Love cooking delicious, spicy food? Can you see yourself operating a food truck business and serving the masses? A food truck serving quality foods, beverages, and deserts can be very profitable if you plan carefully and get off to the right start.
Before you make the decision to start your own business and start whipping up super secret recipes that are sure to dominate the competition, consider the following:
1. Keep Your Options Open
While planning to get your street food flavor on, consider that a truck is not the only option available. There are other vehicles like a trailer or a food cart that you can choose from according to the specific requirements of your soon-to-be business.
For beginners, a food cart is a good option, as it can be attached to your car and you can tow it anywhere you want. But with a cart, you’ll also get a much smaller space for food preparation and storage. A trailer combines the features of a truck and a cart. A truck, on the other hand, provides the most space and additional features to prepare and store food, dishes, multiple grills and freezers. If you’re looking for something feature rich but still mobile, then heavy duty trucks from Sweden are the best.
2. Location! Location! Location!
Finding a perfect spot to park your truck should be your priority. The location of your food truck will decide the type of customers you serve. Once you find an ideal spot, spend time observing the culture in the area to determine the preferred eating preferences, time of day people are generally eating, do they need something to put their plates on (Ie., some people prefer to sit at a picnic table to eat their meal).
Another thing you should never forget is that you will need permission from local authorities to park your food truck (consider the cost of permits and other related fees before committing to a specific area or areas.
3. What’s Cooking?
It is very important to consider what will be on the menu you’ll be serving. If your dishes require frozen ingredients you need to have a freezer. These things and more need need to be thought of before deciding what type of vehicle you want to buy. After all, you can’t be using butane cooking torch in a small space filled with flammable ingredients!
4. Expenses
The truck/cart/trailer that you purchase is going be the biggest startup and maintenance expenditure in your business. It’s necessary to do an analysis of the sales that you’ll potentially make based on foot and drive-by traffic before leasing the most expensive thing on the market. Mechanical expenses are also an issue to be considered, such as what kind of maintenance will your truck need and if you will be able to cover those or not.
5. Chef or Chefs?
Another consideration that’s required is the number of people who’ll be working in the truck. Will you have a single chef or multiple chefs cooking, and will there be enough space to accommodate everyone along with all the storage and equipment items. With this don’t forget the truck has to be driven too and whether you’ll be transporting other people in the cab.
Conclusion
With these five considerations, you’re good to go out and start killing it. And as a brownie suggestion, think about the design too while you’re buying a new or used food truck. Does it have interesting windows to serve from, a glass door to see the food cooking, or do you need a customized solution? If street food is your passion, then it’s necessary to make a wise decision as your business will depend on it.
Happy cooking!