Why Hit the Road? Unveiling the Benefits of Starting a Food Truck vs. Traditional Restaurant

You’ve likely seen food trucks with hordes of people outside during lunchtime and thought about starting your own mini-restaurant someday. The food truck industry is growing more and more popular with a lot of success. If you’re considering opening up a kitchen, you may be wondering what the benefits of starting a food truck business vs. a restaurant are. While it’s pretty cool to have a business that can change location as much as you want or a different view each day, there are plenty more benefits you may not have considered! Today we’ll go over some of what we believe to be the top benefits of owning a truck instead of a brick-and-mortar location.

Lower Overall Cost

Since the cost of starting a business is one of the first things people think about, we figured we’d start here. On average, a restaurant costs $425,000 to start, while a food truck business costs around $50,000-$175,000. It’s less than half the cost and provides you with much more flexibility. Additionally, if you want to open another location, you can start a second food truck and still spend much less than the cost for one permanent restaurant. 

You Can Find the Best Location

If you invested almost half a million dollars into a restaurant only to realize it’s placed in a poor location, you’re going to be in a lot of trouble. On the other hand, in a food truck, you can bounce around until you find the perfect area. You may even have a couple of different spots you visit throughout the day to maximize business and serve more of your community. Location is a significant factor for restaurants and a considerable advantage for food trucks. You can test our different areas at different times to find out what works best for you. Instead of putting money into “market research,” you’ll be making money while doing real-world research yourself!

You Can Cater

While traditional restaurants have the ability to cater as well, it’s more of a hassle for them. Usually, the primary managers or owners have to leave the restaurant for the day to set up, serve guests, and break down. Cooking for the catering may interrupt the regular orders in the restaurant, and they typically won’t have a consistent demand for events. When it comes to food trucks, they’re made for catering! You can cater for a music festival, summer carnival, birthday party, work event, or just about anything involving a large group of people. In Southern California, there’s no shortage of events, and you can test our different venues to see which you like the best!