How much is enough?

Giving serious thought to expanding my successful operation with second truck.

I make an excellent living working a few hours a day and have complete freedom to do what I want.

So I began to wonder; Are you that are doing this satisfied with what you are making now or do you really feel you need more.

how much is enough?

expected some sort of response to this.

As a health inspector and restaurant goer, I observe that when owners expand to a second or more location, the quality suffers and also their stress level increases dramatically.
If you are making an excellent living now, why would you do this?
makes NO sense to me.
beth

i havent even started up yet and i am already thinking of expanding!! if there is a good spot that comes along, id love to snag it and make more profits!! "good living" or "excellent living" is all relative...im not sure if u want to put it down in public, but how much roughly are ;u making? if u want to answer privately, u can do so at thetrolleystop@yahoo.com or PM here...thanx..

An average week Mon to Fri I will put IN MY POCKET 700 to 1000 weekly. That is absolute bottom line net after I taken everything out including gas in the truck. If I do an event on the weekend I can double that. It has taken me almost 2 years to get to this position and well known enough.

Check "did my first kids softball tourney" for a real cool story.

BTW I am buying the second truck and will be setting it on the road in next 2 weeks with my daughter running it.

hi again..that is a very good net income...however, i thought i read in another thread that you said you make between 4-500 gross on average these days..if so, that would be 2000-2500 gross....are you costs that much that you then only net 700-1000 after that gross income? thanx...

OOPS!

I left out that whatever I take I match funds back into the business account. Its my rainy day money.

sorry to be dense but i dont get what u just posted...do u really gross 4-500 a day? is your net just 700-1000 after that gross income? thanx for the clarification...

Based on this thread and others "Spud" is on, I think he has a "Reality Problem."

Total expenses average 120 day on 500 in sales. in 5 days is 600 on 2500 in sales. Net balance is 1900. I split that in half for me 950 and rest goes back into biz account 950. This money is not to be used except for business emergencies. Of course all of these figures will vary day to day, but this simple method has served me well so far.

expenses include taxes, food, fuel, supplies, etc.

Hope this clears this up for you.

Foodbme is appearently the comic relief of roadfood.com

I appreciate the humor

spud, I don't know how old you are but if you're that ambitious, GO FOR IT! I thought the comic relief of roadfood was Mr. Hoffman. No? Ok, sorry, wrong again.

the caveat to what i mentioned is if you have a family member who is involved usually it is okay. so if your daughter is on board, it should be ok. but i would be sure. depending on a stranger to handle the money etc is a problem.

Expanding is great as long as you're accepting the fact you're putting your reputation in someone else's hands, as well as their hands on your till. If you're confident and comfortable with both of those, I say go for it.

I don't want to be too critical because I'm sure there's a lot that you haven't shared, but the impression I get is it might be time to get a professional to handle your books. I don't know what your legal entity is (Sole Proprietor, S Corp, LLC), but whether or not you put money in your pocket or put it into the business account, the profit is the same. In other words, you're taking part of your profit now, but retaining the rest for the future. Both categories will be taxed each quarter.

Also, have you been able to determine if these good times now represent a very high peak in your annual business cycle? Will your retained earnings be sufficient to carry you through your lean times?

It sounds like you've got a good situation and expansion may be the right way to go. Just make sure the second truck doesn't distract you from the first. Expansion has put a lot of people out of business. Just sayin'.

I would expand...why not? theres not just 1 pizza hut or sonic...Just do it!!! Heck im ready to pack up and come help!! its exciting!! keep us posted!!!

thanx spud...that clarifies it for me...you are doing very well and i say expand if u feel you can handle it...

jman; of course I cant show my entire hand....this is the simplified version.

My operation is entirely family run, my daughter is fully capable and anxious to run the second truck. I am a cheap bastard that would not even consider this if I didnt believe it will work. I also have 2 sons to rely on in a pinch.

trolleymass; I am just trying to show you that there is a good living to be made doing this given time and patience. I just dont think you can really do it right with a cart, there are just too many limitations.

looking to get a camera soon, to show off current operation and I thought maybe a step by step build of the new truck would be interesting.

I am not a restaurant professional but I’ve been the Mom of a Mom and Pop business for 20+ years. I think you’re asking the wrong question at the wrong place. IMO, the first question should be, “What do I really want out of life?” and then “Where does my hot dog business fit into getting me what I want?” And the people you share your life with on a daily basis are the main ones who should be included in answering those questions. For most entrepreneurs, a successful venture spurs thoughts of “Gimme mo’” but I’m here to represent the “Gimme less” point of view.

Skipping over the details, after a lean start-up period, my husband operated a very successful business and we were both ready to expand to additional locations. We also had people who wanted to buy a franchise. When we asked ourselves that question, the answer turned out not to be “more money so we can buy more stuff”; it was that we wanted less stuff but have all of it paid for – zero debt so we would have the freedom to pick a new path in life if we felt like it. So that’s just what we did. We kept our eyes open for a location for the shop we could buy instead of renting and when a small local chain who had expanded too quickly got in trouble, we bought one of their locations in a suburban area that is now a main business thorofare.

We had also determined that another thing we really wanted in our life was time – time to watch our kids grow up and time to participate in community activities. We could have been open more hours per week but we decided to keep a balance of satisfying our customers and satisfying ourselves. We wanted to live a more simplistic lifestyle and were amazed to find that there were many others who saw things from the same point of view as we did.

We ended up staying on our path of not expanding the business, being able to achieve our goals, and servicing many loyal customers with a personal touch that having more than one location could not have provided. We sold both the property and the business separately about a year and a half ago because it was the right time to do it.

Spud, although I haven’t directly answered your question, I hope I’ve given you something to think about and wish you good luck in whichever way you decide to go.

I am sad now for the lower salary, so I am working hard to earn money, and no free time. I am unhappy now.