How to Start and Run Your Own Food Truck Business in Tennessee E-Book

A.K. Wingler

• Herausgeber: Fresh Ink Group
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: Your Food Truck How To Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 93

Beschreibung

With good jobs so hard to find, especially in rapidly expanding Tennessee, owning your own food truck could be the best option. It’s the least-expensive start-up, and you can be fully operational in mere months. The rules and regulations can be a bit complex, and no single source has offered all the answers—until now. How to Start and Run Your Own Food Truck Business in Tennessee is the step-by-step guide that takes you from good idea to great success. Sure, it’s hard work, but exciting, mobile, flexible, and highly profitable—and you get to be your own boss and set your own hours. This book tells you how and where to make money in this exploding independent industry. Even if you’re just curious for now, this guide is the best way to discover if a food-truck business is right for you.

Leseprobe

How to Start and Run Your OwnFood Truck Business in Tennessee

Copyright © 2023

by A.K. Wingler and Robert Twistol

All rights reserved

Fresh Ink Group

An Imprint of:

The Fresh Ink Group, LLC

1021 Blount Avenue #931

Guntersville, AL 35976

Email: [email protected]

FreshInkGroup.com

Edition 1.0 2023

Cover design by Stephen Geez / FIG

Cover art by Anik / FIG

Book design by Amit Dey / FIG

Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 and except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, no portion of this book’s content may be stored in any medium, transmitted in any form, used in whole or part, or sourced for derivative works such as videos, television, and motion pictures, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Cataloging-in-Publication Recommendations:

CKB115000 COOKING / Individual Chefs & Restaurants

BUS070120 BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Industries / Food Industry

CKB071000 COOKING / Reference

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022922723

ISBN-13: 978-1-947893-87-0 Papercover

ISBN-13: 978-1-947893-94-8 Hardcover

ISBN-13: 978-1-947893-93-1 Ebooks

Dedication

Thanks be to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior who gives me the confidence to express myself in writing, when I never thought I could. Through Him all things are possible. Amen.

This book is dedicated to Bob Twistol, my best friend, consultant, advisor, and business partner. Without his invaluable input, advice, and nudging this book would have never been written.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Owning and Operating a Food Truck Business in Tennessee

Chapter One: The Menu

Chapter Two: Equipment

Chapter Three: The Truck

Chapter Four : Financing

Chapter Five: Insurances

Chapter Six: Food Handlers License

Chapter Seven: Let’s Get Legal

Chapter Eight: Are We There Yet?

Chapter Nine: The State License

Chapter Ten: The County License

Chapter Eleven: The City License

Chapter Twelve: Show Me The Money

Catalogue Of Websites

About A.K. Wingler

Introduction

Owning and Operating a Food Truck Business in Tennessee

Have you ever thought about opening a Mobile Food Truck business in Tennessee? It’s a good idea, there is money to be made, the food truck industry is booming! Wonder what it takes to get started? We wondered too, so we researched and researched and put all the information here in one place to help out our fellow foodies!

With good jobs becoming harder to find opening your own business is a good way to go, and a Food Truck or Mobile Vending is one of the least expensive start-ups. Are you willing to work hard and long hours? Do you want to stay localized or travel around the state? We’re sure you have many questions about how and where to start; I know we did. We had so many questions about policies and procedures and couldn’t find all the answers in one place. When we finally tracked down the answers, we decided to write a guide book to make it easier for others. So, we’re here to share our experience and know-how to get you legalized, up and running, and help you on your way to a successful new adventure.

Let us first tell you who we are and what we were doing. We are Bob and Andrea and we owned and operated Andebo’s Mobile Kitchen doing business as Andebo’s Italian Style Hot Dogs down in Florida. If we’re from Florida, why are we writing about Tennessee? Because the basics are the same no matter what state you’re working in. It’s the rules and regulations that are different, so we did the research for you, to help you get started.

First question is, why do we have two names? We’ll explain later in Chapter Seven. We catered lunches at a construction site and also took part in various evening events around the Orlando area. There are several ways to make money as you will see as we go along.

One of the first things you should do is visit various food trucks, sample the foods, and ask questions, most food truck operators are happy to tell you some things about the business. Take note of the appearance of the trucks and the interior if possible. Is it clean, do they have tables for customer use, what is their menu like etc. Definitely check out menus; keep in mind the more products offered, the larger the inventory they have to stock. Food truck menus should be simple and quick, customers don’t always like to wait in line to order then wait again while you prepare something that takes a while to cook. However, if it’s a great specialty, it’ll be worth the wait! Always give good customer service, making people smile is half the fun and keeps them coming back for more!

