Time to Prepare

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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

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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

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