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16 Street Food Business Ideas

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Written by: Carolyn Young

Carolyn Young is a business writer who focuses on entrepreneurial concepts and the business formation. She has over 25 years of experience in business roles, and has authored several entrepreneurship textbooks.

Edited by: David Lepeska

David has been writing and learning about business, finance and globalization for a quarter-century, starting with a small New York consulting firm in the 1990s.

Published on July 28, 2022 Updated on May 4, 2024

Hot dogs, pizza, snow cones and bubble tea are among Americans’ favorite street foods, which are quicker and more affordable than restaurant food and more convenient for people on the go. 

US street venders earn some $2 billion a year, and that number’s growing as the economy recovers and picks up steam. If you’re thinking of getting in on this mobile food craze, you might just be a sharp entrepreneur. Check out our list of exciting street food business ideas and start driving toward success!

1. Food Truck

Who doesn’t love food trucks? They seem to be everywhere these days, at parks and street fairs, music festivals, beaches, private parties and community events.

The first step, of course, will be settling on a menu. The possibilities are endless, from burritos to barbecue, from burgers to sausages, and from smoothies and milkshakes to pad thai and pizza. You could even go seasonal and offer frozen desserts in summer and gourmet soups in winter, and be able to draw a crowd year-round. The next major hurdle will be acquiring the necessary licenses and permits, which are absolutely crucial for any food-related business . 

Last but not least, you will need the food truck itself. It’s sure to be a significant investment, but you might be able to find a reasonably priced used truck to keep costs low. Don’t forget about the location – high foot traffic areas (parks, sport and music events, festivals and concerts) work the best.

2. Food Cart

If you have some kitchen skills and enjoy meeting new people, you could start your own food cart business and make good money while providing tasty treats to people on the go. Food carts are usually more affordable than food trucks. A food cart is a great option to consider if you would prefer to lower start-up costs. But, keep in mind that food carts have smaller storage space, which limits your menu and food offerings.

First, you’ll need to get a sturdy cart with refrigeration. Next, you’ll need to decide what will be on the menu. The best approach is to keep it simple and focus on one item, or one group of items. For instance you might offer hotdogs, brats and Italian sausage, or tamales, tacos and burritos, or chicken and pork curry. Once you’ve made a big batch of your dishes, stock up your cart and head to the park on a lovely afternoon. 

3. Hot Dog Cart

In summertime , Americans consume more than 800 hot dogs per second. That’s a lot of dogs! Even so, the market is expected to continue to grow as more Americans show a preference for high-protein foods and manufacturers offer more enticing reduced-fat and vegan options . If you’re looking for a new venture, consider a hot dog cart. 

Setting up this business may look easy, but you will have to comply with permit and license requirements, acquire the necessary equipment, find suppliers, and decide on your product line. Competition will be tough as there are countless hot dog carts across the country so it’s to your advantage to find a good location with high foot traffic and promote your business aggressively.

Once you’ve established your brand, customers should be lining up to buy your hot dogs. What are you waiting for? Get yourself a cart and take a bite out of this huge market.

4. Coffee Cart

Nearly 3 in 4 Americans drink coffee every day and the average coffee drinker consumes more than three daily cups. Coffee cart market size is rising upward in the past few years and it is estimated that the market will grow significantly by 2030 .

If you’re looking to start a coffee cart business, it’s a good idea to research the market first and brace yourself for tough competition. It’s important to come up with a good business plan to have a clear idea of how you can compete with highly popular coffee shop brands like Starbucks. You should serve the products like: espresso, cold brew, non-coffee drinks, tea, decaf coffee.

While complying with the legal requirements, you should invest in coffee making equipment and find reliable suppliers of coffee beans and other supplies . With creative marketing and a lot of hard work, you’ll be able to make big profits from your coffee cart business.

5. Snow Cone Cart

What’s more refreshing than a tasty snow cone on a hot summer day? Snow cones, also known as shaved ice, are cups of finely crushed ice lathered in flavored syrup. They’re sold in parks, along the street and at big events, and popular among all ages. Considering there’s always demand for it, starting a snow cone business can be financially rewarding for you. 

Before you get started, you need to understand that competition is tough. Snow cones have leveled up from being sold in stalls and are now being offered in restaurants and bars. Many versions have also been introduced, some with local ingredients while others contain a splash of liquor. To compete you’ll need to innovate and come up with unique, appealing flavors. If you play your cards right, your snow cone business can provide you with a steady source of income.

6. Boba Tea

Coffee, tea or boba tea? Boba tea, also known as bubble tea or milk tea, is increasingly popular among younger consumers. This cold Taiwanese drink is made by blending tea with milk, adding tapioca or boba pearls, and shaking vigorously. The US boba tea market is worth about $434 million and still growing, so starting your own boba tea business could be a great idea.

Of course, you’ll need to comply with regulatory requirements. On top of FDA regulations, there may be other federal, state and local requirements to meet. Be sure to check before you launch your business. 

You’ll also need to choose a good location for your boba tea shop, one with high foot traffic or close to your target market. With a reliable supplier and an excellent marketing strategy, you’ll soon be bubbling up some serious success!

7. Coffee Shop

65% of Americans drink coffee daily , compared to just 55% who consume bottled water, which is why you’ll find a coffee shop or cafe on just about every street. You could take advantage of this trend by starting your own coffee shop and providing a pick-me-up to countless people everyday while making a good living. 

Of course, opening a coffee shop will take some real work. The best coffee shops offer excellent pastries and other foods, and create a comfortable atmosphere for people to linger and enjoy. So you’ll need to make smart choices in terms of your product offerings, furniture and overall design, as well as your location. You’ll also want to be careful in choosing your coffee source, to make sure it’s eco-friendly and fair trade. But if you’re passionate about coffee and have the drive to see your business succeed, it can be an incredibly rewarding and profitable experience.

8. Popcorn Cart

Who doesn’t love popcorn? It’s popular among eaters of all ages, and fairly simple to make, which means it could be a great business idea. The US popcorn market expects strong 5.5% annual growth through 2029, so this is the perfect time to get started.  

You might want to choose a niche market first and decide between microwave popcorn, ready-to-eat popcorn, kernels, or all of these. It’s to your advantage to scope out the market and identify your distribution channels. You can buy wholesale and resell by supplying supermarkets and convenience stores. Other options are to market your products online, or invest in equipment and set up your own ready-to-eat popcorn stall. You will need to check out permit requirements, and other local and state regulations. It’s also a good idea to draw up a marketing plan and use social media to succeed.

9. Pizza Shop

If you’re like most people, pizza is one of your favorite foods. You can either go to the nearest pizza restaurant, or you can just open an app and order. Better yet, you can fix one yourself, get creative with your toppings, or even start a business! In the US, the pizza delivery industry is worth nearly $47 billion and growing, so right now is a good time to take a bite of this mouthwatering pie.

But first you’ll need to learn the basics of starting a pizza business, from licensing and permits to branding and marketing. It’s also important to study the competition — find out how many restaurants are already doing business in the area, what kind of pizza they’re making, and how they’re promoting their brand. Choosing the right location is critical. You have to be where your target market is. Once you hurdle these, you’ll be well on your way to success!

10. Juice Bar

Americans have in recent years become more concerned about the dangers of soft drinks and artificial sweeteners. You could help people live healthier lives while being your own boss and generating a strong and steady income. 

You could even work out of your home and operate a mobile juice cart, stationing yourself at parks, local fairs and festivals and major events, and offering special deals. The first key step, after getting a cart or renting out a storefront, will be getting all the appropriate licenses and permits required for food-related businesses. Once that’s taken care of you’ll need to develop a strong menu of fresh juices and appealing juice combinations, such as berry mango ginger or raspberry lemonade.

You might consider operating fully from home by selling bottled juices rather than fresh-squeezed. But keep in mind, bottling juices is more expensive due to all the materials and packaging. Either way, it’s probably best to start small and grow your business as you build your reputation as the juice king, or queen!

11. Cupcake Truck

The great cupcake boom is here! Cupcakeries, or bakeries that specialize in cupcakes, are popping up on every major shopping artery, while reality shows like Cupcake Wars draw massive viewership numbers.

If you have legit baking skills, you could start your own cupcake truck business and ride this wave to success while bringing smiles to countless faces. There will be a good deal of work involved. You’ll need to decide which sort of cupcakes to make, though at the start it might be best to specialize in the cupcakes you make best and then expand the choices as you grow. The next step will be to rent or buy a cupcake truck along with the necessary equipment and supplies. You should consider high-foot-traffic places near other food businesses such as bakeries, beverage trucks, and pop-up restaurants.

Finally, be sure to get all necessary licenses and permits, as the last thing you want is for your food business to be shut down just as you’re starting to draw the cupcake crowds.

12. Smoothie Bar

Do you love smoothies? If so, you’re not alone. Eating healthier is a key part of the current American fitness craze, and for millions of people that means smoothies. They work as breakfast, snack, dessert or even a lunch alternative, and can be made with everything from almond milk and yogurt to ice cream, pineapple and cucumbers (though not all together!). So if you enjoy whipping up healthy treats, you could start your own smoothie business and put smiles on countless faces while making good money. 

Beyond creating a unique and appealing menu, one key hurdle will be finding a great location for your smoothie shop. It needs to have steady foot and car traffic, or you won’t do much business. It also needs to be affordable or you won’t make any profits. One option is to rent a food truck and start out with a mobile smoothie business, then use that to build a reputation and save money for your smoothie shop — which will hopefully be the first of many.

13. Pop-Up Restaurant

A pop-up restaurant is a short-term dining experience in a temporary, often unique location. The concept should be distinctive and appealing, featuring a specific type of cuisine or dining format to attract and engage diners. The choice of location should align with the restaurant’s theme, be accessible, and comply with all necessary health and safety regulations.

The sourcing of food and staffing is critical, ensuring that the ingredients and personnel align with and can execute your concept. After these elements are set up, effective marketing via various channels like social media and local press is key to drive customer interest. Lastly, efficient operation and management of the pop-up from setup to cleanup is crucial, alongside collecting feedback to refine future endeavors. Always ensure compliance with local laws and regulations throughout the process.

14. Loaded Tea Shop

Starting a loaded tea shop as a street food business involves selling ready-to-drink teas loaded with a variety of flavors, nutritional elements, and sometimes energy-boosting ingredients. To begin, you’ll need a clear business plan detailing your concept, the types of loaded teas you’ll offer, target market, and estimated startup and operational costs. Depending on local regulations, you might operate from a fixed kiosk, a food truck, or a cart. The location is vital, and high foot-traffic areas such as near office buildings, parks, or universities are often ideal for attracting customers.

In the second phase, acquire the necessary permits and licenses to sell food and drinks in your chosen location. Equipment will include containers for brewing and storing tea, a refrigeration unit, dispensers, and possibly a portable sink if required by local health codes. Then, source quality ingredients to create your teas, focusing on taste, nutritional value, and visual appeal. With teas ready, market your shop using local advertising and social media. Provide excellent customer service and keep the menu fresh and exciting, potentially offering seasonal flavors or “tea of the day” specials to keep customers engaged.

15. Lemonade Stand

With its simplicity and timeless appeal, a lemonade stand can attract thirsty customers and bring a refreshing touch to a bustling street corner.

To begin, gather the necessary supplies such as a portable stand, a cooler for ice, fresh lemons, sugar, and cups. Set up your stand in a high-traffic area, preferably near parks, beaches, or local events. Offer a variety of flavors such as classic lemonade, strawberry lemonade, or even lavender-infused lemonade to cater to diverse tastes. Ensure your ingredients are of high quality and emphasize the use of fresh, locally sourced lemons to enhance the appeal.

Consider implementing eye-catching signage and a welcoming atmosphere to draw attention to your stand. Promote your lemonade stand through social media, flyers, or word-of-mouth to reach a wider audience. As your lemonade stand gains popularity, consider expanding to other locations or exploring additional beverage options.

16. Fast Food

The allure of street food has transcended cultures and continents, and starting a fast food restaurant as a street food venture taps into this global fascination. Street food encapsulates the essence of local flavors, often offering a culinary experience that’s authentic, affordable, and quick.

However, starting a street food-based fast food restaurant comes with its own set of challenges and considerations. Location remains paramount; high-footfall areas like markets, busy streets, or near office complexes can ensure a steady stream of customers. Adherence to health and safety regulations is crucial, as public perception of cleanliness can make or break the business. Entrepreneurs must be prepared for unpredictable weather conditions, which can impact daily operations.

Yet, with the right approach, including a standout menu and consistent service quality, a street food fast food restaurant can establish itself as a beloved local hotspot, offering a unique blend of convenience and culinary delight.

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• Hot Dog Cart
• Coffee Cart
• Snow Cone Cart
• Coffee Shop
• Popcorn Cart
• Cupcake Truck
• Smoothie Bar
• Pop-Up Restaurant
• Loaded Tea Shop
• Lemonade Stand

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How to Start a Street Food Vendor Business

• October 2, 2023

We understand that starting a business can be a bit overwhelming. Between setting up your tax info, getting your logos put together, and drafting a business plan, the small details can feel like they’re taking all of your brain space.

Been there, done that, and trust us, we know it isn’t easy. That is why we’ve created this step-by-step guide to help you through the process of how to be a street food vendor. 

In this guide, we’ll cover: 

• The types of street food vendors
• The considerations for starting your business
• Street food vendor equipment  
• Food safety for street vendors
• How much street food vendors make
• Street food vendor insurance

Now, without further ado, let’s get to the info and get you one step closer to achieving your dream of business ownership!

The Types of Street Food Vendors

Before you start creating logos, applying for LLCs, or starting your social media pages, you need to narrow down what types of street foods your business will be selling. 

Questions to consider when choosing your cuisine include:

• Am I passionate about this type of food?
• How expensive are the ingredients?
• Can I add my own flair to these dishes?
• Will this type of food sell?

Types of street food vendors can include Thai, Asian fusion, street tacos, shawarma, churros, poutine, nachos, cotton candy, Jamaican cuisine, sandwiches, Italian, pastries, fish and chips, hot dogs, hamburgers, donuts, BBQ, pizza, grilled cheese, poke and seafood, french fries, and the list could go on and on and on! 

(If you haven’t noticed, we’re big fans of street food.)

Our point is that the options for street food vendors are essentially endless. This gives you the full creative freedom to craft a menu that fits your style and business demographic. So the first step to starting your street food business includes establishing your type of street food.

The faster you can do that, the faster you can get closer to your goal of dishing out the best street food to your loyal foodies.

How to Differentiate Between Your Favorite Food and Food That Sells

In addition to choosing your type of street food, it’s important to serve food that can generate income and make your street food vendor insurance successful. To do this, you’ll have to do some research. 

Research can include these questions:

• Who is your demographic?
• Where is your demographic?
• What are the other types of street food vendors near your location?
• What is the weather like? 
• Where can you sell your food?
• Where are you located?

These questions can help you determine what type of food you want to sell and give you a better chance of making your street food vendor business successful.

Considerations for Starting a Street Food Vendor Business

In addition to establishing your cuisine, there are a few more aspects you need to consider when starting a street food vendor business. Below are a few considerations that can play a huge part in the success of your street food vendor business. 

Local Laws When It Comes to Street Food Vendors

The laws can be individual to each state so make sure you double-check the laws for the state that you operate out of. It’s important to know what documentation, street food vendor licenses, or street food vendor permits you may need. 

Some common laws can include: 

• Where you can sell your food
• The control of the sale of your food
• The tax laws and the requirement to report your sales income
• The control of public spaces
• The control of gathering groups of people

The laws and regulations of street vendors can be complicated but they are navigational, so don’t let that stop you from starting your business! 

Street Food Vendor Equipment

As you probably know, equipment can play a large role in your street food vendor business. Now, you don’t need the best of the best to serve up some mean eats. However, having reliable street food vendor equipment that you can depend on when you’re busy is a must-have. Your equipment can vary depending on your business needs and the type of food you prepare. 

Common equipment pieces can include: 

• A good knife set
• Thermometers 
• Cutting boards
• Deep frying equipment
• Commercial grade microwaves
• Electric or gas burners

The list is seemingly endless, but don’t worry: you will only need whatever equipment it takes to prepare and cook your food. If you are a pizza vendor, you’ll probably need a pizza oven; if you make dumplings, you’ll need a steamer, etc. 

Food Safety for Street Vendors

This consideration when starting a street food vendor business should be at the top of your list. Without proper food safety considerations, your business could be in serious jeopardy. Having the best food safety handling protocols can help you get permits, licenses, and not to mention, more customers. 

To learn more about updated food safety protocols and tips, visit your local authorities as it can vary by state. 

Street Food Vendor Insurance

We would be a terrible insurance provider if we didn’t at least mention how street food vendor insurance can protect your business from some serious financial fallout. Not to mention, it could be a requirement by some states in order to operate. 

Protecting your business with street food vendor insurance is easy and can be done in just minutes. Insurance protects your business through a combination of liability coverages. 

These coverages can include:

• General Liability Insurance. Protects from the cost of third-party injury and property damages claims. 
• Product Liability Insurance. If a customer comes down with food poisoning because of the food you served them, you could be liable for medical and attorney fees. 
• Inland Marine Insurance. Also known as Tools and Equipment insurance, this coverage protects your equipment in the event of a covered loss. 
• Damage to Premises Rented Coverage. If you serve clients on a rented property, there is a risk of damaging that rented property.  

We understand that insurance can be a foreign language and you’re probably worried about what happens when you need to file a claim. Well, we have that covered. The food vendor insurance claims process is quick and easy, having you back to work in no time. 

You can get your quote in 10 minutes or less! Get yours today! 

How Much Do Street Food Vendors Make?

The income range for street food vendors can vary depending on how often you serve, where you serve, overhead costs, etc. Because you are your own business, your income doesn’t have a ceiling and you are free to make as little or as much as you like. 

To learn more about the different income limits of street food vendors, check out this table on street vendor income by ZipRecruiter. 

Get Your Street Food Vendor Business Started Today!

And there you have it, your step-by-step guide on how to start a street food vendor business. From the types of food you decide to serve to the different considerations that play into starting your business to even the yawn-worthy insurance side, we have you covered. 

