Kid looking to get in the Concession business.

Hello guys.
First post here.
Name is Jeff and just turned 21 years old. I reside in Lake Elsinore California.
Ill try to make this short and sweet to get your thoughts and most of all your guidance and tips.
 
I have really been thinking about the Concession business lately. Ever since a teenager i knew i wanted to own my own business of some kind and since i love cooking food, what other than the concessionaire business?! I also love bbq so i figure i would sell ribs, burgers, hot dogs, and whatever else comes to mind. My plan is to take a (wait for it....) $100K loan. Before telling me that's too much i have already gotten some rough thoughts into my head as far as spending it. I know it's a huge decision whether to buy a trailer or a step van. I think the step vans are way more versatile than a trailer but a trailer would be best for me because i have yet to buy a truck and it would be very useful to me for my other hobbies (towing my rock crawler jeep). So i was figuring 50K for the concession trailer, 20K for the towing rig which would also be my daily driver since i do not have a very reliable one right now and the rest towards gas, fees, licensing, and whatever else i need. Please don't think of me as some stupid kid. I realize and understand business. I took classes in high school and one at the community college. As far as staffing
 
  I do believe i could make some great money if i find the right spots. I do live in the center of Southern California! An hour from the beach; an hour from Los Angeles, an hour from the Pomona fairplex; 1.5 hour from San Diego etc......
 
Can i get some honest opinions? Am i getting way in over my head?
Thank you very much for your opinions.
Jeff
 
 

Welcome to Roadfood, Jeff!
 
The first question that comes to my mind is, what are you going to use as collateral for that $100K loan?.....or do you have a rich relative or one in the banking/loan business that will loan that amount to you with no collateral?  I am sure, as you said, that you "have already gotten some rough thoughts in your head as far as spending it." (That would be the easy part.....the hard part is getting someone to loan you that kind of money when you have no actual experience working in the food business, only the classes you have taken in high school and at the community college.)  Have you ever worked in any kind of a restaurant (even fast food)? 
 
Cooking for the public is a whole different ballgame from cooking for yourself, your family, or your friends.  Your family and friends are forgiving; the public is not.  The public is looking for perfection and speed at a low cost in the preparation of their meal.  They may not always get that, but if you can't deliver what they are looking for, they will go somewhere else to eat.  You need to develop your food service skills under the direction of someone experienced before you even think of looking for a large business loan.

Depending on your plans size does matter. If you are going to be doing the food truck type of business, then mobility is an issue. The overall length of you rig will be an important factor. A $50K concession trailer is going to at least 20+ feet plus the tow rig. For onsite catering events then it won’t be a problem, we have a local lady who operates out of a 20’ mobile kitchen who does on site catering. She pulls up to the catering event several hours prior to start and cook 90% of the food items fresh on site. If you plan on doing festivals then size is a major concern. Most festival promoters price vendor space by the size. Our trailer measures about 17’ overall and sometimes they let us get by with a single space or sell a 1 ½ size space and a few times we have purchased two spaces. We see very few trailers over 14’ / 16’ at festivals because of this.
 
Some of the most successful food vendors we have met have a limited menu they do well at and have designed their trailer / food booth around the menu. Barbecue, burgers and hotdogs are sold by the masses. Items like crepes, pizza, ethnic foods, and desserts are much more unique. Everyone sells fried foods, not to say that certain fried foods will compliment your menu. We just purchased a sandwich press / grill to do Cubans and a tropical type grilled sandwich we are developing. We may add black beans and rice.
Best advice is to decide what direction you want to go. If you purchase s concession trailer it can be built to your specifications. Research and test your menu. If you have a beach location then hotdogs and burgers may work, if you are doing festivals then develop a specialty menu and if you are catering then go with a full mobile kitchen. From what we have seen California is food truck friendly and you should be able to contact some of the companies out there that specialized in setting up mobile food vendors.  

6star


Welcome to Roadfood, Jeff!

The first question that comes to my mind is, what are you going to use as collateral for that $100K loan?.....or do you have a rich relative or one in the banking/loan business that will loan that amount to you with no collateral?  I am sure, as you said, that you "have already gotten some rough thoughts in your head as far as spending it." (That would be the easy part.....the hard part is getting someone to loan you that kind of money when you have no actual experience working in the food business, only the classes you have taken in high school and at the community college.)  Have you ever worked in any kind of a restaurant (even fast food)? 

Cooking for the public is a whole different ballgame from cooking for yourself, your family, or your friends.  Your family and friends are forgiving; the public is not.  The public is looking for perfection and speed at a low cost in the preparation of their meal.  They may not always get that, but if you can't deliver what they are looking for, they will go somewhere else to eat.  You need to develop your food service skills under the direction of someone experienced before you even think of looking for a large business loan.

Thank you for your reply.
I actually have yet to look deep into a business loan. I think and am hoping if i present a very nice looking layout business plan i may be able to have some luck?

