How to Survive the Food Truck Industry

Food trucks are on the rise now more than ever. With an annual growth of just over 9 percent, how can you succeed in an industry where 25 percent fail in their first year and 60 percent in their first three years? In today’s blog, we’re going to talk about how to do exactly that. Here are a couple tips to keep your food truck in business:

Make a name for yourself. Both literally and figuratively, make a name for yourself. First of all, find a name for your food truck that stands out and is noticeably different from the rest. Make sure this name not only reflects the food you make, but also the company culture behind your small business. Now, in a figurative sense, make a name for yourself, and again, be different from the rest. If your food truck is going to succeed, you need to differentiate and keep it simple. To keep it simple, make no more than six different types of food, but of course having varying styles of the same food to spice things up a bit.

Bring the business to you. If you think that you can just start a food truck, drive up to a spot and turn the sign to open, think again. The customers won’t just appear one day because your truck decided to show up; you have to bring the customers to you. This means doing something to stand out and one of the best ways to stand out is a grand opening. If you’re interested in all the ways to have an effective grand opening and want to learn more on how to do so, check out this blog.

Ask what people think. So your food truck isn’t working out so well and you’re wondering why your old customers or your first-time customers aren’t returning? Well stop thinking about why this might be and go ahead and ask your customers, the people who actually know! This means having a spot for suggestions and complaints, whether it be online or in person. Take advantage of a suggestion box outside your food truck, on social media, and even on review sites. Even if your business is doing just fine, there’s always room for improvement.

Track what works. Asking customers what they believe works and what doesn’t is a good idea, but self-assessing your food truck before it gets to the point where customers need to comment is even better. This means keeping track of what’s selling, what’s making the most profits, and how much is selling or left over. This not only helps you to manage your inventory, but keeps you from holding on to a losing selection on your menu. Having this type of analyses is important and is made easy by POS (point of sale) devices such as PayAnywhere that keep track for you.

Be present. To run a food truck you not only have to be actively involved behind the scenes, but on the frontline as well. Although having quality food is important, it only accounts for about 50 percent of a successful food truck. The rest comes from making a good impression on the customer, which relies on you and your employees. This includes the interactions and the time it takes to get them their food. With the food truck industry, you often only have one shot to leave a good impression, otherwise you might not see that customer ever again. Your employees are also a deciding factor, so make sure to hire people that are kind, efficient, and hard-working.

Running a successful food truck is no easy task and will take a lot of work, so if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen! Give these tips and try and start or grow your food truck today!

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