Tips for a mobile food cart.

**Jaysun13** · 05-23-2009 01:31 PM

Hello everyone i just turned 21 and recently strated my own mobile food cart business In Boston Massachusetts.

I opened a bagel stand in the Boston Commons right next to the Park Street Station.

I am 2 weeks into it and still seem to be struggling to get noticed. Thousands of people pass by me everyday but its almost as if im invisible. I have noticed a slight bump in sales or attention when handing out spend 4 dollars get a dollar off coupons to generate business.

I have also put up a 2x2 sidewalk sign in front of the T Doors thats thousands of people walk by but yet they look right through it.

I was wondering if anyone had any tips how to generate business.
(there is a FinagleaBagel, a Dunkins, Burger King and Mcdonalds and a Cafe that sells bagels across the street but am told my Bagel is better than any of those places. I have 2 grills for breakfast sandwiches as well as a deep fryer for hash browns.

Just looking for someone who has experience getting one of these business's off the ground and or if anyone knew how i could get my average sales from 50-70 to 200-400 a day to even 1000 a day! (edited)

**paul2145r** · 05-23-2009 01:46 PM

Well, with that many 'big' names around you competing for customers, you're going to have to differentiate yourself from the rest of them. Jumping around waving a sign is one option, but I'm guessing that you're wanting to be a little bit more conservative.

If you're next to the station, odds are that most of the ppl passing by are in a hurry. Why not set up a "Fast Lane", where customers can hand you a flat amount ($1, $5, etc) in paper money, and you hand them an already-prepared product (bagel, sandwich, drink, coffee, etc). If they want to customize an order, or get it freshly made, they can get into the other line and wait. By establishing a system that is more convenient and quicker than any of their other options, you'll be able to get more and more repeat customers.

There's probably a good reason why so many grocery and hardware stores are putting in self-service lines -- they're quick, efficient, and you minimize the hassle of dealing with a cashier. If you were able to get a kiosk-style touchscreen or a quick credit card machine, you'd have everything you need to get on the fast track (no puns intended, lol), to success!

**Chris Brooks** · 05-23-2009 02:08 PM

Sweet idea and great idea paul2145r!

Another way you could promote is by social media. You could use your website to give a personal feel of your cart. Maybe even order online and pick it up as they walk by. With those big name around you there has to be some free wifi floating around you could use when at the cart. The trick is to build a loyal following.

I know this might sound a bit out there, but if you have any questions please pm me and I can explain the idea in better detail.

**Jaysun13** · 05-23-2009 04:44 PM

I have considered going electronic. Small difficulties is i have no electricity. Those whom i lease from say electricity is "2 to 5 years away"...Shoot give me the wires and i'll wire it myself today with my own electrician!

Alternatives would be a generator which im open to. I'm 21 and its 2009! I think its time to modernize these carts and make it more 2010 than 1975. Lcd's are cheap enough where i could find a 32/37 inch tv no name tv used with the dish network feeding in the news/stocks or sports center even if thats what it means to draw in my customers.

I am considering a switch over to the iphone in order to use their credit card app as well as other apsp to help me organize and run my business. I have considered having an app made that would allow my customers to place an order via text or the application. It could also have my hours or tell them if i were closed on a rainy day. Or even how many chive cream cheese with everything bagels i had left in stock.

All of that aside. What do i need to do. Get a man in a bagel suit to get peoples attention. My sidewalk sign read "FREE COFFEE" the other day and 1 person out of atleast 1000 that read it asked me for it. FREE!!!!

Friday i had a New Yorker come to my stand and say "oh wow i havnt seen one of these since i left new york i think this is great...i havnt had a decent bagel since i left new york so lets see what u got" ..I sell her the bagel and she walks away. 2 minutes later she comes up to me 3 bites into her bagel and says "this is the best bagel ive had since i left new york" I dont want to brag but my dad has been making a good bagel for 14 years so its not an issue of having a good product. Its getting people to even try you and then come back over and over. My next step is to hand out 100's of free bagels with a coupon and my logo on it and hopfully word of mouth will pick up as well.

I have only been doing this for 2 weeks! So i wont give up hope yet.

My total costs so far

Cart 1,600 w/ restoration and repairs
130 Board of Health permit
50 city of Boston Permit
475 insurance /year
400 in transportation costs of the cart
700/mo rent
400/mo storage (investing in a box truck for under 2k to eliminate this monthly cost)
Parking...anywhere from paying someone just to drop me off, to moving it around from meter to meter to sucking it up and paying 25 dollars for the day.
Plus misc costs im forgetting.

