How To Write a Food Truck strategy document (+ Template)

The US street vendor sector was valued at $2.49 billion in 2022, up from the previous year’s total of $2.29 billion. The economy is expected to develop another 1.7% in 2023.

For those with aspirations of culinary greatness, a food truck is the perfect setting to develop recent recipes while building a fan base, or even an online business, without the expense and hazard of opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant. 

There is even a street food chef in Singapore with a Michelin star, proving that you don’t require a giant kitchen and 50 sous chefs to construct a reputation for standard, innovation, and deliciousness.

With the increasing popularity of food trucks, it’s essential to prep your operation before you commence prepping your mise en place. A solid food truck strategy document puts you at the front of the grid when the race begins.

How to write a successful food truck strategy document, step by step

1. Set aside a page for your executive summary
2. Write an overview of your corporation
3. Conduct a economy analysis
4. Lay out your products and/or services
5. make customer personas
6. Put together a marketing schedule
7. make a logistics and operations schedule
8. Write out your budgetary schedule

Starting a mobile food business is subject to the same challenges and pitfalls as any other enterprise operation. But there are special considerations for food trucks to address before you open the window to commence slinging sandwiches (or tacos, or barbeque, or …).

You may desire to open up our handy strategy document template so you can receive notes, or jot down your brilliant ideas as they arrive to you. We also talked to seasoned food truck operators and entrepreneurs Natalie Basile and Mikey Wheeler-Johnson of Eats Amoré Mobile Italian Cuisine, who distribute their knowledge and encounter throughout this navigator.

From the executive summary to the budgetary details, we’ll display you how to construct a food truck strategy document for savory achievement.

1. Set aside a page for your executive summary

Even though this is the first section in your strategy document, it’s the last section you should write. Your executive summary captures all the highlights from the rest of your strategy document, so get those sorted out first.

This is Shopify’s strategy document template. You can download it below.

When it’s period to write this section, ponder about your spectators. If you’re writing a strategy document for yourself as a way to remain organized, motivated, and concentrated on your goals, this summary can be quick and filthy.

If your strategy document is meant to secure a lender financing or impress potential investors, your executive summary will require to focus on profits, reliability, and the truth that you recognize what you’re doing—so your food truck feels like a secure bet.

While it’s significant to mention what makes your food service model distinctive, spend plenty of period showing that you also comprehend the realities of running a tiny business.

2. Write an overview of your corporation

This section is your chance to explain what is going to make your vehicular vittles different and more successful than every other food truck on the road. 

encounter

As part of this section you’ll require to inform your spectators what makes you capable of running a profitable food business. 

• Do you have professional cooking encounter? 
• Have you managed a commercial pantry before? 
• Do you have an existing reputation for creating delectable meals? 

Lenders might invest in you based on the strength of your recent business concept, but encounter will enhance your chances.

At Eats Amoré, even though neither Mikey nor Natalie has professional cooking encounter, they do have a proud household history of producing delicious food. “Natalie learned to cook from her grandmother, who’s from Naples, Italy. And then her mom is an organic farmer, so she learned traditional recipes with fresh ingredients, which is the backbone of Italian cooking,” says Mikey.

Employees

In addition to your own position in your food truck business, this section is the place where you’ll outline the types of employees you have or will require to hire. Food trucks are tiny, so chances are you won’t require a lot of staff or a management throng, but you could consider hiring prep staff, cleaners, etc.

Goals

The corporation overview is also the best place to set some goals. As a short-term objective, most food truck owners (and restaurateurs for that matter) aim to pay off the bulk of their enterprise costs (licensing fees, insurance, supplies, food, website, branding, etc.) within the first year, though this will depend heavily on your anticipated margins.

Other short-term goals may include building a social media following, finding predictable parking spots to inspire repeat traffic, or securing a spot at a large occurrence.

Your largest startup distribution startup distribution is, of course, the truck itself. Although food trucks expense a lot less to set up compared to brick-and-mortar locations, they can still set you back between $50,000 and $175,000, depending on what benevolent of food you’ll make and the equipment required to do it.

Paying off your food truck is likely to be your major long-term objective, which you can fulfill with your own capital or Shopify startup distribution.

3. Conduct a economy analysis

A huge factor in setting your business up for achievement is understanding the target economy where you will operate.

Restrictions

Since food trucks are mobile, you’ll enjoy some flexibility compared to a restaurant, but many cities still restrict where, when, and how you can serve your customers as part of the license that allows you to operate (which costs an average of $1,800).

If your ideal customers live in an area or work at a period when you can’t sell to them, you could be in for some hardship. For example, if you were to open a food truck in Vancouver, you would discover that restrictions include:

• Not operating during nighttime hours
• Avoiding sure neighborhoods
• Staying 100 meters away from brick-and-mortar restaurants
• Staying outside park boundaries
• And plenty more

In some cases, you may discover that food trucks have not yet been considered in city regulations, and you may have to blaze a trail for your business, like Mikey and Natalie did. “We had very limited locations that we could pick from,” Mikey said. 

