HOW TO START A FOOD CART BUSINESS

If you want to learn how to start a food cart business, but you’re not sure where to begin, we want to help. To be certain, the culinary choices themselves are widely diverse. Then there is the seeming multitude of mobile platform options to consider.

There are a couple of things we would like to suggest at this juncture. The first is to keep it simple and secondly, to break it down into small, logical steps.

Really, when you think about it, there are only a few simple steps you need to take:

1. Figure out how much money you have to commit to your business
2. Decide what food you are going to sell
3. Choose what equipment you are going to need
4. Choose the cart you are going to buy
5. Profit

With that said, we would like to suggest that the best way of sorting everything out and being able to visualize it starts with developing a business plan.

1) Develop a business plan

A food cart business can be very profitable, this is for sure, but it takes careful thought to ensure success. Taking the time to write a good business plan to will help you visualize what it looks like from start to finish.

The best place to start is establishing your budget. What can you afford to spend on not just the food cart itself, but also the related costs of operation. These expenditures can include transportation of the cart to the site, the food ingredients, beverage items you want to offer, maintenance costs and related equipment.

By establishing your budget, you’ll know what you have to spend on the food cart and what you can expect to spend in the first months while you get your sales rolling.

In your business plan you can also establish your business model. To help with that, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What will your business name be?
2. What are your brand’s colors?
3. What type of cuisine do you want to sell?
4. What ingredients do you need?
5. What type of beverages do you want to offer?
6. What kind of cooking equipment do you need?
7. Where do you want to vend your food?
8. What will your operating hours be?
9. What is your projected sales revenue for the first few months?

If you need help knowing where to start, we recommend checking out the US Small Business Administration’s website for how to write a business plan. Their website is full of resources, including templates, identifying your startup expenses and even financing resources.

2) Plan a food cart menu

Now that you have a business plan, a cart in mind and what you need to equip it, the next matter of business is to plan a food cart menu. While we already have a guide on planning your menu, we’ll provide a brief summary here.

To plan an effective menu, you’ll first want to assess your cooking skills and what your cuisine specialties are. We have found that to be the most successful in the food business, you want to focus on your strengths. Are there regional foods that you were raised on? How about international cuisine? Perhaps you prefer comfort food, or maybe BBQ with pulled pork, ribs and mac and cheese.

There is also something to be said for keeping it simple, such as tacos, hamburgers or even hot dogs. Here's the thing. One of the biggest road blocks to starting up any venture is noticing how many players are already there. It can be a little intimidating and may cause you to rethink.

It is understandable, however since this guide we wrote a further post outlining food cart ideas. You might like to take a look at that list and see if it gets your wheels turning. There is one point in there that we'd like to highlight. Take a look at the competition and either bring something different, or find what's popular and do it better.

Whichever fare you decide to serve, prepare a list of ingredients you will need to keep on the cart. Also make a list of what equipment you might need from the list below to prepare and sell your menu items.

3) Decide what equipment you need

To serve your recipes of choice, you will want to make sure you have the right equipment on the cart to prepare and serve your customers. While the list will vary depending on your business model and chef abilities, a general list of equipment to consider is as follows:

• A hotplate or flat range
• Deep fryer
• Microwave
• Refrigerator and freezer
• Commercial espresso machine
• Coffee grinder
• Hot dog broiler
• Refrigeration unit or cooler (flip up counter in cart)
• Portable sink
• Commercial blender
• Food processor
• Food preparation surfaces
• Point of sale system
• Menu display area
• First aid kit
• Pots and pans
• Mixing bowls
• Cutting boards
• Knives
• Gloves and aprons
• Storage areas and containers
• Serving supplies
• Paper plates, boats or clamshells
• Utensils
• Napkins
• Condiment dispensers
• Food grade cleaning supplies
• A source of power

Most certainly this equipment list isn’t exhaustive. However, we hope that it will get you thinking of all the requirements you might not have thought of for your mobile food cart business.