Point is im not in to deep. I mean hell i took out a 4,000 dollar loan and that has gotten me to this point now. So the question is. DO i stick it out throughout the year just to break even or do i sell my cart for a small profit and eat the rent and labor and permit costs and call it a day and back to the drawing board. I'm def not one to quit after 2 weeks!

Thanks in advance. Its good to hear from real experienced people as some of you have probably been in business for themselves before i was even born!

**bananaman** · 05-23-2009 05:03 PM

If you're only selling bagels, then that is rather limited, compared to McDonalds et all, who offer a large range of products.

Could it be that the bagel itself is in low demand?

What retailers do when a product line doen't sell is to replace it with one that does.

Have you considered offering another food product, say hot dogs? People at the train station might want a quick meal, as opposed to a snack. But that seems to already be served by McDonalds et al.

Maybe there is simply too much competition?

Good luck with it all!

**Jaysun13** · 05-23-2009 05:30 PM

The Boston Commons is a VERY popular tourist and high traffic area in general and the vending program is controlled by the Boys and Girls Club. I only got the location because im breakfast. Theres no other breakfast carts. For example theres a lemonade stand so i cant even sell sprite because its "lemon-lime" so yeah theres already a hot dog/sausage cart that comes in at 10 and KICKS ASS!

My menu

Bagels
Gourmet Cream cheese. Way better than any of the crap at the chains.
Bagel sandwich on the grill. Any combo of Sausage, egg, bacon and cheese
Hash Browns in the deep fryer (launching next week, just got the proper part and baskets in)
Coffee
Water/beverages

ANy other grill/fryer breakfast suggestions...maybe home fries? I have also considered pancakes on the grill if they'd sell!

**Earthbound01** · 05-23-2009 07:04 PM

Originally Posted by Jaysun13

The Boston Commons is a VERY popular tourist and high traffic area in general and the vending program is controlled by the Boys and Girls Club. I only got the location because im breakfast. Theres no other breakfast carts. For example theres a lemonade stand so i cant even sell sprite because its "lemon-lime" so yeah theres already a hot dog/sausage cart that comes in at 10 and KICKS ASS!

My menu

Bagels
Gourmet Cream cheese. Way better than any of the crap at the chains.
Bagel sandwich on the grill. Any combo of Sausage, egg, bacon and cheese
Hash Browns in the deep fryer (launching next week, just got the proper part and baskets in)
Coffee
Water/beverages

ANy other grill/fryer breakfast suggestions...maybe home fries? I have also considered pancakes on the grill if they'd sell!

This is making my mouth water! Too bad I don't leave in Boston. You should start a mail-order gourmet bagel business

As far as your stand, maybe you could offer a beverage the others don't have. Room on your cart to make smoothies maybe?

I know carts in other areas have been highly successful selling corn on the cob with different flavored powder to put on.

How about a breakfast wrap like a lot of the fast food chains have come out with? Just some warm tortillas, lettuce, eggs, and whatever meat they choose with some sauce.

**Jaysun13** · 05-23-2009 07:54 PM

The guy who sells tour guides next to me for the Freedom Trail suggested going into business together and selling smoothies. His small problem is he does have a cart! So i hardly think a suggestion is worth 50/50 lol. Best id do is maybe give him 25% of profits of smoothies he sold/handed off to me of people who are going on a tour.

I have done a little research. I could get a propane blender and its pretty basic right. Ice, fruit, yogurt blend pour serve...

I got the board of health breathing down my neck. They don't even want me cutting bagels on the common ...I got a smaller knife and said screw that.

So im not sure about preparing wraps on the common. Id have to be premade. I'm Looking into premade pita wraps but premades tough because everyone likes them a certain way.

There are thousands of offices in the downtown area. I do have the intention of reaching out to them to let them know i will now provide delivery for their meetings and such.

If i could find a way to sell 15-30 dozen with toppings a week at a dozen price, that be a major boost to my business.

**Earthbound01** · 05-23-2009 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by Jaysun13

The guy who sells tour guides next to me for the Freedom Trail suggested going into business together and selling smoothies. His small problem is he does have a cart! So i hardly think a suggestion is worth 50/50 lol. Best id do is maybe give him 25% of profits of smoothies he sold/handed off to me of people who are going on a tour.

