Top products from r/foodtrucks

Don’t have a food truck related business plan. Bit I’ve written several in different industries including for a restaurant.

You can use any general template for a business plan but you can probably skip some chapters or only spend a few words to fill in those chapters.

The most important thing will be you financial planning. The numbers must make sense. I’ve posted this spreadsheet I use for food truck planning before. Hope it helps.

Now to be able to complete the financial planning you will need to have a pretty good understanding of your product, market, competitors and business/revenue model. Those are also your key chapters in the business plan.

The product chapter should detail what you plan to offer (the menu), details on the car, etc. The goal is for the reader to better understand what you idea is all about.

The market chapter will highlight numbers that are important for your business. Are you primarily going to be serving the public? You’ll need population statistics down to the neighborhoods you are interested in serving. Serving businesses or festivals? Get some numbers to see where the biggest demand will be. A good practice here is to look at things from all perspectives and rank neighborhoods or business areas or festivals by attractiveness. The numbers should look good or the business is probably not viable in the area (no faking numbers though!)

The competitors chapter will build on the previous two. Here you detail how many food trucks or restaurants are in each area. The goal is to identify market segments that are not heavy with competition but still have potential for good demand. Are all of you competitors aiming for a specific area? No indian mexican fusion truck in Area 1? Here you’ll get the sense for opprotunities. If you don’t have a specific truck idea you could make a truck that fits the gaps in the market (and make the product chapter reflect this research you’ve done). If you have a specific concept then you’ll need to discuss your unique value proposition in the market segments you are interested in. Would you be the only truck with this type of food? Will you be cheaper? Faster? Etc.

Finally, the last important chapter is the business model. This will build on all the research you’ve done so far. Perhaps you’ve identified that the public market is way saturated but there is potential in the B2B market and festival market. You’ll need to develop a pricing strategy to meet the market demands but also meets your needs to run the business. Here you essentially lay out your plans for making money. As part of this chapter (or as separate chapter) you will discuss your go to market strategy.

As a result of doing the above research you’ll be able to do the financial planning. You will need to get more specific when adding numbers to the spreadsheet, but you’ll have a better understanding of what numbers are required. Market and competitors will influence the demand for your truck. Product will affect your startup costs and variable costs and fixed costs. Adding this all together you can start setting up a profit and loss statement to test if you revenue model is actually going to be viable!

This is a lot to digest. But all those chapters are readily available in BP templates and examples. You’ll need to weed out the unimportant stuff. The goal with any business plan should be first be for the owner to see which strategy makes sense and have a plan if things don’t go as expected (which happens often).

As a final note there are also alternative forms of creating a plan or coming up with a great business model. My personal favorite is the Business Model Generation book It’s a quick read and a fantastic approach to quickly develop and validate different business models!

Hope this helps :)

Chronomite SR-20L/120 HTR 120-Volt... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0033RQNV2?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

This is what I’m working with. Health regs always vary, but mine only cared that you get hot water suitable for hand washing. This low flow system worked great. You’ll have to get your own conduit and instead of wiring directly to the box and breaker, I got a male plug for a few bucks from Home Depot and turned it into a plug in situation.

My water flow situation was already set up kinda funky, so I had to install a valve in the line to force water through the heater when I wanted it. Otherwise it was just too much running through the lines to really get hot.

The basic idea of my setup is that there’s a large water tank on the roof. The lines come down through a wall mounted water pump, then either into the water heater, or straight into the sinks depending on weather I have that valve I installed open or closed.

Hope that helps

There is a book called The Food Truck Handbook that was a great resource for me. I went a little different of a route then a food truck, but it was a good starting point and covered a lot of good information.

I use Square on the iPad with the Square stand. You won't beat the credit card processing fee of 2.75%. I also use Fresh KDS to display the orders onto another tablet. I can't speak highly enough about Fresh KDS, it cost me $10 a month but is 100% worth it to display orders.

The stand- https://squareup.com/stand

Cash drawer- http://www.amazon.com/APG-VB554A-BL1616-Vasario-Standard-Interface/dp/B00EUMMOKS/ref=pd_sbs_indust_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1NXN3Y95M84EKD8HE8DB

Fresh KDS- https://freshkds.com/

That's a small size, it'll cool down in the time it takes you to clean and tear down if you leave it for last.

For being mobile with a lot of oil, these are your friend:

https://www.amazon.com/Miroil-02040-Grease-Bucket-Filter/dp/B008X67DP8/ref=pd_sim_328_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B008X67DP8&pd_rd_r=K2FCVNXF0JNR8CER8N9H&pd_rd_w=dBuiB&pd_rd_wg=3tE0D&psc=1&refRID=K2FCVNXF0JNR8CER8N9H

I use the larger size one on my truck, but I also have a 40lb fryer. If I absolutely have to drain while hot I can do it directly into this safely while filtering it as well.

Would something like this work? It covers the whole front dash and windows on an RV. https://www.amazon.com/Mofeez-1997-2018-Windshield-Motorhome-Cutouts/dp/B07LF19VBS/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=class+crv+cover+windshield&qid=1573081575&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyMUdHMERMWTJIQ0ZLJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMTA1NjE5QkgxNzBFV01FTEpLJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAxMjU2NDYyMlZFQU9VUDBRRDBDJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

They make tank heaters specifically for this problem. Any propane dealer probably carries one that will fit your tanks. When I had a seven kilowatt generator that ran on LP I used to have to take the 40-lb tank and put it directly in the exhaust stream. I had a flexible exhaust pipe for this purpose, same principle as flexible conduit. Worked fine.

I always used cheapo Dualindoor/outdoor speakers. They do the job just fine.

Don't bother, too much power.

I use this. http://www.amazon.com/Spy-Spot-Portable-GPS-Tracker/dp/B008GT8C7K/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1464500449&sr=8-5&keywords=micro+gps+tracker

Great thing is that you can also track mileage for the truck/trailer/van and expense the depreciation. If the thing moves, it can alert you and give location to the cops... If your city has enough small problems to make this a priority, they may be helpful. LOL... That's why I carry 2 Million Insurance though. Big City, Bigger problems though. I can't blame them.

https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-L8DOL3-Handles-Pre-Seasoned-5-Quart/dp/B00063RWYI

https://www.amazon.com/Aroma-Housewares-AID-506-Induction-Plate/dp/B0044WWBGG

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Truck-Handbook-Succeed-Business/dp/1118208811/ref=sm_n_au_dka_US_pr_con_1_2?adId=1118208811&creativeASIN=1118208811&linkId=0f26097b264f1a894d24653f3a9c5871&tag=cityweekly-20&linkCode=w41&ref-refURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cityweekly.net%2Futah%2Fbrewstillery-2018%2FContent&slotNum=0&imprToken=2J16hg8ku2HydYMTBdENXA&adType=smart&adMode=auto&adFormat=grid&impressionTimestamp=1542261089786

Curved track rail and curtain.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N2OJLFF?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Just make a cord for it. I have a 14-50r male end on one end of a 25' 8awg cable with a watertight 50amp 4wire twist lock on the other that connects to the truck, and half a dozen different adapter cords I've made up to hook the 14-50r into various other receptacles.

Leisure RV 125/250V 50 AMP Power Plug Twist Lock Inlet with 3 Stainless Steel Pins, White or Black (White) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077ZCNHG7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_BPxbBbW7MGJM3

See the frequently bought together