catering/Vending

Some general business thoughts, though grab a couple grains of salt as my business education/experience is primarily NOT in food service.

Translating over though, ask yourself some of the following questions. If you don't know the answers right now you probably ought to be thinking about them.

Can you describe your customers? Who will be seeking you out and giving you their hard earned money? Why will they drive past other restaurants to get to you? Are they picking up for take-away or eating the food right there? Is all the proper ancillary stuff available for either, ways to carry condiments such as sauce if takeaway or places to sit & ways to eat and clean up if eating onsite? What will they tell their friends / family / co-workers? Why should they come see you today instead of tomorrow?

Describe your competition. What other vendors or restaurants serve the same customers? How will they react to your presence in the market? What advantages do they have over you today and what advantages can they easily acquire over you tomorrow if they choose to? What advantages do you have over them? How will you maintain those advantages?

Do a SWOT analysis (which the above covers part of) for your venture; Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. Do a similar one for your perceived primary competitors. Always remember that prepackaged stuff from the grocery store is one of your competitors.

Do a cash flow analysis. What will you be spending money on and when? What will your fixed costs be that you'll have to pay whether you sell a single meal or not? What will your variable costs be that change based on your sales volume? What is your total cost for each menu item at two or three anticipated sales volumes? What do you anticipate your daily/weekly/monthly sales volume to be and why? Will it be seasonal / cyclical and what will drive that? How will you cover your fixed costs during the slower times?

There's also a bunch to consider in terms of labor that you'll want to be thinking about too. Will you need help? Who will be working for you, how much will they work, what will your total costs be including all the myriad taxes/fees/etc. you deal with when you have employees.

Hope the above helps.

Ease of access is kinda important. For a BBQ place, parking is really important. Because of the cost of BBQ, because of the way people attach to BBQ, your client base is almost never going to be largely walk-up. So, parking is a big deal. It is nice to find an easy place to pull in, that is for sure. People will drive for great BBQ though, if you create the reputation, they will comes from miles

Use social media to let your customers know where you are. Best of Luck.

Diesel Dave -- Sounds good. Don't take my post above as anything negative, just stuff anyone going into business should know about the environment they're operating in so they can best succeed.

Here in Atlanta there were a couple guys who were competition BBQers and decided to start a weekend BBQ take-out store back in 2004 or so. Business took off. They went to full time, expanded to two stores and eventually split up with each taking one store. Both of these, plus two stores started by employees who left and set out on their own, consitute four of the ten BBQ joins on the Atlanta Magazine's top-ten list. http://www.atlantamagazine.com/barbecue/

If I may make one additional suggestion: I don't know your area but if it's not one where everybody already knows everyone else, consider also having a solid presence on Yelp. I know a number of people who will check reviews of places they intend to try out to see if it's worth it or not.

ButtBurner said:

just a thought Dave

There is a guy who setup in a BP gas station parking lot off the I 96 Brighton Grand River exit. He has a huge pile of wood behind his trailer so I know this is his regular spot. Maybe you could do something like that? I did not talk to him, maybe next time you are up that way you could pick his brain

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I drive past there at least once a week, and I haven't seen him there for a while. Latest time I passed there was mid day Thursday.

Just noticed this thread dave, congrats! I've learned a lot from the 3 months we have been open, although I still have a lot to learn. The biggest is that opening 2 days of work takes up way more time than 2 days, I'm sure you already know this. It is exhausting yet rewarding. Let me know if I can help you in any way!

Hey Dave!

Congrats fellow Michigan BBQ Brother. Let's hook up sometime. I would love to pick your brain. I too have begun to dive into this head on. Are you cooking off the the Shirley and holding?

Dave - One area to consider - While we had our food trucks here in CA, we did call in or email in to go orders. Have a take home menu for all your customers explaining how they can call ahead after work, etc to pick up dinner for the family. Granted we were food trucks, but I would say in the evenings, 30-40% of our business was folks taking food hime to feed the family. Best of luck.

Hey Dave, just saw the thread (I don't frequent this forum as much as I should). Wishing you all the best. FWIW, I've kinda gotten to the point of searching out truck/trailer BBQ and I'm consistently much happier with the Q compared to brick & mortar joints. My point here is social media should work to hold onto folks that already know about you but you might need some kinda hook for drive-by folks like me. Some bling on that big old black trailer & a little roadside signage (if allowed) might help.