Business idea : food truck or trailer

[Slew]

I have thought of and done a lot of side jobs...anything food related would have to be the VERY LAST OPTION for sure.

X3!! I did however contemplate hard several years ago on a crawfish trailer I think was for sale on here but my wife said I would just sit on the side of the road and drink beer all day!!

[Bud Ellis]

What type of food are you looking to sale ?
I have a BBQ trailer for sale if your interested.

[BowhunterB]

Those foods trucks are expensive - if you have a nice one. A few hundred grand to have a good one set up from what I have heard.

[bwssr]

Beer truck...drive around on Saturday and Sunday afternoon...like the ice cream trucks, but for the guy mowing his yard

[popup_menace]

Better off finding something else. The food industry is terribly competitive, emotionally charged, and consumer driven. Even if you have the best food around, it takes a perfect storm to have a successful restaurant business (food truck included).

[mjhaverkamp]

Better off finding something else. The food industry is terribly competitive, emotionally charged, and consumer driven. Even if you have the best food around, it takes a perfect storm to have a successful restaurant business (food truck included).

I agree with you but there must be a lot of storms around here.

[popup_menace]

I agree with you but there must be a lot of storms around here.

The area may be conducive to them.

[G5-Maniac]

If you could make friends with a bar owner that would let you park outside and sell that would be a good deal. One of my favorite bars does that they have someone with a food truck that sits in the parking lot and sells food. Keeps the drunks happy and the bar doesn't have to have a full kitchen


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[topshot]

I was gonna go cheap - fix up a beater truck/trailer with equipment for 10k or less and sell locally supplied farm fresh foods

[flywise]

I know a guy that has close to 100k in his trailer
also knew of a guy that had a simple flat bed trailer with a bbq pit on it that sat beside the loop in Stephenville and paid for his 2 kids to go to college with it

[Leemo]

I was gonna go cheap - fix up a beater truck/trailer with equipment for 10k or less and sell locally supplied farm fresh foods

Menu?

[CaptainDave]

There a lot of food trucks in Houston. I'm not really talking about the little taco stands/trailers. I'm talking about the ones that travel around to different spots everyday. There are some very well known ones like - Bernie's Burger Bus, Waffle Bus, Cousins Main Lobster, etc.

From what I can tell, it's a very competitive business. You not only need good food, but you need sort of a niche or even unique type product. It also needs to be something that can easily be mass produced in a small food truck kitchen. You also need to have a good relationship with local businesses; i.e. local bars, business parks, apartment complexes, associations, etc. These trucks also show up just about anywhere there is some type of outdoor festival or activity. They can really bank being parked outside a local watering hole that doesn't serve food or having a monthly scheduled stop at a busy apartment complex or business building. Problem is you need the marketing and connections to gain access to these places. I'm sure some even charge a fee.

Like restaurants, I'd say 70% of these trucks don't even make it a year. There's obviously a lot of overhead as the food at most of these trucks is expensive. I'm talking $10-15 per plate.

I'd stay out of it, unless you can come up with a great concept.

[8mpg]

A guy I used to work with stopped being a nurse to open a food truck which was a partnership with a successful friend in Austin. Hes a nurse again.

I have read a couple times that food is the highest turnover business around.

[curtintex]

I agree with you but there must be a lot of storms around here.

Yep. The OP asks for people with experience and he gets a bunch of people with no experience telling him why it won't work. Hell, somebody is making it work, the things are all over Houston.

[jaspermac]

I have often thought about how many little ceasers pizzas I could sell at a football game on Friday night