yet another newbie

Hello everyone frank here

ok I have been biten by the hot dog bug I really am in the beginning stages of the planning and I want some feed back please on what I am missing, what I need to be thinking about etc...

I live in Pa, the local HS has 3100 kids, seniors do not eat on campus due to space and they are allowed to walk to one of the local places to get a sub or whatever or even walk home and eat. My one son is a senior now and I don't think he has eaten in the caf more than 10 times so far. They really are not very strict with who leaves campus for lunch.

Anyway everyone always says location location location. To me this screams of a good spot for lunch. I was thinking setting up and being open by 11am and then waiting for the after school rush also ending around 4pm. There really are not any business people around and the local traffic is at a minimum so the business would be all about the kids.

Does anyone have exp with a location that you are dependent on HS kids? Good idea? Bad idea? I understand it would not go year round.

One more thing. I have a good job and like my job, this is more for retirement, savings etc... I would actually hire my mother to operate it, she has a lot of food exp and is up to the challenge. She has both the personality and the work ethic for it.

what do you folks think?

I do understand that my first step needs to be to the health department. I know there is a lot of work to be done ahead of time I am just wondering what anything thinks of the idea of catering mostly to high school age kids.

I will keep trying to explain myself since it is hard to get a good read on someone just from one or two posts.

When I say this is for retirement or savings, it is not that I think this is easy money or anything like that. I am just turning 40 have been in my current job for 5 years and I do like it. Everyone has bad days but it is a good job that pays me well and it does have a good pension that is becoming more and more important to me as I get older.

Anyway I do work OT, I generally put in 60 hours a week (we are capped at 20 OT hours a week) because I had some finacial difficulties for a number of years before starting at this job. You know the saying how it takes one month to fall behind in money and 6 months to climb out of it. Well my years of struggling has taken 5 years to recover. I am happy to say I am pretty much recovered and now am looking ahead for the first time in my adult life (yea I know it is late but no one ever said I was smart lol)

Really this is two fold, my savings for down the line and helping my mother get back to a type of work she loves. My mother is by herself and has spent many years either managing food estabishments or waitressing, which is harder than managing in my opinion and i have done both) After 30 years of this her legs couldn't really take the pounding and carrying trys and the dishes up the arms and all that became too much. She is not frail but that is truly hard work.

She ended up working in a hospital but she dearly misses the people HER customers were like family to her. She would love this and I have spoken to her about it, she is all for it.

So it is for me for the future and her for now. I am not looking to get rich or anything like that. I am looking to put some money away (even if not for the first year or two as I get more established) for me and get my mom back to what she loves.

Ok I will shut up FOR NOW

have a great day everyone

frank

fgold, you ought to repost this up in the Professionals forum. That is where the hot dog cart folks hang out.

Welcome to Roadfood Fgold! You might want to read the whole Pro section here when you have a few days to kill. This would get better responses there.

Maybe a mod could move this?
Joe

thank you guys I will do that

There's a ton of stuff already on here. Use the Search feature and look at all the threads posted under Hot dogs Brats, etc and others. Plan on a weekend of solid reading. No offense but The reason I say this is because knowledgable people on here who can help you are getting a little tired of posting the same info over and over everytime some one new comes on board. We're glad to have you but take advantage of the years of resources already on here. You'll get everything you need there. Then if you have questions come back and post them.

thank you Foodbme,

I am reading and will continue to do so, This is where I am learning a lot of things about peoples opinions on different cart manufacturers, quaility of hot dogs, health department issues etc.... I will repost this as someone had recommmended but what I was mostly looking for was advice on location first. The spot next to the high school jumps out at me but at the same time there might be a reason nobody is already there. Maybe someone had some exp dealing with a target customer base of 14-18 year olds.

This is a side note, but I'm curious about the cafeteria access in the high school. Are seniors not allowed to eat in the caf, or do they have a choice to eat there or go out. If they are not allowed, I would be curious how the would work with the school lunch program. I would hope kids are not being denied the right to participate in a federal program, particulary those kids whose only decent meal of the day may be the school lunch.

As Far as I know they have the option of eating in but it is a city setting and a lot of the kids walk to school and just either go home or hang out walk to get something from a deli or sub shop or something

Welcome, My only thought is, how is your mother going to hold up in November, December, January, February and March.

Will you be shoveling out the spot for her? Will she have her own bun warmer? etc?

<<Maybe someone had some exp dealing with a target customer base of 14-18 year olds. >>

Then I guess my first question would be, what does your Mom think of the local High School kids?

So let me get this straight... you want to hang out at a schoolyard, feeding kids a diet of high fat, sodium and chemicals? Good luck, but I don't think they would buy it. They love junk food alright, but only the name brand fast food stuff they see on TV. I predict your cart would be a joke to them.

The important question is where is your morality in this proposed endeavor? You are endangering the youth of America if you are successful. I doubt you will be though...they are not a hot dog generation.

Now if you really want to make money in the schoolyard, do the cart as a front and sell them beer and cigarettes as that would interest them greatly. Until the cops caught up with you, that is. Personally, I think your business plan is disgusting. There are better ways to make money without corrupting America's youth.

Rethink your plan and target adults.