BillyB that is the Business side and I agree whole hardly.
 As a mentor in life told me long ago,
‘There are only three kinds of people in the world, The ones that can count and those that cannot’.
 
Waydeg excellent points. One of my sons checked out the cart for me. Hell, trust his judgement better than mine.
Even after I’ve purchased my cart still checking out others. Might expand and get off my lazy ar$$. lol
Hey we all have good amount of lead there. Some more than others.

The first things anyone thinking of getting into a Food Cart operation should look into are.
 
1: Contact the Health Dept, find out what their design requirements are for a street Hot Dog cart
operation.
 
2: Talk with the HD about menu restrictions in your area, if you can’t grill onions and peppers, they you don’t need a grill on your cart. Find out about all menu Items that are allowed, and build your menu from there.
 
3: contact the City and see how ( Cart friendly) they are, and see what kind of road blocks you may run into. 
 
4: test out as many Hot dogs and cooked/smoked sausages, Chili, with friends and family.  Build your menu around what works well in your area. Go to eat at other carts in the area, check out the pricing and quality they serve.
 
5: The quality of the product you serve is your “Mission Statement” if you serve quality, you will be known as a quality operator that serves the best quality food in town. It is only a matter of time until people hear about your operation, and make your business a success.
 
6: don’t go into this business with “Blood Money”, Blood money is all the money you have, with no room for error. You need to have a money reserve to pay your bills and support your family for at least 4 to 6 months, if not longer. This is not a business with over night success, it takes time to build, enjoy the journey, and realize the destination could take some time to get too.
 
7: The Hd Cart is a restaurant on wheels, everything you do, the foods you serve, are just as important as any restaurant in town. You are a one person show, love this business, love talking to your customers and give them 100% customer service and food quality. I have never known anyone in the food business that, loved what they did, served a great quality product, did their home work, knew there customers what’s and needs, that didn’t succeed in the food business. this business is all about passion, and love, for want you do, always give them more than they expect, they will be back.
 
8: The food business isn’t for everyone, this is a very hard business to succeed, it takes a special kind of person with, drive, determination, love, passion, and caring I feel there are two kinds of people in this world, “Givers and Takers” I think a Giver will succeed, these are the people that smile and enjoy taking care of peoples needs, they are great at customer service and don’t need to be told to smile. These are the people who will have the best chance at being successful. The “Taker” will only worry about how much money hes making, doesn’t worry about anything but himself, screw them if they don’t like it attitude, they will not be in business very long.
 
9: it doesn’t take a lot of energy to run a failing food service, be prepared to work hard and work long hours to insure the success of your operation. make your business top priority and with some luck, your family will help you, and back you up 100%.
 
10: shop local, and get the best prices, get market specials when ever possible, money saved is profit at the end of the day. Having a large food service company is not feasible for a small company. get specials at the bread store, look at buying Hot dogs in larger volume to get better pricing, talk to people in you area that deal with your product and may be able to help you with lower prices.
 
11: After you get your cart, practice in your back yard on family and friends. learn the ins and outs of the cart and how it works. Hook up, and set up your cart 20 times or more until you feel comfortable doing it. know the cart and menu like the back of your hand. The first day of operation should be a 10% learning exp,47,599214.001001001001003001001,7,90655,207.200.116.7
599337,598751,599334,2010-07-13 11:15:00.850000000,Re:NEED ideas along I95 going to FLORDIA from PHILA”

“If you have never run a cart what the hell good does it do to see it?”

outstanding point Joedog.  if you’re really, really new, get a used cart from Craigslist.  It’s local so you can go see if it has tires and a sink.  If you know exactly what you want and want to invest more, go for it.  however, all you really need is the basic licensing requirements, a dog, a bun and some mustard to start hot dogging.

So buying the cart before I saw it was not the way to do it.I did have mike check it out.His word is far better than what I could of done to check it out. That was good enough for me. If you have never run a cart what the hell good does it do to see it? the longer I do this the more I realise how little i knew and still know.so thats why we ask questions.Because when your new you know zippo. and to have the mighty experienced wiener wonder gods spend more time belittleing you, than helping you ,really pisses me off. Its better than being pissed on.  I love selling dogs. thanks mike for helping me.you rebel prick. Joe Dog.         piss off to the wiener  wonder gods

Who pissed in your froot loops this morning?[:D]
 
 

I am just kidding Woner Gods. Most People are nice and helpful and this is a great site.Its so hard to figure out this biz. . Last week was slow. The previous 2 weeks  kicked butt. Yesterday I worked 3 hours only and made more than any day last week. I work 7 days a week 11 to 7.. I figure I have 6 months to get it done than watch football and gamble away all the money I made.

