Poll of the Day > Wow, what do you think about starting a business with food trucks?

(+) Yeah! (+)

The costs are pretty high but not insane
($45,000-$100,000)

Im just curious if you think it'll catch in the future enough to be a worthwhile investment
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there are already food truck only businesses
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if you make good food it should work
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I'm thinking of franchising one if them but unsure. On one hand I want to do my own thing but on the other I really think this concept will soar in the future (check: asteroid burgers)

Grown up decisions man :(
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Need to have it in a good location too, need to make sure to check how much that will cost.

Junpeiclover posted...

I'm thinking of franchising one if them but unsure. On one hand I want to do my own thing but on the other I really think this concept will soar in the future (check: asteroid burgers)

Grown up decisions man :(

In certain cities like downtown Portland, OR you can't go more than a block or two without seeing at least a few food carts. Certain blocks are basically just parking lots where the entire thing is just food carts with a few places to sit down.
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I actually known a Asian person who, because he could't find work bought a cheap food truck, did it up and started selling Asian food from it. He now has his own business. It's not a bad idea really. It all depends the quality of food you sell and if the food you sell is common to be sold from a food truck. I mean I don't know many food trucks that sell curry and rice for example so folk would pay his price to get something different while on the go.
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I've actually had a plan for a food truck on the back burner for a few years. I want to convert an old school bus and serve high end versions of comfort foods out of it. Gourmet Mac and cheese, venison chilli, assorted finger foods, that kinda stuff.
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Waaay too risky, especially if your not opperating the truck yourself. Too much chance that you could lose a significant portion of your investment or almost all of it.

Your WAAAY better off investing in real estate with that much money, buy a foreclosed/quick sale home, fix it up some and resell it for a significant profit. You won't lose money that way for sure, and you almost always gain at least some profit (and quickly).

There are certainly companies/business that are low cost that you can invest in, but a food truck has a high start up cost, for very little potential return.

For instance, wherever you live, think about investing in a food delivery company. You would need money to invest in hiring your initial drives and a dispatcher (unless you want to do the dispatching from home yourself or something), but should have income to cover it almost right away, and be getting a decent profit (without any time/money invested by you), almost right away.

Even if there are other companies like that in your area, you can still get a large number of their customers by offering cheaper prices (just a bit less) and faster service (as at least initially you'll have less customers).

That can make large profits for less then $10k invested almost right away, with absolutely no risk.

A food trucks resell value is low, and the investment you put into it can go poof (and you can even opperate at a loss initially as well!), just not worth the risk.
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WhiskeyDisk posted...

I've actually had a plan for a food truck on the back burner for a few years. I want to convert an old school bus and serve high end versions of comfort foods out of it. Gourmet Mac and cheese, venison chilli, assorted finger foods, that kinda stuff.

That sounds awesome and different

Also reading through advice, good stuff
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The population of my city isn't high/dense enough for a food truck to work. But, if it were - I would totally do that.
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Wouldn't you guys target office buildings too
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Junpeiclover posted...

Wouldn't you guys target office buildings too

Honestly, I was thinking more along the lines of stalking festivals and county Fair type gigs and setting up day side near office parks and night time in known pub crawl areas in between tours.
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Like others have said, its a risky venture.

Some cities are more suited to it than others. You really need to research how well food trucks do in your area, and how saturated the market is before you even consider going forward with it.

Hitting construction sites around lunch time is another good hit. Some companies will hire a regular truck to be at their site each day, so you'd want that kind of a gig if you could get it. Just be sure you're there when they go to lunch. If you're showing up late, you might find yourself replaced by another truck.
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They are pretty popular here in the phoenix area, they have food truck fridays downtown every week and a big annual event where they all congregate.
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go to where all the brogrammers are
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I've seen one in my area, he never seems busy.
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They make good money around here because they park outside all the breweries in the area.

There's a couple of food trucks around here but I feel like you need a certain amount of population density as well as a pretty busy downtown/commercial core for that to work well. But the nice thing is that if it's not working in one place, you can literally just pick up and try another place. It's probably risky and you'd have to do some research but if you build up a reputation people will start coming to you.
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Kana posted...

There's a couple of food trucks around here but I feel like you need a certain amount of population density as well as a pretty busy downtown/commercial core for that to work well. But the nice thing is that if it's not working in one place, you can literally just pick up and try another place. It's probably risky and you'd have to do some research but if you build up a reputation people will start coming to you.

Location is everything for a restaurant, and having wheels under your restaurant has its advantages.
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Location and a product that's both interesting and with broad appeal. Everyone wants to turn their passion into a business, but sometimes that passion is stupid and they fail. For instance, if you made a British tea-style food truck with cucumber sandwiches and stuff. Good luck lol
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^lol that'd be clutch
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