So what are you waiting for? It’s time to make your dreams a reality! We’ll help you jump-start your street food vendor journey today with insurance that starts at just $25.92 per month! Get your business protected faster than you can say “Bon appetit!”

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How to write a business plan for your street food restaurant.

Starting a street food restaurant is a great idea because it allows entrepreneurs to quickly enter the foodservice market with low startup costs and minimal overhead.

Furthermore, street food restaurants offer consumers an affordable and convenient dining experience.

Don't start without having built a business plan though.

A business plan is essential to any new project, including a street food restaurant. It provides a roadmap to success, outlining the goals and objectives of the business, as well as the strategies and resources needed to achieve them. A well-crafted business plan can help to identify potential risks and challenges, and provide a roadmap for overcoming them.

In short, a good business plan will help ensure the profitability of your street food restaurant .

What should be included in the business plan of a street food restaurant? How can it be effectively planned? Which financial figures should be part of the analysis? How to build a solid business plan without spending too much time?

Get ready to have all your questions answered in this article.

Moreover, bear in mind that it is up to you whether you choose to start your business plan from scratch.

Feel free to download our editable business plan for a street food restaurant and customize it to fit your needs.

Developing a business plan for a street food restaurant

Is a business plan necessary for your street food restaurant.

Yes, you should create a business plan for your street food restaurant to ensure success.

Structuring a reliable business plan will give you the means to:

• learn about the street food restaurant market
• stay informed about current trends and integrate them into your project
• recognize what makes a street food restaurant competitive
• understand the street food cuisines, flavors, and cultural experiences desired by diners
• find a great unique value proposition for your mobile food stall
• analyze competitors' strengths and weaknesses
• find competitive advantages for your street food restaurant
• find a business model that will drive profitability
• develop and execute a comprehensive long-term action plan
• assess potential risks involved in opening a street food restaurant, such as food safety, licensing requirements, and customer satisfaction

Our team has created a business plan for a street food restaurant that is designed to make it easier for you to achieve all the elements listed.

How to organize a business plan for a street food restaurant?

A well-prepared business plan covers everything you need, including content, numbers, and financial information. There should be a clear structure, to make easy to read and digest.

When we elaborated our business plan for a street food restaurant , we made sure to set it up correctly.

We've organized it into 5 parts: Opportunity, Project, Market Research, Strategy and Finances.

1. Market Opportunity

The section that comes first is titled "Market Opportunity."

This section presents a comprehensive report on the street food restaurant, including key data and metrics to guide your decision-making process in the street food and casual dining sector.

We constantly update all the data there.

2. Project Presentation

The second part is dedicated to the "Project" of your street food restaurant. Here, you can describe the diverse and flavorful street food menu, food truck or pop-up concept, street food festival participation, authentic culinary experiences, and the unique value proposition that brings the vibrant street food culture to customers.

Also include a short description about yourself at the end of this section.

Discuss your love for street food, your expertise in diverse cuisines, and how you plan to create a vibrant and flavorful street food experience for guests at your restaurant. Highlight your diverse menu options, your commitment to authenticity and bold flavors, and your dedication to providing exceptional customer service that transports diners to the bustling streets of global food culture through your street food restaurant.

We put together some text in our business plan. Adapt it to fit your concept precisely.

3. Market Research

Moving on, there's the "Market Research" section.

This section provides a description of the market segments for your street food restaurant.

It includes an analysis of other street food vendors in the area. Your restaurant's unique street food offerings and competitive advantages are also highlighted. A customized SWOT analysis is included.

4. Strategy

Within the "Strategy" section, a 3-year development plan is outlined, specifying the necessary initiatives to make your street food restaurant highly profitable.

Furthermore, there is a marketing strategy for a street food restaurant, a way to manage risks, and a completed Business Model Canvas included in this section.

5. Finances

To summarize, the "Finances" section presents a complete financial picture of your project.

How to make the Executive Summary for a street food restaurant?

The Executive Summary serves as an introduction to the business plan for your street food restaurant.

Make it short and straightforward, with a maximum of 2 pages. Focus on the key elements.

This is the opening statement that the bank will read first when you show them your business plan. It should make them interested and want to read the rest of the plan.

In the Executive Summary of your street food restaurant, answer the following questions: who's your audience? any competition? are you better? your background? budget needed?

How to do the market analysis for a street food restaurant?

Conducting a market study for your street food restaurant enables you to grasp external factors like customer preferences for casual and diverse culinary experiences, competition within the food service industry, and emerging trends in street food culture.

By conducting an extensive market analysis, a street food restaurant can understand customer tastes, offer a variety of flavorful street food options, optimize pricing strategies, and execute targeted marketing campaigns, ultimately leading to a loyal customer base, increased sales, and a prominent presence in the local food market.

Here is what you will find in the "Market Research" section of our business plan for a street food restaurant :

• key insights and trends in the street food industry, including street food culture, food truck popularity, and the impact of diverse street food offerings
• a compilation of potential audiences for a street food restaurant
• the competitor study
• the potential competitive differentiators for a street food restaurant

The key points of the business plan for a street food restaurant

What's the business model of a street food restaurant, business model of a street food restaurant.

A street food restaurant's business model revolves around offering a menu of diverse and flavorful street food dishes to customers. Revenue is generated through food sales, potentially offering outdoor dining or food truck services.

The business model focuses on creating unique and mouth-watering street food recipes, delivering quick and efficient service, ensuring high-quality ingredients, effective marketing to target street food enthusiasts, and building strong customer relationships based on taste and authenticity.

Success depends on recipe innovation, maintaining consistent food quality and taste, delivering an engaging and vibrant dining experience, fostering positive customer reviews and recommendations, and capturing the essence of street food culture in the menu and ambiance of the restaurant.

Business model ≠ Business plan

It's important not to mistake "business plan" for "business model."

A business model defines how a company creates, delivers, and monetizes its offerings.

In a business plan, you demonstrate your business model using a structure called the Business Model Canvas.

Rest assured, we provide a Business Model Canvas in our business plan for a street food restaurant .

How do you identify the market segments of a street food restaurant?

Market segmentation for your steakhouse restaurant involves dividing your potential customers into different groups based on their dining preferences, culinary interests, and demographics.

These categories may include factors such as fine dining, casual dining, meat enthusiasts, or customers seeking specific steak cuts or cooking styles.

By segmenting your market, you can offer a dining experience and menu that caters to each segment's specific requirements. For example, you might focus on fine dining and create an upscale ambiance with a menu featuring prime cuts of steak and gourmet accompaniments, provide a casual dining experience with a diverse menu that appeals to families, friends, or colleagues looking for a relaxed and enjoyable meal, specialize in catering to meat enthusiasts and offer a selection of premium steak cuts and cooking styles, or focus on specific steak cuts or cooking styles such as dry-aged steaks, Wagyu beef, or grilled-to-perfection options to cater to customers' preferences and discerning palates.

Market segmentation allows you to effectively target your marketing efforts, create an enticing menu that highlights your steak offerings, and provide a memorable and satisfying dining experience that meets the unique needs and preferences of each customer segment.

In the business plan for a street food restaurant , you will find a complete market segmentation that allows you to identify your potential customers effectively.

How to conduct a competitor analysis for a street food restaurant?

Without surprise, you won't be the only street food restaurant in your city. There will be other establishments offering a variety of tasty and affordable street food options.

Thoroughly analyzing your competitors' strengths and weaknesses is crucial when creating a successful business plan.

Be mindful of their weaknesses (such as inconsistent food quality, limited menu options, or inadequate food hygiene practices).

Why is it crucial to notice these aspects? Because these weaknesses can impact the dining experience at street food restaurants.

By focusing on these areas, you can offer a diverse and flavorful street food menu, provide a vibrant and inviting street food atmosphere, and deliver efficient and friendly service, establishing your street food restaurant as a preferred choice for experiencing the delicious and vibrant street food culture.

It's what we call competitive advantages—nurturing them sets your business apart from the competition.

Here are some examples of competitive advantages for a food cart: delicious and convenient street food options, affordable pricing, mobile and flexible operations.

How to draft a SWOT analysis for a food cart?

A SWOT analysis can help identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with starting a street food restaurant, allowing for informed decision-making.

As you can guess, there is indeed a completed and editable SWOT matrix in our business plan for a street food restaurant

The strengths for a street food restaurant

When we refer to the "S" in SWOT, we're referring to Strengths, which are the project's valuable strengths.

For a street food restaurant, potential strengths could include: convenient location, unique menu items, friendly service, and affordability.

The weaknesses for a street food restaurant

The letter "W" signifies Weaknesses, which are the areas or aspects of the project that need to be strengthened.

For a street food restaurant, potential weaknesses include limited seating, limited menu options, high overhead costs, and lack of visibility.

The opportunities for a street food restaurant

When we refer to the "O" in SWOT, we're referring to Opportunities, which are the external prospects or possibilities that can contribute to the project's growth.

In the case of a street food restaurant, potential opportunities could include partnering with local music festivals, participating in food truck rallies, catering at corporate events, and offering delivery services.

The threats for a street food restaurant

The "T" in SWOT represents Threats, indicating the potential negative factors or risks from the external environment.

How to craft a marketing strategy for a food cart?

Creating a marketing strategy enables entrepreneurs to allocate their resources efficiently and maximize their return on investment.

A food cart can attract passersby and food enthusiasts by implementing a well-crafted marketing approach that showcases the cart's delicious and unique food offerings, fast service, and affordable prices.

Food enthusiasts won't try your food cart without proper promotion; emphasizing the delicious and unique menu offerings, affordable prices, and fast service is crucial.

Are you implementing effective marketing strategies for your food cart? Consider attending local food festivals or community events, utilizing social media platforms to announce your cart's location and specials, and collaborating with nearby businesses or event organizers for cross-promotion.

Don't worry if you don't have many ideas for the marketing strategy of your project.

How to build financial projections for a food cart?

A comprehensive business plan requires a thorough analysis of financial data to ensure its success.

When crafting your business plan, you should estimate the projected revenue for your street food restaurant.

The revenue forecast should be straightforward and easily interpretable.

Our financial plan for a street food restaurant is straightforward and equipped with automated checks, enabling you to validate and adjust your assumptions easily. This way, we make sure you're building solid financial projections.

Of course, you will need to create a preliminary budget for your street food restaurant. Make sure to include every expense (by the way, they are all listed in the financial plan we've made).

The break-even analysis plays a crucial role in the financial plan, as it helps determine whether your street food restaurant will generate profits or not.

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The Ultimate List of Resources for Starting a Street Food or a Mobile Food Cart Business

If you’re considering starting your own street food or mobile food cart business but don’t have the know-how, then you’ll love this guide.

From how-to articles to podcasts and online communities of like-minded people, the guide lists everything you need in one place, so you’ll spend less time on research and more focusing on your business plan.

Let’s get started:

Table of Contents

• How-to Guides
• Buying Guides
• Legal Requirements
• Business Plan Templates
• Useful Websites
• Useful Articles
• Business Books
• Social Media Communities
• YouTube Videos & Channels
• Business Courses
• Organizations
• Other Resources

1. Street Food & Food Cart Business How-to Guides

When it comes to the how-to guides you can find online, you’ll notice that almost all of them focus on food trucks and very few address the particularities of smaller scale platforms such as food carts, food stalls etc.

For this reason, we created our own series of Street Food How-to Guides using real, actionable information from our customers.

In this list, however, we also included all the articles created by third parties that we considered to be the best in terms of relevance and practicality. 

Street Food / General

With a world-wide presence that’s stronger by the year, street food’s appeal is growing not just with customers but also with entrepreneurs.

Whether you’re considering a side hustle or a full-time commitment, these guides walk you through the fundamentals:

Guide 1: How to Start a Street Food Cart Business

Guide 2: How to Start a Profitable Street Food Business in the UK

Guide 3: How to Start a Street Food or Food Truck Business

Even with so many new street food contenders, these all-time classics continue to rule the popularity game, both in terms of customer preference, as well as profit margins. 

If you’re planning to start a hot dog cart business, take a look at these guides first:

Guide 1: How to Start a Hot Dog Cart Business

The guide is updated regularly to keep up with market trends

Guide 2: How to Start a Hot Dog Cart Business

Guide 3: Total Cost Breakdown For Hot Dog Cart Business Startups

This article runs you through the start-up and the monthly operational costs of a hot dog cart business. Bear in mind it was last updated in 2016; nevertheless, it should at least give you an idea of the outlay involved.

Although a very popular street food menu item – and very lucrative, dare we say – there aren’t too many articles out there detailing the know-how of a successful mobile ice cream business. Here are the best two:

Guide 1: How to Start an Ice Cream Cart Business

Guide 2: How To Start An Ice Cream Truck Business (USA)

We recommend this guide  – even though it’s geared towards ice cream trucks – because it does a very good job of detailing the registration process, most of which apply to ice cream carts as well.

Coffee is an all-season winner providing great profit margins and countless trading opportunities. But how do you turn it into a successful business? The guides below explain the steps:

Guide 1: How to Start a Coffee Cart Business

Guide 2: How To Start A Mobile Coffee Cart (USA)

As with their previous guide, Truic does a great job in outlining the registration steps for a coffee cart business, which is especially useful for first-time entrepreneurs.

2. Food Carts Buying Guide

As food carts manufacturers, we know first hand that finding a cart that fully meets your requirements is the second most time consuming aspect of setting up your business. 

A few fundamental pointers are necessary, especially for first-time buyers who need to make sure that their chosen platform is legally compliant as well as suitable for day to day operations.

And since there’s no other buying guide out there concerning food carts, we challenged ourselves to create the most in-depth one to date:

How to Choose the Right Food Cart for Your Business

3. Street Food & Food Cart Business Legal Requirements

Navigating the complex process of getting licensed and approved as a street food vendor is, hands down, the first most daunting and time consuming step of a street food business.

Since regulations differ not only from country to country but also from county to county and city to city, creating a complete guide would be pretty much impossible.

However, this doesn’t mean we can’t at least point you in the right direction by listing the universal concerns that need to be addressed.

1. Food Cart Business Laws – Europe

Here are the registration and licensing requirements for the following countries:

Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands & UK

2. Food Cart Business Laws – USA

In the USA, there are as many differences in terms of laws and licensing requirements as there are cities. Even more so, while some regions are quite open and permissive in regards to street food – like Portland, for example – others, such as Georgia or NY, are overly regulated and restrictive. 

Generally speaking, the best way to start would be by:

• checking the U.S. Small Business Administration’s website ;
• getting in touch with the local department of health, to find out what specific permits you need;
• contacting the city hall or the county clerk’s office for business registration info;
• consulting the local tax office for tax purposes.

4. Street Food & Food Cart Business Plan Templates

The very first step of starting your mobile food cart business should be writing your business plan. 

This will serve as a roadmap to success as you embark on your entrepreneurial journey as well as help you face any challenges in a constructive, practical way.

As a rule of the thumb, the more detailed your business plan, the better the chance of developing a successful business. 

By the end of it, you should have a pretty clear picture of each of your business’s aspects such as trading location(s), target market, estimated costs, marketing, projected sales etc. 

Important, right? Here are several templates we recommend: Template 1: Food Truck Business Template complete with example

Template 2: Food Truck Business Template 2 complete with step-by-step explanations

Template 3: US SBA’s Business plan template (generic)

5. Street Food & Food Cart Business Websites

While there aren’t many websites out there focusing exclusively on the ins and outs of street food, food cart or food truck businesses, the ones that do exist are treasure troves of knowledge created by experienced industry insiders, such as:

1. Street Food Central (UK)

2. StreetFood.org.uk (UK)

3. LearnHotDogs.com (USA/Global)

When Ben Wilson lost everything, he turned to hot dogs for a living. Shortly after, he became so successful at it that he grew his business into an empire. LearnHotDogs.com documents his years of experience in the trade, providing how-to guides, clever business tips and free resources such as online webinars.

4. FoodTruckr (USA/Global)

5. Food Truck Empire’s Blog (USA/Global)

The Food Truck Empire was initially started with the purpose to document the process of opening a food truck business and build some buzz through the process. Seven years later, the site has developed into a valuable hub that supports all forms of food entrepreneurship, featuring an active blog, a podcast and even a marketplace.

6. Street Food & Food Cart Business Useful Articles

The increasing popularity of mobile catering businesses and street food in general is well-reflected by the media, whose interest towards the subject has been growing steadily in the last few years. 

Mastering the ropes of a street food business has been covered by online publications such as Forbes and Entrepreneur, with the latter dedicating a whole series to it titled the Startup Kit.

The best articles so far are:

1. Entrepreneur’s series The Startup Kit

The Startup Kit covers several fundamental aspects of owning and operating a mobile street food business, from outlay and licensing , to inventory and marketing . While the series itself is quite informative, it’s actually a summary of Entrepreneur’s book on the same topic – Start Your Own Food Truck Business – included further down this guide.

Five Steps To Revving Up Your Mobile Food Business (Even During A Pandemic)

7. Street Food, Food Trucks & Food Cart Business Books

There’s no better way of starting a business than doing it by the book. And, luckily, thanks to a good number of entrepreneurs that turned their experience into written knowledge, there are plenty of good books when it comes to street food know-how.

While this by no means the full list, below you will find the most appreciated ones, based on reader recommendations and reviews:

Book 1: Start Your Own Food Truck Business (Second Edition): Cart, Trailer, Kiosk, Standard and Gourmet Trucks, Mobile Catering, Bustaurant (2015)

The book covers all the details behind starting and running a successful mobile food business, from choosing the right vehicle to franchising, plus gain recipes, shopping lists, favorite equipment buys and more from practicing street food entrepreneurs.

Book 2: Starting a Part-time Food Business: Everything You Need to Know to Turn Your Love for Food Into a Successful Business Without Necessarily Quitting Your Day Job (2011)

Book 3: Food On Wheels: The Complete Guide To Starting A Food Truck, Food Cart, Or Other Mobile Food Business (2011)

Book 4: Delicious Freedom: How to Take Your Street Food Business from Dream to Reality (2021)

Written by David Weber, the founder and president of the NYC Food Truck Association (NYCFTA), The Food Truck Handbook is, to this date, one of the best and most complete guides out there.

The book offers practical, step-by-step guidance to developing a successful food truck business from concept to equipment maintenance, while cutting through the hype and providing an accurate depiction of the street food lifestyle.

