HOT DOG CART BUSINESS MANUAL

Getting Started in Your New Hot Dog Cart Business

There are essentially about 8 steps in starting a hot dog cart business. These steps involve the cart operator doing some necessary prep work in advance of heating up that first hot dog. These steps are as follows:

1. Evaluate hot dog cart locations.
2. Select the right hot dog cart for you.
3. Obtain your business license and location permit.
4. Obtain your health department permit.
5. Set up key suppliers.
6. Get your financing.
7. Order your new hot dog cart.
8. Follow the Hot Dog Cart Operations Manual .

Evaluate hot dog cart locations.

You first need to carefully evaluate different possible locations for setting up your hot dog stand. The military has a saying: "Time spent on a rece (reconnaisance) is seldom wasted". Therefore scout out and find the best locations in your area and check to see if they are available. You may find that you will have to pay rent to private or commercial owners for a really lucrative location in a mall or busy parking lot. If so, you will need to consider whether the cost of the rent will be worth it. That is, will the location pay for itself. As a rule of thumb, the monthly rent should not exceed 10 percent of your monthly sales.

You may also need to acquire a location license in addition to your business license if you want to park your cart on a public property like a park, side walk or street. Check with your municipality for details regarding locations and permit requirements. This is discussed further in the section concerning business licensing.

The best locations for a food vending cart have a lot of pedestrian traffic. They should be located near a large population of workers, visitors or shoppers. The location should enable your cart to be highly visible to this flow of foot traffic. It should also be easy to access for you to load your daily supplies or position the cart. It is also better if there are no other competing food businesses nearby.

Here are some examples of possible permanent locations for a hot dog cart:

• Parking lot of large retail store, factory, plaza, or mall.
• Industrial park or commercial complex.
• Park, beach, pier, zoo, golf course.
• Downtown street corner or parking lot.
• University, college, high school.
• Court house, military base, government complex.
• Office building, hospital, call center.
• Transportation hub such as bus, train, subway, airport, marina, truck stop, service station, car wash.

• Sporting events such as soccer, baseball, football, etc., tournaments, little league and amateur through to professional.
• Car shows and rallies, farm shows, boat shows, air shows, industrial shows, home shows, county fairs, cultural events, carnivals, fishing derbies, auctions, parades, flea markets, music festivals, antique and craft shows, tourist attractions.
• Grand openings, open houses, large sales events, business anniversaries, company picnics & banquets, conventions.
• Charity events, church /club /school functions.
• Large construction sites.
• Catering parties and anniversaries.

While these special event locations will generate a large one time income if they are large enough, it is important to have a regular permanent location to provide you with a steady income. Do not sacrifice your consistent dependable presence at your permanent location in order to serve a one time temporary location. Your regular customers will come to depend upon your daily service. You need to maintain that loyal customer base. It will prove more reliable and profitable to you in the long term.

Obtain a business license and location permit.

Obtain a health department permit.

This permit may cost between $50.00 and $450.00 depending on the county and State. Check our Links section on this web site to locate and contact your local county health department. They are listed there by State.

The local health department wants to make sure that both you and your new food vending cart meet local standards and will provide a safe healthy service to the general public. In order for them to ensure this, the health department will specify certain technical requirements for your cart. These vary from region to region, and from county to county. Generally though, these requirements are for the cart to be made in such a way that it will be safe and clean and capable of providing healthy uncontaminated food.

The health authorities may ask you to submit details regarding your hot dog cart specifications. They want to check that the hotdog cart will meet all of their local health codes. These details, drawings and specifications can be downloaded from our web site in the Cart Selection section that shows the pictures and schematics of all the various hot dog carts.

Some county health departments will require that the hotdog cart be "NSF approved". The NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) is a quality assurance agency that provides guidelines and certification for food equipment. They have detailed specifications that manufacturers of food service equipment must meet regarding standards of design, operation and materials of construction. As a leader in hotdog cart design and manufacture, this approval is not a problem for us. However, because it involves some extra time and work, NSF approval is a chargeable option on most of our hot dog carts. If NSF certification is required by your county health department, you must mention this when ordering so that the proper certification paperwork and procedures will be done on your hotdog cart while it is being built.

