Running a Food Truck For Dummies. Richard Myrick

menu is going to be the tool used to attract your customers, but a lot goes into preparing the items on that menu. This work includes the menu’s content and design (see Chapter 8), where the food is going to be stored and prepared (I explore commissary and commercial kitchen options in Chapter 9), the supplies you need to prep your meals (see Chapter 10), and who will actually prepare it (check out Chapter 11 for info on hiring and training your staff).

      You may spend much of your day working in your truck, but completing the business aspects, like bookkeeping or calling your suppliers, from inside your truck can be difficult. You need an office to do these tasks, whether it’s at your home or in another location. Chapter 12 helps you set up your office.

      Keeping Your Food Truck Business Running Well on All Levels

      Your truck is going to be where you spend most of your time during the business day, and it’s the spot where you’ll be preparing your culinary delights for your customers. Just as a restaurant needs to make sure its kitchen is kept up to code, you must make sure your truck’s kitchen and the food you’re serving are properly maintained to prevent your customers from getting sick. Check out Chapter 13 to find out more about safe food handling practices and other important safety issues, and turn to Chapter 21 for extra tips on passing all your health department inspections.

      You may have a highly trained mechanic who maintains your food truck and makes sure you have a finely tuned mobile kitchen, but he can’t determine whether the business being generated in the truck is meeting your expectations. To evaluate the financial side of your business, see Chapter 14.

      Luring (and Keeping) Crowds

      Sure, stating that attracting customers to your service window is how you’re going to make a profit for your business may be common sense, but doing so is a little more difficult when dealing with a food truck because, well, you’re mobile. You don’t have a permanent location, and to get repeat customers, you have to let the people of your community know where you’re going to be. Adding to that, you have the task of providing your customers with products, service, and an atmosphere that they enjoy and that gets them coming back for more and spreading the word to their friends and family.

      

So how do you bring in these crowds and keep them coming back? Here are a few questions that can help get you headed down the right path:

      ❯❯ What about your truck attracts customers? In other words, what makes your truck different from all the other food vendors or restaurants vying for your customers’ attention? Between the food you serve, the atmosphere you provide, and the service your customers receive, you need to get the word out about what makes your food truck worth the stop. Check out Chapter 15 to find out how to master the marketing of your truck, along with more promotional ideas.

      ❯❯ Got Twitter? An overwhelming majority of food truck followers track their favorite food trucks through social media sites, like Twitter and Facebook. Take a look at Chapter 16 to find out how to use social media platforms to spread the word about your truck and where it’ll be.

      ❯❯ Now that you have customers showing up, how do you keep them? Who are your customers, and what do they enjoy about your food and services? Maybe they like knowing what to expect from your service and menu every time they show up, or maybe you’ve listened to their previous complaints and made the necessary corrections. Chapter 17 shows you how to build and retain your followers.

      After you’ve become a veteran food truck operator, and depending on how the crowds in your market react to your business strategies, you’ll need to determine the direction for your mobile business. If business is booming and you think you need to expand, which route will you take? Franchising? Adding trucks to your fleet? Adding catering services? On the other hand, if the market just hasn’t welcomed your business the way you thought it would, you may have to consider the options of rebranding your concept or even selling. Whatever the case, I discuss all your options in Chapter 18.

Chapter 2

      Deciding What Kind of Food Truck Is Right for You

      IN THIS CHAPTER

      Developing your food truck’s concept

      Choosing and buying the right vehicle for your business

      Selecting the proper name for your business

      Considering the possibility of joining a franchise

      So you think you want to enter the mobile food industry? If you’re like many current and previous food truck owners, you have an idea about what type of truck you want to start up. The question I need to ask you is this: Exactly how much time have you really put into this thought?

      Before starting up your food truck, the first thing you must do is develop its concept. Your concept describes what your truck will be like in terms of service style, cuisine, and the atmosphere your truck and staff will present. Your concept frames how the public will see your business and defines a general set of expectations the public will have when they walk up to your service window. You have a lot of decisions to make when formulating your food truck concept, and ultimately, you’re limited only by your imagination and budget. With so many possibilities, how do you know what kind of food truck to run?

      In this chapter, I go over the items you must decide on as you generate a concept for your food truck. I walk you through the various types of vehicles you can use for your business and explain how to get the vehicle you need. I touch on the important steps in giving your truck a name that people will remember. Last but not least, I present another option for starting a food truck (in addition to starting a business from scratch): joining a franchise.

      Generating Your Food Truck’s Concept

      Figuring out the concept for your food truck is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make for your business. After you’ve made this decision, everything else about your business will fall in line with it, from its specific menu items and truck design to the number of employees you’ll hire and their culinary backgrounds.

      In the following sections, I list food choices and general considerations to help you come up with a basic concept; then I help you narrow your idea based on your potential customers and the atmosphere you want.

       Note: In some cases, you may not need to determine a concept for your food truck. For example, you may be a food truck franchisee of a restaurant that has already worked out all the details of your concept. See the later section “Another Possibility: Joining a Franchise” for details.

Focusing on your food options

      At its most basic level, your truck will be most recognized for the food you serve. In the following sections, I note several categories of food that have found food truck success around the United States.

      

Due to my experience in organizing some food truck events, I can tell you that one demographic food trucks haven’t left out is individuals who own dogs. Although technically not people food trucks, some trucks navigating around dog parks in the country supply canine customers with locally sourced, healthy dog treats that many dog owners can’t pass up when they find them.

       Savory foods

      You have a wide variety of options when it comes to serving savory foods in your food truck:

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