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Do you want to profit from your talent in baking? Are you a baker looking to add some unique flair to your existing bakery shop? If you do and you are, a mobile bakery is the perfect business for you.

Did you know that Americans spent $70 billion this year on bread and bakery products? It’s not surprising considering baked goods play a big part in the American diet.

If you want to get in on some of that revenue, read on for your guide to opening a mobile bakery.

1. Get Your Paperwork in Order

No business is complete without a business license. Since you’re starting a bakery business, you’ll need to prepare paperwork for food service. This includes a health and safety certificate, food handler’s permit, and foodservice license. 

You will also need to secure permits for your mobile bakery truck. Not every city makes it easy to start a food truck business. For example, New York City has a cap on the truck permits it issues and in Chicago food trucks have to park a certain distance from restaurants. Check for your local city and state policies on food trucks and parking restrictions to make sure you are 100% legal.

2. Develop a Business Plan

Research and intensive planning is a key factor in launching a successful business. Look at your mobile bakery business from every angle. Define your business, set your goals, and research your competition.

It’ll be smart to research what your customers want. Will you be selling sweet goods only? And what kinds? With all the pies, cookies, donuts, pastries and cakes out there, you might need to narrow down your offerings to accommodate a mobile bakery setting. Will you make bread as well for customers without a sweet tooth?

In your business plan, you want to cover the startup costs, ingredients, and equipment. Your profits won’t come to you in a snap. Figure out how long it will be before you break even and start making a profit, and plan accordingly.

Research the best areas for your mobile bakery. Make a Plan B for when your baked goods don’t sell within the day. Your business plan is a strategic tool to make your bakery idea succeed, so make sure it’s comprehensive.

3. Secure Your Financing

Your financing plan comes after you know what you need to spend. First, know your budget and how you’re going to use it. Is it enough to finance your dream to sell mobile baked goods?

If it is, then that’s great. If it isn’t, how will you make it work? Should you get a loan from a bank or credit union? Can family or friends help you out while you’re still starting the business? 

If you decide to take out a business loan, find out how much the down payment and interest are. How long will it be before you can pay off the loan?

Also, don’t forget to set money aside for business insurance. You want to make sure you have covered your most important asset: your truck and the equipment inside.

4. Buy a Food Truck 

Starting a bakery is not cheap, but starting a mobile bakery will cost you significantly less than starting a brick and mortar location. Plus, food trucks have the advantage of flexibility. If you want your mobile bakery to reach all parts of town, a bakery truck can give you that reach.

If think you will need a bigger space, you have the option of going with a longer food trailer, rather than a food truck. Be sure to weigh carefully all the pros and cons of considering a trailer before you decide either way.

5. Open Your Mobile Bakery Business

Do some market research to find ideal parking spaces in different areas across your city. Make sure you know the parking regulations in the areas where you plan to sell.

You should make sure your baked goods are priced right as well. Remember, apart from the cost for ingredients, the most you spend on your goods is time: baking time, clean up time, packaging time, and marketing time. Take that into account when you calculate the cost of supplies and the time you spend making them.

Once you have those things down, you’re ready to launch your bakery on wheels. Open your business with a bang. Make sure that people notice the new mobile bakery going around town.

When customers start lining up to taste your delicious baked goods, don’t forget your customer service. One of the tricks to success is excellent customer service. The first step to gaining loyal customers is to make them happy customers.

6. Promote Your Mobile Bakery

Before you open the mobile bakery for business, reach out and connect with your potential customers. Use a variety of marketing strategies to get the word out about your bakery, including social media, local advertising, and word of mouth. Tell everyone you know!

Don’t underestimate the importance of social media; be sure to market effectively on more than just one platform. According to research, 97% of marketers use social media to reach audiences. The most engaging types of content on social media focuses on videos and images.

If you can, you should also create a blog or a website. You can write articles about your bread and sweets and other relevant topics, along with having more information about yourself and how your bakery got started.

8. Closing Tips

Starting a mobile bakery (or any business for that matter) isn’t easy. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from friends, family, or other veterans in the business. Connect with other vendors and learn their tips and tricks for running a food truck business.

Don’t forget about food truck safety. A small violation can give your business a bad rep in both the health department and the public eye. These rules exist to ensure you and your customers stay safe. 

Build up a good customer base before you start thinking about expanding. Use marketing strategies like promos and sales to help your brand take off. Once you get more recognition, you can start looking into merchandising.

Bring Your Passion to the People

Who says food trucks can only sell sandwiches or hotdogs? Food trucks can be bakeries or pastry shops too. Now, are you ready to start your bakery truck?

Want more food truck advice? Check out more blog posts here!

Thinking about starting a food truck? Request a free custom quote and one of our food truck specialists will help you design the truck of your dreams.

Stay up to date on everything Custom Concessions has to offer! Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

The post Sweet Treats On Wheels: How to Start a Mobile Bakery appeared first on Custom Concessions.

With their unique style, great food, and convenient locations, food trucks have quickly become a staple in cities around the U.S. They serve a wide variety of foods, from breakfast to dinner and dessert. And their unique take on food like tacos, Cubanos, and Korean BBQ has put them in a league of their own. 

Starting one of these food trucks might seem like a dream come true. But the truth is that establishing a food truck takes time, effort, and money. The good news is that if you have the drive and the determination, you can build a successful food truck business for years to come. 

In this article, we’ll go over the 15 steps you should take to start your own food truck bakery and how you can plan out your food truck business plan.