I have done a little research. I could get a propane blender and its pretty basic right. Ice, fruit, yogurt blend pour serve...

I got the board of health breathing down my neck. I don't even want me cutting bagels on the common ...I got a smaller knife and said screw that.

So im not sure about preparing wraps on the common. Id have to be premade. I'm Looking into premade pita wraps but premades tough because everyone likes them a certain way.

There are thousands of offices in the downtown area. I do have the intention of reaching out to them to let them know i will now provide delivery for their meetings and such.

If i could find a way to sell 15-30 dozen with toppings a week at a dozen price, that be a major boost to my business.

If he doesn't have a cart then 50% definitely doesn't sound right. Maybe you should start off selling on your own and then see if you really need him.

Delivery does sound like a good idea. Maybe make up some flyers, etc.

Keep us posted on how it goes and definitely don't give up this early in!

**bananaman** · 05-23-2009 09:10 PM

Ok, time to get creative.

1. Contact the vendor administrator. Tell them that you are not doing well, and that it would help your business if you could contact the previous Breakfast Vendor for some advice and guidance. Naturally, it would be in their interest to see you do well, so they may provide you with previous vendor's(PV) contact details. Once you contact the PV, ask what worked for them. Ask if they knew what worked for the PV before them. If they tell you nothing work for them, or for the previous PV, get out of the business. There could be a whole bunch of PVs before you who couldn't make the Breakfast Slot work.

2. An image of you actually doing business is important, especially if you've only been at it for 2 weeks. There's nothing worse than seeing a vendor all by his lonesome, with no customers. Get your family or friends to come up to your cart during peak traffic at the station. Pretend to sell them a bagel or something, hand it to them, and they walk off. 5 minutes later, they come back to your cart again, and you sell to them again. Keep repeating it for the 30 - 60 minutes of peak traffic. If the people can see that you are getting customers regularly, that might encourage them to start approaching the cart, and that will encourage more and more people. No one in the station traffic will be hanging around to see the same person/people come up to the cart. Even if they did, that doesn't have any effect.

3. When the Hot Dog cart come at 10, do you have to leave? Or are you able to stay all day, but only serve breakfast food? I have an idea which depends upon the answer. It involes partnership with the hot dog cart. How close are you to the hot dog cart? Maybe someone buying a hotdog also gets a hash brown from you, or a bagel, at a discount. At the very least, that will send people your way, who may choose to buy other things on your menu.

4. Is your menu and prices clear for everybody to see? There's nothing worse than for a custmer to have to ask for the price.

**Jaysun13** · 05-23-2009 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by bananaman

Ok, time to get creative.

1. Contact the vendor administrator. Tell them that you are not doing well, and that it would help your business if you could contact the previous Breakfast Vendor for some advice and guidance. Naturally, it would be in their interest to see you do well, so they may provide you with previous vendor's(PV) contact details. Once you contact the PV, ask what worked for them. Ask if they knew what worked for the PV before them. If they tell you nothing work for them, or for the previous PV, get out of the business. There could be a whole bunch of PVs before you who couldn't make the Breakfast Slot work.

2. An image of you actually doing business is important, especially if you've only been at it for 2 weeks. There's nothing worse than seeing a vendor all by his lonesome, with no customers. Get your family or friends to come up to your cart during peak traffic at the station. Pretend to sell them a bagel or something, hand it to them, and they walk off. 5 minutes later, they come back to your cart again, and you sell to them again. Keep repeating it for the 30 - 60 minutes of peak traffic. If the people can see that you are getting customers regularly, that might encourage them to start approaching the cart, and that will encourage more and more people. No one in the station traffic will be hanging around to see the same person/people come up to the cart. Even if they did, that doesn't have any effect.

3. When the Hot Dog cart come at 10, do you have to leave? Or are you able to stay all day, but only serve breakfast food? I have an idea which depends upon the answer. It involes partnership with the hot dog cart. How close are you to the hot dog cart? Maybe someone buying a hotdog also gets a hash brown from you, or a bagel, at a discount.

1. That could work. My rent is 700 a month. It should be 1350 if i did the whole day! I generally open at 7 and close by 1:30 as my lease is written. I am almost considering asking for a lowered rent until i can get rolling in order to stay afloat. They program manager claims there was no previous food vendor until last year. Ill be the first to admit the whole vending program is a bit shady as i didnt get the spot last year when i really wanted to because someone else was doing breakfast. Asked 2 veteren vendors and they said there was never ever breakfast.