4) Buy a food cart

After you establish what you need and what you can afford to spend, the next step is to choose the right food cart for your business model.

Whichever business model you have decided, one of the most important aspects is looks. Your business needs to look good from a distance to attract the customers. First impressions are made by “curb appeal”. As such you will want to make sure your food cart looks as good as the cuisine itself.

However, there is another important aspect when deciding which model and style to buy, and that is functionality. After you have made the first impression, you then want to make sure your meals are as good of those of a restaurant. The right functionality will allow you to incorporate the necessary equipment into your cart so that you can deliver a top-quality fare. This is the recipe for getting and growing your food sales.

Now that all the key business considerations have been made, we get to buying a cart for the food. This is the fun part, because this is where you start to see your food business dreams become reality. While there are many different ideas and models, we like to keep the choices simple. Why you ask? Because you have enough choices to make already when choosing which food cart to buy.

Models of food carts:

As we’ve already mentioned, the two biggest features of a successful mobile food business are looks and functionality. These two units give you the best of both worlds and we’ll go into detail on each. This way you can decide which model is the best-suited for your purposes.

Push-style food cart

Versatile and highly mobile, this commercial grade food cart comes with all the basics you need to get started.

• Food grade countertop surface
• Gridwall with adjustable display shelving
• Menu display
• Flip up counter with built in storage
• Locking inventory storage
• Point of sale area
• Pop-off canopy
• Powder coated aluminum surfaces that can be wrapped with graphics

Suitable for: Indoor use. It can be used to vend in malls, pedestrian areas, commercial or private venues, hotels and resorts.

Optional features: custom graphic vinyl wraps, LED lighting, locking zip down covers, additional display menus

Who is it for: This cart model is ideal for brick and mortar restaurant owners wanting to do promotions or take their menus to the streets. It’s excellent for small business owners wanting to start an independent food business. It is also perfect for food suppliers and distributors wanting to showcase and offer tastings.

Modular food cart

The modular food cart is a mini restaurant on wheels. It is a commercial grade platform for a vendor to sell even the most complex fare. It is designed with growing to large scale vending in mind.

This is our most versatile, durable, and mobile modular cart to date. And the best part is that it’s expandable as your business sales and customer base grows. It offers the ideal platform for food preparation, display and vending.

• Food-safe metal counter surfaces and prep areas
• Detachable gridwall displays
• Four movable shelves
• Menu holders
• Lockable storage
• Area for commercial fridge
• Outfitted with electrical
• Heavy duty locking casters
• Powder coated aluminum that can be wrapped with vinyl graphics
• Pop off canopy
• Point of sale area
• Able to accommodate most commercial food preparation equipment

Suitable for: Indoor use. It can be used to vend in mall food courts, conference centers, business centers, public food markets, festivals and even food industry trade shows.

Optional features: Portable sinks, custom graphic wraps, zip-down security covers, LED lighting kits.

Who is it for: Brick and mortar restaurants wanting a pop-up location to expand their business footprint, independent small business owners that want a mobile restaurant instead of a fixed location, food distributers that want to promote at conferences and trade shows.

Which food cart is the best fit for your business?

As you can see, there are a lot of considerations to be made when choosing the cart that is the best fit for a food business. While there is no one size fits all solution, it is possible to choose a model that offers the most flexibility. Our push food carts and modular food carts offer just that.

Are you’re just getting ready to start a food cart business? Are you looking for the ultimate in portability to take your fare just about anywhere at any time? If so, the push-style model is our recommendation. Expand your brick and mortar business with pop-up or mobile points of sale. Boost food sales by participating in fairs, trade shows and public events.

If, on the other hand, you’re an established business that wants to offer a mobile restaurant or you want to add a lot of commercial equipment to offer complex cuisine, the modular food cart is our recommended option. It offers the most flexibility and growth potential.

We’re here to help you in any way we can. So, if you'd like to learn more about how to start a food cart business, give us a call at 1-877-986-7771 to get started.