Alternate Reads

How To Start A Food Truck Business in 2020: How To Turn Your Passion Into A Profitable Business In 2020 Step By Step (2020)

Running a Food Truck For Dummies

Food Truck Business Guide for Beginners: Simple Strategic Plan to Build and Maintain a Successful Mobile Business

Melvin Lee – Hot Dog Cart Business – How to Get Started (2013)

Hot Dogs Saved My Life – The Most Comprehensive Guide On The Market (2011)

Turning Passion for Food into a Thriving Business

Book 1: Cooking Up a Business: Lessons from Food Lovers Who Turned Their Passion into a Career – and How You Can, Too

8. Street Food & Food Cart Business Social Media Communities

Reddit Communities

Known for its wide variety of communities for every topic under the sun, Reddit lives up to its name when it also comes to street food. Here are the two most active street food subreddits:

1. Food Trucks

2. Street Food Artists

Facebook Groups

Part marketplace, part discussion hubs, these street food groups have it all: you can seek and offer advice, buy and sell equipment, offer jobs, check organiser credibility etc.

1. Street food / Food Trucks / Traders / Venders / Equipment U.K

2. Street Food Traders – Mobile Caterers – Staff – STREET FOOD COLLECTIVE

USA / Global

1. Food Carts, Food Trailers, Food Trucks, Food Equipment for Sale

2. Food Truck & Trailer Life

3. All About Food Trucks and Trailers

9. Street Food & Food Cart Business Podcasts

  Podcasts are a fun way of consuming knowledge, especially when it comes from industry insiders and seasoned veterans. 

Fortunately, there are some great podcasts out there when it comes to street food. And even though none of them strictly refer to food carts, they are nonetheless full of know-how, ideas and useful tips that could easily be applied to a mobile food cart business.

Here are our favourites:

1. KERB On the Inside (UK)

The podcast is hosted by Petra Barran, the founder of KERB – an UK street food incubator and accelerator.

3. Food Truck Empire’s podcast

4. The Food Truck Scholar

5. Truck Tales by Food Truck Ventures

From the Archive

FoodTruckr School Podcast

Additional Listen

Chefs Without Restaurants

10. Street Food & Food Cart Business YouTube Videos

1. LearnHotDog’s YouTube Channel

Ben’s channel is dedicated exclusively to starting and developing a successful hot dog cart business. His videos cover pretty much everything there is to know on the subject, such as business planning, legal aspects, cart setup, how to deal with competition, and so on.

2. Business with Dave

Dave is a young entrepreneur from the UK, passionate about business, street food, and these two combined. His videos focus on street food businesses and entrepreneurship, providing a modern, hands-on approach to achieving success.

3. UpFlip’s Food Truck Series Part 1 & Part 2

Coming from UpFlip, an YouTube channel for business owners and entrepreneurs, this two part series features Kyle Gourlie, owner of the Vet Chef, voted the Best Food Truck in Western Washington in 2017. During the interview, he talks about how much his food truck cost, how he’s built a successful food truck business, and his plans for the future.

4. Marketing Food Online

This channel is the brainchild of Damian Roberti, the founder and owner of The Brittle Box Candy Company. It features over 700 hundred videos all about starting, growing, and helping food businesses succeed, including topics such as how to start and grow a mobile street food business, how to sell food at farmers markets and events, and how to market food products online.

11. Street Food & Food Cart Business Courses

The Food Truck Bible – The A-Z On How To Win On The Street!

Food Truck Business Plan – Template, Sample, Example & Excel

Start Your Own Food Truck – Leave the Corporate World Behind

Additional Course (UK only)

Food Safety in Catering (UK)

12. Street Food & Food Cart Business Organizations

3. European Street Food

1. Street Food en Mouvement

2. Food Truck Associations

Belgian Food Truck Association

1. Chicago Street Vendors Association

2. National Food Truck Association

1. L’association Des Restaurateurs De Rue Du Québec

2. StreetFood Vancouver Society

13. Other Resources

Food Truck Pub

This is a free online ordering system for food truck owners and street food enthusiasts. The app is available for iOS as well as Android users.

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Setting up a Street Food Business

All you need to know about starting and running your business.

In this article

What is a Street Food business?

Once seen as a source of convenience or a passing phase in the affections of Millennials, street food businesses have soared in popularity in the last decade. Now worth an impressive £1.2 billion, street food has become a favourite of all generations, and for good reason. Street food offers restaurant-quality food at more affordable prices.

Gone are the days where street food consisted of simple burgers and hot dogs. Street food businesses now offer a huge variety of cuisine from around the world, as well as British classics that we all know and love.

This culinary diversity is one of the reasons why street food has become a great option for those looking to open their own food business. A street food business allows you to play to your culinary strengths, focus on food that you are passionate about or focus on niche or untapped markets.

Compared to other culinary businesses, setting up a street food business requires a relatively low investment. The absence of a bricks-and-mortar establishment will also result in lower overhead costs. You also have the opportunity to start small and scale up your equipment and menu as your business grows.

Setting up a street food business also does not require you to have any specialist knowledge or training. You simply need a flair for business, a strong commitment level and the ability to create great food.

There are a variety of ways you can run a street food business.

• A food van.
• A food trailer.
• A permanent market stall.
• A pop-up stall that can be transported to different events.
• A bicycle with an attached cart.

Although originally associated with big cities such as London, Manchester and Liverpool, street food can now be found all over the country. As well as on the streets of our cities and towns, street food vans, stalls and carts have become increasingly popular at festivals, outdoor events, fairs and markets.

Setting up a street food business does not simply require you to cook delicious food. As the business owner, you will also be responsible for ordering and replenishing stock, marketing and advertising, bookkeeping, customer services, taking orders and serving food and beverages.

A street food business can be financially and emotionally rewarding. Although it can be time-consuming and often physically demanding, setting up a street food business can also be lucrative and enjoyable.

Types of Customers

Street food businesses can attract customers of all ages. Some vendors choose to focus on a particular type of customer, or target market, whereas others find that focusing on one target market can be limiting.

Choosing a potential target market could be beneficial when creating your business plan. It could help you decide the type of stock you need to order and the food you plan to sell. It can also help you choose where you will station your street food business and decide on your brand.

You can operate your street food business in a large number of places, including:

• Hiring a pitch at organised events such as festivals, fairs and music events.
• Street food markets.
• Food fairs.
• Pop-up events.
• Social events such as weddings and parties.
• Street festivals.
• Events for people with specific food requirements, such as vegetarian/vegan, halal, or gluten-free.
• Street parking in areas with high foot traffic or high concentrations of your target market.
• Business districts, industrial parks and office buildings.
• Farmers’ markets.
• Organised outdoor events.
• Sporting events.
• Popular outdoor locations, such as beaches and parks.

When determining your target market and the locations or events you will set up your business, there are several important factors to consider.

What type of food are you going to serve?

This should be your first consideration when creating your business plan. Focusing on a specific type of cuisine allows you to perfect your menu and differentiate your business from others. You could choose to focus on cuisine from a particular country by setting up a Mexican, Greek, American or Indian street food business. Alternatively, you could choose to focus on one particular food product, such as pizzas, burgers, jacket potatoes or baked goods. Some street food businesses offer a variety of food types. You may also want to consider whether you will offer beverages and, if so, the types of beverages you will offer. For example, soft drinks, hot drinks or alcoholic drinks.

What will your business identity be?

This is how your brand will be identifiable and what will make it stand out from other street food businesses. Your brand identity will be influenced by the visual look of your business, the types of food you sell and the name and logo of your business.

What are your price points?

How much do you plan to spend on your ingredients and how much do you plan to charge your customers? The cost of your food can influence your target market as some consumers may be prepared to pay higher prices than others. The more expensive your ingredients, the higher your price point will need to be.

What competition is there?

Research your competition to identify the types of street food businesses that already exist. It may be beneficial to focus on a previously untapped niche or a product that is more likely to guarantee your success. Keep in mind that events will seek diversity in the street food that is offered. If an already established business sells the same products as you, you may not be accepted for a pitch.

Equipment You Will Need

Although setting up a street food business can be a low-investment enterprise, the type of equipment you require, and the associated costs, can vary significantly. To help you plan your equipment requirements, below is a list of the equipment you are likely to need when setting up your street food business.

If you opt to run your street food business from a vehicle, this is likely to be your biggest expense.

Prices will vary significantly, based on the type of vehicle you choose:

• A food van – This is the most expensive option. They usually come with inbuilt cooking facilities and a fridge, although some may require you to pay separately to purchase and install these facilities. Food vans can range in price from £20,000 to £200,000.
• A food trailer – This is a cheaper option and is recommended for those who don’t need to transport their business regularly. A food trailer can often be larger than a van, allowing you to have larger cooking facilities, more stock and extra staff. The average price of a trailer ranges from £5,000 to £50,000.
• A bicycle with an attached cart – This is a cheaper option, although your menu will likely be limited to pre-prepared food. You will also be much more limited with the amount of stock you can hold. A bicycle with an attached cart can be purchased for £2,000 to £5,000.

If you opt to run your street food business from a stand or stall, you will have different equipment requirements.

You could choose to purchase:

• An integrated stall with a built-in canvas roof – £200–£500.
• A standard stall with an additional gazebo – £400–£1,000.

If you choose to run a food stall, you will likely need to purchase cooking equipment and fridge/freezer separately, so factor this additional cost into your calculations.

A catering table

If you need a work surface to prepare and cook your food, stainless steel catering tables look professional and are easy to clean. It is even possible to get a foldable catering table for easy transportation. Prices can range from £50 to £250.

A food warmer

If you operate in busy areas with a high number of customers, you may want to cook some of the food ahead of time. A food warmer allows you to keep the cooked food at a safe temperature before you serve it. The cost of a small food warmer usually starts at £40, although if you require a larger warmer, the price will be higher.

Food preparation equipment

The equipment you will require for preparing food will vary depending on the type of food you are preparing. Required equipment could include chopping boards, kitchen knives, a food processor, pots and pans, a food thermometer and timers. You may also require cooking and serving utensils, such as tongs and spatulas.

Display boards and pricing

Standing out from the crowd is essential, especially if you trade at events with other street food vendors. Eye-catching display boards can help you to attract customers. It should also be easy for customers to see the pricing of your food products and any additional information, such as allergen information.

Eating and takeaway equipment

You will need to provide something to serve your food in. Options for you to consider include cardboard takeaway containers, polystyrene trays, paper napkins, cones, and paper bags for larger orders. You may also need to supply cutlery and paper straws.

Additional equipment

There are a huge number of accessories you could choose to include as part of your street food business.

This could include:

• Tables and chairs for customers.
• Sauce dispensers, pumps or squeezy bottles.
• Salt and pepper dispensers or sachets.
• A cash register and Point of Sales system.
• Rubbish bins.
• A sanitising or handwashing station.

Cleaning equipment

Keeping all areas of your street food space clean is imperative. You will need to clean areas regularly throughout the day to avoid cross-contamination and the breeding of bacteria. Different cleaning materials are needed for different parts of your area so you may need to invest in cloths, sponges, antibacterial surface cleaners, bleach, sanitiser, dishwashing soap and a sweeping brush and mop.

Handwashing facilities

UK law requires food businesses to have a separate area for handwashing. This area cannot be the same area you use for pot washing and other cleaning. You could choose an inbuilt sink, a portable sink or a handwashing unit.

Typical Pricing

Typical costs associated with running your street food business can vary significantly, depending on the type of business you run. To help you plan your street food business more effectively, below is a list of approximate costs.

Equipment costs

The cost of equipment can vary significantly, depending on the type of business you run. For example, food vans are significantly more expensive than a pop-up stall. Some equipment can be bought second-hand or rented. Alternatively, you can start small and purchase cheaper equipment and buy more equipment as your business grows. Equipment costs can vary from £2,000 to £200,000.

Licence fees

The majority of the registrations and licences you will need to apply for will be free. However, if you require planning permission, there may be an associated cost, depending on your local council. A street food licence will also have a £75 application fee + additional weekly or monthly fees.

Pitching fees or rental fees

Some events are much more expensive to pitch at than others, with prices ranging from as little as £20 to as high as £2,000 per day. If you trade at a permanent market, you may receive monthly or annual discounts.

Food hygiene certificate

You can complete Food Safety and Hygiene training on our website for as low as £20 + VAT. If you hire any employees, it is also recommended that they also undertake food hygiene training.

There are several types of insurance you may require, including Legal Indemnity Insurance, Product Liability Insurance, Public Liability Insurance, Business Vehicle Insurance and Contents Insurance. The cost of these varies depending on your coverage level and insurance provider. You can expect to pay between £100 and £500 for insurance.

Running costs

Running costs includes any costs you encounter when running your street food business. This could include your overhead costs such as electricity, gas and petrol. It could also include the cost of replacing or upgrading your equipment.

Stock and ingredients

The cost of your ingredients should never be above 30%-40% of your food sale price. This means that to estimate your food stock costs, you first need to estimate the price of your menu and the number of sales you plan to make each month. If your business plan estimates you will make £10,000 per month, your stock and ingredients should never exceed £3,000-£4,000. The lower the cost of your ingredients, the higher your profit will be. Source your suppliers and consider buying in bulk to reduce costs.

The prices you will charge will depend on several factors. Street food businesses can charge as little as £2 to as high as £15.

You should price your food based on the following factors:

• The type of food you sell.
• The quality and cost of your ingredients.
• Your overhead costs.
• The location or event you are catering for.
• Your target market.

Safely Running a Street Food Business

As a food business, you have a legal and moral responsibility to ensure you have implemented safety measures and that relevant procedures are followed at all times.

Food businesses should receive a visit from the Environmental Health Officer (EHO) in the early stages of opening their business. The EHO will examine your food safety and hygiene practices and check whether you have the correct protocols in place. If you do not meet the safety standards, the EHO may provide you with an improvement notice. If they believe there is an immediate risk to customers, your business could be closed, you could be issued with a fine or even face imprisonment.

Below is a list of safety protocols you, and your employees, should follow at all times.

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)

HACCP helps you to manage food safety hazards that could arise when storing, preparing and cooking food. You can identify potential risks and implement measures to ensure these risks are reduced or removed. Keeping records of the actions you have taken in line with HACCP is recommended. For more information on HACCP, consult our knowledge base .

Risk assessments

Risk assessments should be carried out before setting up your business and at any other time you require them. An additional risk assessment is now required for risks relating to Covid-19.

Keep records

The EHO may want to see up-to-date records of your business’s cleaning schedules, risk assessments, health and safety policies, allergen information and temperature checks. Keeping these records helps to protect your business and ensures procedures are followed at all times.

Safe storage of stock and cooked food

Depending on your business, you could be dealing with frozen, chilled and cooked food. Ensure stock and food are stored at the correct temperature and frozen food is defrosted safely. Visit our knowledge base for more information.

Ensure food is thoroughly cooked

Serving food that is not thoroughly cooked can be dangerous, especially if you serve meat or other high-risk foods. Cooking at the correct temperature can reduce or eliminate the risk of food poisoning. Be aware of the different cooking times and temperatures for different foods and the higher risks associated with some foods.

Having effective cleaning procedures is essential to any food business. It is recommended that a cleaning schedule or cleaning policies are in place. As part of your cleaning requirements, ensuring the personal hygiene of you and your employees and providing handwashing stations for staff and customers can also help you to safely run your business.

Training for staff

As mentioned earlier, food hygiene training is essential to food businesses. Any employees who are handling, preparing and cooking food require a Level 2 certificate. If you are managing employees, you will need a Level 3 certificate.

Legal Requirements

There are several legal requirements you should be aware of when setting up your street food business.

Apply for a food business registration

There is no cost associated with business registration and it is quick and easy to apply for on gov.uk . You must register your street food business at least 28 days before you begin trading.

Apply for a street trading licence

Different councils within the UK have different rules regarding street trading licences. Some councils do not have restrictions on where you can trade, whereas others only allow you to trade in specific pitches or on private land. Contact your local council directly for more information.

Apply for a market stall licence

If you plan to run your street food business from a stall, you must apply for a licence from your local council. You can apply for a temporary licence or a permanent licence. Your licence will include restrictions on when and where you can trade and the size of your stall. To apply for your licence, visit gov.uk .

Get a Gas Safety Certificate

Any gas equipment used for catering purposes must be inspected every year by a gas safe engineer. If your equipment is deemed safe to use and complies with government requirements, you will be issued a Gas Safety Certificate.

Obtain alcohol licences

If you plan to serve alcohol, you will need to apply for the correct permits and licences. You may need to apply for a Temporary Events Notice and Personal Alcohol Licence and an Alcohol Beverage Control certificate. Visit Street Food Central for more information on alcohol licences.

Implement a Food Safety Management System (FSMS)

Food businesses in the UK must implement a Food Safety Management System. An FSMS is a systematic approach to controlling food safety hazards. It ensures that your business is following safety protocols.

Allergen requirements

If you sell packaged foods, it is legally required that you correctly label your food products with information regarding the 14 allergens. If any of the food you sell contains any of the 14 allergens, this information must be visible and easily accessible for customers.

Positives of Owning a Street Food Business

There are many benefits of owning a street food business.

A high investment amount is not required

Depending on the type of street food business you set up, only a low initial investment will be required. Not only does this mean you will begin turning a profit more quickly, but it also reduces the level of risk involved.

Pitching fees and rent are reasonably low

It is possible to find events that charge as low as £25 per day. Alternatively, if you choose to trade at the roadside, you will only have to pay for your street trading licence.

Opportunities for private work

It is becoming increasingly popular to hire street food vendors for private events, such as weddings, parties and business events. This could be a great way of boosting your income and keeps the type of work you do varied and interesting.

Flexibility

You can choose how little or often you work to fit your business around your lifestyle and determine your own working hours. Choose to only cater for specific events or run your street food business daily. You can choose whether to work weekdays and weekends, whether to operate seasonally or year-round or whether to work during the day, evening or night.

Potential for high profit

Food ingredients can be purchased at a low cost, especially if you order in bulk. You can expect to charge a high markup cost for your food, especially if you cater for events, festivals and fairs. The popularity of street food also increases the number of customers you are likely to serve and puts you in high demand.

