How was your year?

Congratulations on what sounds like a great year, actually. And it sounds like your reputation has spread as well.

This was our first year. It was tough & educational. Not what I expected but I have learned what to do going into next year. Startup costs were much higher than anticipated so we did not turn an overall profit. In breaking it down event by event we can see a profit but it will be a while to recoup the startup cost. Crowd estimation has been our weakness. To our advantage was the guidance of a fellow BBQ vendor & Brethern member who has offered up support, information and steered jobs our way. I think we're light years ahead of where we would be if we had to learn those things on our own. Looking fowRd to the 2016 season!

Congrats on a good year! We are only 4 months in and things have gone well. We have been able to pay down a good bit of our start up expenses and have been able to start replacing used equipment (auction purchases) with new equipment. This is all with minimal catering as we are still trying to build slowly. I will say that the long hours are taking a toll, and there is very little cash benefits as paying down debt is our main focus. Sounds like you have a great 2016 lined up as well, I wish you the best.

This was not our best year, high meat prices took us out of the market in a couple of catering jobs, that hurt. The worst event of the year had us next to a community fundraising group selling 1 dollar hot dogs and 2 dollar burgers!
Lost one good event to weather, stuff happens.
Looking forward to a good Holiday season with lower meat costs.

Later,
Doug

CONGRATS!!!! That's what we like to hear!! :mrgreen:

This was our second full year and we doubled our gross sales. That's the good news. We also got rid of a couple of cookers at a loss and still need to get something bigger in 2016. We weeded out some smaller gigs and have been lucky enough to have several high profit things already on the books. My wife plans to retire from her full time job in May so I can spend more time prospecting for mid-week corporate catering opportunities. It seems like it's the perfect time to be in it!

Congrats to everyone for your great year!! This makes year number four and we're getting better every year. Out of like 15 vending events this year, we only had 4 we didn't sell out at and that was due to weather which caused poor attendance. Otherwise, we've gotten WAY better at gauging events and not bringing stuff home all the time like we did the first couple of years. We started tinkering more with the menu this year, offering mac and cheese off the smoker and getting out of our comfort zone with some different items and doing well when we did it.

It is a LOT of work - but we're still enjoying it and the business is paying it's way and we're still making money, so all in all - no complaints. We keep streamlining and finding ways to make things easier but still doing it all the 'right' way with no shortcuts and it's paying off. Our rep is doing well and our reviews and feedback have been all positive. Our rub sales are up, catering is up and so far so good.

Keep on working hard out there everyone and congrats again on a great year!!