Food Truck Business Plan, Marketing Plan, How To Guide, and Funding Directory
The Food Truck Business Plan and Business Development toolkit features 18 different documents that you can use for capital raising or general business planning purposes. Our product line also features comprehensive information regarding to how to start a Food Truck business. All business planning packages come with easy-to-use instructions so that you can reduce the time needed to create a professional business plan and presentation.
Your Business Planning Package will be immediately emailed to you after you make your purchase.
- Bank/Investor Ready!
- Complete Industry Research
- 3 Year Excel Financial Model
- Business Plan (26 to 30 pages)
- Loan Amortization and ROI Tools
- Three SWOT Analysis Templates
- Easy to Use Instructions
- All Documents Delivered in Word, Excel, and PDF Format
- Meets SBA Requirements
Food trucks have become extremely popular businesses over the past 15 years. Very low startup costs coupled with the fact that many people have decided to independently cook the general public rather than starting a restaurant has become a very popular methodology during this time. The startup cost for a new food truck range anywhere from $30,000-$75,000 depending on the size of the truck and the equipment used. Usually, the median starting costs for new food truck range from $40,000 to $50,000. However, these figures can go substantially higher if highly specialized equipment is being used. For instance, a food truck that specializes in be the queue and has a smoker attached to the truck itself can easily reach a starting cost of $100,000 or more. However, the barriers to entry for new food truck are still considered low. Most importantly when planning to develop a new food truck business – it is imperative that an appropriate marketing plan is developed. Med this will be further covered below.
Most entrepreneurs that started food truck business will often first develop a business plan. This is especially needed if the individual is going to be raising capital from a bank or investor in order to get operations off the ground. Most banks and financial institutions are willing to provide a SBA loan or a conventional business loan to individuals that are looking to establish operations. It should be noted that a food truck business loan should be secured by both the equipment and the vehicle that is being purchased. Of course, a business plan is required in order to raise capital. Within this document a three-year profit and loss statement, cash flow analysis, balance sheet, breakeven analysis, underlying assumptions, and business ratios page should be developed in order to allow a funding source, bank, credit union, or investor to render a lending or an investment decision. Many investors like food trucks given the fact that they can move from place to place and they are not stuck in one location. Additionally, these businesses generate very strong gross margins from the sale of their cuisine on a day-to-day basis. While these companies do have lower cost than a restaurant, it should be noted that food trucks usually have other expenditures such as fuel, underlying food costs, and personnel costs that are similar to that of a traditional restaurant. As such, an entrepreneur looking to enter this industry should keep a very close eye on the underlying operating expenses.
As it relates to a food truck marketing plan, it is important that the entrepreneur understand that a well-developed plan that focuses heavily on obtaining positive reviews and maintaining a presence on social media is very important. Many food trucks thrive because they maintain a frequently updated FaceBook page, Twitter account, and an Instagram page that provides individuals with the menu, images of food, and the daily location. There are currently a number of applications that allow food truck to post the exact location of the business at any time on their website as well as on social media. This is of the utmost importance given that as the business moves customers need to know where to go in order to buy food from the food truck.
After the business plan and marketing plan has been developed, many entrepreneurs will also conduct a SWOT analysis in order to provide an understanding of the strengths we, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that are faced by these businesses. As it relates to strengths, food trucks are able to move from location to location and operate at the convenience of the owner. Most importantly, the startup costs are considered low as compared to a traditional food business like a restaurant. For weaknesses, this industry has exploded over the past 10 to 15 years and as such there is a significant amount of competition within this industry. Again, it is important that a owner of a food truck maintain an expansive marketing campaign in order to differentiate their business from similar businesses in the market. Relating to opportunities, most owners of these businesses will look to acquire and develop additional trucks that can operate within a larger metropolitan area. Usually, the most successful food truck businesses are located in major cities given that they can work with a very large number of customers on a daily basis. For threats, there are very few ongoing threats outside of spikes in energy costs or a decline in the economic climate that would impact the way these businesses conduct their operations.
In closing, a food truck can be a very profitable as well as an exciting business to operate. However, given the competition – a owner of one of these businesses really needs to focus substantially on providing the highest quality food possible, as well as convenient locations where they can be found in a day-to-day basis. Many food truck owners boost their revenues by also being able to provide catering services for individual as well as corporate events. This is one of the other major avenues for growth for many of these business owners.