Honestly, be prepared to work ten to twelve hours in a day and sometimes more. It’s not just pulling up to a venue, opening up and selling, that’s only half the work. There’s pre-stocking and prep time before departure, arriving at the venue two or more hours early, selling for four to five hours or so, a quick clean up at the end as most venues want you to leave shortly after closing, then a further clean up back at your storage place. If you work the big fairs, like State Fairs, be aware they are open from 10 or 11 am and could run as late as 10 or 11 pm or later. But don’t let that scare you, fairs can pay really well! Read on, here’s how to do it!

Chapter One

The Menu

Once you have a good idea of what food trucks are all about, you should get an idea of what you want to sell. Do you have a favorite family recipe that everyone loves? Are you know for a personal specialty? Maybe a local favorite like Memphis Barbeque or Nashville Hot Chicken is your style, or fan favorites likes cheesesteak sandwiches or tacos; the ideas are endless! Just keep it simple, fast and creatively delicious!

Once you have an idea or two determine what ingredients it will take to create your product. This includes your garnishes, condiments, paper and plastic ware. Example: you want to sell hot dogs. Do you offer plain only, with sauerkraut or cheese sauce? What about chili? The menu needs to be determined first so you can figure out what equipment you need which in turn determines what size truck will work for you. It’s sort of starting in the middle and working backwards. What is not a good idea is going out and buying a used truck only to find out the equipment doesn’t suit your needs.

Ok, so you’ve decided on chili cheese hot dogs. Good choice! This will require the purchase of the hot dogs, buns, cheese sauce (canned or make your own?), chili (beans or no beans, canned or make your own?).

Making your own chili and cheese sauce adds to your list of necessary ingredients to purchase and time in preparation which may be done in your commissary kitchen, as health departments do not permit foods to be prepared in your home for sale in a commercial situation.

Now how will you serve them, wrapped in paper? Served in a boat, or in a Styrofoam box? Decide which service item will best suit your needs, don’t forget you may be selling some items to go so it’s a good idea to have some plastic bags on hand along with some forks or spoons; don’t want to miss one drop of that great chili! And don’t forget the napkins either.

You need some condiments because some customers will not want the whole chili cheese situation. Some will want only chili or only cheese, some want only mustard, some, especially kids, will only want ketchup. So now, do you buy containers of ketchup or packets? Food Truck food is hand held street food so try to keep things easy.

This is just an example to get you thinking about side items you may need regardless of what your menu will be. The best place to shop around beforehand is online at a site like Webstaurant at www.webstaurantstore.com or at Sam’s Club (www.samsclub.com) for ideas on quantities and prices of these types of items. Once you become established and have your EIN (Employer Identification Number) you can join a restaurant supply company like Restaurant Depot and Sam’s Club Business to save on prices and not pay tax; you need not pay sales tax on items you will be using for resale because you will be collecting sales tax from customers.

What about pricing your items? You don’t want to charge too little and operate at a loss, and at the same time you don’t want to charge too much, you may lose customer base. So how do you figure out what the right price per item is? Not only do you have to consider the price of your inventory, you must also include truck expenses, gas utilities, entrance fees where you will be operating, etc. Sounds like a lot but don’t get nervous, there is actually a rule of thumb on this. You take the price of your ingredients per item and multiple by three, this is the minimum to insure you will have a profit. How it breaks down is this, say you sell and item for $3.00; the first dollar covers the cost of ingredients, the second dollar covers the cost of operation such as running the truck and extras like paper goods, the third dollar is your profit. Example: you sell a pie for $9.75; $3.25 covers the cost of ingredients, $3.25 goes toward supplies and operation, $3.25 is your profit from that one item. The formula works and you can adjust as you feel necessary. Don’t make the mistake some do by selling at a price too low just to draw in customers, thinking you will make it up on volume. If your losing money on one of the sale items, you will lose money on all. There is no such thing as “making it up on volume”. What you will have in volume is loss not gain, so price accordingly.

Chapter Two

Equipment

Once you have your menu set, it’s time to determine what type of equipment you require for your service. Did you decide on burgers and fries? For such items as these you will need a flat top grill, a deep fryer, refrigerator for meats, a cold deli bar if you intend to offer lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, etc., with a counter area for assembling your creations. You will need a beverage refrigerator for storing drinks (don’t forget straws!). Be advised, some venues will require you to use paper straws not plastic and some do not allow Styrofoam containers. It’s good to have both paper and Styrofoam in your storage though; Styrofoam is great for take away items. Prior to attending an event check with the coordinator to be sure which type of serve ware you may need, but they should express that when you apply for space. Event Coordinators generally send out upcoming event announcements with details once you’ve signed on with them.