“The zoning in Kamloops was absolutely terrible. We were not looked very favorably upon. So after many council meetings and lots of emails with counselors and going back and forth, we finally got the city to provide us a pilot assignment location in the downtown core.”

Every city has different restrictions that affect food cart and truck owners, so be sure to consult the city hall website in your area. And commence early—licensing can receive period, especially in locations with high demand.

Local conditions

Beyond the restrictions imposed by municipalities, each city is subject to conditions that could assist or hinder your business. 

If you’re planning an ice cream truck for Edmonton, you might only have the warm, sunny weather you require for four months of the year, severely limiting profits. Conversely, the same ice cream truck in San Diego, with 266 days of sunshine on average, might be a sensation with lines around the block.

You should also receive into account population in your city, demographics, foot traffic in your preferred neighborhoods, and the number of events that host food trucks, in order to establish an approximate of how many days per year you are likely able to operate.

Competition

Lastly, run a competitive analysis. 

• What’s the food truck economy like in your city? 
• What do other food trucks propose? 
• What’s your competitive advantage? 
• Is there a robust restaurant scene driven by owners who don’t desire food trucks diverting their customers? 

Too much competition and you might have trouble finding customers or a place to park. Too little and you may discover that there is a rationale no one is running a recent food truck.

4. Lay out your products and/or services

This section is your chance to outline your creative food imagination, so keep in mind that there are some limitations and considerations when it comes to the meals coming out of your truck.

• Food should be straightforward to eat in a variety of settings, such as on a bench, standing on the sidewalk, or at a crowded concert, without spilling down the front of a CEO’s Brooks Brothers shirt.
• Keep it straightforward: While you may be able to make complicated person dishes, trying to propose a broad, complicated menu with limited space, staff, equipment, and storage could prove to be challenging or unfeasible.
• A long menu can be intimidating or period consuming for those trying to order quickly during their lunch shatter.
• Try to fill a niche in your city. If there are already a lot of pizza trucks but no Thai food, make som tam instead of a margherita pie. Or, for example, if you live somewhere with plenty of trucks making mediocre burgers, your ultra-high-standard version might corner the economy. You can also differentiate your offerings based on overhead and food expense.

leave out and study the existing food truck scene in your area to get an concept of what might work. 

Alternate turnover

This section is a excellent place to consider additional turnover streams such as online sales of things like bottled sauces, spice packs, baked goods, etc. Selling online can be a lifesaver during silent winter months, when festivals aren’t happening, or even during a global pandemic.

Eats Amoré has found that online sales and catering bookings via its Shopify website are becoming increasingly significant to its net income. “It’s to the point where we have to turn it on and turn it off because it’s so busy,” says Mikey.

“We came up with this concept called the Ravioli Club, which is essentially a membership that you buy from our online store, and you get three mystery deliveries of ravioli delivered to your house every two weeks.”

Mikey wasn’t always an ecommerce specialist. “I was very green in learning how to do all the online sales, and I’m still learning a lot,” he says.

“And even with the tiny increments of learning that I’ve done, sales are going up exponentially. Not only has it boosted our sales, but it decreased the amount of period that I have to spend doing back and forth work with people. Because once you have all your information laid out on the website, you get a lot less tire kickers and you get a lot more people that call you and desire to hire you [for catering].”

5. make customer personas

This area of your food truck strategy document is where you’ll outline your ideal customer. 

• Where do they live? 
• How ancient are they? 
• What benevolent of foods do they like? 
• How much disposable profits do they have? 

You’ll require to do some solemn demographic research to fill in this section, since every city and neighborhood is different. Then use it to inform your menu and pricing. 

If you schedule to set up outside rock concerts and baseball parks, caviar and foie gras could be challenging to sell, while home-cooked barbeque might not do well on the street in front of your local opera house. inquire questions to determine what your potential customers desire.

6. Put together a marketing schedule

You can make as much delicious food as you desire, but if no one knows about it, you’re going to have a challenging period making a profits. Your marketing way is essential to the achievement of your business and this section is where you’ll outline it for yourself or your business financing officer.

Branding and communications

commence by detailing where you’ll park and what your truck will look like, since these are the two biggest factors in attracting walk-by customers. Next, display how you’ll raise the profile of your business beyond passersby using traditional marketing techniques and, especially, social media.

If you intend to park in different locations on different days, having dedicated followers on Instagram, Twitter, and/or Facebook is a great way to let people recognize where they can discover you. Social media is also the perfect place to update your followers on recent menu items. recall to receive great photos of your food for maximum impact.

The food truck marketing and sales portion should also account for what makes your offerings different from everyone else on the road. In the Products and Services section, we discussed how your menu should fill a niche, whether it is the type of cuisine, standard, or expense.

In this section, you’ll require to provide details on how you schedule to communicate those differentiators to your target customers.

Online ordering

Speaking of technology, this is a excellent period to explore the possibility of having your customers interact with you via smartphones and computers.

