{"id":2550,"date":"2019-12-30T06:38:03","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T11:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zacsburgers.com\/?p=2550"},"modified":"2022-09-08T05:45:37","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T09:45:37","slug":"must-haves-perfect-food-truck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacsburgers.com\/must-haves-perfect-food-truck\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Must-Haves For the Perfect Food Truck"},"content":{"rendered":"
While some businesses like Zac\u2019s have both brick-and-mortar storefront locations<\/a> and convenient traveling food trucks<\/a>, you may just be trying to get started with the latter. But how do you start a food truck?<\/p>\n We\u2019re going to tell you how to get started<\/strong>, and also give you tips for running a food truck<\/strong> so that you can break into the food truck industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n First off, you should know that starting a food truck is not the most expensive part of the process of owning and operating a food truck. You\u2019re going to be spending a lot of money in taxes, fees, licensing, permits, and more as needed. But, to begin with, you need to think about those start-up costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to give an accurate estimate for exactly how much starting a food truck will cost you. You need to find out the estimated costs to cover the following things:<\/p>\n Keep in mind that these won\u2019t be the only costs, but they are the most common costs across the board for all food truck owners and operators.<\/p>\n There are five primary things you need to concern yourself when starting and running a great food truck.<\/p>\n One of the biggest things about running a food truck<\/a> is all the legalities and red tape you have to deal with. Depending on where you\u2019re trying to work, there are permits, licensing, approval processes, and more that you need to concern yourself with. Even after all of that, you have to keep up to date on local laws and parking regulations<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the very least, you\u2019ll need vehicle licensing, a seller\u2019s permit, food handler\u2019s permit, business license, fire certificates following inspections, and health department permits. You also need to be sure to get an employer identification number, otherwise known as an EIN. This number is used by the IRS. It helps them to identify your business and collect the proper taxes from you and your employees.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll also want to get insurance for your truck, your business, and the equipment in your truck. Not that anyone wants to think about the worst possible scenarios, but if your truck is vandalized or broken into, you want to be prepared.<\/p>\n There are a lot of important factors for any business. Customers are arguably the most important for profit reasons, but a bad employee can drive customers away en masse. You want to make sure you find great, personable employees to help you with the daily operations of your food truck.<\/p>\n Try to find people that are experienced with the food industry, or the food truck industry if possible. Preferably, look for people that aren\u2019t jaded from the experience – many people have worked in the food service industry and have horror stories about it. But if your truck is a fun, productive place to work, you shouldn\u2019t have this problem.<\/p>\n If you can\u2019t find experienced employees, make some. Take inexperienced people and make sure that they\u2019re properly trained. This includes training them in aspects like customer service, food handling, safe operation of equipment, and more.<\/p>\n A blessing and a curse of food trucks is that they\u2019re mobile. You can work anywhere in your locality that you want so long as it doesn\u2019t overlap with any other franchise interests, where applicable. This can be an exciting thing for many people that hate the idea of sitting in one location all day every day.<\/p>\n But, it also makes things more difficult. Not only do you have to mind zoning and parking laws<\/a>, which will prevent you from parking your truck in certain areas or on certain streets, but you have to anticipate the best places to find customers.<\/p>\n This is a difficult process when you\u2019re first getting your business started. It can be confusing if not outright frustrating.<\/p>\n Even when you\u2019re driving around the city in a big truck labeled with your business information on it, you\u2019re going to need to do a little bit of marketing and planning to be as successful as possible.<\/p>\n Plan a grand opening or sign up to participate in a local event<\/a> in your community. This will help to draw in customers and will get your food truck an impressive amount of attention right from the beginning.<\/p>\n Your customers will also need to know where you\u2019ll be during what times and what days, so you might want to generate a schedule for them. This can be a static schedule that you can include in your menus, or you can keep it fluid and post updates on your website or social media accounts in advance.<\/p>\n Along with planning a schedule, you need to plan your days properly. Many food trucks try to get to their location by 6am, even if they only operate during lunch hours. This means that you\u2019ll need to be showing up, doing prep work, and more by probably 4am every day.<\/p>\n A POS system is a point of sale system<\/a>, and it\u2019s a much better way to keep track of what money is going in and out of your food truck every day.<\/p>\n Using a cash drawer or box was the standard decades ago, but with more people using credit and debit cards instead of cash, and the rise of using even cell phones to pay for goods and services, you want to be able to accept any form of payment that your customers have.<\/p>\n A POS system will help you manage and organize orders, accept a variety of payments, track inventory, create and maintain loyalty programs, and more. There are some POS systems out there that are designed specifically for use by food trucks, so keep an eye out for those.<\/p>\nStart-Up Costs to Consider<\/h2>\n
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What You Need for the Perfect Food Truck<\/h2>\n
1. Permits, Licensing, and Approval<\/h3>\n
2. Great Employees are a Must<\/h3>\n
3. Find a Great Area to Park<\/h3>\n
4. Marketing and Daily Planning<\/h3>\n
5. POS System<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n