But to be a successful food truck driver, you’ll have to work just as hard behind the scenes as you do selling food and drinks to long lines at local festivals and events.
You’ll need to get creative with both the food you serve and the art you display on the outside of your truck. Food trucks aren’t usually the only participants at events. Attracting people who are willing to spend money on food is the key to running a successful mobile business.
Austin Warman and Justin Hamilton, who own and operate The Food Pit, a local food truck serving smashburgers and homemade mac and cheese, said it can take two days to prepare for the five-day event.
The owners take extra steps to raise the bar on their hand-made food, making their own pickles and cutting their own lettuce and tomatoes, partnering with Dayton’s Baker Benzies for the Smashburger buns and creating their own special sauce.
“If you’re starting a food truck, don’t think it’s going to be easy,” Hamilton says, “and be prepared that it’s going to take a while to get big and profitable. Be prepared to be broke for a while.”
Startup costs
Corey Thompson, president of the Dayton Food Truck Association, which owns What the Taco?! and What the Dilla?!, said start-up costs can range from $3,000 to $40,000, depending on a food trucker’s budget and menu.
Thompson’s total startup costs in 2019 were about $2,000, including the tent, plus a $3,000 trailer he purchased after a few months of operation. (And that doesn’t include the cost of ingredients.) His advice to anyone thinking about opening a food truck is that you don’t need to buy everything brand new.
“If it doesn’t work out, they’ll only lose $5,000 to $6,000. But some people buy trailers and trucks for $40,000, $50,000, (and) it doesn’t work out and now they’re stuck,” Thompson said.
Damon and Katherine Roberts, owners of The Lumpia Queen, purchased their first food trailer in August 2020 for $15,000, but once they got in, they realized it needed some updates and modifications to better suit their needs.
They started by making pancit in a flat-top pan because that’s what they had on hand — their food truck wasn’t equipped with burners.
“For the job you do, you need to have the right equipment to do it,” Katherine Roberts said.
The total launch cost for The Lumpia Queen was approximately $20,000.
The Food Pit owners started their food truck in August 2023. Warman had saved up about $15,000, just enough to cover payments for a year and pursue their dream of opening a food truck. The brothers bought the food truck in January 2023 for $7,000 and it broke down quickly. Warman had a background in auto mechanics, so he wasn’t too worried about getting the truck up and running.
Over the next few months, they polished and sanded the exterior to create a unique look and then, with the help of the family, put together the interior, including turning two broken restaurant refrigerators into one fully functioning fridge.
“A lot of people can say they’ve built their own truck, but I don’t think there are many who can say they worked as hard as we did,” Warman said.
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The risks of owning a food truck
As a first-year food truck driver, Warman said one of the hardest aspects of running a food truck is estimating how much food to prepare for an event. If they say they expect 300 people to come to an event, he assumes about half that number will show up and that half of them will eat.
“A food truck is the biggest risk by far,” Warman said. “Not only do you risk the truck breaking down when you’re out there, but you also risk things falling inside if you’re not properly prepared. Plus, you risk foot traffic and sales.”
You also need to consider whether other food trucks will be at your event. Damon and Katherine Roberts said it’s important to ask if there will be free food anywhere, as that can affect your success.
Thompson said food truck owners can ask for a minimum amount if they’re not sure what to expect at an event. For example, if Thompson asks for a $600 minimum and makes $600, the organizers don’t have to pay him anything. If he only makes $500, the organizers are owed $100.
Asking for a minimum amount of money can make it easier to secure the time, Thompson says.
Meanwhile, food truck operators typically must pay a fee to participate in events, which can range from $75 to $3,000 depending on the size and location of the event, Thompson said. When it comes to paying the fee, Damon and Katherine Roberts said it’s important for food truck operators to ask what’s included in the fee.
“I love it when things go wrong.”
Both What The Taco?! and The Lumpia Queen have experienced some tough times running their food trucks.
“It’s fun when things go wrong,” Damon Roberts says. “It’s sad at the time, but it’s a learning experience afterwards, and you learn how to make sure it doesn’t happen again. We never say we want to quit.”
Thompson recalled parking a food trailer full of food overnight because he had to get to an event early the next morning. Someone unplugged the trailer, he said, and he lost $1,500 worth of food. The worst part was not having time to go buy food and prepare it. He was forced to cancel, but “I always try to make things right,” he said.
Over the next week, he delivered free food to those who missed it.
The owners of Lumpia Queen told me about a recent incident where they ran out of propane, and luckily a fellow food truck driver had a spare tank. They said success in the food truck industry is all about relationships with other food truck drivers and local businesses.
Desire to succeed
The one thing the food truck owners who shared their stories have in common is their enthusiasm.
Thompson said he typically does five to seven jobs a week because he can’t say no, and he’ll often be taken to one establishment for lunch and move on to another for dinner.
“Be prepared to act fast,” Thompson said.
The Food Pit’s owners previously worked in the food industry, so they knew what to expect when it came to work hours: They’ve done about 80 jobs already this year, and it’s not uncommon to work seven days straight for a meal that takes two days to prepare.
Damon Roberts is known for pushing the envelope at The Lumpia Queen, and when they opened their first brick-and-mortar location on W. Social Tap & Table, their food truck was scheduled for the Celtic Festival.
“If I hadn’t continued to push the envelope, I don’t think we would be here today,” Damon Roberts said.
Lumpia Queen was scheduled to exhibit at the Asian Food Festival in Cincinnati one weekend and at the World A’ Fair the next. Luckily, we had overestimated the amount of lumpia for the Asian Food Festival, so we didn’t have to do much preparation for the upcoming events.
“Rolling lumpia is a tedious job,” says Katherine Roberts.
Most people can roll 45-60 lumpia per hour. At the Asian Food Fest, we prepared 5,000 lumpia.
From food trucks to brick-and-mortar stores
The Lumpia Queen owners plan to open their first brick-and-mortar location in 2022, followed by a second food truck and a second brick-and-mortar location in 2023. The most challenging part of transitioning from a food truck to a brick-and-mortar location was knowing how much food to prepare.
“When you go to a festival or somewhere, you know people are going to come, but in a restaurant you don’t necessarily know,” Damon Roberts said. “Right now we have capacity, but we don’t know what to cook.”
Because their brick-and-mortar store is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, they know their lunch hours are from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and they start prepping early to make sure customers get in and out. That knowledge is put to good use at W. Social, but the food hall also takes online orders. Damon Roberts said with online orders, you never know what’s going to happen. His job is to schedule so enough employees are available to work.
Community Support
When asked what motivates them, the food truck owners said it’s the love of their work and their customers.
“I can never go back to a 9-to-5 job for the simple fact that I am my own boss,” Thompson said. “Cory, no one is telling me today that I have to do this.”
He wants to listen to people and make them happy through his food truck.
“For me, it’s the customers,” Katherine Roberts says, “Everywhere we go, the customers are always so grateful that we’re there. I think that’s what makes me want to keep going. I feel like we’re needed in a lot of places.”
The risks of owning a food truck are worth it, they say.
“Do what you want to do, what you love,” Warman says. “Sometimes you have to take risks to do what you love.”
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