Oh Hey This was in Draft for a Year

I had the opportunity to speak with someone who left the food truck business.  Food trucks are an interesting beast as they are just now becoming a pretty common in the St. Louis area.  Sure, there are some pretty well established hawker stands like that dude with the boombox at Olive and 6th, but the idea of getting your food off the street is still a new experience for a lot of St. Louisans during the workday.

Anyway.  I was looking at my blog stuff and saw that I still had notes for a post here.  I'm too lazy to see about actually putting these things into wordy-form so here they are.

The Idea

Provide a food truck meal with a gourmet twist.  Meals that included a side and a drink started a $7.

How it got Started

A loan for $50,000 from a combination of friends and family

3 partners - 2 ran the truck, 1 ran the business plans, supplies, and red tape.  The lady I talked to was #3 and would sub in whenever one of the other two wasn't available.

Making Money 

Stick with the city - County had way more red tape.  Only ventured there for single-day events like Stl County Parks

Sporting Events?  There were rules about the trucks that made it too much of a pain.

Tried to do catering events.  That seemed to go well but again, that only worked well in warm weather.

Competitors

Brick and Mortar - there is a rule that you can't be so close to a brick and mortar competitor.  That was annoying.
Other Trucks - Sure they tried to organize with each other so that they wouldn't cannibalize each other's business but a lot of times some of the other trucks ignored it.  You'd think you'd have a spot all to yourself and then boom.  Your lunch crowd just got cut in half because another truck showed up.

What happened at the end?

The Partnership ended when one of them just didn't want to bother anymore.  Business plan lady actually had a full time job so she didn't have time and they didn't feel like bringing in a new partner.

I personally thought the food was pretty decent and nowadays, lunch for $7 without a drink is pretty reasonable.  I really appreciated her speaking with me.