Familiarize yourself with all of the health code regulations for your area. These may affect the types of foods that you can serve from your hot dog cart, the options that you will need to order with your cart, and thus also the model of cart that you pick.

For example, many health departments will specify that a food vending cart should have a certain number of sinks. Each sink will be for a separate purpose such as hand washing, dish washing, sanitizing and rinsing. As sinks are a built in feature of any cart, it is important to know the local requirements and make sure your cart meets them in every respect.

Another example is with regard to types of food that are allowed to be served from a mobile vending cart. Some counties are very strict in this regard and do not allow any raw meats to be cooked on a cart. Typically they may specify that only pre-cooked meats in the form of weiners, sausages or patties are allowed to be reheated and served on a bun. This code will affect your menu and your source of supply.

The local county health department may also want to physically inspect your cart when you receive it and before you start operating. The inspector will check over the cart to ensure it is in full conformance with local standards and will then issue you with a certiificate. This will also involve a one time inspection fee.

In addition, you may be required to take a course in safe food handling. This is actually a very good idea even if it is not a legal requirement in your area. A safe food handling training course may range anywhere from 4 hours in length to a couple of full working days. At any rate, it will fully inform you of all of the local county health requirements for your hot dog cart. Plan on paying a separate fee for this course. It may be offered by the health department directly or by another authorized food service company.

Lastly, the local health department may require that you operate your cart in conjunction with an approved commissary. A commissary is a restaurant, deli, or food supply warehouse that is set up to store and prepare food on your behalf. The commissary has the training, the equipment and the facilities to legally and safely supply all your foodstuffs including your potable fresh water.

The Hot Dog Cart Operations and Maintenance Manual found here on our web site is also a good place to start for general operating procedures for conforming to most health codes. Keep in mind that it is a general summary of health guidelines. Local health codes may be more or less strict in nature from what we have presented and your local health department may have slightly different specific requirements or procedures. An example of this is again with regard to sinks for washing hands and for washing dishes or food preparation utensils. Some county health departments specify that a hot dog cart must have separate sinks for hand washing and dish washing and even yet another for sanitizing. Check on these requirements first before ordering your hot dog cart.

Please note that California has new food regulations regarding hot dog carts that came into effect in July 2007. This new set of health regulations is called the California Retail Food Code. It affects the equipment required on a hot dog cart as well as the training and operations of the cart operator.This new California Code, or Cal Code, gives that state the strictest and most comprehensive guidelines and reqirements for mobile food vendors in the United States. To serve that particular market, we have designed a special series of California Code approved hot dog carts. Ask our customer service team about these new California Hot Dog Carts.

If you have any further questions regarding dealing with local health code regulations, we are happy to help.

Set up suppliers.

You will need to find quality, well priced, local suppliers for all the different consumable items you will be using in operating your hot dog cart. These items include the meat, condiments, drinks and side order foods you will sell, as well as cleaning supplies, paper goods, propane gas, etc.

Find a supplier for your hot dog buns. You may want to have a couple of sizes such as standard and jumbo, and maybe even a deluxe bun like a cheese bun, poppy seed bun, or an onion bun. Often times a small local bakery is a excellent source for fresh quality buns. Otherwise, you may wish to purchase from one of the large discount grocery chain stores or one of the national bakery supply companies. Some of these are listed on our Links page for your reference.

Find a local supplier for your hot dog meat. You may wish to offer standard size, jumbo, garlic, polish, spicy, bacon wrapped, or whatever style is the local regional favorite. Sometimes a local meat processor or butcher shop is the ideal source. Others use one of the national brands. Some of these are listed on our Links page for your reference.

You may find it beneficial to get set up with a local commissary. A commissary is a licensed food establishment (such as a deli) that will prepare and store certain perishable food items for you. Because they are already set up to properly receive, prepare and store foods, it will help you to avoid dealing with many of the stringent health department regulations regarding preparing and storing perishable foods such as meat and cheese. In addition, you don't have the cost of the refrigeration equipment. Having a commissary will also provide a location for your food stuffs to be delivered all day long at times when you wouldn't otherwise be available.