Many of the UK’s eating hang-outs are street food markets

Street food markets have soared in popularity thanks to the excellent food, the culinary variation, attractive prices, and the potential for socialising. These markets offer customers the opportunity to eat delicious yet affordable food with family and friends in an environment that has been designed with a great experience in mind.

Negatives of Owning a Street Food Business

However, there are some negative aspects that you should first consider before setting up a street food business.

It is a lot of work and effort

Running a street food business can be physically and mentally demanding. Not only will you have a large number of responsibilities, but you may also be working long hours on your feet. A street food business requires hard work and commitment – especially when you first begin trading.

Weather dependent

As most street food businesses trade outside, the success of your business could be dependent on the weather. As the UK is famed for its cold and rainy weather, be prepared for the potentially negative effect on your profits. Because of the unpredictability of the weather, especially in Autumn and Winter, many street food vendors choose to only operate in Spring and Summer, meaning your business may only run seasonally.

Initial profits may be low

Developing your menu, building up your customer base, finding the perfect pitches and events and learning patterns in the amount of business you make can, mean the initial profits are low. Unless you have a financial cushion and the commitment to persevere through this initial stage, it may be difficult for your business to succeed.

Competitive

As street food has become more popular, the number of street food businesses has grown. This can result in a long waiting list for pitches. You also need to consider your local competition when choosing the type of street food you will sell. Not only are you competing with other street food businesses, but you are also competing with restaurants, cafés and fast-food establishments.

Limit to the amount of stock you can store

Depending on the type of street food business you run, you may be limited to the amount of stock you can store in your vehicle or stall. If a product on your menu proves particularly popular at an event, it may run out of stock quickly. You also may not be able to offer a menu that is as extensive as you envisioned.

Planning Your Street Food Business

Creating a business plan should be the first step you take when setting up a street food business. There are many factors to consider when planning your business and some important steps you should follow.

Finalise your menu

Decide what type of cuisine you will serve and exactly what will be on your menu. Consider whether you will offer sides and what beverages you will serve.

Determine the cost of your food products

How much is each item going to sell for? Will you adapt your pricing based on the event you are catering for? Consider the cost of your ingredients before determining your pricing.

Decide your target market

This can help you to plan your business more effectively. Your target market can help determine how you will run your business, the locations and events you will trade at, and your business brand.

Consider where your business will operate

Are you going to trade at organised events, such as festivals and food fairs? Will you cater for private events, such as weddings? Are you going to trade at a market or operate as a street trader?

Plan your equipment requirements

Look at our list of equipment above to help you plan the equipment you require for your street food business. Once you have determined your requirements, you can begin to source and purchase your equipment. Consider the pros and cons of renting vs buying and new equipment vs used equipment.

Calculate start-up and running costs

Calculating your initial investment requirements can help you see how long it will be until you start turning a profit. Can you fund the start-up costs yourself or do you need to apply for a loan or investment? Being aware of running costs helps you to see how much net profit you need to make each month.

Develop your business plan

A business plan can help you to establish costs, potential profits, your product range and your trading plan. Take a look at our business plan template to help you effectively plan your street food business.

Ensure you have followed all legal requirements

This helps you to avoid any fines or delays in opening your business. Consult our list of legal requirements above to check you have complied with all requirements.

Download our business plan

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How to Start a Street Food Stall

• Growth Strategies

Always wanted to start a street food stall? We’ve got all the inspiration you need to turn that seed of an idea into a reality and get you started on serving hungry customers your tasty delights.

As a nation of food-lovers, we’re ever ready to broaden our tastebuds’ horizons. The humble food stall has gone from a Sunday market add-on to a powerhouse of creativity, cuisine and style - having a favourite food stall is now expected of any self-respecting foodie.

Take a whizz through these pointers – then start your food stall and see your dreams become a reality.

Develop a food stall business plan

Creating a business plan helps you to clarify your thinking on how your food stall is going to stand out and lure customers away from competition.

Food businesses are a very competitive space and this is your opportunity to decide exactly what niche you’re going to fill and how you’ll do it. A food stall may be compact in size, but the concept and potential can be mighty, so give it the best chance of huge success with thorough consideration of all the variables.

Things you’ll want to decide include:

• The kind of food you’re going to sell and what kind of customers you are targeting
• who your competitors are and why people will choose you over them (what’s your unique selling point?)
• The costs of set-up, raw materials and profit margins
• How you’ll raise up-front investment/funding
• What you’ll need to kit your stall out
• Who your suppliers will be (food, packaging and equipment)
• A permanent site in a town centre or close to offices
• Roadside position
• At festivals
• Within an existing food market or off street market
• At private functions, like weddings.
• What permissions and licences you need to get started
• What will be on the menu and pricing
• How much food you’ll need each day/week and how much you need to sell to break-even and make a profit
• How you’ll cook and serve efficiently – do you need staff?
• What you’ll do about power and water supply
• Branding (name, logo, packaging)
• Tech for taking card payments and perhaps even online orders
• Marketing and promotion.

There’s no getting away from the fact that there is a lot to think about, but that’s all part of the adventure of starting a business . A healthy side helping of broad skills is just what you need to enable you to start serving up plenty of tasty treats from your own food stall.

Identify and define a unique selling point (USP)

If your food stall is going to sit alongside competitors or be in a place where there are lots of other dining options, you’ll need to stand out from the crowd.

Coming up with a stand-out trademark recipe is one way to do this.

You could concoct a fantastic fusion like The English Indian .They recreated cod and chips with an Indian flair and won an army of foodie fans (and awards) in the process.

Authenticity is a key selling point for many street food sellers. If you have a great back- story and you can demonstrate it through the quality and presentation of your product, this could be a winner.

Fresh, homemade, ethical, sustainable and locally sourced are all popular qualities and can provide a USP for your business. On the other end of the scale – fast and cheap can work too!

Licensing for street market stalls

Before you approach any pitches, make sure you’re legal to hire.

It’s important to seek official advice on all the requirements before you start a food market stall. Some things to think about include:

• Food hygiene certifications (required for anyone who will be preparing food)
• Registration with Environmental Health as a food trader
• Street trading licences
• Liability insurance for employees and the public
• Risk Assessment / HACCP completion
• Gas safety certificates which are required for any gas-running appliances
• Electrical certificates which are required for any electrical appliances
• Hand washing facilities, by law, must be separate to those you use for cooking utensils
• Hand washing facilities must be available to any food stall unit (sanitising gel does not comply with food safety regulations)
• Health and Safety and Fire Risk must be assessed and policies/Due Diligence Systems written

The gov.uk site outlines other licences you may need as a food business.

The food business registration section of the gov.uk site outlines other licences you may need as a food business.

Find a street market pitch

There is an increasing number of pitches available for food stalls to set up in and as the popularity of street food grows, no city centre is complete without a cluster of food stalls several times a week. Dedicated market spaces will usually have ‘become a trader’ application pages you can use to get in touch.

For on-street pitches, your local authority should be able to help. You’ll need a temporary or permanent licence to set up and your local council may designate certain areas where food stalls can trade. It is not uncommon for there to be a very limited number of permanent sites available.

Food stalls will often operate in the company of other food stalls in a market setting. You should keep things like opening and closing times in mind if you find yourself with one of these pitches.

Prepare Your Stall

Gone are the days of the generic market stall. While the delicious aromas of your food may be enough to lure in customers, an eye-catching stall won’t hurt. The precise type of stall you have will depend on the pitches you have managed to secure. Some might be happy to have you run your business from out of a van, others may not have room, consider how far your budget will stretch and if your chosen stall can adapt to the various pitch locations you’ll be visiting.

For a lot of food stalls, a few pop-up tables and a collapsible gazebo is enough. That allows more freedom to invest in other essentials like cookware and ingredients. Once you’ve secured a successful schedule of engagements and are running steadily, you might consider upgrading to something on wheels.

Branding your business

So, you have your stall, you have your pitch, let’s talk branding. Branding isn’t just about the logo you choose to put on your business cards, it starts with your stall – if you’ve ever walked around a modern food market you’ll realise how high the bar for stall design can sometimes be. At the very least you’ll need a nameplate with your business name, you’ll want this easy to see and, preferably, easy to remember, as your name is all customers will have to go on when you have no permanent location. Feel free to decorate it with lights and colours, anything you feel best reflects your identity as a brand.

How you design your stall will directly affect your overall branding – if you want to give your stall a splash of colour and a definite sense of fun then your stall will look very different than if you want to transmit a sense of chic, sleek brand of minimalist design but big flavours.

You should be sure to carry your branding over onto your social media channels, packaging and website. Even if you’re just starting out, make sure all your logos across your channels are consistent and something you’ll be happy to operate under for a while – a rebrand too early on may result in customers thinking you’ve disappeared from the scene altogether and looking elsewhere for tasty treats.

Attract some customers

Street food stalls have always relied on enticing customers through the senses – the smells, sizzles, appearance and little tasters to draw people in.

Social media and the internet has widened the customer net even further. With a strong online presence, you can attract customers before they even see your stall.

All small businesses need to be on social media and street food stalls are no exception. An Instagram full of deliciousness can quite effectively entice people to visit your stall. Create a Facebook page to increase your reach. Social media provides huge opportunity to grow your business .

What begins as one food stall, could soon be two, or maybe a whole fleet. Street food sellers have long known that Everyone loves a free sample, and food stalls will often be offering samples from plates up front, or held in tongs fresh from the grill! Things like closing prices (knocking a pound or two off prices towards the end of trading) and meal deals can also get customers interested.

Encourage repeat trade and build brand loyalty through promotions and marketing too.

Accept all payments

You may find your customers are still caught in a bit of a limbo when it comes to food stalls, with some food markets being 100% cash and others being a mishmash of stalls accepting cards and some not. Being ahead of the curve is key to getting customers in this environment. Sure, your neighbour might be offering something delicious, but the majority of modern Brits don’t carry cash so if your competitor doesn’t offer card or mobile friendly payment, the customer will soon move onto you.

Accept contactless payments on the go with Square Reader

Easy to set up and transparent pricing. Get started today with Square Reader for just £19 + VAT.

It’s incredibly easy to get equipped to take card payments or even online orders . Look for tech that enables you to accept chip and PIN, contactless and mobile device payment, like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, and a reader for magnetic stripe cards for international customers.

Look for a payments device that integrates with point-of-sale technology to make your business run even more smoothly. Keep track of stock, gain data insight into what sells well, keep track of orders and future proof for expansion to more than one stall. Square Terminal provides all of this.

Don’t delay – start a street food stall your way

The food market phenomenon in the UK has been described as a runaway train, with massive spread and growth.

London is awash with brands like Kerb running foodie markets all over the capital, but big food stall venues have cropped up in cities as diversely spread as Durham and Brighton. The big investors behind these venues understand that the appetite for street food and food stalls is there. Now is the time to make your small business dreams a reality.

For further inspiration to get you started, check out our setting up a business checklist .

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Creating Your Successful Street Food Business Plan Step-by-Step

November 5, 2023

The street food industry is booming, with a 12.4% growth in the last 5 years and a market worth $2.7 billion. The popularity of street food can be attributed to factors such as the rise of the “foodie” culture, convenience , and cost-effectiveness. To succeed in the street food business, entrepreneurs need to consider the pros and cons, such as low start-up costs and fierce competition .

It is important to find a niche and develop a unique menu to stand out from competitors. Market research, including identifying the target market , competition , and suitable locations , is crucial for success. Legal requirements, including permits and licenses , vary by location and need to be addressed. Choosing the right platform or vehicle, such as food stands , carts, trailers, or trucks, is another important decision. Overall, starting a street food business requires thorough planning and preparation.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways:

• A successful street food business plan accounts for low start-up costs and the fierce competition in the industry.
• Market research is crucial to identify the target market , competition, and suitable locations .
• Legal requirements for street food businesses vary by location and include permits , licenses , and compliance with health and safety regulations .
• Choosing the right platform or vehicle, such as food stands , carts, trailers, or trucks, depends on various factors.
• Thorough planning and preparation are essential for starting a successful street food business.

Why Street Food is So Popular

The rise of the “foodie” culture and the convenience of street food have contributed to its immense popularity. Street food offers a diverse range of flavors and cuisines that cater to a wide range of taste preferences. The trend has been driven by the growing interest in exploring new taste experiences and quality cuisine.

Street food is not only delicious but also cost-friendly , making it accessible to a large customer base. In a slow-growing economy, where people are looking for inexpensive and quick meals, street food provides a convenient and affordable option. Whether it’s a classic hot dog or an exotic taco, street food offers a variety of choices, making it an attractive option for food lovers.

Street food has become an integral part of the urban dining experience, offering a unique and exciting culinary adventure. It allows entrepreneurs to experiment with different flavors and ingredients, creating dishes that stand out from the competition. The popularity of street food is a testament to its ability to provide a satisfying and memorable dining experience.

• The rise of the “foodie” culture and the growing interest in exploring new taste experiences
• The convenience and affordability of street food
• The diverse range of flavors and cuisines available
• The ability for entrepreneurs to create unique and standout dishes

Overall, the popularity of street food can be attributed to its ability to provide a delicious, convenient, and cost-friendly dining experience. It has become an integral part of the urban food scene, offering a wide range of flavors and cuisines for people to enjoy.

Pros and Cons of a Food Cart Business

Starting a food cart business offers several advantages and disadvantages that entrepreneurs need to consider before diving into this industry. Understanding the pros and cons will help you make an informed decision and prepare for the challenges that come with running a food cart.

• Low start-up costs : One of the biggest advantages of a food cart business is the relatively low start-up costs compared to opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant. You can save on expenses such as rent, utilities, and renovations.
• Flexibility and mobility : Food carts provide the advantage of mobility . You can move to different locations depending on customer demand, events, and changing trends. This flexibility allows you to reach a wider customer base and explore new business opportunities .
• Be your own boss: Running a food cart business gives you the freedom to be your own boss. You have control over your working hours, menu, and business decisions. This autonomy can be rewarding for those who enjoy entrepreneurship.

Disadvantages

• Fierce competition: The street food industry is highly competitive, with numerous vendors vying for customers’ attention. Standing out from the crowd and attracting customers requires creativity, unique offerings, and effective marketing strategies.
• Compliance with regulations : Food cart businesses must comply with various regulations and health codes. Obtaining the necessary licenses and permits , ensuring food safety and hygiene, and meeting local regulations can be time-consuming and challenging.
• Long working hours : Running a food cart business often involves long working hours , including early mornings and late nights. You may need to be available during peak hours and weekends to cater to customer demand.

Before starting a food cart business, carefully weigh the pros and cons to determine if it aligns with your skills, resources, and goals. A well thought out business plan, thorough market research, and a unique selling proposition will increase your chances of success in this competitive industry.

Market Research for Your Food Cart Business

Market research plays a crucial role in the success of your food cart business. By conducting thorough market research, you will gain valuable insights into operational considerations , target market , competition, suitable locations , and business opportunities . This information will guide your decision-making process and help you create a solid foundation for your business.

Operational Considerations

When conducting market research, it’s important to consider the operational aspects of your food cart business. This includes determining where to set up your cart, the optimal opening hours, and how factors like weather might affect trade. Understanding these operational considerations will help you make informed decisions that maximize your chances of success.

Identifying Your Target Market

Another crucial aspect of market research is identifying your target market. By understanding the demographics, preferences, and eating habits of your potential customers, you can tailor your menu and marketing strategies to effectively reach and engage them. This will help you stand out from the competition and attract loyal customers to your food cart.

Analyzing the Competition

Market research also involves analyzing the competition in your area. By studying and understanding what other food options are available, you can identify gaps in the market and find ways to differentiate your business. This could involve offering unique dishes, incorporating innovative flavors, or providing exceptional customer service. The insights gained from analyzing the competition can be invaluable in positioning your food cart for success.

Finding Suitable Locations

The location of your food cart can make or break your business. Through market research, you can identify suitable locations that offer high customer traffic, minimal competition, and potential business opportunities . This could include popular street corners, office complexes, shopping areas, or local events. By strategically choosing the right locations, you can increase your visibility and attract a steady stream of customers.

Market research is a fundamental step in starting a food cart business. By understanding the operational considerations , identifying your target market, analyzing the competition, and finding suitable locations, you can position your business for success. This information will inform your business plan and guide your decision-making process as you embark on your entrepreneurial journey.

Legal Requirements for Your Food Cart Business

Operating a food cart business requires compliance with various legal requirements to ensure the safety and legality of your operations. Understanding and adhering to street food vending regulations , obtaining the necessary licenses and permits, and following food handling regulations are essential steps in starting and running a successful food cart business.

Street Food Vending Regulations

Each city or locality has its own set of regulations and guidelines pertaining to street food vending. These regulations often dictate where and when you can operate your food cart, the types of food allowed to be sold, and any specific requirements for food preparation and storage. It is important to thoroughly research and understand the street food vending regulations in your area to avoid any legal issues or penalties.

Licenses and Permits

Obtaining the necessary licenses and permits is crucial for legally operating your food cart business. This typically includes a business license, which allows you to conduct commercial activities, as well as specific permits related to food vending. The specific permits required may include a mobile food vending permit, health department permit, and fire department permit, among others. Each permit may have its own application process and requirements, so it is important to carefully review and fulfill all necessary documentation and fees.

Food Handling Regulations

Ensuring proper food handling is essential for maintaining food safety and preventing the spread of foodborne illnesses. Food vendors must comply with regulations that outline hygiene practices, proper food storage, preparation methods, and employee health requirements. It may also be necessary to undergo food safety training and obtain certifications to demonstrate your knowledge and commitment to safe food handling practices.

Choosing the Right Platform for Your Street Food Business

When starting your street food business, one of the key decisions you’ll need to make is choosing the right platform to operate from. The platform you choose will depend on various factors, including your start-up budget, time commitment, vision, experience, and target demographic. Let’s explore the different options available:

Food Stands

Food stands are temporary or mobile booths or stalls that can be used to sell a variety of quick snacks. They are relatively low-cost and easy to set up, making them a popular choice for first-time entrepreneurs. Food stands can be set up at events, markets, and busy street corners to attract customers.

Food carts provide a compact and portable setup for your street food business. With a food cart, you can easily move to different locations, allowing you to reach a wider customer base. Food carts are versatile and can be customized to suit your menu and branding.

