Reasons Why Food Truck Businesses Falter

Like any good business idea that begins to gain momentum, operating a food truck or Concession Stand brings both rewards and challenges, particularly as those kinds of businesses begin to catch on in certain areas and adapt to customer demand.

It may not yet be the case that “everybody and his brother” is operating a food truck, but the popularity of the versatile eateries is certainly on the rise. Which also means that some food trucks are experiencing difficulties, even failures. Here are a few reasons why, according to an article in Mobile Cuisine:

What marketing plan?: It’s tempting to believe that operating a self-contained restaurant on wheels requires less marketing know-how than a brick-and-mortar one. However, a marketing plan is critical to the success of any business venture. Even a bare-bones one that covers just how you plan to communicate with customers over social media is better than no marketing plan at all.

Customer service is also taken for granted: Again, along the same lines as above, it’s easy to assume that you and your employees will take proper care of your customers. And you likely will do your best to address any problems. But you need to go further than that, making provision for how you will keep your customers informed about menu and location changes, as well as anything else that could prevent or encourage them from being your customer.

Flying solo: While you may believe that going it alone is the wisest move, your business won’t be able to extend its penetration into any market without strategic partners. Find some good ones, and everyone’s business benefits.

Report card: Continuing to monitor your truck’s progress is the best way to ensure that you don’t fall victim to complacency or surprises. Use charts. Hold impromptu meetings. Keep track of sales on a chalkboard, if you have to. But monitor how you’re doing and how you can improve.

Stay in school: Yes, you need to keep learning about your business and remain open to new ideas and developments. The good news is, you can do this more on your own terms than you could when you were in actual school.