Is Starting a Coffee Truck Hard?

Is Starting a Coffee Truck Hard?

If you are thinking about starting a coffee truck, you might be wondering if it is hard.

There are various ways to start a coffee truck, each with its own unique challenges and opportunities. Which direction you decide to take will impact your costs, your lead time to getting started, and your sales. Your chosen direction will also determine the level of difficulty.

Of course, starting a coffee truck on the right foot makes things a lot easier. However, the idea of starting a coffee business as being easy can be misleading.

In this post, I want to discuss whether starting a coffee truck is hard and ways to make your journey easier.

Your Coffee Truck Startup

Anticipating the Challenges

When starting a coffee truck, you can do it the hard way or the practical way. I’ve always believed that preparing is the best way to avoid extra hardship. In other words, while starting a coffee truck can be challenging, people often make it harder for themselves. 

It will be important to anticipate the challenges. Depending on the route you choose, starting a coffee truck or coffee trailer can be hard. It’s easy to get swept up in the “Instagramable” posts that depict an easy startup that only takes days to put together with tools you have lying around the garage. But most, if not all, mobile coffee business owners know that starting a coffee truck takes planning, effort, hard work, and tenacity.

What Makes Starting a Coffee Truck Hard?

So, what makes starting a coffee truck hard for most people? Let’s discuss a few essential things that trip up many aspiring mobile coffee business owners.

Not Having a Plan

Starting a coffee truck without a plan will make your startup harder. I have seen many people try to wing it, and it often backfires. This can lead to delays, money wasted, energy lost, and sometimes even a dream lost. Yet, starting your coffee truck with a plan first will help set your mobile coffee business on the right footing. Check out our very affordable mobile coffee business plan guide to help you get started.

Not Developing a Budget

Starting a coffee truck requires realistic budgeting and appropriate use of funds to ensure the completion of your mobile coffee project. The initial costs include the base vehicle, equipment, installation, permits, insurance, and other items. Developing a startup budget and profoundly understanding your operational costs will be necessary.

Regarding budgeting, you’ll want to think ahead and determine where and how you will get the funds you need. I have promoted the idea of developing your coffee business funding mix. Will you use your savings, pay-as-you-go, or borrow funds to get your coffee truck business up and running? You may also decide to fund your coffee truck with any combination of these and others.

Not Understanding Your Local Codes

I’ve seen it before—designing and building your coffee truck or trailer only to have the construction ripped out and done all over again to satisfy the local and state building and health codes. Whether you start a mobile coffee business or brick-and-mortar coffee shop, understanding your local codes, regulations, and permitting—from your health department, fire department, or buildings department—will make your mobile coffee journey much easier.

Understanding exactly what you need to do to get your coffee business licenses and permits will be a worthy place to put your time.

Choosing to Build Your Own Coffee Truck or Trailer

I can tell you from direct experience that building out your mobile coffee unit is challenging. It was a great experience for me, but there are easier ways to get your mobile coffee business up and running. For some, the process of building out your coffee unit can be fun, exciting, and an interesting challenge. For others, it can be very hard.

Certainly, there are things that you need to know before refurbishing a coffee truck or trailer. I’ve written about it extensively in the past and believe that the more prepared you are, the less hard the effort will be.

Operational Challenges

After you get your mobile coffee business launched, the day-to-day challenges can be fun, but they are also challenging. While it’s fun and rewarding to meet tons of new people, make great coffee, and make money on the thing you love, it takes a lot of energy behind the scenes to make it all happen smoothly.

Like other coffee business owners, you’ll have your operational challenges. Properly managing your coffee and food inventory, scheduling out your baristas and staff, and managing your finances is just a part of the job. For many, this can be a real challenge, for others, it can be a fun part of the job.

However, running a mobile coffee business presents physical challenges. There are several reasons for this, but primarily, the reason is that you must load inventory into your unit daily. Pounds of coffee, gallons of milk, food, and supplies all need to be carried in and out of your coffee truck. Collectively, this can be challenging for even the most fit person over time.

Finding the Right Location and Customers

On the surface, finding the right location seems easy. But you’d be surprised how promising locations often don’t pan out. A little trial and error may always be a part of the business. Before you sign an agreement, do a little research, count customers, and explore the neighborhood, traffic flow, pedestrians, and other variables.

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Is Starting a Coffee Truck Hard?