JodyP


Depending on your plans size does matter. If you are going to be doing the food truck type of business, then mobility is an issue. The overall length of you rig will be an important factor. A $50K concession trailer is going to at least 20+ feet plus the tow rig. For onsite catering events then it won’t be a problem, we have a local lady who operates out of a 20’ mobile kitchen who does on site catering. She pulls up to the catering event several hours prior to start and cook 90% of the food items fresh on site. If you plan on doing festivals then size is a major concern. Most festival promoters price vendor space by the size. Our trailer measures about 17’ overall and sometimes they let us get by with a single space or sell a 1 ½ size space and a few times we have purchased two spaces. We see very few trailers over 14’ / 16’ at festivals because of this.

Some of the most successful food vendors we have met have a limited menu they do well at and have designed their trailer / food booth around the menu. Barbecue, burgers and hotdogs are sold by the masses. Items like crepes, pizza, ethnic foods, and desserts are much more unique. Everyone sells fried foods, not to say that certain fried foods will compliment your menu. We just purchased a sandwich press / grill to do Cubans and a tropical type grilled sandwich we are developing. We may add black beans and rice.
Best advice is to decide what direction you want to go. If you purchase s concession trailer it can be built to your specifications. Research and test your menu. If you have a beach location then hotdogs and burgers may work, if you are doing festivals then develop a specialty menu and if you are catering then go with a full mobile kitchen. From what we have seen California is food truck friendly and you should be able to contact some of the companies out there that specialized in setting up mobile food vendors.  

Thank you for your reply.
The plan is to make hamburgers, hot dogs, and ribs. It will definitely be a concession trailer and not a cart.
 
I also want to offer catering and for days that i am not at events i want to rent a spot somewhere in the area to sell.
 
 

Maybe start smaller then expand into everything you want to do if you cannot get the financing for the whole package.

I`m with Chicnscoop, start small. Its gonna take a lot of just burgers, dogs and ribs to justify 100K.
Years ago I tired to get a $8,000.00 loan for a trailer on e-bay. Didn`t have a car payment, no house payment, only utilites. Credit score above 800+. Knew the vice-president of the band quite well. Was told a concession trailer was too risky. Never got the loan. Went about it another way, ended up getting another trailer.
Good luck.

Banks are going to want to know what the money is for. 100k loan is almost impossible to get now adays. Believe me, i worked in the banking industry for many of years. You have no experience selling food, cooking food, or serving to the public. Many factors will contribute to you A) getting the loan B) being successful C) getting rich over night
 
Your business is more or less going to fail. The odds are in your favor when it comes to that. Not trying to be negative, but I'm being HONEST. It takes planning, scouting, watching, scouting, scouting.  If you got a step van, why would you need a tow vehicle?  You should take a look on ebay, and classified ads to see how many trucks, ,trailers, and so on are up for sale, b/c ppl had the same thought one night and went with it.
 
I want nothing more than you to beat the odds. I want you to be successful. However it's not going to go the way you think.  Who's going to do the cooking, the prepping, the shopping, the marketing, the booking, the cleaning, the cash register ?  what hours are you going to operate ? Have you contacted your health dept ? Have you gone to school for food safety ? it's not a 9-5er... it's more of an 10-15 hour day.
 
just things to be aware of. You wanted an honest forum. That's about as balls out plain as it gets. I run a 10x6 trailer, from 11-4 every day except sunday. My day starts at 7am and i had to promise to stop working at 11pm every night. so that I could relax and sleep. 

You can have the best-crafted business plan ever, but you still won't get a loan like you expect.  One thing you might consider is building a trailer with a windmill and solar panels.  That way, you can declare yourself "green" and then apply for a government loan that could probably get you $100 MILLION.  The top side of this is than when you fail, no one will expect you to pay it back. 
 
 
 

Jman, thats funny, sounds like a good plan ;<)
 
GeckMasterGril, sorry man, not a chance you could get a loan like that. Even back when they were giving away money,  getting any cash for any kind of a food start up was improbable, unless that loan was secured by lots of equity in a house, other equity that was much more valuable than the loan(think stocks bonds) or an amount or more cash in the bank than you wanted to borrow.
 
It's much much harder now, even if you have the above and 20 years experience in a related business and a great business plan.
 
I'm sure you feel old, heck your 21 at last, but you still have lots of time to build your dreams.  Get some experience working a concession cart or stand or trailer, or other food related business and THEN consider if you even want to be in this industry.
 
Best of luck!
 
