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It is March and what should you be preparing for? Next winter! You know it is coming...
Real-world food truck training in about 10 minutes. Profit, pricing, food cost, speed of service, marketing, events, and smart systems—no hype, just what works.
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exclusively at nespresso.com every winner like clockwork I hear the exact same
thing Bill winner is killing me Bill no one's booking Bill I guess we need to
shut down until next spring well guess what winter happens every single year
and it has been for as long as we've been recording history so it shouldn't be
a surprise to you winner doesn't kill food trucks a one-income business model
for your food truck that's gonna be your death we're gonna talk about that
today hi welcome to the 10 minute food truck training podcast my name is Bill
Moore I'm the executive director of the National Street Food Winners
Association and we're gonna talk about why you need more than one revenue
stream for that food truck you own so let's just call out the real problem if
all you do is go to pop ups set up sell food come home hope that somebody's
gonna schedule you next week you have one profit center and that means you show
up you open the window you sell food you close and that works in July it's
what it's gonna be the death of you come December maybe even November in
some cases certainly January and February so why am I releasing this in the
middle of March because I want you to be thinking ahead today because you know
what's gonna be happening in just a few short months for now so don't get
excited because hey the warm weather's here now I got events and now I got
people on the catering I can do wedding don't rest on your laurels become
because come next year you'll be saying Bill it's slow what do I do so I'm
telling you what to do right now you have to create that pipeline you need to
have contacts and contracts you need to have a plan and you need to create
backup offers for your business so let's talk about these revenue strings
corporate caterings that's gonna be the winner MVP if you will if you want
stability when it's freezing outside guess what people still got to eat they
don't want to walk downstairs to your food truck that's sit on the side of the
street but they would love for food to be brought up to the office so corporate
offices factories warehouses call centers hospitals they don't stop eating
because it's cold so here's your winter pitch we'll handle onsite lunches once
a week you collect the orders internally or we'll do a pre-order website and all
we ask is you have a minimum head count and you give that to somebody in their
HR department or somebody who's gonna be in charge and then just follow up
consistently get them thinking ahead what's gonna happen to their staff come
December January February and please don't tell me you don't know who to
contact front desk HR office manager operations manager plant manager security
guards talk to a human being that works there winner is when companies are sick
and tired of leftovers in the fast food chain delivery systems just set up a
four-week lunch series pre-order link minimum guarantee simple rotating
menu but some overlap so that they can have some variety but still have the
favorites that they're accustomed to me personally if you set that up I would
eat the exact same thing all four weeks my wife Melissa on the other hand she's
gonna order four different things stop waiting to get booked work on it now you
create the schedule get the commitments telling you'll follow up in October
November but start thinking about it now second thing you need to think about
apartments and HOA pre-order nights winter foot traffic is useless you already
know that scheduled traffic still works apartment complexes and HOA still
want the residents to be happy especially when everyone is stuck inside the
trick is not to show up in hope the trick is to pre-order so Wednesday night
five to seven pre-order closes at 2 p.m. on Wednesday we'll bring it hot and
fast and organized all you gotta do is come down pick it up if you're worried
about cold weather speed of service here's a solution less window time more
bag handouts what that means is you tell them we're gonna be there between five
and seven come on down we'll have it bagged with your name on it all they
gotta do is show up and say hey my name is Bill and you look for that bag and
hand it out that's quick that's sufficient so the simple thing for you at
those apartment and HOA just create that night package the HOA night or the
apartment night with their name two hour service window 25 order minimum all of
them had to be pre-ordered and then have add-ons like a family pack this
feeds for family of four make their ordering process easy add-on dessert
bundles do things that your guests are gonna want so that they'll be
encouraged to bring you back maybe every month off of the winner how about this
one school spirit nights booster clubs PTA's PTO's whatever they call them
nowadays go to places that are always doing something in the winter you got
basketball games wrestling band concerts PTA events PTO events don't let the
school sell you on exposure you're not a charity your vendor so what you do is
you offer pre-order meals to pick up before and after the event team meal deals
for players and families either a discount or a bundle that just makes good
sense for them to buy anyway you can do hot talk that you can do cookies you
can do warm desserts all those can be add-ons the idea is to think out of the
box rather than setting in front of brewery and wondering why you are dead make
a team meal menu just pick three options price for speed and volume pitch it to
the athletic directors and the booster club presidents so that you're a small
business willing to support that school you can even donate a portion of the
sale and it's simple telling you'll donate 10% but you mark up your prices
11% set out a band booster tip jar and all the tips in that jar go to the
band not the credit card tips those yours the additional tips that give for
the band or whatever club you're doing here's something you can do you can
actually pop up inside a building now you don't go take your food truck inside
there unless it's an all-electric food truck and it fits in the doors because
we have propane these be outside but what you can do is set up so that you can go
inside a brewery or tap room or to vent venue or churches or community centers
and set up some small operation where you're running food from your kitchen
inside to be served so that way that people don't have to get up and go outside
and before you say they worry go food nobody has your food winners also the
