Running a Mobile Food (Lunch Wagon) coffee cart

[Mr Shave]

Catering event went really well and should be getting a few more later this month.Coffeefest was amazing. Talk about value, best $30 Ive spent during this entire process. A more indepth follow up will come when Im not on my phone.Couple bids to just remove generator is at $1,200 - $1,600 yikes. More to come on this as well.Friday we are going to be attending our first Food Truck rally. Cost $250 Estimated aytendance 6,000My goal is 500 tickets in 5 hrs. Seems like.a stretch but as long as we adjust for bottle necks and communicate I think it is feasible. Stay tuned

 

[Mr Shave]

Event went pretty well. We didn't hit our goal, but it was the best day so far. Drink quality was great and we kept up with the customers all night. For the next event we will tweak the menu a little bit and offer a couple small food items.

Today went to the usual Tuesday event, didn't have as good of parking spot. It was a really fun day, didn't realize I had built up some regulars that missed the truck, while we were at Coffee Fest.

New item: Italian Soda sold out

 

[stix]

What type of Italian Soda did you have?

 

[Mr Shave]

What type of Italian Soda did you have?

A traditional american one? Made the presentation nice and had some unique syrup flavor options. Let me know if that answers your questions.

Today was one of the slowest days so far. Teamed up with 3 other trucks and none of us did that much volume. I still will keep going back to this spot because I think can grow a following here.

Expenses today (working on using all cash to better control cash flow)
$6: Ginger root and bananas
$20: Filled gas tank generator
$9: Ice

Schomer pullin shots - YouTube Did I post this already? David pulling shots at coffee fest. It was nice to just watch him work (in real life) and taste a freshly pulled shot [edit by him! I've had freshly pulled shots before LOL]

As I mentioned earlier, I wasn't that busy today
The Curb or northing (Nerf Challenge) - YouTube "Nerf Challenge" is the marketing campaign for the rest of the month. It is quirky/corny/fun which is exactly what we want our brand to represent. Several people stopped to ask what the "Nerf Challenge" menu item was. The idea is we provide a unique experience in everything we do. We want to be sticky and not like every other cafe or food truck. I will provide more specifics of challenge and results after it kicks off.

Tomorrow will be teaming up with a couple of trucks and will be in more of a business environment setting. High hopes for Thursday back to prepping.

 

[Mr Shave]

Nice little write up, regarding the Nerf challenge http://www.streetgrindz.com/street-...e-curb-truck-presents-the-nerf-challenge.html

Last week I wrote a really detailed recap then it didn't post and I didn't have the energy to write it up again. Sales have been all over the place, starting to get more regulars, still don't have espresso or big gen fixed.2 high lights from last week were starting a new truck destination and working on the branding of it.

TOSS Thursday (Trucks on Sheridan St.). Special we ran was a sampler for $8 (1 item from each truck and about 25% off). Basically the customer would come to my truck in the middle first and pay $8.

They would then order a ice coffee or tea and get 3 poker chips, one color for each of the other trucks. At the end of the day he other trucks cashed in all of their chips. As a new destination the idea was to get people to try everything, drive incremental sadles, and provide a unique offering.

Friday day the truck was in the shop. Friday night we catered Hawaii 5-0 again. This time it was a little more hectic, the combination of night time, on the water front, and drizzle resulted in a lot of hot drinks.
Next time need to simplify the menu for catering events.

 

[Mr Shave]

Marketing Ideas
Tuesday is one of the busiest days of the week. We part at a park with about 9 other food trucks. This part is situated between 1 med schools, 4 dealerships, and a major road.

Here is an example of something very simple and inexpensive we handed to customers that work at the Chevrolet dealership and attend the med school, on the back we printed the menu and let them know we have drink trays.

Yes, they are both kind of corny. However, they are personal and the target audience found them humerus and held on to them

a prescription for coffee, if you didn't get it

Nerf Challenge (link fixed)

 

[tomfrank38]

I love Ice coffee.. Every Sunday i went to the coffee shop.<br>
Mr shave days is really awesome comments.

