Why food trucks fail

A budget is your best friend when keeping costs under control. Just open an Excel document and start listing expenses. Food trucks succeed when they go where the people are. The more people there are in a given area, the more likely a vendor is to have a customer. Consider your target demographic when choosing a location. Too many owners want to show off their creative flair with extensive menus and intricate dishes.

Successful food trucks require a streamlined menu with straightforward dishes. Create flavorful items without going overboard on preparation, cooking, or costs. Social media and food trucks go hand in hand. Few things are as important in the food truck industry as the way your business is perceived. Lack of identity is the opposite of being constrained by your vision. A soft opening is a great tactic that can lead to an infinitely more successful grand opening of your new food truck.

Just like a bad opening, bad service will kill your business quickly. Most food truck owners lack formalized training, procedural and operational processes. Learn from an experienced owner or hire a consultant for expert advice. How can your truck or food cart kitchen staff maintain consistency without formal recipes?

This step is critical to controlling costs, curtailing waste, and providing effective staff training. Reducing inventory means a reduction in food cost, so manage your resources carefully. Unexpected and unforeseen events happen all the time, especially in a food truck business. In many instances, incorrect budgeting is the culprit. If you want to own a food truck or cart, expect to work.

A thorough examination of locations you plan to sell your fare is vital to know if it is to be successful and, once it is successful, staying on top of business trends will keep it that way. This is another area where an experienced owner, marketer or consultant can help. The mobile catering industry can be hard work and a day in a life of a food vendor includes getting stock, travelling to an event, setting up at the event and cooking food all day and then packing away and travelling back again.

This can lead to burnout when doing this for long periods which result in the quality and standard of the business declining and food vendors just giving up. Another strategy is to limit the number of events and have a space or break between events instead of multiple back to back gigs.

There is often no one single reason why a food truck business fails but more of an accumulation of mistakes. But If I had to highlight one, in particular, I would say it is choosing the wrong product. This is because if you have a product nobody wants then sales with being lacking and the long term viability of the business with being unsustainable.

However, a wise person learns from their mistakes but an even wiser one learns from others I borrowed this saying. So if you do your research and get the basics right there is no reason why your mobile catering business cant succeed, especially in a continually growing market.

See 8 of the most common mistakes that food trucks make and how to avoid them Food truck businesses are like many other types of business in the sense that some go on to succeed, whilst others fail and the reasons why are often the same. How to avoid Choose a product that people are familiar with, has a high demand and a high-profit margin on the base ingredients meat or vegan.

Not having a clear identity Have you ever wandered down a high street or amongst food stalls at a festival, looked up at a sign and wondered what it is that particular business does? How to avoid: Have a clear message in terms of your name and strapline. Poor presentation Before people get to see the price and even buy a product they make an evaluation on the presentation of a food truck.

Choosing the wrong events And this leads on nicely to another reason food trucks fail. How to avoid Start small and allocate a proportion of start-up money solely for events and attending local food markets and festivals where pitch fees are lower and you can afford to take the hit. Poor money management Food truck business often runs into trouble and fail as a result of poor money management.

Not sticking with it Like any business, it takes time to develop, build your customer base, perfect processes and just become better at the work you do and therefore see results. How to avoid If you have done your research and get the basics right there is no reason not to succeed. Burn out This is quite a common reason why more established food trucks businesses fail.