Food Cart Business Plan

For 2 days now, I have been thinking and researching about food cart businesses.Why? Because...

As part of our medium to long-term plan, me and my partner have decided to build a business. But building a business from scratch is too hard and too risky particularly for noobs like us. We have never set up a business before so we wanted something that is not too complicated to understand and manage. He handed me the responsibility of finding a nice business idea because I'm fond of researching and reading through forums, articles and anything that can give me information about that particular something. So I wandered around the internet in search of a good business idea and I landed on food cart business.

There are loads of advertisements about no-franchise-fee food cart businesses with small initial investments so I was persuaded to look into one of the ads and inquire about the stuff. And here are some things I noticed I must consider in making a franchise.

I was delighted to know that it was not really that hard to franchise a food cart business. You can attend seminars with food tasting included every week or even everyday at their respective venues. The agents were nice and are willing to answer to all your queries even if I hadn't attended the seminar yet. One agent was willing to provide all the necessary requirements to me even though she was not sure if I was going to get a franchise or was just making a prank: which is a shame to those who only waste agents' time although there are a lot of reasons why potential clients back out.

The hard part though is finding a place where to set up your food cart. Malls have standards thatrent a space inside the mall. And you have to present requirements even before you can inquire about the lease price, which is reasonable because they would be crowded with mundane queries if they don't set up proper procedures. Aside from the fact that it's hard to find a spot, the monthly rentals nowadays are sky high. You have to pay a couple of months deposit which is quite heavy if you don't have much money to invest. Also, there is 1-2 years of leasing contract which could be a problem if you plan on moving your cart before the end of the said contract.

Third is manpower. You have to find an employee who is responsible, honest, hard-working and with pleasing personality. Because one important key in any business success is its employees. Your employees will be the one to take care of your business and serve the customers so it is really important to be meticulous in choosing an employee. Aside from the quality of your products, another thing that your customers will be noticing is the crew/personnel. Some people choose not to buy from a certain store even if the product quality is good because of the attitude of the salespeople. Product and service quality must always go hand in hand in any business.

So those were some of the things one must consider before being a franchisee. Hope these helped. And in my next posts will be the updates on my food cart franchise adventures.