If you had a "Do Over"

I have been a member of this forum now, for almost a year. When I first joined, I was all excited to start and get out there. Then as I read through the forums and discovered what was really involved, I stepped back and reevaluated my goals. the more I dug into this business and spoke with people, the more I wondered if this was for me. I worked construction all my life, so long hours, bad weather, uncertainty of income and grumpy people dont bother me. What DID bother me, was that an alarmingly large portion of your sales go to the state/federal/county you work in. Add in site rental, daily ice/fuel cost's....... I honestly dont know how most of you can even afford to leave your driveway in the morning.
 
That being said, I put off starting up my trailer for a year because I didnt want to carry any debt while I figured out the logistics of this business. So i'm shooting for the middle of this year. I will have a trailer, 8X12, 8X14 or something close to it, used - but in great condition. I dont have the patience for a complete rebuild or the time. Trailer works best for me, for many reasons.
 
So my question to you is, if you had a "Do Over" and the cost of the trailer, supplies, equipment was already paid for and all you had to do was turn the lights on, what would you do differently?

• Would you seek a different market share/location?
• Remove lower priced items and stick with burgers/sandwiches and such?
•  Would you seek out a different location, hoping to get a steady base over time? or hit fast busy places to make money "now"?
• Would you spend more on advertising or wait for word of mouth?
• Would you wait until your trailer was "perfect" or add a hood, A/C etc even if not mandated by HD

I realize my questions are location specific, but if you had a do over, with all your equipment cost's covered - - what would you do differently, to ensure you started out strong and had a solid shot at success?
 
Thanks, I anxiously await your suggestions & thoughts.

I'll give this one a shot...please understand I'm just giving you my thoughts and the things I found out when I did my homework...perhaps a different perspective might be helpful.  I haven't hit the streets yet with my business but will in the next couple of months or so. 
 
When I first looked at becoming a "hot dogger" one conclusion that I quickly arrived at is that it was an extremely low risk venture.  There are going to be start up expenses in any new business venture but this one seems to be less than most.  And add to that the fact that we are mobile which completely frees us from some brick and mortar type establishments...if it's not working, we can move!  That part was extremely attactive to me.
 
I wanted to lower my start up expenses as much as possible so I'm building my own cart.  I am using the EZ Hot Dog cart plans that many have talked about on here and in another week or two I will have a brand new cart, customized the way I want it, for about a 1/3-1/4 of the cost of a new one...and about half the cost of a used one.  You talk about a trailer but it's unclear if you're looking at JUST the trailer, or a hot dog cart already built on top of it or what.  If you're halfway handy with a wrench (and I suspect you are being in construction) I would suggest you give it a shot.  The trailer you're talking about seems quite large so perhaps you're wanting to do burgers, sandwiches, etc?  Another way to make your foray into this low cost and low risk is to smart small.  Why not just start with hot dogs?  A smaller cart?  Get the day to day operations under your belt, and serve a limited menu but serve it well.  You could find that you might be really successful at the hot dog end and be able to build/save up for a larger trailer/work area and do the burgers, sandwich thing.  Another thing to consider is that JUST doing hot dogs CAN (depending on your local hd) be much easier getting underway than a trailer/cart with raw proteins like burgers...boiling it down I'm suggesting walk before you run.  You may find you love just doing the tube steak and before you know it, you might have numerous hot dog carts about the city. 
 
The other thing to consider is that there are tons of places where you don't have to pay any site fee at all.  (or rental space)  In my area, there are some municipalities where if I'm on a city sidewalk it's an extra $200 a year but that's a lot less than paying someone $600 a month for being on their property.  And depending on how you approach a private company, you may not need to pay an site fee at all.  I know that I'm much more interested in being on public land than forking over more $ to be in a Home Depot, etc. 
 
As far as advertising, don't discount "free" advertising (free, other than you're time) via social networking.  I haven't even opened up yet, but I already have close to 50 "likes" on my HD carts Facebook page.  This is the word of mouth route and once I open it will only grow.  I've also thought strongly about using Groupon, Living Social and if you're not familiar with them, google them.  If I understand correctly, you basically don't pay anything to them until you run your discount special.
 
My final thought is I got the opposite feeling than you did after doing my homework about gross/net sales, how much was going to Uncle Sam, etc.  What is the pricing in your area?  Here in my town, a typical hot dog cart prices for one dog with fixings ranges from $3.25 - $5.  A meal deal (pop and chips) is another $1 or $1.50.  Considering it will cost me less than a buck for a dog and bun, another .50 or so for chips and pop, that's a total cost to me of around $1.50.  My retail price for that meal will be $5 - $6...not bad when you do the numbers.  I will be the only employee (at this point) so no worries about additional costs of hiring, training workman's comp, etc.   
 
I know I didn't really answer your specific questions but wanted to give a different perspective. 
 
 

i wouldnt do anything over, i know thats cliche, but the best way i have learned is trial and error, and im still learning, luckily for me i only dog it up on weekends, being as i have a full time job, and yes there are alot of state/local fees, but if you get a good spot its worth it, and like stated above, some spot do not charge you at all, they simply dont care, or just want to see  you succeed and bring people around as well.  I have a very nice spot outside of oklahoma sooners football games the place doesnt charge me anything, and i can make 800 a saturday easily even if i leave before the last straggler comes out of the stadium.   then i do a swap meet that charges me 30 per weekend, and we easily make 3 to 5 hundred onthat, we use that to pay for bigger festivals and such, as another one we are planning is 700 for a 3 day even, and 1000 for another 3 day event, these events draw 50k a day though so its a risk we are willing to take.
 

I understand where you are coming from.  there are a lot of risks involved, I put everything I had into starting my hot dog business, the first day I went out I had $30 left in my bank account.  I was only able to set up for 30 minutes before a city official came down and kicked me out for not having the proper permits, even though I had been in contact with the city for almost a year about and was told I had everything I needed. 
Taxes and Fees suck! but thats the price you pay to make you own money.  I wouldnt do anything over.  All the mistakes that I have made and the ones that I am going to make are just part of life.  Im proud to say I am my own boss, make my own money.  Dont get me wrong, there are days when I feel that it would be so much easier to get a job and not deal with all this. 
I say stop worring about what might happen or the fees and stuff, just do it man! you only live once.  take the risk!!

 
If I could do over it would be to go with a different brand of dogs....& buns....

brinklley...is that something you can still do?  Change your dogs and buns?  What would keep you from doing that?

and what brand are you using and what would you change to?