Concession Trailers

If you require more space and flexibility, a concession trailer may be the right choice for your street food business. Concession trailers offer more room for cooking and storage equipment, allowing you to offer a wider variety of food options. They are typically attached to a vehicle for easy transportation.

Food Trucks

Food trucks provide a complete mobile kitchen and are a popular choice for street food businesses. They offer the most space and equipment for preparing and serving food. Food trucks can travel to different locations throughout the day, maximizing your reach and potential customer base.

Each platform has its own benefits and considerations, so it’s important to carefully evaluate your needs and goals before making a decision. Consider factors such as start-up budget, mobility , space requirements, and the scope of your menu. By choosing the right platform, you’ll set a solid foundation for your street food business and increase your chances of success.

Starting a street food business , whether through a food cart or a food truck, requires careful planning and preparation. Conducting thorough market research, understanding the target market and competition, and finding suitable locations are crucial steps in setting up a successful venture. Compliance with legal requirements, such as obtaining the necessary licenses and permits, is essential for operating legally and avoiding potential fines.

Choosing the right platform for your street food business is another important decision. Consider factors such as your start-up budget, time commitment, vision, experience, and target demographic. Whether you opt for a food stand, cart, trailer, or truck, each platform has its own benefits and considerations. Selecting the one that aligns with your goals and resources will help set you up for success.

The street food industry offers growth opportunities and potential success, with the food truck market projected to reach USD 2,775.86 million by 2026. By carefully crafting a well-structured food truck business plan and implementing effective strategies, you can tap into this thriving market and carve out a niche for yourself. Remember, success in the street food business is not guaranteed, but with dedication, creativity, and a solid plan, you can increase your chances of building a thriving and profitable enterprise.

FAQ Street Food Business Plan

What factors contribute to the popularity of street food.

The popularity of street food can be attributed to factors such as the rise of the “foodie” culture, convenience, and cost-effectiveness.

What are the pros and cons of starting a food cart business?

Some pros of starting a food cart business include low start-up costs, lower overhead compared to restaurants, and the ability to be your own boss. However, there are also challenges to consider, such as fierce competition, compliance with regulations and laws, and the need to find suitable trading locations.

What is the importance of market research for a food cart business?

Market research is crucial for understanding operational aspects such as where to set up the cart, optimal opening hours, and how the weather might affect trade. It also helps in identifying the target market, analyzing competition, and finding suitable locations.

What legal requirements are there for operating a food cart business?

Legal requirements for operating a food cart business include understanding street food vending regulations specific to your city, obtaining necessary licenses and permits, and ensuring compliance with food handling regulations. Depending on the location, food vendors may be required to operate from a licensed commercial kitchen, known as a commissary.

What are the different platforms available for a street food business?

Street food businesses can operate using various platforms, such as food stands, carts, concession trailers , or food trucks . The choice of platform depends on factors such as budget, time commitment, vision, experience, and target demographic.

Source Links

• https://hospitalityinsights.ehl.edu/how-to-start-your-food-business

About Danielle Larson

Meet Danielle Larson, a seasoned professional in the field of business planning and strategy. With years of experience and a keen eye for detail, Danielle specializes in crafting comprehensive business plans and offering strategic consultancy services that empower entrepreneurs and businesses to achieve their goals.

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How to start a street food business

Written and reviewed by:.

As little as two years ago, street food stalls weren’t something typically associated with the UK – given our infamously rainy climate and lack of high quality public spaces.

But now, post-Covid, the industry has undergone a rapid surge in growth. Trade has been bolstered by the country’s massive new demand for outdoor dining and drinking, prompted by lockdown restrictions put in place following the COVID-19 outbreak. Indeed, a 2021 market report by Lumina Intelligence shows 37% of respondents said that outdoor seating would get them to eat out again following the lifting of coronavirus restrictions.

Plus, a growing number of urban street markets, private events, and street food festivals all present new selling opportunities.

However, just like the cuisine you choose to serve, there are many different approaches you can take to running a street food business – with your start-up costs, earning potential, and level of risk varying considerably as a result. So which is the best fit for your small business idea? And how has the consumer need for greater health and safety measures affected the industry?

Our experts have been taste testing the street food market for the past two decades. In this guide, we’ll talk you through all you need to know to start a small street food business, helping you understand the likely outlays and potential profits.

Already know what your street food business will look like? The first step to starting any business is sourcing finance, but it can be difficult to know where to start.

Use our free online comparison tool to compare the best business loan providers across the UK, and get the best deal available. Now we’re cooking!

At Startups.co.uk, we’re here to help small UK businesses to get started, grow and succeed. We have practical resources for helping new businesses get off the ground – you can use the tool below to get started today.

What Does Your Business Need Help With?

Follow these steps to start a street food business:

How has covid-19 affected the street food business industry, is a street food business ideal for you, create a street food business plan, street food rules and regulations, street food costs, potential earnings from a street food business, street food tips and useful contacts, useful contacts.

Outdoor dining was one of the biggest shifts in consumer behaviour following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

To combat regulations around social distancing, small firms opened up their doors and moved onto the streets to keep business booming. Plus, the natural ventilation made street eating a smart solution to the spread of the virus.

This behavioral change isn’t going away. While restrictions have now lifted, many local authorities are still permitting leisure and hospitality businesses to use the pavement for their trading space.

All this means that outdoor eating – whether for passers-by or events – is here to stay in the UK.

What are the challenges?

There are still some things every business needs to consider in the post-Covid world. Chiefly, food safety and hygiene. Most people have gotten used to having regular cleaning stations and sanitisers on-hand to ensure that they can’t contract the virus from their fellow consumer.

Ensure you are keeping up with the latest regulations, and investing more in cleaning practices, so that your customers can feel safe.

Do you need to follow government guidance?

Government advice for food businesses was withdrawn in July, following the lifting of restrictions. However, the advice still has some useful tips for safe food preparation and delivery which you can choose to keep in place if you choose.

Many eateries – both outdoor and indoor – continue to utilise stricter cleaning and sanitisation practices while the number of COVID-19 cases remains high.

Founding a street food business means catering for a particular niche within the hospitality industry. So what kind of individual qualities do you need to start one?

Jonathan “Ozzie” Oswald, founder of hip-hop inspired fish and chip truck  The Hip Hop Chip Shop told us: “It suits nutters, basically!” he asserts. “It’s crucial to stand out, so if your personality stands out then your business will stand out. You also need to be a certain type of person to take on the risk of starting a street food business.”

If you don’t have a background in the catering or hospitality industry, it needn’t hold you back; many successful mobile catering businesses were founded by people with no prior experience of serving food.

“We had absolutely nothing to do with food, apart from enjoying cooking and eating it,” explains Radhika Mohendas, co-founder of Dorset-based street food dumpling business Dorshi. “The lack of formal training hasn’t held us back – in fact, it has probably helped us focus on the creativity and creation of our own dishes.”

Indeed, flexibility is one of the most crucial attributes of a successful street food trader; it is not unusual to completely change your offering when something doesn’t sit right with customers, and you need to be comfortable in doing so.

Atholl Milton is founder of Bunnychow, a street food start-up offering unique twists on a traditional South African bread and curry dish. He advises street food hopefuls that they “can’t be precious” about their food – you need to be willing to pivot at a moment’s notice. “So many people are arrogant and think they’ve got it right first time, never listening to any of the feedback they get,” Milton says. “I would say your flexibility is the single most important factor affecting the success of your business.”

As a mobile food business, you will normally be one of a number of options available for your target customer, so your branding and marketing activity will be crucial to success. Therefore, whilst a background in catering isn’t crucial, it is certainly advisable to have some kind of marketing expertise on board.

“People with a background in marketing, branding or business tend to do well, because they know it’s really about selling a lifestyle and putting it forward,” explains Radhika Mohendas. “Sometimes you find the people who make a lot of money are the ones who look great, rather than the businesses which have the best food.”

As you will see from our section on costs, a street food business can be an extraordinarily lean start-up, and it is perfectly feasible to start trading with an initial investment of just a few hundred pounds. However, it can also be extremely risky due to the volatile nature of the food industry, and all the traders we spoke to said unexpectedly losing money on a big event is seen as part and parcel of the business.

“We’ve had shocker events where we’ve lost loads of money – sometimes it just doesn’t work,” explains Jonathan Oswald. “It could be down to lots of different things – other traders, footfall, or bad weather. You will learn a lot of things the hard way.”

It’s also not a business which offers a particularly appealing work-life balance – the hours can be long, and unless you are lucky enough to have substantial investment available you will normally be juggling your new venture with your day job.

“It’s very hours and commitment heavy,” admits Atholl Milton. “At one point, I was up at 4.30 every morning to get the bread ready, then I would drive the truck all day, following which I would go to my mate’s restaurant to prepare the food for the next day. Your work-life balance is non-existent.”

However, if you are passionate about good food and start with a well thought-out plan (and a healthy dose of pragmatism), there is every chance you could make a roaring success of your street food start-up.

Despite the low start-up costs involved, jumping in to street food without any kind of plan is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. The space is extremely competitive, and you need to have a very clear idea of the niche you plan to fill before taking the plunge.

You will normally have an idea of what kind of food you plan to serve, which should be the starting point for your plan of action. If you plan to serve generic, low-cost fast food, like burgers, hotdogs or pies, you will be competing against many similar businesses wherever you go, and your byword should be efficiency – you will want to get through as many customers (known in the industry as “covers”) as possible in a short amount of time, keeping wait times low and maximising profit.

If, on the other hand, you are one of the growing number of street food businesses planning to offer a unique, unusual, or high-end product, you won’t be able to compete on sheer volume of customers. You should focus on developing your food and branding to justify the higher price and differentiate yourself from your competitors – and this means working out who your customer is.

“We can’t compete with the burger slingers, who can get through hundreds of covers within a short period of time – our food is fresh and cooked to order, so our typical customer might have to wait six minutes or more,” explains Jonathan Oswald. “You need to know your audience and choose how you present yourself very carefully.”

Indeed, your business plan should have a very clear strategy for which events, markets or private events to target. Pitch fees will vary widely, and there are a whole host of other variables to take into account including total attendance, other traders present, and the demographic of customer that will attend. Your options will include:

• Street markets
• Pop-up malls (such as Boxpark in Shoreditch)
• Music festivals
• Food and drink festivals
• Weddings and corporate events
• Street-side and lay-by stalls (for which you will generally need a special license)

The amount of options available can seem daunting, and it’s often difficult to know where to begin. Start by thinking about what kind of event or environment you would expect to see a street food business similar to yours, and then try and attend a few events – noting down which businesses appear to be doing well and why. You should then approach it methodically, weighing up the pros and cons of different venues before approaching them.

“Before I started last year, I created a huge Excel spreadsheet of every single festival in the UK – broken down by what kind of customer goes, the pitch fees, how long the festival has been going, how many other traders will be there, and so on,” explains Oswald. “You need to have a very clear plan.”

As a general guide, generic fast-food businesses that focus on volume of customers should do well at large music festivals and other events where the food is incidental to the main experience whilst high-end street food traders fare better at events in which the customer will be searching for a new taste experience.

“We know for a fact that when we place ourselves in a food-centric festival, that’s when we tend to do better,” explains Radhika Mohendas of Dorshi. “In those kinds of events, there’s a real trend with finding new food businesses, and people are actively seeking the obscure and the novel.”

However, all the preparation in the world can’t account for the unexpected, and you will find some events simply fail to produce the expected revenue. Your business plan should account for this, and you should always have enough spare cash in reserve to act as a safety net when you run up against the inevitable disastrous pitch.

We love it when a plan comes together. As an aid for starting your street food business, you may find it useful to download our free business plan template, which tells you everything you need to consider before setting up a company.

Your approach to branding and marketing should be a crucial part of your business plan. A strong brand will help you stand out from the crowd, which is not just important for attracting customers but also securing spots at venues. Especially in the more established street markets, securing a pitch is more about who you know, and a strong social media presence or positive press coverage can help raise your profile and convince venue owners you are a credible business.

Remember you are often selling a lifestyle with street food, so your brand should have a strong story and clear ethos that reflects this. As an example, Dorshi has a “story” section on its website, detailing the journey that Mohendas and co-founder Jollyon Carter undertook to arrive at their concept, and Bunnychow’s website also contains a visual breakdown of how the concept took shape and what makes the business different.

“I actually came up with the name Hip Hop Chip Shop before I developed the food, and spent a few years just selling T-shirts and merchandise to build up the brand,” explains Jonathan Oswald. “The name Hip Hop Chip Shop is interesting, and leads people to seek more information. It’s been crucial to our success so far, and has helped us get widespread press coverage.”

Social media should obviously be central to your branding, and a strong Twitter and Facebook presence can help create an army of online followers who you can spread your message to. At the least, you should clearly display a Twitter handle at your events so customers can find out more about your business.

“Social media is the number one most important thing – you can’t just ignore it,” advises Atholl Milton. “I would advise using lots of photography online, as we’ve found a good photo of the food generates a lot of interest.”

Launching and running a business takes time and includes a number of steps. We recommend that people consider using project management software to help stay on top.

You can assign tasks, create projects, track progress and create deadlines that are available to everyone involved. It’s an excellent tool for making sure that everything happens how, and when, it needs to.

Find out which project management tool we think is best .

Because you will be serving food to the public, you will have to contend with a fair amount of red tape as a street food trader depending on where you will be serving it. This is particularly true post-Covid, as hygiene requirements have gotten stricter following the healthcare crisis caused by the pandemic.

As a starting point, you will need to register your food preparation premises with your local Environmental Health Office at least 28 days before you start trading – this will be the area you pay council tax to, or if you operate a vehicle, it will be where your vehicle is normally stored.

As Jonathan Oswald explains, this can sometimes cause problems. “We do a lot of our food preparation in a separate commercial kitchen, but you need to be inspected where you trade, and obviously we’re not preparing food in our truck’s garage.

“It means we can never get a health rating from the Environmental Health Office, and some festivals require it. It’s not something that will stop you from continuing to trade, but it can close a few doors for you.”

You will also have to put food safety management procedures in place in order to trade legally, which should be based on the  Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)  system. Most smaller street food traders use the  “Safer Food, Better Business”  packs, which are resources intended to help small businesses comply with their hygiene obligations. Any employees you have should be trained in food hygiene, with the level of training dependent on the job.

As the business owner, you also have to ensure your business complies with health & safety law; you need to carry out a  risk assessment  at regular intervals, and if you employ more than five people you need to produce a written Health & Safety Policy Document (a guide to writing one can be found  here ) and a  Fire Risk Assessment .

Furthermore, you should take out  public liability insurance  to guard against the effect of a customer being taken ill and suing your business – even if you are confident this will never happen, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Separate to this, if you plan to sell directly to customers from a street-side stall not affiliated with a venue, you will need a street food trading license from the relevant local council. Getting one of these can be a long process, and the general trend is moving away from granting such licenses. However, Leeds city council recently approved a new scheme in which traders can pay a fixed fee to set up shop for just one day, which could represent an excellent opportunity to test the level of demand for your business before committing to something long-term.

Getting a license isn’t something you need to worry about if you plan to sell from street markets or other dedicated venues, as the venue owner will almost always take care of it themselves.

There is no best way to start a street food business; some launch with a large amount of investment and attempt to make an impact right away, whilst others test the waters by starting small and scaling with demand. Because of this, start-up costs can vary widely, but it is perfectly feasible to start up with £5,000 or less.

“We started with just £500, which allowed us to do a couple of really successful events with something we had no idea whether it was going to work beforehand,” recalls Mohendas. “Soon, we bought a catering trailer and additional equipment, and we were able to pay £200 to give it a stainless steel finish – it was nothing, really, and we found it very easy to start.”

In contrast, Hip Hop Chip Shop founder Oswald saved up for three years before buying the business’ first vehicle, a catering van shaped like a giant boombox.

“We’ve gone for the no expense spared approach – it cost us around £17,000 to start through business loans and equipment finance deals,” he says. “I think it’s helped – if people can see your big idea has come to fruition, and you’ve not compromised on anything, it shows people you’re serious about the business and ready to make that leap.”

As well as the cost of equipment (don’t forget that it may be worth considering a  mobile card payment machine ), your start-up costs will depend on what kind of events you will target. Pitch fees for mainstream music festivals and popular street markets can be thousands of pounds, so if your goal is to start lean and minimise risk, start with some well-chosen smaller events and try and raise your profile as much as possible.

Finance should be one of your top priorities when starting a new business. Our handy online tool let’s you compare the best business loan providers in the UK free of charge, so you can find the best deal for your company.

A street food start-up is also a business which you can feasibly juggle with other work, and indeed this is how most traders start out. Earnings in the early stages are likely to be highly volatile, and your profits will be modest, meaning you are likely to appreciate the safety net of a day job. However, you should be prepared to sacrifice the vast majority of your free time.

“I still work in my day job in an advertising firm – we’re still not in a position to take a wage from the Hip Hop Chip Shop, despite its success,” admits Oswald. “Most of our trading takes place on Friday and Saturday, so the intensity of it all can be very tough. A lot of it depends on your mindset.”

It would be unwise of us to tell you how much you can earn from a street food business; earnings depend on a huge number of factors, from initial investment, to the type of food, the pitch fees, and so on. Generally, your largest expense for an individual event is likely to be the pitch fee, so you should work out how much business you expect to do in the time to see whether you can turn a profit. Many traders adjust their prices for individual events, accounting for the cost of being there and how much other vendors will be charging.

“It really completely depends – fees for pop-up events range from about £500-£2,000, depending on what you’re selling,” explains Jonathan Oswald. “If the footfall’s right, and you’re able to smash out 300 burgers at £7 a pop, you’re earning a lot of money.”

But even if you appear to have found the perfect event, sometimes it just doesn’t work – perhaps the weather wasn’t right, there were more competitors than you expected, or your stall ends up being tucked away in an obscure corner out of customers’ sight.

“There’s definitely room to make money, but also a massive amount of room to lose money,” Oswald continues. “Make sure you’ve got enough money to make those mistakes – we generally keep enough for three to six months so we can write it off if it all goes wrong.”

