A food truck business plan is a vital part of your journey towards mobile kitchen success. Before you put down any money on a set of wheels or food truck equipment, you must completely understand the needs and direction of your business. The easiest way to do this is to write and apply a strong, straightforward and detailed plan. It’s extremely irresponsible to venture out on a sales trip without a predetermined route of leads. The same thought process applies when starting a business, especially before investing any significant amount of money.
When you’re looking at food trucks for sale, remember that the deal of a lifetime comes around about once per week!
Here are ten good reasons to buckle-up and commit your plan to paper before you buy a food truck.
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Your food truck business plan will outlive your truck.
If you build your business around a single vehicle, it is much more difficult to change things when you eventually have to upgrade, trade-in, or otherwise retire a food truck.
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Purposefully branding your business is easier.
This means that you can find a truck that genuinely fits your logo or design style. That typically works better than forcing your logo to fit, or designing one around a non-permanent business asset.
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Your business needs to adapt to different trucks.
This is especially important for the day when you eventually expand your food truck business plan to include more than one truck. The trucks may or may not have identical characteristics, making it essential to have a solid plan that can accommodate many different variations.
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Getting a great deal on the fly does not always mean getting the greatest value.
It’s important to shop around and understand the market before you invest in your mobile kitchen. Keep in mind what attributes of a vehicle help improve the cost to operate or the resale value. This will make sure your purchase is truly valuable in the big picture of your business.
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A plan lessens spontaneous expenses.
When you know your budget, it’s easier to decline offers from pushy salespeople and resist temptations on well-designed websites. Making sure you have a food truck business plan first also helps you to prioritize purchases and achieve future enhancements.
New food trucks for sale will be very appealing.
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You’ll know that you can easily house and repair your mobile kitchen.
What happens if your garage is too small? Perhaps you’ll run into trouble if your landlord or neighborhood association does not allow commercial vehicles onsite. Also, to whom would you bring your rig for repair if it broke down? These issues would all have their place in a food truck business plan and that would save you from stressful, on-the-spot decisions.
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There’s more time to work towards your ideal rig.
With a plan in action, you’re free to find the mobile food truck that feels right to you and fits all the needs of your business. This means less hassles and less time between a large investment and revenue generation.
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You’ve already designed or envisioned your websites and marketing materials.
This means you’re ready with decals or paint designs for your truck. It also means that all you have to do to start promoting your business is add some incredible pictures of your setup to your web presence.
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You know how to get the proper licensing to lawfully drive and operate your lunch truck.
While you typically won’t need a commercial driver’s license to operate a mobile kitchen, your food truck business plan will ensure you’re well versed in every license, permit and inspection you’ll need to make sure there’s no red tape keeping you from your profits.
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Impulsiveness is a bad business habit.
If you’re making such a huge purchase without a plan, take a look at some of your other behaviors. While it’s good to jump on a sure thing at the right time, a long track record of costly, erratic and reckless expenses lead to nothing but a closed up shop.If nothing else, a good plan yields good results. The future of your business is sure to hold a ridiculous amount of unknowns. You can take control and lesson the amount of future stress factors when you put your goals down on paper and map out a realistic way to achieve them. You deserve to take your time writing a food truck business plan that will ensure you experience success far into the future and well past your first rig.