time to offer up a guest kitchen night so maybe that community center does
have a kitchen but it'll be awesome for you to go in and run it for a night
they're the ones now paying for the water and the electric and all the other
stuff and all your dunes cooking food being a guest chef for a night to support
this just create a pop-up partner packet talk about what you're going to
serve what the requirements are space power access whatever how you're going to
market both yourself and that partner to help them increase whatever it is
they're doing and then the revenue split or the rental fee is it's better to
split the revenue and get something that it is to sit at home and whine about
how dead winter is you can obviously do holiday parties and winter parties
January becomes an opportunity for appreciation for customers or guests and
you can do those favories a great time for staff lunches Valentine's Day stuff
people don't stop gathering in the winter what they do is they gather indoors
so you need to figure out a way to be inside with them you can offer a hot
bar catering do a taco bar a pasta bar a slider bar I've done all of those
they're not that hard to set up and maintain you can do box lunches where you
get an order for 20 or 25 lunches and you just take and drop it off at the
secretary's desk and then she disperses it out to everybody you can do
afternoon snacks coffees pastry savory bites whatever it is something that
becomes a little treat for those employees in the afternoon or that last day
before we go on the winter holiday you become the one catering the party same
deal is everything else we've been talking about set it up now so you got to
do is talk about it as a time gets closer here's a biggie that a lot of
food truck owners completely ignore is you can do meal prep or family packs
meal prep means you're cooking food fully cook it and then you're cooling it
back off and packaging it so all they have to do is microwave it many food
trucks do this especially when it's the winter time that way they're cooking
inside their own warm food truck don't have to have the window open prepping
all the food getting it packaged individually and riding some type of
instruction to put on on how to reheat it microwave it then you advertise it
you can set it up so you're advertising on through the week cut off date on
Friday you go shopping Friday you cook all day Saturday they pick it up
from your food truck on Sunday do the same with meal packs you can portion things
together family or four family or six gives you a big ticket item easy to serve
easy to reheat and a lot less stress on you because you don't have to have the
window open wondering if somebody's going to show up when it's 30 degrees
outside you can even do taking bake stuff where you are assembling everything raw
and they take it home to finish the cooking so make sure you give clear
instructions on how things need to be cooked into a lot temperature when it's
cold people want dinner solved for them even when it's hot people want dinner
solved for them so you can do a family taco night kit you could do a chili and
cornbread that's a great one in the winter you can do barbecue by the pound with
some rolls inside you can do a breakfast burrito pack feed the kids for the next
couple of days for the head off to school or if it's winter break feed the kids
some mom and dad don't have to worry about what they're eating while they're at
work you could do a soup flight which means you give them varieties of soup as
they can sample throughout the week really the sky is a limit all you got to
figure out what you're gonna sell and advertise it of course the easy thing is
also to do real gift cards which means they're giving you money now but the food
doesn't go out to later that helps you with your cash flow and then you can sell
merchandise as well cups and mugs t-shirts that type of thing but it does give you
one additional thing and gift cards do work especially if you give them a reason
to buy them so what you do is say buy fifty dollar gift cards and get ten
dollar bonus or buy four meals now redeem later that's a little bit of
tracking on your part I'd prefer just the plastic gift cards as a real gift
card but it's tied to your business they can't use it anywhere else just make
sure you're the one that can honor gift cards you can do it certainly early in
December as stocking stuffers for people and you can do it again in
February for maybe a Valentine's Day dinner along with merchandise we can if
you do sauces or rubs or other signature items sell them especially in
December who's become unique things for Christmas now you can do this legally
the labels do matter the rules matter the cottage law cottage food laws vary so
don't get cute and try to sell something you can't legally sell to figure out
what it is you can do again this is coming out in March be thinking about how
you're gonna survive the next winter I'm giving you months of warning you can
do cooking classes you can do demos you can do paid experiences there's a sushi
truck in Utah that does sushi classes you could do a barbecue class you can do
a butchery class if you break down your own meat you can do anything or you can
be paid and if it's a class you can even let people cook a meal or two let
them feel what it's like to work on a food truck these are all simple things
you can do that create revenue without you having to throw that window open and
worry about somebody going to show up the survival rule for winter is just
easy you have to think ahead you have to get as much stuff in plan today so that
when the slower months roll around and then roll into the winter months you know
exactly what you're gonna do and who you're gonna contact just pick two or three
things that you can do that make you feel comfortable figure out when you're
gonna market them when you're gonna set them up and who you're gonna talk to
it's all about you planning ahead is you can plan ahead now in March of 26 the
winter of 26 and early 27 won't be as bad thank you guys so much for listening to
the team in a food truck training podcast you're finding everything helpful
that we do please do two things for me today number one like subscribe follow
whatever your platform ask you to do please do that so you'll be notified when
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our associations 19 dollars a month we've already got 30 hours worth of classes
already on for you to learn all about the food truck business as far as how to
operate a profitable one we do weekly live classes those are half hour classes
half hour to an hour classes and then we do two hours of coaching and that's
group coaching every single week 19 dollars a month hard to beat again it's
nsfba.org thank you guys so much for listening and I'll see you in the next
podcast
