Gone are the days when food trucks were associated with junk food stalls near old rustic buildings. These flexible business options are exciting for foodies or entrepreneurs wanting to start their dreams.
It is an affordable entry for beginners. But marketing challenges in the food truck environment can come as a surprise. Initial investments are comparatively very low and risks are very minimal. As Food Trucks are now becoming the popular choice rather than opening a restaurant, especially for first-time entrepreneurs, we restaurant consultants at HPG can help you understand the pros and cons of starting a food truck.
Benefits Of A Food Truck Over A Restaurant:
Low Initial Investment: As it involves a lower investment than a restaurant, this is a major advantage of running a food truck. The money you save in setting up can be used for marketing, menu engineering, and hiring staff. The major cost is buying your truck, which can be avoided if you can rent a food truck. You can buy an old truck and re-used equipment, you can set up your food truck in less than Rs 10 Lakh!
You will need to set up your truck with exhausts, grillers, heat lamps, water filtration, and refrigeration units, and any other special equipment your food needs. Food trucks are a steal on the wheel
Low Operation Cost: Owning a restaurant requires you to invest in utilities, hire cooks, cashiers, servers, kitchen managers, cleaners, pay property tax if you are the owner of your real estate, or monthly rentals if the property is on rent. So your operations cost, especially the hidden costs are maybe a lot.
On the other hand, the costs of a food truck are monthly and limited to food, supplies, and gas. You don’t need to have big staff; a small team will do, and most of your taxes will be lower.
Attract More Customers: With better quality food compared to the street vendors and marginally lesser price than a restaurant, Food Trucks have become the new cool among the consumers now. Most food trucks are pocket-friendly. The 5 star hotels have also launched their food trucks to target audiences that cannot afford a five-star restaurant, yet desire a scrumptious, quality meal. Since the food costs are low, you can please your customers with budget-friendly meals.
Food trucks are considered a safer alternative to street food. Food from street vendors is generally considered unhygienic. With growing health consciousness, more and more people are switching to alternatives like small restaurants and food trucks or cloud kitchens.
Experiment with Location: Majority new restaurants fail within the first year. And nearly 80 percent shut before their fifth year of operation, and one of the primary reasons being the poor location choices and high rentals in a posh location.
Fortunately, Food Trucks are not affected by this problem, as they are mobile, you can change the location of your food truck as per your choice. If your services do not seem to work well at a particular location, you can move to some other location and check if your business it’s thriving there. Just keep your papers ready and take permission from the local authorities to park your truck. Choose your location carefully which is easily accessible for four wheelers, and sees ample customers.
Build A Brand: With a food truck, you can build your brand at a smaller level before expanding into something more significant like restaurant or franchising your trucks with the help of restaurant consultants. Finding the correct location, trying new recipes, modifying plans and menus is a lot easier and cost effective in a food truck model as compared to a restaurant. Since sit-down restaurants are of a fixed nature, it can be difficult and expensive to change your brand name and image if needed.
Planning with a restaurant consultant you can design your food truck with maximum utilization and increase sales.
Effective design is the key to any successful business, whether it be a food truck or a restaurant or a cloud kitchen. Restaurant Consultants will add insights to the profitability of the company, as detailed reports of where exactly profit is being generated, and where liabilities lay are provided.