Additionally, your earnings will fluctuate depending on the season. Apart from a surge at Christmas, most street food traders do the bulk of their business in the summer, with a plethora of outdoor events presenting opportunities galore. During the winter months, the amount of business you do is likely to tail off dramatically, so ensure you are prepared for this.

“We would sometimes be making £40-£45,000 a month in July and August, which would go down to just £3-£4,000 a month in the winter,” says Atholl Milton. “You have to budget and plan very carefully.”

• Be flexible with your offering – if something isn’t working with your food, let go of your ego and change it
• If you are producing generic fast food, efficiency should be your goal; for more high-end or niche street food, focus on quality and branding
• Make sure you always have enough cash to keep the business going if a particular event goes wrong
• Use social media and web marketing to create a story for your brand
• Speak to other street food traders and read all you can before starting up – but remember that some business lessons can only be learned the hard way
• Create a detailed business plan and constantly update it to reduce unknown factors affecting your business.
• StreetFood.org.uk :  A resource for street traders run by the Nationwide Caterers Association (NCASS). Contains a directory of street traders and guides to starting up.
• British Street Food :  Popular blog on street food run by food critic Richard Johnson.
• Evening Standard guide to London’s street food markets :  This article should provide a good starting point for potential venues in the UK capital.
• Food Standards Agency : Contains a wealth of guides on regulations affecting food traders in the UK.

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How to Start a Food Business: A Step-by-Step Guide

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For many food-lovers, the ultimate dream is to open up their own food business. What many people don’t realize in the beginning is that starting a food business is no easy feat. There’s a lot of business operational skills that are necessary to get started.

But the steps below can help you understand what you'll need to start a food business, and what you should consider before you jump in.

How to start a food business in 9 steps

Step 1: assess your skills.

If you’re reading this article, we can assume that you have a food business idea in mind that you’re interested in starting. That’s great! While interest is the number one step in starting a business, you also need to take a good hard look and assess your skills and assets before jumping into starting a business.

Passion can get you a long way, but when it comes to how to start a food business you’re also going to need hard work and business smarts. While many first-time business owners don’t know everything off the bat, they know how to seek out resources for help when they bump into something they don’t know how to do or don’t understand. That’s a lesson you should learn quickly.

While much of how to start a small food business consists of concrete steps such as choosing your business structure and finding funding, there’s also the soul-searching question: Are you willing and capable to do this?

Before you start, take a moment to write down your strengths, consider your support network, and brainstorm your resources—better yet, research what resources are available to you.

Operating a food business means you’ll need to grapple with:

Hiring and firing employees

Buying from suppliers

Creating a menu

Real estate

Purchasing equipment

And so much more...

With that debate over with, it’s time to talk about the more nitty-gritty, concrete details of how to start a food business.

How much do you need?

with Fundera by NerdWallet

We’ll start with a brief questionnaire to better understand the unique needs of your business.

Once we uncover your personalized matches, our team will consult you on the process moving forward.

Step 2: Create a business plan

A business plan can have multi-fold benefits for your small food business. This is a great way to get your thoughts and plans on paper, which can be useful for you to refer back to you during the process of starting and operating your business. A business plan can also be beneficial if you’re looking for funding to start your food business.

SCORE offer great resources to help you write a business plan for your food business. It can seem intimidating to make one, but if you’re researching how to start a food business, it’s likely that you already have a lot of great thoughts to contribute to your plan. Below are a few of the steps you’ll need to take while creating a business plan.

1. Create a business budget

One of the most important parts of your business plan, especially if you’re seeking funding, is the business budget.

A business budget will include looking at all the costs you’ll need to cover to begin operation of your business, what funds you’ll need to operate the business once it’s up and running, and a more long-term look at how your business will make money and how much money you expect to make.

A few examples of the costs you’ll incur and what you need to consider while starting a food business include:

What type of food business you’re starting

Cost of employees and management team

Initial investment in food product

Design for a physical space

2. Study your competitors

As you’re putting together your business plan, you need to start looking at and assessing your competitors. The food industry is very competitive and many markets are saturated. Before you go any further in starting your small food business, you need to know who else is out there and what they’re doing.

As you’re finding your competitors, make sure to be assessing what they do well and where they’re lacking. That will tell you where there’s a hole that you can fill with your business.

This is also a great time to be looking at prices and assessing the cost of doing business and the reality of how much money you’ll be able to make.

3. Find a hole in the market

The ideal situation for starting a food business is to find a hole in the market. Where is there customer desire that no one else is filling? And just because no one is doing it, doesn’t mean there’s customer desire—to turn a profit, customers have to want it and be willing to buy it.

Finding a hole in the market will help you to decide what kind of food you want to sell and how you want to sell it. There are a variety of options to choose from when it comes to how to sell your food including:

Meal delivery

Baked goods sold to other food establishments

In-home food business

Wedding and special event catering

4. Choose a concept

When starting a food business, it’s important to decide what type of food business you want to have. The main options include: a brick-and-mortar restaurant, a food truck, and a home-based catering business.

Each of these options is a viable way to start and operate your business. You might choose to start with one type of operation in the hopes of moving to another one eventually. A food truck and home-based catering business both have complications, but tend to require less capital to get started than a full-fledged brick and mortar restaurant.

Step 3: Set up your business

Once you’ve studied your market, you know where there’s a hole that needs to be filled, and you’ve taken some time to create a business plan, you’re ready to take the first steps toward starting your food business.

1. Choose a business entity

The first step in setting up your food business is to choose a business entity. There are a few different choices and depending on your circumstances, one or the other will be right for your business.

The most common business entity for small food businesses are sole proprietorships, LLCs, and co-ops. Other business entity options includes partnerships, S-corporations, and C-corporations.

Sole proprietorship

One of the most straight-forward business structures available is the sole proprietorship. While a sole proprietorship is simple (and popular among food establishments), it’s also limited in protection. If someone gets sick eating your food and wished to do so, instead of suing your business, they’d have to sue you—and they could go after your personal assets as compensation.

An LLC is one step up from a sole proprietorship. An LLC or limited liability corporation is a legal business entity that separates the business from the owner. An LLC limits a business owner’s personal liability for the business. An LLC also provides businesses with tax efficiency and remains uncomplicated as to ownership structure, so it’s ideal for a food business owner who wants to be somewhat protected, but still have some flexibility when it comes to paying taxes.

Cooperative

A cooperative, which is more commonly known as a co-op, is a business structure that is formed and owned by multiple people. Each member or owner of the business owns a portion of the business. Co-ops are one of the most collaborative business types available and are very common among food operations, especially food production facilities, grocery stores, and farmers markets.

Choosing the right business structure for your future food business can be confusing and initially seem complicated. But, if you start your business and decide you’ve chosen the wrong structure, you can certainly change it. If that sounds like a headache, though, you can consult with a business attorney to help you decide which structure is right for your business.

2. Register your business

If your business is going to employ others, it’s recommended that you register for an EIN, or a federal employee identification number, from the IRS. If you apply online, you can get one in a matter of minutes. An EIN helps you get business loans, manage your taxes, open a business bank account, and more, so this step is highly recommended.

You’ll also probably need to register your business with the state you’re operating in. Rules for how to do this exactly vary by state, and even county, but generally this information can be found on your state’s Secretary of State website. You should do a business name search before registering your business to make sure your desired name isn’t already taken by another business in your area.

3. Register for all required licenses

One of the most important steps in starting a food business is to make sure that you’re legally licensed to prepare and sell food. There are many different certifications and licenses that are necessary for food businesses.

It’s also important to note that what licenses you need will depend upon what type of food establishment your opening, whether or not you’ll be selling alcohol, and where you’re located. Different local jurisdictions can have slightly different requirements for food establishments.

Here are some types of licenses and certifications you might need for your food business:

A food handling permit

A Certificate of Occupancy or CO for your restaurant

A liquor license or beer and wine license to sell alcohol

A food license to make and sell food out of your home

A resale license to be able to buy ingredients at wholesale

No matter what type of food business you’re starting, you’re going to need some permits and licenses. Your local government office should be able to help you figure out exactly which licenses you need for your type of business.

4. Get insurance

As a business that employs workers and has a physical location which hosts customers, you need certain types of insurance to make sure your business is covered in any situation. You might consider:

General liability insurance

Auto insurance for business vehicles

Workers’ compensation

Commercial property insurance

Mobile food vendor insurance

5. Separate your finances

No matter what type of business entity you’ve chosen for your business, it’s important to separate your personal finances from the business finances. This makes figuring out your taxes and expenses much easier.

When you start your small food business, simply start a second bank account for your business. This can be done with the institution you use for your personal banking, but if you want to switch things up, there are some newer banks allow you to open a business checking account online.

And, if you choose to, you can also get a separate credit card that’s used only for business purposes. If you use a business credit card , you’ll be able to build up your business credit (assuming you use it responsible and pay off your bills on time), which can ultimately help you secure a business loan down the line.

Step 4: Look for funding options

When you’re thinking about how to start a food business, one of the major concerns can be the funds you need to get started. The initial investment in a business can be costly and it can take months, even years, before a business is profitable.

To get started, many new food businesses ask for funding from investors, seek out loans, or ask for help from friends and family. Bank loans are one option for food truck financing , though banks typically are hesitant to lend to first-time business owners. There are also alternate lenders you can look into.

1. Equipment loans

An equipment loan is a great option if you need to be expensive equipment for your restaurant or are looking at buying a food truck. An equipment loan is simple: You receive a loan to buy the equipment and the equipment serves as collateral. Meaning if you don’t pay back the loan, the equipment can be repossessed as payment.

This type of loan is easier to get than other types of loans.

2. Friends and family loans

If you’re starting up a food business, who better to get involved and help you out then your friends and family? If you’re saving up to get your business up and running, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Just make sure to write down a loan agreement with your lender and then to stick to it.

3. Line of credit

A line of credit is a fantastic option for someone starting a food business. A line of credit gives you access to a pool of funds. You can borrow from that fund and up to the limit of that fund anytime you need. This is a great option for a business that’s a little cash-strapped for short periods of time.

4. SBA microloan

For food businesses looking to start up a food truck business or for a restaurant that just needs a little extra cash to get going, there’s the SBA microloan. An SBA microloan is a loan of up to $50,000 that the Small Business Administration guarantees. A loan from the SBA is considered the best loan on the market due to its low interest rates and flexible repayment terms.

Step 5: Invest in product and tools

When it comes to how to start a food business, you need more than just cash and business entity to make your dream a reality: You need equipment, food supplies, and something to sell it all on.

1. Research suppliers

One of the most important relationships you form as a food business owner is with your suppliers. Your suppliers are the businesses who make sure you get the food and products you need to keep your business going.

If there’s a restaurant in your area that has closed recently, you might be able to buy their equipment or furnishings for cheap, or take on extra stock they had saved up. Your food can often be sourced locally and trade publications or professional organizations, like the National Restaurant Association, can be helpful.

Find trustworthy, reliable suppliers to make sure you’re always getting your supplies on time and for the best price. Where you source your food from can also be a selling point for your food business, since sustainable companies have become more attractive to customers recently.

2. Point of sale system

A point of sale system, or POS, is the modern version of a cash register. The POS is how your waitstaff takes down orders, charges customers, and receives payment from customers.

There are many restaurant POS systems available on the market that offer enhanced usability for your staff, including:

Square for Restaurants

TouchBistro POS

Lightspeed Restaurant POS

Loyverse POS

Some, like Square, can be great for mobile companies since you only need a card reader to do business if you have a compatible phone or tablet you can use. Others, like TouchBistro, are better for full-service restaurants that might benefit from a POS that also offers tools for customer and floor planning management. The best POS system for you will depend on your food business’s needs.

» MORE: Best POS systems for food trucks

3. Buy or rent necessary supplies

Before your restaurant can open the doors to customers, there are a lot of supplies you need to make sure the restaurant is outfitted to be inviting to customers, serving up good food, and making money for you.

Aside from your POS system, here are some examples of supplies you might need:

Kitchen appliances

Cold storage

Flatware and utensils

Furnishing for the restaurant

Cleaning supplies

Some of these you can buy in bulk, but depending on the mobility of your food business, you might want to consider renting equipment—which might work out cheaper for you. As an example, if you run a catering business, you might not need to own tons of flatware and utensils just yet. Renting on a case-by-case trial will save you money and help you understand what a practical order might be when you’re actually ready to buy.

Step 6: Hire staff

Depending on what type of food business you’re starting, you may or may not need help. But, even the smallest establishment usually hires an extra set of hands to increase production. Who you hire and how many people you hire will all depend upon your needs. For example, a food truck probably can’t fit many employees, but a large-scale restaurant will require more employees to keep the floor running smoothly.

Some examples of staff you might need include: delivery drivers, hosts, waiters, dishwashers, bartenders, and busboys. Make sure you factor hiring staff into your business plan, since you may be required to take on added costs, like purchasing workers compensation, for them.

Step 7: Set your pricing

One of the most important steps in how to start a food business is setting your pricing. Without the right price on your food products, it will be impossible to make money.

1. Do market research

One of the first steps in figuring out what you should charge for certain foods is to do market research. Go to your competitors to see what they’re serving, what their portion sizes are, and how much they’re charging.

This gives you a starting place to assess the right price for food, but it’s only a starting point. While it gives you an idea, it doesn’t give you insight into whether that business is making money or not.

You should also be mindful of emerging food trends and what that says about consumer priorities. For example, the wellness trends in food indicate that your business might do well if there’s a health-conscious market you’re able to tap into and you’re able to sell them on the health benefits of your food products.

2. Price out the cost of your product

While it’s not easy, it is possible to calculate the total cost of a dish. You’ll have to be mindful of all the tiny ingredients that go into a dish, including oil, seasonings, and garnishes. This can seem like a lot, but there are actually a number of formulas and measurements professional kitchens use to determine these figures, so be sure to study up.

Then, with a little magic and math, you’ll be able to price your product accordingly, so that you make a small profit from it, even when including the cost of labor to make, serve, and clean up the dish.

Step 8: Create an online presence

While you might think that a food business is all about food—and it is—you also need to get customers in the door and eating your food. The food industry is notoriously difficult to break into. For example, 85% of consumer packaged goods products fail within the first two years. One important step to avoiding that fate is establishing your online presence and nurturing your consumer base.

1. Social media

While food is all about the taste, many diners shop with their eyes. If you want to establish an online presence for your food business, one of the fastest ways to do that is through social media.

Instagram is a food business’s best friend. Post delicious-looking pictures of your food and customers will want to try it. Make sure you interact with consumers and encourage them to see you as a company that will be responsive to their needs.

While not every food business has a website, this can be a way to establish your credibility as a business. A website can be a place to post information for customers including menus, restaurant hours, and specials. There are a number of ways to build your small food business website, so it’s easier than ever to either sell products online or add helpful features like reservation widgets to your site.

3. Online review sites

While many a food business owner loathes review sites, it’s a necessary evil for those who have restaurants, catering businesses, and food trucks. According to a TripAdvisor survey, 94% of U.S. diners will consult online reviews before trying a restaurant. That’s the vast majority of diners. As a food business owner, you can hate the sites as much as you want, but you need to have a presence. Try offering a free perk to incentivize customers to leave reviews.

Step 9: Serve up delicious foods

When you’re thinking about how to start a small food business, the big draw is, obviously, the food. What you’ll cook, how it will taste to the diners, and what seasonal changes you’ll make to the menu. Owning a food business is only partly about the food, though—there’s also a ton of time spent on operating and managing the business. Study up to ensure success.

But, make sure you’re just as dedicated to serving up delicious foods!

Start Your Dream Business

Final thoughts

There are a wide array of food businesses you can start and competition will be tough. To help you get a leg up, make sure you consult these nine steps for starting a food business. If you pay attention to foundational steps, like creating a solid business plan and registering for all licenses you might need, you’ll put yourself in a good place for your food business to grow. So, refine that menu and get ready to feed the masses. With a little elbow grease and planning, there’s nothing you can’t do.

This article originally appeared on JustBusiness, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

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A SAMPLE BUSINESS PLAN FOR SMALL FOOD BUSINESSES

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Sample Street Food Business Plan

• September 1, 2022

Here is how to write a street food business plan.

This is the essence of this article; to provide you with a guide on how to go about the process. You must understand the positive impact such a plan has on your street food business.

Stree Food Business Plan Sample

One of the best ways of starting a food business is by writing and implementing a solid plan .

Having exceptional cooking expertise isn’t enough. A good level of organization is needed, hence the need for a plan.

This also includes the “how” on starting a street food business. Without further delay, let’s begin.

Starting A Street Food Business

In a bid to launch thriving street food businesses , there are several things you must be aware of. Having such knowledge helps in no small way to increase your chances of success.

This section will include several tips you must follow if you must make meaningful progress.

They include the following;

Handling the Pressure

When it comes to running a street food business, one of the certain things is the pressure you’ll face cooking in front of people. How well you deal with such pressure will largely determine how effective your business operation is.

Starting new can be challenging. Nevertheless, some level of professionalism should take care of such problems. No matter the challenges faced, it’s important to always serve with a smile.

Who are your Suppliers

Before opening for business, you must have the most important aspects of the business well figured out. Such include researching on reliable suppliers. Having this well worked out may seem challenging at the onset, but it’s worth it.

Reliable suppliers won’t only ensure you never run out of essential supplies but will also give you a great deal, thus creating a win-win business relationship. However, it’s necessary to begin by taking delivery of relatively small quantities of supplies until demand increases.

Never Complicate Things

You mustn’t complicate your operations. In other words, starting with limited menu offerings will be the best way to test the waters. This includes a few dishes while also using limited pieces of equipment. That way, increased productivity leading to profitability and growth are guaranteed.

Hard Work and Dedication

Operating a street food business can be quite challenging due to several reasons; first, it has to do with the amount of work put in. A lot of work and commitment is necessary if the business is to stand a real chance of growth.

You’ll have to decide the amount of time or days spent to prepare, sell, and clean as well as the time needed for rest.

Being able to organize or schedule your operations goes a long way in helping your street food business succeed. This may take up your entire time and may involve giving up your day job.

Having your Funding Plan Fully Sorted

Without a sound funding plan, it will be difficult to have meaningful progress with your street food business. Your funding plan should carefully work out the amount required to achieve your goal. This includes all expenses (such as those covering equipment purchases) in addition to running costs.