You may desire to propose online ordering with delivery or pickup, which can be accomplished using third-event services like DoorDash, Skip the Dishes, Uber Eats, or any number of apps preferred in different markets around the globe—be sure to discover out which app most restaurants and delivery services use in your area.

Timing

A less obvious facet of your marketing schedule is your commence date. If you schedule on opening correct when the excellent weather hits, you’re likely to be too busy to spend a lot of period building a brand identity and online presence, though your money flow will probably be in excellent shape.

“A huge mistake that we had in our first year’s strategy document was that we were going to work through the winter,” says Mikey. “But what I forgot was that the people in Kamloops are very fair weathered. They’re used to enjoyable weather. So a little bit of cold and they’re like, No, we’re out of here. It wasn’t until last winter that we actually did become a year-round business when we opened our Shopify account.”

7. make a logistics and operations schedule

This section is where you’ll require to dig into the nitty-gritty day-to-day operations of your local food truck.

Supply chain

You require ingredients in order to sell food. But where will you get them? Let’s look at your options.

RESTAURANT WHOLESALERS

• Example: Sysco
• Pros: Reliable and expense effective.
• Cons: Large volume-packaged products could be challenging to store on your truck.

WHOLESALE CLUBS

• Example: Costco
• Pros: Convenience—shop whenever you desire.
• Cons: Prices may be higher than restaurant wholesalers.

GROCERY STORES

• Example: Trader Joe’s, local greengrocers, specialty markets
• Pros: The greatest variety of ingredients, including local, organic, and specialty items. Smaller package sizes.
• Cons: High prices.

Many food truck operators use a combination of suppliers to achieve their goals, so look at what is available in your area that fits into your menu and budgetary schedule. 

Also consider your menu: If you have a fixed set of meal offerings, will you be able to reliably get the same ingredients throughout the year? If your menu rotates frequently, will you have period to source recent ingredients on a regular basis?

Facility

Your truck is your facility. So ponder carefully about what benevolent of vehicle you decide to buy.

Mikey says, “We got this HandyDART bus for a steal, and we spent the beginning of 2013 turning it into a food truck. We learned so much. It’s a fiberglass vehicle, which wasn’t ideal compared to a large stainless truck. But we made it work.” 

Retrofitting a vehicle that isn’t perfect may be an alternative considering your budgetary schedule and skill set, or you may desire to purchase a vehicle that was purpose-built to be a food truck.

This is the place to outline the physical equipment and maintenance requirements for your business, such as:

• Specialized cooking equipment
• Tires
• Brakes
• Battery
• Fuel (cooking and engine)

Many cities also dictate that some aspects of food preparation, such as chopping vegetables, making soups, baking bread, or preparing other ingredients, be done in an off-site commissary kitchen outside of sales hours, rather than in the food truck or in your home. This is to ensure food safety, and you’ll require to factor the expense and logistics into your schedule.

It’s also a excellent concept to determine if you can store additional ingredients at your commissary kitchen location.

Production capacity

How long does it receive to make an item from your menu, on average? This is a major consideration that could limit how many customers you can serve in a day. 

How do you intend to cope with changes in pace and demand over the course of a day, week, month, or year? Mikey says, “I leave home and do dishes for two hours. It’s far more labor intensive than people realize.” So don’t overlook to factor in how much work you can realistically do yourself.

Shipping

If you schedule on offering products for sale online, you’ll require to sort out a schedule to ship them to customers. Fortunately, shipping can be accomplished quite easily at reasonable prices.

8. Write out your budgetary schedule

Like most businesses, yours will likely live or die on the strength of your budgetary schedule. You have to recognize how much money is coming in, how much is going out, and how those numbers are likely to transformation in the upcoming. 

So be sure to dig deep into your prospective settlement sheet to truly comprehend how profits and costs will affect your operation. 

profits spread

Fortunately for you, enterprise costs on a food truck are a lot less than a brick-and-mortar restaurant, so your shatter-even point could arrive a lot sooner. That said, your profits could be limited by the food truck model.

Food trucks can expect to average about 8% profits, which means they are a volume business. You’ll require to work quick to serve a lot of customers in order to earn a profits.

You’ll also require to outline your money flow scenario. Since food trucks can’t store a lot of inventory (ingredients and supplies), you’ll require to sell and restock more frequently than a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Additional costs

This section is also the place to factor in other costs, such as licensing, maintenance, and staff wages, if you have employees. And if you don’t schedule on hiring assist, recall that you probably can’t work 16 hours a day, seven days a week, which will limit your profits too. Be sure to write accurate budgetary projections so you get a excellent concept of how much you’ll earn.

Turn your business concept into a savory reality

The food truck industry is growing. Now that you’ve had a chance to ponder about how your food truck dreams will shape your food truck strategy document, it’s period to actually sit down and write it.

require a little push in the correct path? Check out some strategy document examples, then commence filling in your template once you’re inspired.