Upon reflection from the "How to Open a Mobile Catering Business" workshop earlier this week, it was very apparent that it might be of some value for mobile catering entrepreneurs to have an opportunity to interact with each other, and share your ideas. I am thinking of putting together a Mobile Entrepreneur Happy Hour for Tuesday, January 19 from 530-7pm at Rye Bar in San Francisco. It will be a great opportunity for you to talk to other entrepreneurs who are doing the same things and experiencing the same frustrations as yourselves.
In addition, I am going to invite some city government division to speak (briefly) who you could ask questions to, meet and engage with. If you'd be interested in attending, I will email you more information if you sign up below.
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This is part V (of a five part series) leading up to, "How to Start a Mobile Food Business (Legally!!!)," a La Cocina Incubator workshop. You can read part I on Business Planning here. You can read part II on "Defining your Market"here. You can read part III on "Setting Realistic Expectations" here. You can read part IV on "Know How to Use Technology (or Hire Someone Who Does)" here.
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In a perfect mobile vending world: the sun always shines, it stays light out for 18 hours a day, you can park or move wherever you want, you always make exactly the right amount of food, the health department understands that ice alone can keep things under 41 degrees just fine, and customers universally appreciate the care and love that you put into your products.
Here are ideas to help you get by until that perfect world comes along:
Take Time.
Don't rush into something that is going to demand large amounts of your time, money and patience. Take time to perfect your product, know where you are going to source it from, understand how much your product costs, understand where and how you are going to sell, and
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This is part IV (of a five part series) leading up to, "How to Start a Mobile Food Business (Legally!!!)," a La Cocina Incubator workshop. You can read part I on Business Planning here. You can read part II on "Defining your Market" here. You can read part III on "Setting Realistic Expectations" here.
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The recent popularity of street food has, in many ways, resulted from the convergence of three different trends: Social Media, Cheap Eats and the Local Food Movement. There are over 5000 legal, licensed, mobile food vendors in Los Angeles, but who are the ones that you hear about? These guys. This isn't to say that these "gourmet" food trucks are better than their 4950 peers who don't appear on Twitter, but simply to say that these trucks have expanded the local street food market by grasping 5 basic truths for modern street food success.
Be findable:
The past model for street food success was to place yourself (or your business) between a customer and the nearest possible restaurant and offer cheaper food, then move and repeat the process in the next
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This is part III (of a five part series) leading up to, "How to Start a Mobile Food Business (Legally!!!)," a La Cocina Incubator workshop. You can read part I on Business Planning here. You can read part II on "Defining your Market" here.
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Serving out of a mobile unit is a balancing act: You give up some conveniences (storage, more elaborate cooking techniques, no worries about weather) for the benefit of mobility (move if its slow, cheaper to open, lower overhead, easy to re-brand). Managing this balancing act requires first setting some reasonable expectations about what is, and isn't possible, out of a truck or cart. Here are ten things to keep in mind if you are plotting to take over the world with a food cart:
1. Commissaries are your friends (in California).
By California law you must prep, cook and store all your food at a commissary. This can be difficult when there aren't a lot of commissaries around, so be careful to make sure you know where your commissary is before you buy your cart. The commissary requirement also means that you are probably going to have to pay for storage of your cart,
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