Cheers,
 
G
 
 

Hi, thought I'd throw in on this one...
My wife and lived in Elsinore before moving to Alaska. I worked in the Temecula wineries, where we produced chocolates for some and I did winery tours with the top tour company. That is actually where we got the idea of setting up a mobile (catering) rig, almost four years ago.
Riverside County had the second-worst unemployment and foreclosure rate in the United States. There are still 30,000 EMPTY single-family homes within 100 miles of you, that the banks are sitting on...they are NOT going to loan anyone money, not even people with tons of equity and business experience, period.
We purposely left the IE and moved to Alaska to get away from the horrible market conditions right where you live!  :)
Even with 25+ years of business ownership experience, even with my wife being Le Cordon Bleu trained, and with tons of catering and restaurant experience, we could not even get a 20,000 loan...
If you want to make money in mobile food in the IE, I can tell you where and how - but you need to get real regarding the size and scope of the business model at this point.
 
Try to get a job first at Raviolis Bistro in either Lake Elsinore or Murrieta - the chef is great, and you will learn the reality of life 'on the line' in a hurry! It's tough, and mobile is even tougher...

Getting a bank loan without collateral is almost impossible in today's economy. Getting a loan to start a food business is ABSOLUTELY impossible. Get a job in the business, save some money, start small and grow from there. You have a ton of years ahead of you!

Start small. We started with a 10' x 10' EZ Up, a large charcoal grill and some folding tables. Book a few small events to make sure you really want to do this. We did hotdogs and burgers for a couple of years. If you are able to secure a loan at least you will have some experience.  While you are doing the festivals you can start looking for a permanent location if thats what you want to do. You will be under a whole lot less pressure starting small. We just spent the whole weekend at a frigid festival here in Georgia and made $5.

Ok Jeff hear it is honestly
 
At 21 and with a few High School classes you do not have the experience.  You have done a lot of dreaming but not a lot of planning.
I will spell a few things out for you.
 
First sell the rock crawler. You will have no time to play. The only way to make money in this business is to work a lot  If you are going to go full time your weekends will be at festivals and shows and your week will be on location. If you do weekends and have a job (that’s my story) kiss most of your free time good bye, The weekends you are not selling you are cleaning or preparing for the next event.
 
Second at 21 what in the world do you know about BBQ. I am well over twice your age been serving family and friends for years before jumped in to this and I only can say I know a little about BBQ . Most of the successful BBQ guys are from completive teams. They have years in to rubs and mops, not to mention the 1000’s of pounds of meat they have cooked. You stated you want to do Ribs, Hamburgers and Dogs what else are you going to do brisket? Tri-Tip? Pulled Pork? Chicken? For everything but the dogs and burgers you will need to cook over charcoal. No one wants a propane-cooked rib (sorry Hank Hill we want to taste the heat) so you will need a trailer with a porch. Now I doubt that The Riverside health Dept would let you set up a charcoal BBQ next to a step van on site. The same goes for Orange county, Los Angeles county, San Diego County, Long beach.  If you are only doing festivals and events you can get a TFF permit and cook outside.
 
Third as for the loan ARE YOU NUTS AT 21 if anyone would give you one in the first place have you figured the pay back? With out doing the calculations it is at least $700 to $1000.00 an month and that is on the low side. When you do not make it and you sell everything for pennies on the dollar (look at craigs list used food equipment holds very low value) how will you pay the loan back? It is not that easy to go BK anymore and if you do it will haunt you for 10 plus years.
 
Lastly with this economy, in southern California doing the festivals and events there is very little money to be made. I took my business over form a person who had been doing it for 16 years; he kept records of his sales in past years. Last year most show takes were down by 30% to 60% (not just me but all vendors across the board), attendance is way off and the people who come out are just not spending money. Now hopefully this year will be better but I doubt it will be that much better
 
Lastly if this is what you want to do then you have a few years o homework ahead of you. First start developing what you plan to sell. Practice cooking until you are sick of it and then keep going, second since it sounds like you are not employed get a job in a kitchen, learn form the pros try to get a job in a bbq place if bbq is your passion, third hit every show and festival you can start learning what people are selling see how it tastes look at the work they are putting in. Pick a show and show up at 6:00am when people start setting up, look at how much work it is stay until the end, make sure you are on your feet all day. Then watch the vendors clean up and pack. Do this a few times. Then if you still want to vend Go for it! Start at small shows to get your feet wet and grow your business.
 
By the way, if you get good at what you cook and control costs down to the penny and the economy is good, you can make some  money at it

wonder if he is scared straight now?

Hi, I have a very profitable concession business for sale if you would be interested in looking at it, go to craigslist in Charlotte NC and search for "concession" . It is the commercial corn roaster for sale.
 

Mobile food Concessions are huge in LA right now, as I'm sure you know, get a job working one, learn from the ground up!

Your direct criticism is absolutely appreciated. I do not want to get in over my head and have the whole business fail. I did not think it would be such a pain to get a loan either. I guess i will have to pass for now.
Jeff!

Hello, I purchased a 7X14 mobile kitchen from Russell Concessions (just google it)
With: 40 lb propane fryer, 24" propane char-broiler, tripple sinks, hand wash sink, hood amd blower assy. for 17,000.00.
His site is check it out.
They will build anything you want.  Give them a call and ask for Shaun.