Ask Lemmy

Don’t turn your hobby into your business.

I'm nowhere near the business of foodtrucks so obviously take this with an extremely tiny grain of salt, but I think you'll have better chances sticking to one area and a standard (non rotating) menu. Sticking in one area - because it's easier to get regulars and free word-of-mouth marketing if they know you'll still be there next week. Standard menu - because it might be a turn-off for people to love their first time only to come back and not have what they liked available. You can probably rotate specials, but having a standard base menu will help keep your regulars.

Make sure you know what it costs to get your truck inspected by the health inspector and what it takes to get yourself licensed to serve out of it - it can add to your startup costs quite a bit. Research your local laws as well, some cities have some pretty hostile laws/regs for food trucks. If you want you go a county over, you’ll likely need new licensing and more $$$.

Also, no offense meant but if you don’t have at least a few years of experience in a legit commercial / restaurant kitchen, you need that first IMHO. Cooking consistently at the scale that restaurants require is legitimately hard and is a skill that needs honing. Best to do that on a business’s dime.

I don't know about food trucks in particular, but I recall reading that restauranteering is a very competitive business, that the average lifetime of a restaurant is something like four years.

kagis

This says five years:

https://www.perrygroup.com/foodservice-expert-overview-on-how-long-restaurants-last/

Of those restaurants and foodservice businesses that made it beyond a year, 70% failed within the next 3 to 5 years. Of those that made it beyond then, 90% remained successful and stayed in business longer than 10 years. There is a more recent article this week in The News Press that reports similar results that our foodservice expert report concluded more than a dozen years ago. This excerpt, along with the full story, shows times have not really changed that much as a restaurant management consultant and what you can learn from these Florida restaurateurs: “According to therestaurantbrokers.com, the average restaurant’s life span is five years with up to 90 percent of independently owned restaurants closing in year one.

I am like you, and love the idea of starting up a food truck business. I wouldn’t do it unless I was already wealthy enough to just pour money into it, hire people to deal with the admin, and leave me the fuck alone to cook.

I ran my own (non food) business for a decade. My experience is anecdotal. I don’t pretend I reflect the reality of running your own business, but it fucking sucked.

I spent so much fucking time on admin. I worked 80+ hour weeks, for what amounted to less than minimum wage. After a decade I burnt out and shut it down and now I work a dumb job that I give no fucks about and cook at home with my wife for us and for friends for the sheer pleasure of it.

Edit: my business was based on something I loved to do, and I hated all of the “business” parts of the business.

It’s hot as balls.

I started to turn my hobby into a business 17 years ago. 5 years later it became my main occupation. I don't spend a lot of time on admin, maybe 15% top, because over the years, I made it a strategic game to streamline my processes, and I pay an accountant to help me with the taxes and other similar things.

It's awesome to be paid to do what I love to do. How much time is too much when you do what you love? Just remember to balance your life after your business is stabilized, so that you have other hobbies on your time off. Also, make space for the important people in your life.

Expect to work all the time in the first few years though, so plan accordingly, for example, if you wanna have a social life, weave your business into it. If you wanna take some time off to play a game, bring your partners into the game.

Don't worry, after your business is stable, you will get actual time off.

I suspect the "don't turn your hobby into a business" idea was originally dreamt up by some business owner who didn't want their employees to leave for a better life, and then we accepted it because it seems to make sense. It sure delayed me for years, before I decided to make the big jump.

That being said, I hear restaurants have low profit margins especially in large urban areas, so if you go for it, make sure to keep your costs extra low.

Spend time becoming extremely good at something you enjoy (and that your community needs) and you will find some people with disposable income will pay you to do it, because they want something good And they can afford it.