Running a Food Truck For Dummies

Richard Myrick

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781119286134
• eBook ISBN: 9781119286141
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Entrepreneurship
• Index: Business

Drive your food truck business to success

While food trucks may not be the new kid on the block anymore, it's a segment that continues to swell—and there's still plenty of room for growth. If you have your sights set on taking your culinary prowess on the road, Running a Food Truck For Dummies, 2 nd Edition helps you find your food niche, follow important rules of conducting business, outfit your moving kitchen, meet safety and sanitation requirements, and so much more.

Gone are the days of food trucks offering unappealing prepackaged meals, snacks, and coffee. In today's flourishing food service industry, they're more like restaurants on wheels, offering eager curbside patrons everything from gourmet tacos and Korean BBQ to gluten-free pastries and healthy vegan fare. Whether you're the owner or operator of an existing food truck business looking to up the ante or a chef, foodie, or gourmand interested in starting your own mobile restaurant endeavor, Running a Food Truck For Dummies has you covered.

• Create a food truck business plan to set yourself up for success
• Stay profitable by avoiding the most common operating mistakes
• Harness public relations and social media to build your following
• Grow from one truck to multiple trucks, restaurants, or a food truck franchise

Packed with the latest information on legislation and ordinances, securing loans, and marketing to the all-important Millennials, this one-stop guide helps you cook up a well-done food truck venture in no time!

Part 1

Rolling into the Food Truck Industry

IN THIS PART …

Getting to know the mobile food industry and determining whether you can cut the mustard

Planning out a specific road map for your food truck business, from concept to cuisine

Figuring out how to deliver your future culinary creations

Understanding your local market and determining who your customers will be

Chapter 1

Food on Wheels: The Lowdown on Food Trucks

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding a day in the life of a food truck owner

Deciding whether you have what it takes to run your own truck

Walking through the initial stages of starting your mobile food business

Getting ready to open your food truck

Making sure your truck runs smoothly

Drawing crowds to your truck (and getting them to come back)

So you’ve just finished watching the latest episode of Eat Street or The Great Food Truck Race and think that owning a food truck looks like fun. Or maybe you stumbled upon a food truck in your area, watched the busy lines, and noticed that the staff appeared to be having a great time. With these observations, it wouldn’t be a huge leap for you to think, “Hey, these trucks get huge crowds, and the employees seem to be happy, so maybe I should run my own.”

When on the outside looking in, you can easily miss all the hard work that’s involved in getting a food truck business started and ready to serve the community. As the owner, you have to manage every detail of the business, including hiring the staff, designing the menu, and even picking up trash left by your customers. A food truck can quickly become more work than fun if you aren’t aware of all you’ll be required to do.

This chapter serves as your starting point into the mobile food industry. I take you on a quick tour of a day in the life of a food truck owner and then give you a guide to help you look a little deeper at your motivations and expectations for entering the industry. I also walk you through the steps of starting and running your own truck, from deciding what kind to run to getting (and keeping) followers.

Checking Out a Typical Day in the Life of a Food Truck Owner

Running a food truck is no stroll in the park. In fact, operating a food truck can involve downright dirty, draining, and difficult work. When your employees drop the ball, it’s up to you to pick it up. When a tire goes flat, often you’ll be the one who has to repair it. You’ll work the most (and longest) hours. You’ll work every job in the business, from line cook to mechanic to accountant. To create a successful food truck business, you’ll need to develop a culture of hard work, with you being the one setting the example for your staff.

After weeks (or months) of refining your recipes and spending numerous hours on the phone, waiting in line, and filling out reams of paperwork, you’re finally ready Your truck has been outfitted with the perfect kitchen. The sign company has called to inform you that the graphics and menu board are complete. It’s time to fire up the grill and open for business. Now comes the easy part, right? Sure, it can be a 9-to-5 job, but not in the way you may expect. The following sections provide you with a look into a day in the life of a food truck owner. (Keep in mind that your schedule will look different if you opt for a different service time, such as breakfast or lunch.)