So buying the cart before I saw it was not the way to do it.I did have mike check it out.His word is far better than what I could of done to check it out. That was good enough for me. If you have never run a cart what the hell good does it do to see it? the longer I do this the more I realise how little i knew and still know.so thats why we ask questions.Because when your new you know zippo. and to have the mighty experienced wiener wonder gods spend more time belittleing you, than helping you ,really pisses me off. Its better than being pissed on.  I love selling dogs. thanks mike for helping me.you rebel prick. Joe Dog.         piss off to the wiener  wonder gods

Half the population are Zombies. I have tons of people everday walk by the sidewalk and I throw bullshit happy Joe hello, smooze ,shat at them.A good half do not know how to properly respond to Hey how are you doing? What a great day . Or what dumster did you dive into to get that Yankee hat. I am sure half of them would feel comfortable with a  Zombie dogger.

good stuff guys

IMO, You should consult with your local health department first before spec’ing out a cart. Some HD’s won’t allow griddles, grills, etc.

After you know what they need (3 compartment sinks with separate handwashing sink, hot & cold water, etc.) then you can look at cart manufacturers. Choose on that has been in business for a while, and not focus on price alone. Local pickup is a plus. I was lucky enough to visit the cart manufacturer and see the facilities before I put a deposit down. Many horror stories about eBay and internet cart manufacturers.

Check out insurance prices too. You’ll need a general business liability plan (usually 1 mil. minimum) with food poisoning coverage.

Highly recommend forming an LLC to separate your personal assets from the company assets should someone go for the jugular when they sue you for whatever.

Don’t need a lawyer or legalzoom.com

Most states have online forms to form an LLC and the IRS has forms online to get a EIN. Had mine done in 15 minutes for just the filing fees. No lawyer required.

Well – there’s my Readers Digest condensed version of getting into the biz. Probably missed a few finer points, but hey, whaddya want for free. 🙂

I’m not so sure HDK…..I guess you have to do what works for you but I was a trucker for a long time and went from that…being alone all day …to selling cars. Lincolns no less. Can you imagine what it’s like sitting across from a couple for an hour and a half, with their gold and diamonds glittering at you, that have bought several high end cars in their life, and trying to sell them a $60,000 Lincoln? I’m sure my first few customers figured out why I was sitting there sweating like a pig. I’m sure I looked “new”. But I jumped right in and became one of the top 5 salesman within 2 years in a dealership that had 25 sales reps most of which were seasoned veterans. If ANYONE can’t spend a minute and a half conversing with another human while selling them a $2.00 hot dog….well, maybe they should find something else.
I wonder if the zombie vendor is still there?

This is a good one:

14: Try to work in a restaurant close to what your operation may be like, learn how to cook on a grill, work on a fryer, or just work a restaurant food window learning good customer service. Like I said earlier, you are a professional Restaurant on wheels, just as important as anyone else in town, look and act professional, and you will be respected for doing so.

Working with customers will help you grow some skin!  You don’t want to be a newbie around professional hot dog eaters or when the local cronic complainer comes along.  You need to be alive, talkative, have some trivia and so on. 
I know from my own visits to carts, there is nothing worse than walking up to a zombie vendor that has absolutely no communication skills! 

Thanks Joe….rebel pri*k…that’s what I am. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Doesn’t make me a bad person, does it?   hahahaha

   Hey Joe, honestly, if you did all that Billy listed, not that it’s wrong, lots of good info, would you be out there selling yet?
What Billy and others have stated, good customer service, doing your homework, being sanitary, etc, etc, etc, could be said for starting just about any business. Or, working for someone else for that matter. The workplace is, especially now, so competitive that what employer is going to keep you around for long, in any industry, if you’re not doing the right things right? Ask BillyB how long he’d keep a chitty chef around when he’s got a stack of employment applications on his desk.
  My point is, sometimes you gotta have a little JoeDog in you. Freakin go for it. This really isn’t rocket science. He was a barkeep for crying out loud. It doesn’t hurt having a MikeinRI to go check out the cart for you either.
   Billy, fire up the cart at least 20 times in your backyard? I lit the 3 burners on my cart twice. Once in AL with the seller and once before I went out to make sure nothing came loose during the trip home and was out selling the next week. Was I just lucky? Maybe. The first dog I served off my cart was for sale to a customer. 
   Maybe I got lucky buying off ebay from a guy in AL also. I DID know all about All American Carts and paid half before flying down. The deal went smooth and the seller was a great guy. 
   I’m not looking for a pissing match here but I just think you can over think things and get confused, nervous and paranoid. 
  If you have the money…..NOT “blood money”, get out there and sell some damn dogs. 
   rebel pri*k…..I like it