How to raise such funding is equally important. Funding sources may include savings or loans from banks or investors. In any case, the needed investment amount should be sufficient. The only way to ensure it is sufficient is by carefully working out the financial expenses.

Keep an Eye on Cash Flow

Apart from the need to have sufficient running capital for your street food business, it is very crucial to have a grasp of your cash flow. That is, having a handle on what comes in and goes out. As your business operation progresses, you’re able to identify if the business is making or losing money.

With such knowledge, necessary adjustments can be made to enhance profitability. A streamlined and highly effective business operation is achieved through this.

Getting Some Experience will be in Order

One of the ingredients needed for success in operating a street food business is experience. Experience is critical as it gives you vital knowledge on what contributes to a successful operation. One way to get this is by working or volunteering in a street food stall of your choice.

This should be one that is similar to what you intend to open. Working for some time and asking the right questions should give you the much-needed experience to successfully establish and run your street food business.

There are lots of things to learn. These include customer preferences, the business set up, peak sales period, and how best to schedule your operations among other things.

Will you be Needing Help?

Most of the time, new street food business owners will have to operate the business themselves. Sometimes, the help of a family member or friend will prove crucial. However, as your business grows and demands increases, you may need to hire or employ one or more staff.

To do this, you have to factor or weigh the contributions or benefits derived concerning the wage bill. This enables you to know the number of employees the business can afford to hire. For the business to grow there has to be increased productivity.

For your street food business to be successful, a great deal of effort will be required in marketing it. Now, there are slow seasons as well as peak seasons for this type of business. Each type requires effective marketing. However, more effort is required during the slow season.

Marketing strategies include gathering customer reviews about your service. Your satisfied clients should be targeted to leave a review of your business. Having an online presence for your business is essential for this.

Promote your street food business on social media. Have dedicated accounts for this business on all major platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram among others.

What more? Every single client you serve has the potential to spread the word about your services. You’ll need to ensure that your customer experience is top-notch as only this can result in repeat patronage and positive reviews.

This street food business plan includes the key factors necessary for operating a successful business. Having the passion alone won’t be sufficient as you’ll need a great deal of organization. Your plan makes it possible to set the right things in place.

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How To Start a Street Food Business in the Philippines: A Beginner’s Guide

The street food business in the Philippines has carved a niche of its own.

Informal, unpretentious, and affordable, the traditional Pinoy street foods cater to growling stomachs who don’t have the time and money to go to fine-dining restaurants. Some even make them part of their daily diets just for the thrill.

If you want to sell something that appeals to the taste and budget of the masses, you can never go wrong with a street food business in the Philippines. This guide will show you how to start it from the ground up.

Go back to the main article: Best Small Business Ideas in the Philippines with High Profit

• Budding entrepreneurs and food enthusiasts whose starting capital are too small for a  carinderia  or catering business.
• Those living in populated areas near schools, offices, terminals, or busy streets.

Capital: Php 5,000 to Php 20,000

• It doesn’t need a large capital.
• No need to pay rental fees if you’re going to start the street food business in front of your house.
• Lower overhead cost compared to other food businesses.
• Minimal promotion/marketing since people are already familiar with street foods. All you need is to leave a good first impression to have repeat customers/buyers.
• Location isn’t a problem since you can sell it anywhere with high foot traffic. If it’s impossible to launch it in your own place, a mobile food cart allows you to sell it anywhere else.
• Affordable prices mean more potential customers and more flexible profit margins.
• The market is diversified. Street foods appeal to the taste buds of Filipinos from all social classes, assuming that your products have great flavors that people can’t get enough of.
• As with any other type of food business, street foods take a lot of time and effort to prepare. Depending on the type of street foods, it’s not unusual for vendors to wake up as early as 4 A.M. every day to buy fresh ingredients and spend the remaining hours preparing sauces and putting them on a skewer.
• It takes time to scale it into a multi-million business. Unless you’re already an established name that is ready for franchising , you have to spend years developing your product and building your customer base.
• Since the street food business in the Philippines has low start-up costs, expect high competition. To stand out, you must think of innovative ways to attract more customers.

How To Start a Street Food Business in the Philippines

Step 1: decide whether to franchise or go independent.

The easier path, of course, is to franchise an already established brand .

One advantage is sanitation. Since traditional street food vendors in the Philippines are notorious for their unsanitary practices, several food cart companies offer their products in great packaging and promote them as safe, clean, and fresh.

Food cart companies like Pinoy Hot Balls and Fries , Takoyaki , and Gulaman Corner also offer assistance in marketing and finding a good location for your stall.

Of course, none of these food carts have the same charm as legit street foods peddled in actual streets. People flock to them because they provide a homey vibe you won’t get in air-conditioned malls.

In addition to that, starting your own street food business from scratch requires less capital. You have control over what street foods to offer and how many to sell without being burdened by any franchise fee.

Step 2: Pick a Strategic Location

A location where there’s a high volume of people is non-negotiable if you want your street food business in the Philippines to profit.

It doesn’t matter how tasty or flavorful your street foods are; if your location is too far from your target market, nobody will bother to buy from you.

Remember, businesses should find and come to their potential customers, not the other way around.

Strategic locations may include areas near schools, terminals, offices, or busy roads. If that location happens to be where your house is also located, good for you. You will recover your initial investment faster since you don’t have to pay rent.

Step 3: Choose the Type of Street Foods You’re Going To Sell

Thanks to Filipinos’ creativity and penchant for turning ordinary stuff into delectable street foods, you’ll never run out of choices to offer.

The best part is you don’t have to spend much on packaging since most street foods are placed in plastic cups/bags, poured in a bowl, or put onto skewers.

If you’re looking for ideas on what street foods to sell, the list below should get you started:

• Isaw – intestines of either chicken or pig that are coiled onto skewers and grilled over charcoal. Its smoky flavor contrasted with the sweet and tangy vinegar sauce make it a perfect afternoon snack or pre-dinner appetizer.
• Ukoy – a classic Filipino fritter made of bean sprouts, shrimps, and julienned squash mixed with orange batter and deep-fried to crispy perfection. Ideally partnered with a sweet vinegar sauce.
• Kwek kwek – quail eggs covered in orange-colored batter and deep fried. Other variations include hot dogs covered in the same orange batter (think Filipino version of the popular corndogs). When dipped in vinegar sauce with chopped garlic, onion, and chilis, kwek kwek bursts with amazing flavors that Filipinos are all familiar with.
• Helmet, Adidas, and Betamax – grilled street foods made of chicken head, chiken feet, and coagulated chicken blood, respectively. Although some foreigners may find them repulsive, these adventurous street foods are prime examples of Filipinos’ resourcefulness. As they always say, one man’s trash is another man’s culinary treasure.
• Mango-on-stick – Fresh, green Indian mangoes with seeds removed and poked onto skewers, then served with a nice spread of sweet, salty shrimp paste (bagoong). It’s the ultimate summer snack that passersby won’t be able to resist.
• Fish balls/chicken balls/squid balls – the all-time favorite Filipino street food snack, fish balls are usually served by getting your own skewer and poking them straight out of the oil. Although the balls are made primarily of flour, the sweet and special “Manong’s sauce” is the reason why people keep coming back for more.
• Other street food ideas: Balut, Banana Q, turon, binatog, 1-day-old fried chicken, taho, mami, sotanghon, and palabok.

Step 4: Find a Reliable Supplier

Owning a street food business in the Philippines requires you to shop for fresh ingredients every day.

Hence, it’s important to build a long-term partnership with a reliable supplier in the market, one who will set aside the quality and fresh materials for you and give discounts when you buy in bulk.

In turn, don’t let this relationship go sour by not paying on time. Remember, your business heavily depends on your suppliers. Without enough raw materials, your daily business operations will be affected.

Step 5: Invest in the Right Equipment and People

You can start a street food business in the Philippines with whatever you have.

Use grilling/cooking equipment and utensils you already have and save money in the process. In case you need to buy new items, don’t sacrifice quality for affordability. Most cheap products don’t last long, and the money you save by buying them could have been better spent on pricier but more durable alternatives.

When starting, you also need at least one person to assist you in operating the business. Find someone trustworthy who will never resort to pilfering.

Don’t just rely on referrals. Check the person’s background meticulously. Set up an easy system to track daily inventory activities, so you’ll know how much money comes and goes and prevent profit loss due to stealing.

Step 6: Make a Delicious Sauce

Street foods won’t be as appetizing without their corresponding sauces.

In the Philippines, sauces are just as varied as the street foods they complement . It reflects the different preferences and tastes of Filipinos–some like it spicy while others prefer sweet with a little bit of tanginess.

Sauces are so important that customers buy street foods for the sauces alone. They pour it on their rice like soup and eat it as if it’s a full-course meal. So, if you want to earn a lot of  suki,  work on your sauces and perfect them as a real chef would.

Luckily, YouTube is a treasure trove of tutorials that will teach you how to make the special vinegar sauce or the popular “Manong’s sauce” perfect for fish balls.

Step 7: Set the Right Price for Your Products

Right pricing can be the difference between a successful street food business and one that is a dud. You want to price your street foods to cover your overhead cost while keeping them affordable.

Survey your competitors to gauge whether you’re pricing your products too low or going overboard.

Always remember that the reason why Filipinos prefer street foods is that they fill their stomachs without hurting their pockets. Keep the prices “abot-kaya” for the masses but never forget that this is a business, and businesses need to profit.

Step 8: Observe Proper Sanitation

Street food vendors, especially the ambulant ones, have earned a bad reputation for putting their customers’ health at risk due to their unsanitary practices. Don’t be one of them.

Instead, break the stereotype by keeping your area clean and observing strict sanitation during food preparation and storage.

The last thing you want for your business is to crumble in pieces due to a customer contracting diseases from the food you serve.

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Food Preparation Business Plan

Start your own food preparation business plan

What's For Dinner?

Executive summary executive summary is a brief introduction to your business plan. it describes your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.">.

What’s For Dinner? is an exciting, new business with a unique approach to helping people enjoy home cooked meals with their families. Customers will come to our Plano, TX location and prepare 12 meals that they pre-select from a menu in a party atmosphere. In two hours, they will have a month’s worth of meals to put in their freezer.

By focusing on our competitive edge (no direct competitors in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area), our customers, and their needs, What’s For Dinner? will increase sales to a point that exceeds $1.3M in three years.

What’s For Dinner? is owned jointly by Alan and Kim Kirby as an S Corporation. Alan and Kim have 15 years of experience in the food service and entertainment industries, as a party planner and personal chef, respectively. They know the kinds of food preparation available in the Collin County area. With two teenaged children, have experienced the frustration of trying to feed a whole family healthy food both cheaply and quickly. Alan’s existing contacts with local social and community groups, and Kim’s ongoing relationships with food distributors, specialty grocers, and high-end clients will all help to generate high sales from early in the first year.

What’s For Dinner offers several advantages to its target market:

• Relatively inexpensive meal preparation: ~$15 for a four-person meal.
• Fun, social, party atmosphere.
• Convenient: eat your prepared meals in your home, when you want.
• Saves time: no shopping, no prep, no clean up.
• For seniors, special menus and transportation assistance make meals easy.
• And, best of all, not having to decide “What’s For Dinner?”

The purpose of this plan is two-fold. The first is to acquire funding of $259,708. The second is to lay the foundations of the company’s vision, philosophy, and strategy, to ensure that we know where we are going and how to get there.

1.1 Mission

What’s For Dinner? is a specialized business that provides a variety of people with the opportunity to prepare health conscious, yet savory meals that can be frozen to take home and eat at a later time.  The purpose of this process is to both optimize the time investment needed to prepare the quality of meals that What’s For Dinner? will become known for, within the clients’ current schedules, and also for them to practice the proper health conscious behavior that has become the target lifestyle of a health deficient society.

What’s For Dinner? will provide a unique and distinctive service that will unite a party-like atmosphere with professional food preparation that will attract a growing repeat customer base.  What’s For Dinner? will allow families and busy professionals the ability to prepare a variety of meals quickly in a fun atmosphere, away from home, thus giving people more of what they are looking for – time.

Our goal is to be a self-sustaining corporate enterprise within 3 years from the company’s inception to begin expanding our menu offerings within 3 months and its location offerings within 4 years.  What’s For Dinner? will employ 4 individuals full time within 3 years, and will hit net profit goals of $100,000 by the end of its second year of existence.

In short, we will be in the business of helping our customers to relieve their daily stresses of what to fix their families for dinner by providing them with a great menu choice of meals that they will prepare.

1.2 Keys to Success

The keys to success in this business are:

• Creating a high level of customer satisfaction in our service and products, which will lead to customer retention each month. 
• Marketing: getting our name out to the public, primarily through an intensive marketing campaign driven by our customers (word of mouth) with a supplemental vehicle of standardized and conventional marketing tactics. 
• Great product quality and variety that will be used to aid in customer retention and growth. 
• Finances: as our customer base increases we will be better able to lower our supply costs by buying more in bulk through food service distributors.
• Variety of menus offered based on seasons, trends and customer preferences.
• Exceeding our customers’ expectations by offering them a higher quality of food for a competitive price.
• What’s For Dinner’s website will be an efficient and convenient place for customers to register and pay for parties.

1.3 Objectives

The objectives for What’s For Dinner? in the first three years of operation include:

• To exceed customers’ expectations for food service and food service products.
• To increase the number of clients served by 25% per year through superior service.
• To develop a sustainable start-up business that is profitable.
• To achieve an after tax net profit of $134K by year three.
• To achieve a net income of more than 10% of sales by the third year.

Company Summary company overview ) is an overview of the most important points about your company—your history, management team, location, mission statement and legal structure.">

What’s For Dinner? is a unique business where customers come to our Plano, TX location and prepare twelve pre-chosen meals that will be taken home and frozen until they are ready to cook and serve. All of the planning, shopping, food preparation and containers are provided with no worries to the customer. The meals will be prepared in a party like atmosphere where customers will have separate workstations to prepare their meals and have a good time with friends, both new and old.

Our goal is to provide our customers with home cooked meals that their families will enjoy, while saving them time and effort and relieve stress from that age-old question of What’s For Dinner?

The scheduling aspect of our company will be combination of a standard walk-up scheduling procedure, a phone messaging service and an intensive highly-interactive e-commerce website that will allow the customer to not only schedule parties but also to pay online, using standard secure technology.

2.1 Start-up Summary

The start-up expenses include:

• Rent expenses include a deposit and rent for one month at $28.75 per square foot for 1,854 square feet, in the total amount of $5,182.
• Utilities expenses for one month.
• Insurance deposit and first month.
• Sales & Marketing expenses including stationery, brochures, outdoor signage.
• Website development.
• Office, kitchen and janitorial supply expenses.
•  Leasehold improvements, including contractors fees and permits.

The required start-up assets of $50,000 include:

• Kitchen Equipment (long-term assets)
• Prep Tables (long-term assets)
• Cooking utensils
• Various Kitchen Utensils
• Computer and small business software

Please note that the long-term assets above will be depreciated using G.A.A.P. approved straight-line depreciation method.

The purpose of this business plan is to secure $259,708 in funding. This loan appears in the long-term liability row of the attached Start-up Funding table.

The following chart and table summarize the start-up assumptions.

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2.2 Company Ownership

What’s For Dinner? is a privately held Sub Chapter S-corporation. This allows for the protection allowed by the corporate legal structure combined with the “fall through” Generally Accepted Accounting Principals that will make personal financial sense to the corporations principle owners.  The principle owners of What’s For Dinner? are Alan and Kim Kirby; each owns a 50% stake in the company. This company operates under the jurisdiction of the State of Texas and the United States of America.

What’s For Dinner? will provide its customers with twelve home cooked meals that they will freeze until customers are ready to serve them. These meals will be chosen from a set menu designed weekly by us and the meals will be prepared in our location. All of the planning, shopping, food preparation, recipe directions and containers will be provided to help make it as easy as possible for our customers to enjoy their time at our establishment.

Our customers will prepare their meals in a fun, party-like atmosphere where they can relax, meet new friends or spend time with old friends while preparing dinners for their families for the next month.

The Key benefits our customers will receive from using What’s For Dinner? are:

• Spend less time in the kitchen
• Less money on groceries & eating out – it keeps you from being tempted to eat out
• Home style meals & better eating
• Able to sit down at the table together as a family – including conversation and socialization
• Clean up is easy, because prep is done outside the home, and all meals come in disposable containers
• Less time spent on grocery shopping
• In 2 hours you will have 12 dinners for you and your family
• We create the menus – order the ingredients – slice, dice, chop and prepare
• Social hour preparing dinners

Our menus and portion sizes are tailored for the group and individual customers. Seniors get added benefits, with diabetic, low-cholesterol, and low-sodium choices. Families can increase portion sizes for a small fee to accommodate more children or guests.

Market Analysis Summary how to do a market analysis for your business plan.">

The Dallas area’s meal preparation market is untapped. As a matter of fact, there is no other business of this kind in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.  Though there are no exact replicas of our company there are some types of companies that we would have to consider to be indirect competitors.  These include such companies and service professionals as caterers and those that will come to your home and prepare meals for you to freeze.  What’s For Dinner?, at this time, has few direct competitors, with exception to area restaurants and your basic home cooking. At the inception of What’s For Dinner?, there will be no type of company like ours in the area, thus giving us the overwhelming competitive advantage of first entry. 

The What’s For Dinner? market is primarily in the Collin County area: Plano, Frisco, Allen and McKinney. We will be focusing on households in these areas that have more than one person. Primarily, those households whose income is over $50,000, with someone under the age of 18 living there.  As a secondary target market, we will market to the elderly population in the aforementioned areas. Initially, the greater portion of our customers will be busy, working class people and the growing group of single-parent families, but it will be of great benefit now and in the future to market our services to the highest growing population demographic – senior citizens.  

The following statistics were taken from Table DP-1 Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000 for Collin County.