 

[Mr Shave]

Ok I've done a horrible job of updating this. I don't have computer right now and can't stand the formatting from my phone or iPad. I've been thinking if starting up a blog, with even more transparency of daily operations, locations, customers, suppliers, sales, and etc. any interest in reading my rants?Last week was amazing! Had my best week along with best single (non event day).It was the first time I sold out of all drinks EVEN ice haha. The last group of customers wanted something so bad try got a shave ice / chai latte. Now running out is never a good thing, but it was nice to feel slammed and being in a rush.Fast forward to this week and it was one of my worst. Monday I didn't know where I was going or tweet it out, I essentially planned to fail. For Tuesday, I set myself up for a black buster day (last Tu was day I sold ours and busiest day of week) well the usual meet up of 15 trucks turned to 3 because of a rain storm. Going home truck ran out of gas! He does that happen? I go off mileage, I knew I needed gas and thought about stopping but wanted to go to the station by my house. No big deal, I always have a gas tank with me. Nope, not today, for some reason I decided to leave it at home. I tried to funnel about 1.5 L of gas for the generator to te truck tank and that did nothing. Road side assistance came and gave me a couple of gallons. Ths got me closer to home but lost power maybe 6 miles later. Tried adding more gas, charging battery, and even jumping... Nothing happened. So it is a 30 min 13 mile drive, at this point I'm past 6 hours. Had to call tow truck to get it to a shop. Sad day AAA doesn't cover big trucks. Anyways, tow, new starter, neural relay, and battery came out to $1,100 ish. Not done yet, also discovered leak in radiator core. Couldn't find one on island, so I'm flying on in from AZ $274 + $150 ouch! Well one shop said they had one in stock, when we went to open te box it was the wrong product.Changed cup suppliers and love the new cups. More on this later.This week dabbled with waffles and acai bowls. Looking at 1. Things I like (I need to eat more, I've dropped 15 lbs. since September and I'm a skinny guy) 2. Items that will over lap fruits to continue turning the inventory and reduce waist FruitBanana - acai bowls & waffleStrawberry - acai bowl, waffles, Italian soda, tea, and oxymoron chocolateRaspberry - Italian soda, waffle, and teaBlackberry - waffleBlueberry - acai bowl and waffleIce coffee still the best seller maybe 50-60% of businessChai-ya got featured on online blog of local newspaper, this has really helped ths drink take off

 

[Mr Shave]

http://www.honolulupulse.com/food-drink/food-la-la-toss-back-some-street-food-on-sheridan kinda awkward on camera... EnjoyAppreciate any feedback, thoughts, or comments

 

[Mr Shave]

I can't believe it has been over a week since my last post. Time really flies.

I have a new/used laptop so now I can post with line breaks !!!!

-New radiator came in and has been installed
-Added 3 food items (Belgian waffles, acai bowl, and sandwich)

I don't want to open up a whole debate about food and cafes and so forth.
I always planned on adding food. I added food sooner then expected because being in Hawaii people expect food from "lunch wagons." Basically I was losing sales and alienating future customers. Additionally, my regular student customers wanted food because the med school cafe closes at 2pm and there wasn't ANY food within 2 blocks.

Gave up on the old school POS and will be going with ipad shopkeep. I was on the fence with LAVU and liked a lot of the features and back end reporting they have. In the end shopkeep is more economical and something I can grow with my current needs.

Will be getting branded Ts
Truck will be painted this week and branded following week. Pics will be posted once complete.

Will be doing food drive campaign next week. Details posted once I have everything confirmed.
Hope everyone is doing well

 

[Mr Shave]

Ups and downsJust got back from day 1 of 2 day family festival Inflatable bounces, live music, face painting, balloons, etcOh and the kickers $25 cover for customers(explanation tomorrow), 20 food trucks, $262.50 registration and about 50, yes 50 attendees.Tomorrow will post what I learned about this one.Also, might have sneak peek of truck (super sexy)

 

[Mr Shave]

Thanks Giving week charity effort, for the local food bank

 

[Mr Shave]

Things have been going much smoother and seeing consistent WOW growth.

Friday had best regular sales day ever
Monday had highest Monday sales
Tuesday had second highest Tuesday sales

Raised $500 for Hawaii Food Bank, got a lot of new regulars from this. Was very low acquisition cost for new customers.
Raised $100 for the med school during their craft fair. These are my most loyal and frequent customers, it was nice to be able to support them in their efforts and gain additional customers.

Tomorrow catering Hawaii 5-0 again! Very excited to have the opportunity to go back. This time we are going to have a much more limited menu.
Next week should have a decent write up in Pacific Biz Journal... stay tuned.

Hope everyone is having fun out there!

 

[Mr Shave]

Got a small mention in Pacific Biz Journal, regarding food trucksMore food trucks hit the road in Hawaii, but not all survive - Pacific Business News

 

[EspresSoGood]

Mr. Shave,

I love reading your thread. It's like a day in the life with Mr. Shave. The ups and downs are very real and so informative.

I have not started my business yet here in NJ; a far away place from Hawaii and glad to see what bumps and snags lie ahead. Before starting any business it looks good on paper until you take into consideration what could happen and you provide that here. Love it!

Thanks for sharing and I look forward to your next post.

Jaime from Jersey