What's Cookin'
When it comes down to it, your employees are working for you so they can get paid. In a perfect world, you could pay your awesome employees a six figure salary, because we know that you (and your staff!) feel they deserve it. However, there are other ways to get some extra cash in their pockets. Tips are always welcomed by your hardworking employees, and there are different methods that can be used to try to maximize the amount they receive.
Almost every business has a way to generate more revenue very easily, food trucks are no exception. Every food truck I have ever visited typically sells add-ons, drinks and sides, but rarely am I asked to upgrade my meal. There are most likely three reasons your staff are not asking. They are either ignorant, lazy, or scared
Insurance can be complicated. It may be one of your least favorite things to deal with as a food truck owner. One of the reasons it can be painful is because some insurance carriers and brokers make it difficult for you. There are cheap insurance program out there that offer basic liaiblity insurance that is self-service. That's fine, but what about your auto insurance, how about your equipment breakdown coverage and most of all what about your loss of business income insurance...?
So you want to start a food truck... Great! Food trucks can provide amazing opportunities for expansion, restaurant ownership and a way to get your name and signature dishes in front the public. They still remain one of the fastest and least expensive ways to start a food service business. However, before you drop thousands of your hard earned dollars or take out a loan to start your food truck, consider taking a temporary job or volunteering to shadow a current food truck operator before you make the jump.
One of our preferred carriers has come up with a great video that goes over seven tips for buying insurance. Hanover Insurance is a program partner carrier for our food truck clients and these tips are excellent for food truck operators as well as most business insurance consumers. Please spend a couple minutes to watch the video here https://www.hanover.com/marketing/video/seven-tips-to-buying-insurance.html. The tips are also below if video is not your thing.
If your a food truck owner you probably don't have much spare time. It's difficult to squeeze in everything you have to do during the course of any given day. However, food truck maintenance is not something that you should neglect. It will end up costing you much more in damages and time lost by not regularly performing maintenance of your truck.
If you are a food truck owner and have been grinding away for a few years, chances are good that you are considering opening a restaurant. This could be in addition to or in replace of your food truck operations. Many of our clients start a food truck to test the market for their concept, to develop a following and to raise funds for their ultimate dream of owning their own restaurant. However, dreaming and doing are two very distinct and different things. How do you go about saving for your new restaurant?
We happen to insure hundreds of gourmet food trucks across the country. Food truck owners often find themselves wearing many hats during the course of a given day. You answer phones, prep food, serve, solve problems, handle HR issues and sometime or regularly wash the truck down at the end of the day! This leaves little time to read a 150 page insurance policy or 3 or 4 policies of you're like most businesses. Food truck owners rely on their agent or broker to help them understand the insurance jargon and most importantly the coverage and exclusions of their policies.
Last weekend we had unbelievably good weather for April. My son and daughter were given a bunch of lemons by a neighbor so they approached me with the idea of opening a lemonade stand. Naturally I encouraged the idea because there are so many valuable business and money lessons they can learn from operating a lemonade stand. Here are some of the lessons they learned which reminded me of some of the lessons we all can learn from selling lemonade:
