Starting a concession trailer or food cart business is not easy for those who are interested in having their own food trailers. In fact even an experienced entrepreneur might not do well without proper planning. Since past few years, there have been few decisive factors coming out to be good for being successful in this business to make money.
Choosing a concession trailer as per your needs
One common problem seen with many of the concession trailer owners is related to capital investment kept for buying a good trailer. What most of the people do is, they spend a lot of bucks in purchasing trailer which eventually puts them in to debt and lowers the further funding for stocks and other stuffs needed to get the business going. I have one of my friends from Georgia who couldnt recover the cost of concession trailer itself even 5-6 months before him actually seeing profit in his business. When asked about what he should have not done in this business, he wished to have bought old or used trailer and save some money. Now that gives a good clue to those who are looking to start this business.
The goal of every business: attracting customers
Now its not a rocket science that more famous your counter gets more bucks you will earn. So the real deal is how to attract food seekers to your trailer. What else can give you a better idea than chatting with a successful concession trailer owner with one or more trailers running well in different places!
I talked to a guy in Georgia who owns about 4 trailers in the city who left me with 2 great tips, i.e. pitch area and presentation of a trailer. I found him correct when I saw the big queue of customers before his bright colored Humpty Dumpty concession trailers!
Work smart, make more money
We have always heard this but nobody tells how to exactly implement it in a given business. But this is surely not the case about concession trailer business. Few tips for the same go as follows,
Purchase food supplies like meat, sauces, vinegar and salads wholesale in advance of your vending days. Try to place as much surplus products in your trailer as possible, then store the rest in a large refrigerator at home.
Working everyday on a trailer would not be recommended if you look at it in a business point of view. You can hire some person to handle your concession trailer rather than managing it on your own. This gives you more time to spend in actually growing your business. You can emphasize more on promotions and stuffs like that. Rather if you want to have more than one trailer, then hiring someone is must. Develop a system for collecting money. If you can, engage someone to handle the money individually from the trailers.
So bottom line would be work less or I would say smart, buy other peoples time and gain a far more better insight for your concession trailer business.