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While those that want to work in the culinary industry often dream of owning their own restaurant, one option that is often overlooked is choosing to open a food truck business. While it might not sound as glamorous as a stationary eatery, these culinary vehicles provide numerous advantages, including minimal risk and much lower startup costs.
Greater Mobility
When you open a traditional restaurant in a stationary location, you’re stuck there. Research shows that most of these eateries fail within the first year, with the majority of the rest failing within the following five years, usually due to an undesirable location or high rent. Even if you open a restaurant in a good area initially, it can go downhill due to a number of factors outside your control, and even if the food and service you provide are excellent, if patrons don’t feel safe coming to the area they won’t, and you’ll lose money.
This is where culinary trucks completely surpass traditional restaurants and cafes. Because they sit on wheels, you can move all over the city, and if you don’t like one area, you can move to another. This also gives you the option of experimenting with different locations to see which one is most profitable, and when major events come to town, such as concerts, parades, business conferences or sporting competitions, you can drive your truck close to the action and deliver food to customers directly, something traditional restaurants can’t do.
Initial Investment is Affordable
Sit-down eateries will always be more expensive up front than culinary trucks. Once you’ve purchased the truck itself, all you need to do is modify it so that you can cook, prepare and store food within it. Common tools that you’ll need include grillers, lights, refrigeration, water filtration, and utensils. To give you an idea of how expensive it is to open a classical, sit down eatery, in New York City you’ll need to come up with $300,000 for a moderately sized restaurant, while a high end four or five star establishment can easily cost upwards of $10 million. By comparison, a culinary truck can be set up for under $30,000.
Greater Safety and Hygiene
While culinary trucks are sometimes compared to food street vendors, research shows that the food produced by culinary trucks is healthier and safer. This makes sense, given the fact that culinary trucks are larger and have access to better equipment, ensuring that the food is safely stored and thoroughly cooked before being served.
Lower Operational Costs
When looking at the cost of running a business, it isn’t enough just to factor in the upfront costs; you must also evaluate the ongoing operational expenses. Again, this is an area where culinary trucks surpass traditional restaurants. Such vehicles require less staff and you don’t have to worry about taxes, rent and utilities. This means you can translate the cost savings to customers, delivering delicious food which is a fraction of the cost of a standalone café or restaurant. The only things you need to pay for are supplies, gas and the ingredients.