So basically, for a fee, the commissary provides refrigeration equipment and a storage area, receives and prepares some of the perishable foods for you, and conforms to all the health department regulations for these services. This simplifies your business and reduces your workload. They will store your hot dog meat for you and prepare your daily supply of chopped onions or grated cheese. So having a good rapport with a quality commissary is a real asset to your business.

You will need to comparison shop for suppliers of other items. These include condiments, potato chips, sodas, other beverages, plastic cutlery, napkins, hot dog bags, take-out bags, cleaning supplies, sanitizing solution, and propane gas. These items can be sourced from specialized restaurant supply companies, big box stores, discount supermarkets, commercial cleaning supply companies, and so on. While many of these can be stored in your home office, take care that even non-perishable items are stored in a manner that conforms to any local health code regulations. These are detailed in the Operations Manual.

See the Links section on our web page for links to some of the major national suppliers for hot dog meats, buns, and other specialized items used in the hot dog vending cart business.

Secure financing.

If you require financing to start your new business, you will need to go see your bank about a business loan or a line of credit.

Alternatively, we can put you in touch with our own financing and equipment leasing specialist.

To deal with the bank or financier you may need to compose a simple straight forward business plan. You can get business planning software at a business supply store. Otherwise help may be available through a local government organization that assists new business start ups.

Before they give you money, the bank or finance company wants to see that you have done your homework regarding your new business. They want to know that you are prepared for what you are getting into and are therefore a good risk.

To begin with, you will need to make a list of your business start up expenses. This list will include not just the purchase cost of the hotdog cart but also all the costs of the various licenses, permits, inspections, training, location rent, etc., that we have discussed in the above sections. Other start up expenses include the initial inventory cost of the food and other supplies, commissary expense, any auxiliary equipment purchases, insurance, and any other business expenses such as a cell phone and bank accounts.

The finance company will want to be sure that your new business is viable. So they will want to see that you have done some marketing research before hand. Some help is available online at www.hot-dog.org regarding good statistics on hot dog consumption. You should do some serious scouting and recording of details regarding your location including the population of the potential customer market, the lunch time traffic volume, the number of and location of your competitors, and so on. This can be compared with the national statistics found on hot-dog.org to give a realistic idea of your market potential.

Call us and we'de be happy to recommend a suitable financier in your area!

Order your hot dog cart.

Place your order. You will need to send a 50% down payment to start your order. The last 50% is due when the cart is ready to ship. Be sure to include all of your needed cart options at time of order. Check with your health department to ensure that it will meet all of their local requirements such as number of sinks, NSF certification, etc.

The cart delivery will vary from a few days to a few weeks depending on order volume and supplies at time of order. You should be given an idea of delivery when you order. Use this time in between ordering and receiving to tie up any loose ends such as with other suppliers, the commissary, the health department, and the location landlord. This would be an excellent time to take that food service training course.

The cart will be sent fully crated for its protection during shipment. It should arrive in good condition but sometimes damage occurs. Unpack it and inspect it for damage and completeness when you receive it. Note any obvious damage on the transport company’s waybill before you sign it and get the driver to sign or initial the damage noted. Do not accept a badly damaged cart. Reject the shipment. If you have a digital camera, take pictures of the damage before you uncrate it. Then email them to us. Call us first before uncrating a damaged cart.

It would also be a good idea to start the cart up at home and become familiar with all its features and functions before heading out to your vending site for the first time. So do a trial run with family and friends. This will provide a friendly audience and will highlight any items you have forgotten or procedures you need to practice. Ask them for reasonable realistic feedback on your product and presentation. (Carefully choose the right friends for this trial run. You want ones that will take it seriously and give you good constructive criticism.)

Follow the Operations Manual Guidelines.

Become familiar with the contents of our Hot Dog Cart Operations Manual . In fact, keep a copy with your cart at all times. If you have employees, make sure they have read it and understand it. The information there-in has been carefully researched and organized to help you get off to a good start and stay that way. It will save you time, money and frustration. The operations manual will help you through the daily operations procedure and will keep you, your cart and your customers happy and healthy.

If you require additional information that is not covered in the manual, please contact us. If you think we have missed anything or if you have information or experience that you think we should include, please let us know. We wish you the very best on your new hot dog vending cart enterprise.

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