When I say a 9-to-5 workday, I bet the following sections aren’t quite what you’re expecting. I didn’t include this information to scare anyone but rather to provide a look into a typical day of a food truck owner. Many truck owners I’ve spoken with have told me that nothing is glamorous about running a food truck. Why do they do it then? According to most, the feeling they get when they see their customers’ laughs and smiles after taking bites of the items they just ordered off the menu makes it all worth it — they do it for a love of cooking and serving the public.

9 a.m. to noon

The alarm goes off, and you crawl out of bed; it’s 9 a.m. While the coffee brews, you boot up your computer so you can check any important emails, tweets, Facebook messages, and the like that may have come in overnight. From the time you wake up until approximately two hours later, you’re busy going over your calendar of events and planning for your day. After you complete your correspondence, you start planning for upcoming events. With 30 minutes to go before meeting with your team members, it’s time to get ready and drive to your meet-up location, the commercial kitchen.

High noon to 12:30 p.m.

You meet with your team to discuss your notes, daily specials, and suggestions from lessons learned the previous day. Your team shares with you what they’ve heard overnight from local news and from customers and competitors. Sharing this information keeps everyone in the loop, part of the team, and, in most cases, in high spirits.

12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

During this time, the team goes to the market and bakery or to inventory the food shipments that have been delivered. After getting the food needed for the truck, everyone heads to the commercial kitchen to chop fruits and vegetables, blend the sauces, and grill the meat (if you serve it). Those team members not involved in the food prep will organize the truck to ready it for the work night, fire up their Twitter and Facebook accounts to notify followers of the truck’s location(s), and conduct another round of correspondence and phone calls.

5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Time to head to your “office”; you now take the truck from the commercial kitchen’s lot to your first stop.

6 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.

It’s time! It’s time to open the doors, practice your trade, and make your mark on your community. When you reach your destination and a line of people are already at the curb, the sight is both invigorating and terrifying. It’s invigorating because you already have loyal followers who have found your location and are waiting to be served a meal from your heart. It’s terrifying because you need to park and start cooking quickly so you aren’t keeping your customers waiting too long.

You’ll have little to no awareness of what’s going on outside the truck during this period. Your eyes will shift from the growing queue of ticket orders to the fryers to the main cooking surface while you’re preparing the orders as they come in. Now is when you must enjoy your job; now is the point where you’ll know whether you’ve made the proper choice in opening a food truck. If you’re distracted or dislike your environment, you may want to start planning how to sell your investment and head to another career.

2:30 a.m. to 5 a.m.

The night’s service is over, and you’ve made your way back to the commercial kitchen. You clean out the truck and wash it down so it’s ready for the next shift. You break down and marinate the meat and, in some cases, even order the bread for tomorrow’s pick-up or delivery.

You store the food and lock up the truck. It’s finally time to head home.

On the trip home, you reflect back on the day and are very thankful that the oil in the fryer didn’t explode or that you were able to start the truck without any issues, and finally, you see it — home sweet home. After a final round of reading emails and listening to phone messages, you go to bed. Your 9-to-5 workday is over, only to start again in a few hours.

Discovering Whether You Have What It Takes to Run a Food Truck

Have you ever wanted to start your own business? If you’re self-motivated and have a love of food and people, opening your own food truck can be a great career option for you. Not everyone is cut out for this diverse industry, though. Are you? You can find out with the help of the following sections.

Monitoring your motivations

Owning your own food truck takes a sp...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Part 1: Rolling into the Food Truck Industry
• Part 2: Getting Your Food Truck Ducks in a Row
• Part 3: Preparing to Open Your Service Window
• Part 4: Keeping Your Food Truck Running Smoothly
• Part 5: Generating Buzz and Growing Your Food Truck Business
• Part 6: The Part of Tens
• About the Author
• Advertisement Page
• Connect with Dummies
• End User License Agreement