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The Competition Never Dies

You'll have competition everywhere, whether from direct competitors, such as brick-and-mortar coffee shops, drive-thru espresso stands, other mobile coffee businesses, or substitute businesses.

The best way to address competition is to focus on what you do best. Consistently delivering high-quality coffee, food, and snacks with excellent customer service will help strengthen your brand and customer loyalty.

Keeping your business engaged with the community and consistently sharp can be challenging. It’s hard to sustain the passion for your business when you might be bogged down with the daily tasks of running a mobile business.  Your chosen staff, the culture you build within your business, and your motivation will play a significant role in sustaining the passion that your customers will feel.

Time Management and Work-Life Balance

Mobile coffee businesses are exciting and worthwhile businesses. But like any other business, the process can take over your life. When it comes to mobile coffee businesses, getting overwhelmed can be easy because there are so many things to do. However, if you start off with a plan, develop good systems, hire the right people, and work to choose the right location that works for you and your sales, you’ll be better off.

Your Ability to Adapt and Embrace a Positive Attitude

Running a mobile coffee business can be hard, but often, what makes it more challenging is our inability to adapt and make small but significant changes.

Mobile coffee operators experience a lot of unpredictability – things like weather changes, vehicle breakdowns, traffic, employee no-shows, equipment problems, and problems setting up at your location. This is where your flexibility and resilience will come in handy.

I have always believed that mobile coffee business owners are cut from a special cloth – they are tenacious, have grit, and are problem solvers. While there will be challenging times when you need to display patience and grace, you’ll likely grow into a successful, profitable business over the long run.

Why Start a Coffee Truck?

We’ve discussed a few of the challenges many mobile coffee business owners face. Now, let’s talk about why we’re here. You might be wondering if starting a coffee truck a good business. Let's discuss this below:

Coffee Truck Profit Potential

Running a coffee truck can be profitable. Depending on your location or specific event, you can pull a few thousand dollars over a weekend and $5000 – $7000 during the week – or you can make $0.

Of course, your profitability depends on how many days of the week you work, your sales volume, your menu options, and your efficiency.  

It’s easy to assume that a brick-and-mortar coffee shop will be open 5 to 7 days a week, between 7  a.m. and 4 p.m.  While some coffee shops open earlier and others stay open later, this is a reasonable assumption. However, when operating a mobile coffee shop, the days and hours you work are less predictable. Unless you are stationed at one spot daily,  you’re likely at one, two, or three spots throughout the week and weekend. In addition, you may decide to work on specific events, days of the week, or seasons of the year. So, ultimately, your income is likely to fluctuate.

It would help if you designed a plan that will allow you to work during the times and days to help you achieve your financial goals. Ultimately, this will help you determine your future profit expectations.

Benefits of a Coffee Truck

Starting a coffee truck business has significant advantages over other coffee business concepts.  The first advantage is the lower startup and operational costs. Starting a coffee shop can cost a couple hundred thousand dollars, whereas a coffee truck can cost significantly less. The second benefit is flexibility. You have tremendous flexibility in choosing where to be and who to serve. You can always drive away if you don’t like the vibe, the area, or the number of customers. The next advantage is a lifestyle; you can be a part of the fun at different events, festivals, concerts, or other special occasions.  

How to Make Things Easier

Starting a coffee truck can be hard  – if you don’t prepare.  Learn all you can about starting coffee trailer or coffee truck. The very small investment in money and time will likely help you develop your coffee truck business with less time and hassle.

Here are a few brief recommendations to make your coffee truck startup less hard.

1. Define your concept – understand what type of business you want, who you want to serve, and what you want to serve.
2. Create a business plan and a budget. It may not be sexy to sit down and write a business plan, but I can argue that it’s pretty sexy to save money. And that’s likely what will happen if you write a thorough business plan and budget.

Learn all you can. Start with our very affordable guide. For the cost of a couple of cups of coffee and a donut, you’ll have tons of information on how I started my mobile coffee business.

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Based in Seattle, Washington, USA, Coffee Shop Startups is dedicated to providing you with the most relevant information on how to start a coffee shop business successfully. Over the last 11 years, we've helped thousands of aspiring coffee business owners worldwide. We harness the experience, wisdom, and knowledge of many successful coffee shop owners to help you increase your chances of success and profits. We support business owners who want to start a coffee business by providing them with valuable information on starting their coffee business successfully.