There are an overwhelming amount of challenges food truck owners have to overcome in the mobile kitchen industry.
Heck, before someone can even become a food truck owner, said someone has to create a business plan from scratch. They have to come up with the funds to buy a truck and all of the equipment, figure out what the kitchen needs, learn how to market, learn how to be a business owner and the list could go on and on. Of course, you will learn some of these things on the job, if you will.
So many people join this industry in hopes of making their dreams come true, and becoming a chef in the process, but so many people also fail as food truck business owners because they are not prepared for everything the mobile kitchen industry has to offer.
With that in mind, we are here to help. As a result, we are about to unleash three major challenges for new food truck owners. Watch out for these challenges, and good luck when it comes to conquering the food truck industry!
Note: Before we get started, we would like to say this: The food truck industry is awesome! It really is. You will meet amazing people every single day, you will travel from place to place, you will challenge yourself as a chef, you will get to cook food for a living (how cool is that?) and you will get to live out your dream every day of the week! However, being a food truck owner does pose some challenges…
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3 Major Challenges For New Food Truck Owners
- Constantly Working
- Being More Than Just A Good Cook
- Not Losing Passion
Constantly Working
You might have heard this before, but here it goes again anyway: Food truck owners are constantly working … even when they aren’t. Let us explain.
For starters, food truck owners typically work 10 hours a day at minimum (yes, at minimum!). Not just for five days a week, though, but six to seven. That means you literally have to be at your truck for double-digit hours basically every day of the week, even if the temperatures are blazing hot outside (spoiler alert: the inside of your food truck is also going to be super hot).
When you aren’t making your great recipes and serving customers, you are managing your employees. If you aren’t doing that, you are crunching numbers/checking the books. When you aren’t doing that, you are setting up catering gigs and looking for food truck events to attend. If you aren’t doing that, you are thinking of ways to make the menu better. When you aren’t doing that, you are updating your social media networks and marketing. And when you aren’t doing that, you are coming up with ways to make your food truck business better in general.
Being a food truck owner is literally a lifestyle. For some people, that is a major blessing. For others, they aren’t quite prepared for this new lifestyle, and it poses a major challenge as a result.
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Being More Than Just A Good Cook
Here’s a challenge for new food truck owners: Being more than just a chef.
So many people enter this industry because they want to cook food for a living and run their own kitchens. While this industry definitely offers those things … that is just the beginning.
As a mobile kitchen owner, you will also have to be a successful manager and businessperson. You will also have to learn the ins and outs of social media and marketing, unless you plan on hiring someone to take care of those efforts.
So many people fail at this profession because they aren’t business savvy. They enter this industry thinking their amazing recipes will solve all of the problems. That is not the case.
Here’s something to ponder: Are you prepared to drive a big truck (aka a food truck)? Do you know anything about proper food truck maintenance? It’s okay if you say no, but you will have to drive a big truck and you will have to learn about food truck maintenance.
If you want to succeed in this industry — and we know you do — then you have to be more than just a good cook.
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Not Losing Passion
This might sound rather comical to new food truck owners, but here it goes: Keeping up your passion for this industry is no cakewalk. If everyone loved being a food truck owner, and if it was such an easy profession to conquer, then every single person who has entered this industry would still be succeeding in it.
When people complain about your food, your passion could take a hit (this is your art we are talking about!). If you hire bad employee after bad employee, your passion will take a hit. If you aren’t making as much money as you thought you would be making, your passion will take a hit. When you wish you could take a vacation or day off, but you can’t, your passion will take a hit. When you actually find out how hard it is to make it in this industry, your passion will take a hit.
Okay, now that we have said that, we will say this: Don’t let your passion of being a successful mobile kitchen owner die. Always be thinking of new ways to enhance your business. Always be learning about this industry/the competition, always look at the big picture and always remember why you joined this industry in the first place.
No one said this industry was going to be easy to conquer. However, as long as you are able to move on and learn from each and every failure, and as long as you continue to hustle, you will become the person you want to be.
Some people’s passions die in the food truck industry, but yours doesn’t have to. Just be ready for the challenge, because it is a rather great one, and continue to do what you do best, which is cook amazing food and making people happy in the process.
Being a food truck owner is tough, but you can — and will — succeed if you really want to. There are plenty of great success stories in this industry. You can be one as well if you want it bad enough.If you would like a quote, Prestige has you covered. Follow this link to request a custom quote. More Prestige Food Trucks blogs can be found here!
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