Food trucks are highly profitable business opportunities that require relatively little capital. But what separates the cash cows from the complete flops?
In a word, the difference is marketing.
Maybe you have no idea what you’re doing when it comes to marketing a business, though. Well, Truckster is here to help. Continue reading “Marketing Tips for Food Truck Owners”
When the sun is shining, and your food truck is surrounded by happy customers, signing up with Truckster, the leading food truck finder, might seem like the best idea you ever had.
How about when you get those inevitable demanding customers, though?
Are you able to keep your cool and resolve the problem, or do you end up flying off the handle? Continue reading “How to Handle Difficult Customers as a Food Truck Owner”
When running a traditional restaurant, staffing is crucial to ensure you are profitable and able to keep the lights on. When it comes to your food truck, you need effective employees to keep the engine running.
Because food trucks are a much smaller operation than a standard restaurant, a mistake in hiring or putting your employees in the wrong role can be detrimental to your food truck business. Continue reading “Staffing Your Food Truck Effectively”
As a food truck owner, keeping your trucks well maintained is one of the most important things you can do to create a profitable food truck business.
Depending on where your food truck is located, exposure to extreme heat or cold can take a toll on both the inside and outside of your vehicle. Furthermore, not maintaining your food truck can lead to having to invest significant amounts of capital in repair on issues and problems that are often preventable.
Given that food trucks are no small investment, taking the time to care for your truck properly is a must.
Here are a few reasons why food truck maintenance should be a priority, as well as a brief checklist to ensure your truck is kept in the best condition possible:
It saves you money in the long run
Taking good care of your food truck may seem like a hassle in the day to day operations of your business, but in the long run, it will almost certainly save you money.
As with most things in life, prevention is often significantly less costly than dealing with an issue when it occurs. While keeping your truck in good shape won’t guarantee problems won’t arise, it will reduce the chances and frequency in which your truck breaks or you need a repair.
Something as simple as checking your tire pressure each day can help prevent a blown tire in the middle of the highway during an extremely busy day.
First impressions matter
How your truck looks to your customers can play a big role in their overall impression of your brand. No one wants to order from a food truck that looks worn down, especially if you are catering a wedding.
Having an employee clean the truck, wipe it down, fix and even paint the outside of the vehicle regularly can do wonders for making sure you give a great first impression.
Consider having your manager go through a brief checklist each day after your food truck closes to ensure you are maintaining a high standard for your food truck.
Keeping your truck maintained builds good business habits
While working to keep your truck in good condition is important and can save you money in the long run, it also ensures that everyone working at your truck is held to a high standard.
Showing your employees that it’s important to care for the truck will help instill a sense of pride for you and your team. You want to demonstrate to your team that this isn’t just a regular job and that you want to deliver the best experience possible.
Building the proper systems in your day to day operations to ensure your truck is well maintained will help develop good business habits that will ultimately help you grow and scale your business more effectively.
Here’s a quick checklist to help you keep your food truck running in great shape.
With thousands of amazing food trucks listed on Truckster, doing everything you can to deliver an exceptional experience to your customers is a must! Keep your truck in excellent shape, and the customers will see the effort you put into your business.
If you are fortunate to own or run a coffee shop or two, one of the most effective ways to generate more revenue and grow your brand is by investing in a coffee truck to compliment your brick and mortar business. In some cases, running a coffee truck by itself can even be a wise business and financial decision.
Here are a few reasons why you should consider starting a coffee truck if you currently own a coffee shop.
While having a single location for your coffee shop in a good part of town can certainly be profitable, having a mobile coffee truck can help you take advantage of more than one high traffic area.
In the morning, you can set up your coffee shop in the business district and then make your way to the where college kids need coffee for their all-night study sessions. A coffee truck allows you to pick and choose the best locations to serve your high-quality coffee so you can work to increase your profits.
Running a brick and mortar coffee shop can be a pretty hefty investment which makes for very little room for error. If you mistakenly choose a less than ideal location, it can be hard to make your money back. With a coffee truck, you can get started for a relatively low investment, and there are minimal overhead costs for the month.
While you do have to invest in the truck itself, electricity and other maintenance costs are significantly less than a traditional coffee shop store. If you’re looking for a high reward, low-risk addition to your coffee business, launching a coffee truck is a great option to consider. Be sure to check out our list of “the best practices for food trucks.”
Though you can win the hearts of your customers at your traditional coffee store, coffee trucks offer a more unique opportunity to connect with your customers and create truly lifelong fans. With the ability to move your truck depending on the time and season, you’ll also gain added exposure to customers who may otherwise not frequent the area in which you own your coffee shop. Seeing your coffee truck outside their office or school will excite those customers who rarely make it to your shop.
Food and coffee trucks continue to grow in popularity, and sites such as Truckster are driving new customers to up and coming food trucks in record numbers.
Because coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world, coffee drinkers are always looking for new places to enjoy their favorite cup of joe. Food truck discovery websites are a great way to increase the visibility of your brand, and many coffee drinkers are incredibly loyal to coffee trucks compared to the standard coffee brand.
If you sell coffee, coffee trucks are an incredibly efficient way to move product while keeping your costs low. With very little additional infrastructure needed, a coffee truck is essentially ready to go the moment you purchase it. Best yet, you don’t need a ton of room in your truck to have all the materials you need to produce and sell great tasting coffee!
As previously mentioned, you can move your truck based on where you expect your customers to be so that there’s no wasted time when you’re working your coffee truck!
If you own a coffee shop, you should consider starting your own coffee truck as well. With the reasons listed in this post, it’s easy to see the value a food truck provides to your business.
Hamburger and hot dog food trucks can be very successful, but to set your business apart and take advantage of a niche, consider a theme, for example, regional, gourmet, paninis or waffles. To boost success, make it healthful food. Some exotic or custom food trucks make more money than those serving traditional American cuisine. Continue reading “Popular Themes for Mobile Food Trucks”
Mobile cuisine has been part of American culture since the latter part of the 17th century when street vendors sold food from pushcarts in New York City. The modern food truck craze, however, started in 2008 in Los Angeles and developed into a culture that is equal to the restaurant concept.
In recent years, getting your lunch from a truck seems to be almost fashionable, and many food truck operators started tapping into sentiments associated with modern America, including healthy eating, environmentally friendly catering solutions, and social media. Continue reading “Is the Food Truck Industry Growing?”
If you want your food truck to stand out and attract a lot of customers, pay close attention to design elements like colors, text, logo, and structure and parts of the vehicle that can add interest. We here at Truckster hope to help you think of ways to come up with a visually outstanding, attractive design that makes your food truck successful. Continue reading “5 Tips for Designing a Food Truck That People Will Remember”
Do you love cooking and dream of the day when people will be lining up to have you cook for them? Opening a restaurant is the dream of many but can be a pretty difficult one to achieve. You have to get the location right, employ enough staff, and cater for a bunch of overheads.
Continue reading “Why Is Denver A Good Place For A Food Truck?”
Food trucks are getting more and more popular across America, offering quick and convenient food in practically any place where people gather. As a new food truck owner, you’re looking for the most opportunistic locations to set up camp and find troves of hungry customers. So, where should you be looking to park your truck to make the most money? And, where should you avoid putting your food truck? Let’s answer these important questions so your business can start maximizing its profits today.