4.1 Market Segmentation

What’s For Dinner? has three distinct target populations:

• Family households with children under 18 years old. This group of people is generally busier than other families with their time split between work, home and their children’s activities. This group may be single parent households, which only adds to the stress resulting from lack of time, coupled with the need for proper meals for their children.  This provides them with a desire to provide their families with good meals and free time to enjoy being together.
• Family households with no children living at their home. This group has a need for our services, as hectic schedules, professional careers, and daily demands on time come up against the need for tasty, healthy meals.  Depending on their work and home situations this demographic could use our service to enhance their selection of meals all the while minimizing their time in the kitchen. This group does recognize the benefits of our service and want to enjoy making meals for themselves and socializing through our business.
• Senior and Elderly Citizens. This group (65 and older) is the fastest growing portion of the population, and needs our services for several reasons:
• A good portion of this group is simply unable to cook nutritious meals and does not have the knowledge or skills to continue to effectively maneuver themselves in the kitchen. 
• Many seniors do not have the time, energy, or means to make it to the grocery store. 

We will market several menus designed for the diet needs of the senior populace (diabetic, low cholesterol, low sodium), with pick-up and drop-off coordinated with a local senior-transportation center. All prep and measuring will be done beforehand, so they will need only to stir and combine ingredients. In addition to meeting their practical needs, we will create the social experience that this group consistently hunts for, and help them to enhance their lifestyle through a higher quality of health.

4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy

These target market segments were chosen based on their greater need for our services. Families with children are very busy, and they can end up spending a great deal on fast food and junk food because they don’t have time to cook healthy meals at home. Busy working couples and individuals without children are also busy, and may not have the skills or desire to plan and cook entire meals at home just for themselves; they can spend a lot on going out to eat. Seniors have special challenges in obtaining and preparing quality ingredients to feed themselves, including the loneliness of cooking for oneself. Options like “Meals on Wheels” are generally last-resorts, and many would prefer alternate food preparation arrangements, if any were available at a reasonable price – fixed incomes can be hard on the palate.

Our marketing strategies for all groups will emphasize our relatively inexpensive, fun, and easy approach to preparing healthy meals. We will vary our serving sizes, menu options, and level of preparation for each group; the family-size entree just right for a family of four makes no sense for a single individual. Different sized families have different needs, and it will be our goal to look to accommodate most family sizes through our variations in serving size.

4.3 Service Business Analysis

Our service is unique among Dallas meal preparation options. There are no direct competitors for What’s For Dinner? The closest competitors are personal chefs, who will come to your home and prepare your chosen meals for you and freeze them, at a very high price. Our target market segments cannot afford personal chefs.

Our indirect competitors are area restaurants. These include family-oriented, inexpensive diners and casual restaurants, as well as fast food and takeout. We will generally not be competing with upscale, adult-oriented restaurants, since those are “special occasion” locations, and do not fulfill local residents’ daily meal needs.

Our competitor restaurants compete on price, perceived convenience, and atmosphere. They succeed when they convince customers that going out to eat is an affordable “treat” that is easier and more pleasant than preparing meals at home. In truth, the restaurants with the lowest prices also offer poor quality food and atmosphere, and the struggle to get children ready, out the door, and have them behave in a restaurant setting can make these choices less appealing in families’ realities than in their imagination. For all customers, the time it takes to get ready, travel to a restaurant, order dinner, eat, pay, and get home make going out to a eat a full-evening’s commitment – hardly the convenience it claims.

With the introduction of What’s For Dinner? to the Dallas market, we will revolutionize the way that the community looks at cooking convenience. Our prices really are much lower than restaurant meals, with much higher quality meals. In addition, our “convenience” comes in two ways – preparing meals at a set time, outside the daily routine, so they are ready in advance, and eating and minimal clean-up right in the customer’s own home, which saves time and energy at the end of a long day.

4.3.1 Competition and Buying Patterns

Even though What’s For Dinner? has no direct competitors, we will set up our business as if we are entering an already aggressive and hostile market.  This is aimed at helping us to become successful through a constant drive for increased service model efficiencies and marketing effectiveness. We will strive to excel in customer service excellence, continuing our menu varieties and achieving the highest standards for our food products. As owners, we feel that word of mouth and customer retention are significant factors in our success. Our convenient locations, sanitary facilities, competitive pricing structure and honorable reputation will all play a part in satisfying our customers and increasing our clientele at an accelerating rate. What’s For Dinner? will focus on these factors and always strive to improve our business model and service offerings.  We will strive to be the very best in our industry and will not rest until we not only have the largest market share in our industry, but also have the most satisfied customers.

The buying patterns of our customer base will be affected by our initial meal prep party prices.  We have concluded through our exhaustive focus market groups that we could set our prices high, since there is no direct competitor, but we feel that to attract and retain customers and be able to steadily grow our customer base, so we should price ourselves at a lower level first. By setting ourselves at the lower end of our pricing range, we will not only gain the attention of the vast majority of our target markets, but we will also be able to start our revenue streams off with an upward growth pattern. The price that we will choose will be reasonable for our customers and be adequate for the business to maintain a gross margin around 25%.

Strategy and Implementation Summary

What’s For Dinner? will gradually gain market share in the four focal geographic markets (Plano, Frisco, Allen and McKinney) by leveraging its competitive edges. These edges are superior attention to detail in the local food service market, a revolutionary food-servicing outlook and excellent nutritional meals at competitive price. These advantages have been unavailable in this market for some time. We will market our services  with a targeted advertising campaign and networking.

5.1 Competitive Edge

What’s For Dinner? will begin with a critical competitive edge: we have no direct competitors in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.  By being the first-mover and (for at least a while) the only service of our kind, we will have the initial market buzz that is normally reserved for the first company of its kind into a given market. Our positioning is very hard to match, but only if we maintain focus on our strategy, marketing, business development, and fulfillment of quality and customer service will we be able to continually grow and outpace the “copy-cat” businesses that are sure to follow our market lead. We are aware that the tendency to relax due to lack of competition could weaken our competitive edge. What’s For Dinner? will be operated as if our direct competitors were conducting the same service business that we are in and we will be looking for additional enhancements to our operating procedures from day one.

In addition to our unique positioning, we offer the following advantages to our customers:

• High quality meals
• Relatively low prices
• Time saving meal preparation
• Reducing mess in customers’ kitchens
• Reducing stress around meal prep
• Saving them from that perennial problem of deciding, “What’s for Dinner?”

5.2 Marketing Strategy

As a food service business, our main goal is to provide high quality food with excellent customer service.  Our challenge as a new company is to quickly establish a reputation for such quality among our potential markets. With this in mind, the initial focus of our marketing strategy will be to get our name and reputation out to the public to create “buzz.” Creating brand recognition for our new concept will be the first measurable milestone in our marketing strategy.

 This will be one of the most important factors when measuring success within the first couple of months after inception.  The basis for our ideology is simple; the more people that hear our name and become familiar with our services, the more people will use it. The marketing campaign will involve a targeted advertising campaign, different specials to entice the customers to try our business and a very intense networking campaign. All of these tactics will be used to help gain a loyal clientele aimed at fostering our happy customer base.

At start-up, we will begin a focused advertising campaign toward target segments in our geographical area. We will update our advertising campaign regularly to fill in gaps based on follow-up research: do people recognize our name? Do they know what we do? What is their impression of our services’ costs and quality?Marketing campaigns will work via:

• Local area newspapers that are viewed by our target market.
• Homeowner associations’, churches’ and specific groups’ newsletters.
• Direct mail advertisements/flyers to our target market purchased through a direct mailing company with lists specifically of our target market.
• Various flyers and pamphlets that will be available at many shopping centers and grocery stores throughout the area.
• Yellow pages advertisement.
• Dynamic website.
• Registered keyword searches that will lead to our website.
• Various Radio advertisements.
• Various event sponsorships.

What’s For Dinner? will also have a networking campaign that will start with the owner’s contacts and friends attending our first months’ meal prep parties. This will be the “word of mouth” campaign that will feature:

• Private parties with discounts for the host/hostess of the party. This will encourage them to invite 11 friends that will be introduced to our business and will be return customers.
• Special discounts to return customers when referring new customers.

5.3 Sales Strategy

In the food service business, as in any customer service intensive business, sales revenue is our lifeblood.  The way in which we present ourselves to our customers and deal with the public will determine the success of our business.  The food service industry is facilitated by repeat business and referrals. In order to continuously compete against other food providers, we need to enhance our repeat customer service business by making this our main sales focus. We cannot expect to have a satisfied customer by selling them one month’s of meals and then never seeing them again. We must make our sales strategy revolve around making the customer’s experience with us the best it possibly can, and further, making every effort to get our current customer base to visit us again.  It is much more expensive to get new customers than to keep the customers you already have. Our customers cannot stop eating, but they could stop using our services. We will be selling our service to our current customers each time they come, in order to have repeat business and new business through their word of mouth.

These are just a few of the ways we will sell to our customers to gain repeat business and word of mouth advertising:

• High levels of customer service; friendly, comforting and entertaining
• Good variety of menus from which to choose
• The best quality of foods and ingredients
• Creating a fun and social atmosphere for our customers, so they want to return
• Reminders at each party to sign up for the next month’s party, along with the next month’s menu and samples
• A follow up and reminder program for our current customers that will be done through email and mail.
• Focus a specific portion of our advertising campaign on getting our repeat customers to come back and visit us
• Allow our best repeat customers to get special quantity specific discounts.
• Enlist a comprehensive and highly interactive e-commerce initiative to help to accommodate our customer’s payment and scheduling options.

The What’s For Dinner? website will serve as a productive and consistent selling tool. Our website will be set up to explain what we offer and the many benefits customers will receive for using our meal prep services. The website will help “close the sale;” customers will be able to register for the meal prep party they would like to attend and accepting payments online. This will be our main source of registrations for parties. The ease of use allowed by the Internet will be key to driving our customer pipeline.  Our sales and marketing campaigns will help focus our customer traffic through our website, so that people can see how easy it will be to interact with our company. This element of efficiency will also help enhance our bottom line by allowing for a 24 hour customer service mechanism without having to keep a customer rep staffed all the time.

5.3.1 Sales Forecast

Through our research of other businesses like ours in Seattle, WA and Omaha, NE, we found that all of them quickly increased their sales over their first year. All of these researched companies went from their first month of 100 customers on average to over 1,000 customers within their first year of business. One company opened in Seattle against two other competitors and now has over 2,000 customers with three different locations.

We are optimistic that What’s For Dinner? will grow and prosper just as these other companies have, but we want to set reasonable forecasts for growth. We have therefore taken a conservative approach in preparing our Sales Forecast Table.

The following table and chart give a run-down on forecasted sales. We have forecasted that sales will increase each month with the exception of the summer months, when vacations and other seasonal activities may reduce purchases. Once we get our first few customers, our sales will increase through customer retention, and gaining new customers through networking. We expect sales to grow incrementally over the first year, reaching profitability by the fifth month of operation.

After the first year of operation, we expect sales to continue increasing, from 10% the first year up to 25% by the third year. As sales increase, we will make modifications to our facility and hire new employees to share in the work. Our proposed location allows room for expansion. Based on our research, and the size of our potential market, we expect to reach close to one million dollars in sales by the end of 2005.

Our direct costs of sales listed here are inventory used up in sales, including the meal ingredients and additional supplies, such as themed-party decorations, containers, napkins, and so on. Fixed operating expenses are listed in the Profit and Loss.

5.4 Milestones

The accompanying table lists important program milestones, with dates and budgets for each. The milestone schedule indicates our emphasis on planning for implementation.  What the table doesn’t show is the commitment behind it. Our business plan includes complete provisions for plan -vs. – actual analysis, and we will follow-up often to discover variances and course corrections.

What’s For Dinner? will have several milestones, including:

• Business plan completion. This will be done as a roadmap for the organization. This will be an indispensable tool for the ongoing performance and improvement of the company.
• Building set up.
• Our first meal prep party.
• Profitability.

Web Plan Summary

The What’s For Dinner? website will be the virtual business card, party scheduler and payment acceptance source all rolled into one. It will showcase our services and highlight the benefits of using our company.  The website will be a crucial portal for party scheduling, as well as having availability cross-referenced with party menus. Customers will also use this website to register for their parties and pay for them using PayPal, which accepts MasterCard, Discover Card, Visa, or e-checks.

6.1 Website Marketing Strategy

The What’s For Dinner? website will be a strategic and very important part of our marketing mix. It will be used as a marketing tool to attract new customers, and as a sales tool to schedule parties, select menus, and pay. We will be promoting our website in all marketing programs, including newspaper ads, yellow page ads, business cards and flyers. We will also purchase targeted key word searches to help potential customers find our website. In addition, our website will feature prominently on all napkins, packaging, and receipts which current customers bring home, making repeat business easy and convenient.

Our main internet strategy is to direct the majority of our potential clients to our website first, as the introduction to our services, prices, and availability. This will reduce the time necessary for staff to provide basic information over the phone, allowing them to answer customer questions and provide more details, once customers know who we are, what we do, and how we might help them.

To encourage customers to use the website, we will offering special discounts to those who register their parties with our website and pay online. Our website must be easy to access and navigate, and must answer every customer question we can anticipate. It must use a legitimate, well-respected security feature and a reliable payment method. If it is all these things, many of our repeat customers will be happy to save time by researching party options and scheduling them online.

Clearly, we expect website use to be highest among younger, internet-savvy customers. We anticipate that our senior customers will use phone and direct contacts for most scheduling and payment interactions.

6.2 Development Requirements

The What’s For Dinner? website will be developed with the technical resources of a local web design artist. He has designed websites for over 325 businesses, most with e-commerce capabilities. He is designing a database interface which will let us adjust the schedule and track click/sales ratios, and easily update menu offerings.

As the website development progresses, he will work with a local graphic artist we have hired to come up with the website logo and graphics. We are still researching hosting possibilities, but feel our needs will be best served by subcontracting out the hosting of the site and the technical back-end supporting.

Management Summary management summary will include information about who's on your team and why they're the right people for the job, as well as your future hiring plans.">

The What’s For Dinner? management team will initially consist of the founders/owners themselves, Alan and Kim Kirby. We do not anticipate the need to hire anyone else on a full time basis during the first year, because all of the services that a normal small business needs will be outsourced. These services include the e-commerce infrastructure, accounting, marketing, and legal services. We do plan to employ one part-time employee from the beginning to help with cleaning and dishwashing.

Alan and Kim have 15 years of experience in the food service and entertainment industries, as a party planner and personal chef, respectively. Until the second year, Kim will continue to work part-time as a personal chef for several couples in Plano, doing the prep work and menu planning for What’s for Dinner? in the mornings. Alan will host the majority of the parties, after having prepared test batches of every menu item with Kim. The owners anticipate possibly hiring local high-school students as sous-chefs in years 2 and 3; Kim’s experience with local restaurants has shown that these students can often do quite well, paid only minimally in exchange for professional restaurant and food preparation training. Alan’s existing contacts with local social and community groups, and Kim’s ongoing relationships with food distributors, specialty grocers, and high-end clients will all help to generate high sales from early in the first year.

Throughout the first two years we will conduct an aggressive cost analysis as to what our capabilities are as owners and with what activities we need assistance.

7.1 Personnel Plan

The following table summarizes our personnel expenditures for the first three years, with compensation increasing from $34K the first year to about $60K in the third. We believe this plan is a fair compromise between fairness and expedience, and meets the commitment of our mission statement. The detailed monthly personnel plan for the first year is included in the appendices.

Financial Plan investor-ready personnel plan .">

What’s For Dinner expects strong sales, based on research into our target market, similar businesses in other parts of the country, lack of direct competition, and the experience, reputations, and know-how of its owners/managers. By steadily repaying our long-term loan and holding down costs, we will generate a net profit midway through the first year and increase net worth dramatically by year 3. Our major fixed expenses are payroll and rent.

8.1 Important Assumptions

The financial plan depends on important assumptions, most of which are shown in the following table as annual assumptions. The monthly assumptions are included in the appendices. 

Three of the more important underlying assumptions are: 

• We assume a relatively strong economy, without major new recessions. Although an ailing economy would not allow us the growth that we anticipate, we believe that it would not drastically hurt the business because the service is economically feasible. The $175 session fee breaks down to $14.58 per meal – a deal hard to beat at even a fast-food restaurant for a family of four to six.
• We assume that our market needs will be seasonal, with a decrease in sales during the summer months.

8.2 Break-even Analysis

The following chart and table summarize our break-even analysis. With fixed costs of $10,520 per month at the outset (to cover payroll and other operating costs), and variable costs (inventory) at 74% of sales, we need to bill $41,167 to cover our costs. We do not expect to reach break-even until the sixth month into the business operation.

8.3 Projected Profit and Loss

What’s For Dinner?’s projected profit and loss is shown in the following table, with sales increasing from $10K the first month to close to $1.4M by the third year. We will reach profitability in the middle of our first year.

We are projecting very conservatively regarding cost of sales and gross margin. Our costs of sales are based on grocery store prices, which will decrease once we are to consistently able to buy our food in larger quantities from a food distributor. This will significantly lower our cost of sales, and increase our gross margin more than in this projection. We prefer to project conservatively so that we make sure we have enough cash.

The Sales and Marketing Expenses vary from the food preparation industry norms. Our Sales and Marketing Expenses will be to consistently maintain our advertising and promotions, while our biggest marketing will be word of mouth from our customers. We are budgeting for a high level of service from our website hosting company and payment processor, since the website is a key component of our Sales and Marketing Strategies.

 The detailed monthly projections are included in the appendices.

8.4 Projected Cash Flow

The following cash flow projections show the annual amounts only. Cash flow projections are critical to our success. The monthly cash flow is shown in the illustration, with one bar representing the cash flow per month, and the other the monthly cash balance. The annual cash flow figures are included here and the more important detailed monthly numbers are included in the appendices.

8.5 Projected Balance Sheet

The balance sheet in the following table shows managed but sufficient growth of net worth, and a sufficiently healthy financial position. Our negative net worth, due to borrowed capital for start-up, makes a significant increase by the second year, and becomes positive in year three. It is common for start-up businesses to have a negative net worth their first few years.

The monthly estimates are included in the appendices.

8.6 Business Ratios

Business ratios for the years of this plan are shown below. Industry profile ratios based on the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code 2099, Food Preparation, are shown for comparison.

The following table outlines some of the more important ratios from the Food Preparation industry. The final column, Industry Profile, details specific ratios based on the industry as it is classified by the Standard Industry Classification (SIC) code, 2099.

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