The Feb 15th event involving the San Francisco Health and Police Departments has been cancelled. The event will be rescheduled in the future. To be updated regarding all future SFCP events, news and information please used the box below to sign up for our brand new mailing list.
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Thank you all for a really great Happy Hour event this evening at Rye. In particular, I would like to thank Martha Yanez and Jane Gong from the Office of Small Business, as well as Emelda Reyes and Mahanned Malhi of the San Francisco Health Department for their participation in the event. Over 40 different vendors participated and I hope that everyone found the meeting valuable, informative and entertaining.
As I mentioned at the event, the next SF Cart Project event is tentatively planned for Monday, Feb 15th from 1pm-230pm and will hopefully include participation from both the San Francisco Health and Police departments. This event will be structured as a more formal question and answer workshop, where both departments will be able to detail their individual permit process for San Francisco (both public and private property permitting). If you are interested in attending this event, please click here and fill out your information in the form.
Thank you again for your support!
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In the past, Street Food vending's business model was fairly straightforward: place yourself between the highest number of customers and their destinations, and offer a product that is quick and inexpensive. That business model works, but it is completely passive with no way to build brand identity, no recognition of the quality of food being served, and low levels of customer loyalty. In the old model of mobile vending, one lunch truck is as good as another; and all of them aren't really that good at all. With the help of social media this passive model of business interaction has changed into an active opportunity for mobile vendors to specialize their food styles, build large followings of actively engaged customers, and use real time updates to inform your how to find you (and how to advocate for you). If you are a new entrepreneur considering a mobile vending business, then an understanding of social media has become a job requirement.
A Brief Primer on Twitter and Social Media:
Social media is information that is intended to be quickly and easily distributed to a variety of places (customers, friends,
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Due to the overwhelming interest in the event, and also in an effort to accommodate as many city agencies as possible, the first San Francisco Mobile Catering Entrepreneur Happy Hour has been rescheduled to Tuesday, January 19th from 530-700pm at Rye Bar in San Francisco. I regret any confusion that this late change might cause, and appreciate your understanding. Please find event details and a form to RSVP below. Thank you and looking forward to seeing you on the 19th!
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There is a thought (a widely considered one) that mobile vending constitutes unfair competition to their Brick and Mortar (B&M) peers. There are many reasons used to support this "unfair competition" claim, but they roughly break down into three categories: Cheaper Market to Enter, Lower Maintenance Overhead to Sustain and Unlimited Geographic Flexibility. And while each of these areas does constitute a substantial difference from B&M restaurants, it is important to define what specific practical effects each of these areas might have on both mobile vendors and B&M restaurants. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="500"]
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It is a fact that it is cheaper to enter the mobile vending business than open a B&M restaurant. As a consequence the resulting cost savings can (and should) be reflected in lower (relative to the quality of the food produced) cost food served by Street Food vendors. The logical next question to ask is: Do restaurants receive nothing in return for the capital investments associated with opening, and running, a B&M restaurant? Of course, they absolutely get something. B&M restaurants have an ability to scale on a level that mobile vendors can never compete with. They have the ability to create more
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There are quite a few lists going around with Street Food as one of the top trends of 2009, which is great but also makes street food a target for much "jump the shark" talk in 2010. Street Food is less a trend than the a leading edge of a change in our relationship with the food. Street Food is simply at the front of this change because of a confluence of technology, the high cost of starting a restaurant, and a poor economy. A similar change once happened when the home cooked meals turned into restaurant cooked staples. Street food is not about carts, trucks, take-out windows, mobile restaurants or one-time supper clubs; Street Food is about giving people adventure, immediacy, intimacy with the food that they eat (and the people who cook that food), and a diversity of flavors that you can't easily find in one restaurant. That trend isn't going anywhere and, while the costs stay reasonable, neither is street food.
With that in mind here are some themes that might variously (and wrongly) be called "the death of the street food trend" in 2010.
1) Restaurateurs getting into the game:
Right now it costs between $8,000 and
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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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