2. I do like the idea of mock sales. I do notice when i have 1 or 2 people standing in line it seems like it is more likely for someone else to stop by. Biggest line so far has been 3! But i constantly see 2-5 people at the sausage cart. I even lost a bagel sale to a pretzel!

3. When the hotdog cart comes in i have to move over furth from the doors more hidden but still very visable to those passing by. I was able to get the location i did because i am "breakfast only". Im not sure if the other vendor would be up for any type of partner ship. They have been at it for 20+ years in their spot. And have a few other locations around boston. The vendors seem nice on the outside but i can def tell they dont like the fact im there because i pose a threat. I mean hell im a 21 year old kid owning a business and they are 40+ making 10-12 an hour. Example 1. The fried dough guy often tells me the weather the next day will be miserable all morning only for me to check weather.com and see sunny all day. Im smarter than they think.

My dads bagel store does anywhere from 300-500 sales a day. I figured with the amount of foot traffic i could do 100-200 sales a day easy with much lower costs. Which is not the case so far although my father told me he lost money his whole first year.

**bananaman** · 05-23-2009 09:40 PM

I edited my post late, so you might not have seen it, since you didn't quote the late edit.

4. Is your menu and prices clear for everybody to see? There's nothing worse than for a custmer to have to ask for the price.

Also, nothing sells better than an ad with "best" in it. "Best Bagel in Boston!" People will want to put this audacious, bold claim to the test! A big bright sign ought to get people's attention!

Edit: about the breakfast slot. It could have been created just because you wanted it. More money for the program manager.

**Jaysun13** · 05-23-2009 10:54 PM

Originally Posted by bananaman

I edited my post late, so you might not have seen it, since you didn't quote the late edit.

4. Is your menu and prices clear for everybody to see? There's nothing worse than for a custmer to have to ask for the price.

Also, nothing sells better than an ad with "best" in it. "Best Bagel in Boston!" People will want to put this audacious, bold claim to the test! A big bright sign ought to get people's attention!

Edit: about the breakfast slot. It could have been created just because you wanted it. More money for the program manager.

Yup prices are in the dead center of the cart clearly listed. But i use the 'clearly' loosly because people come up asking for hot dogs or ask where they can find the bagel cart..."FRESH BAGELS" is is the biggest word on my cart and can be seen from far away and yet people still dont know what i sell.

I'll take you up on the word "Best" Im going to go to staples tomorrow and have a nice big sign printed up for my sidewalk sign. "BEST BAGELS IN BOSTON" "FREE COFFEE WITH PURCHASE" if that doesnt stir any attention i dont know what will. Whats awkward but offering a deal like that is most people who come up to the cart an unaware of the deal so its a coin flip of whether i choose to offer it to them or not. I'd like to be honest but when u cant even pay rent that extra dollar helps a ton but then you risk the chance of them thinking you are a scumbag.

**bananaman** · 05-24-2009 06:01 AM

Originally Posted by Jaysun13

"BEST BAGELS IN BOSTON" "FREE COFFEE WITH PURCHASE" if that doesnt stir any attention i dont know what will. Whats awkward but offering a deal like that is most people who come up to the cart an unaware of the deal so its a coin flip of whether i choose to offer it to them or not. I'd like to be honest but when u cant even pay rent that extra dollar helps a ton but then you risk the chance of them thinking you are a scumbag.

How would you know if they knew about the coffee or not? Ask them if they would like a free complementary coffee with their bagel. If you advertise free coffee, then whether the customer knows about it or not, you should honour the advert. They could know about it, but not say anything, expecting it to be offered, and when it isn't offered, that will make you look bad.

Not everyone will take up the offer, so you won't lose out on every bagel, and you don't play mind games with yourself or the customer about the coffee.

At this stage, getting a steady stream of customers is what's important. In the beginning, businesses have to spend money to attract customers and expand. Once you've got that, then you can consider dropping the free coffee.

Just make it absolutely clear on the sign that the free coffee comes with the bagel. You don't want to argue with the customer if they misunderstand what they need to buy(like a hash brown or cream cheese) to get a free coffee.

"Best Bagels in Boston! Free coffee with every bagel!"

Best of luck!