of many years or someone who wants to take a crack at being an entrepreneur, food trucks are a great way to run a kitchen and manage a business.

Unfortunately, it’s not always as easy and as profitable as it may appear. If you’ve seen the movie Chef (and you should see it, it was great), it may seem like long lines are just waiting for you to pull up and open your truck window. Within a few weeks, Chef’s truck has people lining up around the block just to get a taste of what he’s cooking. After the first few weeks on my truck, I can tell you that the lines weren’t quite that long (nowhere near).

Owning and operating a food truck business for the past two years has taught me a lot of lessons, most of which aren’t necessarily skills you’ve already learned in the kitchen or a business course. This book is meant to prevent current and aspiring food truck owners from making simple yet costly mistakes, as well as to show how it’s easy to make a profit if you follow a few simple guidelines and stay on top of certain key details. It is not meant to be a book on how to make an awesome double cheeseburger, or how to master double-entry accounting. In short, this book’s intention is not to teach you how to cook awesome food, or how to run a small business. Those are skills that require a lot more than simply reading this book or any particular book for that matter.

What this book IS meant to teach you is how to run your food truck business more successfully, while avoiding some of the mistakes that a lot of people make when first starting out. All the methods listed are meant to help you:

Get repeat business

Keep losses to a minimum

Avoid first-timer mistakes

Satisfy customers

Maximize profits

A lot of tips listed are things that may seem very common sense but are nonetheless important. In a lot of instances, the most common-sense things can slip our minds and leave us with unhappy customers or a bottom line in the red, also known as NO PROFIT.

It’s easy to just focus on what you love to do: cook