1. Research Permit and Licensing Requirements

Your first step in starting a food truck should be to figure out the permit and licensing requirements for food trucks in your area. If you buy a food truck without knowing what it takes to get on the street, you’re bound to have a hard time. When it comes to the permit and licensing requirements, most cities and states are very strict. 

Some have different requirements for safety certification, food handling, and even overnight storage. Doing the research about permits and licenses for food trucks in your area is a crucial first step. It will help you figure out how expensive it will be just to get started. 

Once you’ve got a clear idea of what it takes to get a food truck license, you can move forward and start your application. 

2. Find Your Food Niche

You want to start a mobile bakery, but first, you have to figure out exactly what you want to sell. For your bakery, you will need to figure out what kinds of baked goods you want to specialize in. 

Picking a specific item like bread, cupcakes, pastries, or cakes will give you some direction. You could even add something like specialty coffee to the menu to help set you apart from the competition. 

3. Find Your Truck

This will be one of the most important steps and will determine whether you do your actual baking on the truck, or whether you bake somewhere offsite and just sell your goodies from your truck. 

Using your truck as the actual bakery provides some flexibility, as you can bake more things right there if you notice one of your items is running low. But using your truck as the bakery also means that you will need more space for ovens and cooling racks.

These are all things you will want to think about when designing the perfect truck for your operation.

4. Determine What Equipment You Will Need

If you’re going to be baking in your food truck, you need to get equipment that is efficient, in terms of both space and power.

Do your research and find the ovens, mixers, warmers, racks and refrigerators that will best fit your needs and help you keep an organized, efficient truck. 

5. Buy the Right Insurance

Another crucial step is making sure you have the right insurance. Your truck is your entire business, and if it is not properly insured, you may be headed for disaster.

Making sure that your truck, your employees, and your equipment are insured will help you avoid major disasters and will keep your business safe. 

6. Develop a Mobile Bakery Business Plan

Developing a business plan is a crucial step that can’t be skipped. To run your business successfully, you need to develop a rough outline of your startup and operational costs. 

This will help you figure out your overhead, startup costs, and how much you need to make in order to be profitable. You will need to do a detailed analysis of how much it costs to produce each muffin or pastry, and determine your prices accordingly, in order to have a more accurate picture of how your mobile bakery will operate.

Having a business plan can also help you secure a loan if you don’t have funding immediately available. 

7. Get Your Capital Together

After your business plan is developed, you can start getting capital together. This can be done through banks, private lenders, or more creative means. 

The important part here is securing a loan that you can eventually pay off and has good terms. You can also get funding through your friends and family, just make sure they know the risks they are taking. Be sure and get all agreements in writing, especially if asking friends or family to invest. You don’t want disagreements over money to ruin your relationships.

8. Brand Your Truck

Part of the fun of visiting a food truck is the personality and feel of the truck. Eye-catching colors, intricate design, and a clear sense of direction are all essential in creating an attractive truck. 

Make sure that your truck has its name clearly visible and that its branding is in line with your products and services. 

9. Choose Your Locations

Placing your mobile bakery in good locations is key to running a profitable food truck business. Picking locations where parking is available and there is heavy foot traffic is a good place to start. 

Streets surrounding major attractions like stadiums, theaters, and shopping centers are great places to park your truck. Just make sure you are following the city’s rules about where you can set up shop. 

10. Get an Appropriate POS (Point of Sale) System

If your business strategy finds you getting a lot of sales, a good POS system will help you process transactions efficiently, keep track of profit, and keep the line moving. 

Since most people use credit cards and other forms of electronic payment these days, getting a POS system that accepts digital or electronic payment is crucial. Going cash-only might be convenient and cheaper, but it might end up costing you sales in the end. 

11. Explore Alternate Revenue Streams

Figuring out alternative ways to utilize your business is also important if you want to succeed. Try offering your bakery services to businesses or events that need catering as a way to make extra money. 

You can also try selling custom cakes, coffee service, and other items to boost your sales. 

12. Build a Social Media Following

One of the best ways to build a customer base is to hit social media. Starting an Instagram account, Facebook page or Twitter account is a great way to interact with your customers and spread the word. 

This also allows you to update your customers regarding your location, specials, and new items you’re offering. 

13. Sell Merchandise

As you probably already now, merchandise is a great way to get extra sales and spread the word about your business. 

Making attractive T-shirts, mugs, hats, and bags for your customers will help you boost sales, but it also serves as free advertising. 

14. Expand Your Business

While alternate revenue streams might require different business practices, you can also expand your business by trying new things. Once you get settled in and your bakery is running smoothly, you might want to start branching out a bit.

For example, if you’re starting a bakery and you only sell breakfast items, try selling lunch items as well. If you only make bread, start selling cakes. Expanding the scope of your business will help you reach those customers who might otherwise not buy from you. 

15. Identify Weak Spots in Your Operation

Before you hit the streets, try setting up a “test run” where you serve food to your friends and family. Going through the motions of a normal day without the pressure to perform perfectly will quickly show you what needs to be fixed. 

This allows you to adjust your operation and nip problems in the bud before you even officially open. 

Start Living the Food Truck Dream

Now that you know more about starting a mobile bakery, you can come up with your own bakery truck business plan and start living the dream. Make sure to research the specific laws and regulations of the city you want to work in to avoid any unforeseen issues and problems. 

Want more food truck advice? Check out more blog posts here!

Thinking about starting a food truck? Request a free custom quote and one of our food truck specialists will help you design the truck of your dreams.

Stay up to date on everything Custom Concessions has to offer! Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

The post Food Truck Business Plan: 15 Steps to Start a Mobile Bakery appeared first on Custom Concessions.