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Permalink Reply by Joseph Robertson on May 2, 2010 at 8:23am

Check out our ( Small ) B&M building and Coffee shop in a small town. If you want hard #'s. I have them for you.
Joe

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Permalink Reply by Mitch Buckner - Bella Caffe on May 12, 2010 at 5:55am

Some considerations on the Mobile setup:
Does your locality allow "Roach Coaches" or setups anywhere in town that you have permission to be at. This would be construction sites, high traffic areas such as malls or shopping centers, parks, busy intersections, etc. If so, then having the mobile shop will almost be like having a brick & mortar shop that you can pickup & move if you find a different location to be better. My locality doesnt allow this.
If you dont have that option available then you are looking at a special events setup meaning festivals & fairs. Setups that are usually only a weekend or maybe a week (or maybe 10 days for large fairs). These require temporary health permits & then rent & utilities to the event.
The problem with doing larger festivals like this is those guys believe all of us concessionaires are out there making a million & they charge accordingly. So, the corn dog guy that might be pulling 10000.00 a day might be paying 2000.00 in rent for a weekend festival. The festival wants to turn around & charge you the same because they think you're selling the same or because they dont want to give up a spot to you & charge you less when they could get the full rate from a food vendor. So youve got to be able to go into a festival or event that will negotiate with you. Convince them that you arent selling the same numbers the food guys are selling (and you cant physically sell that much) & also convince them that you are actually adding a higher element to their event. I've convinced some events so well that they actually pay for some of my expenses (electricity, ice, etc) Of course when I sit down & consider some of my rent at some festivals its the equivalent of paying 5000.00 a month rent (especially when you're talking about paying 1000.00 or more in rent for a 2 day festival) Some festivals you pay a flat rate up front. That means if it rains the show out, you're still out that rent. Other festivals charge you a % of you're sales so if you dont make sales, you dont pay rent. If you make good sales, you pay more. Some festivals do a combination of both (250.00 rent + 20% of sales) You've just got to figure out whats best for you. Selling drinks has a much higher profit margin than selling bags of coffee (of course you're roasting so you've got a little higher margin than those of us buying from a roaster). You also are looking at this as advertising & a way to grow you're internet/wholesale/retail business so you might get future business off of an event. Me on the other hand will only get my money back if I sell drinks right then & there (of course I do have customers that follow me from festival to festival).
Another big problem with the mobile setup; weather. You dont have to worry as much about weather in a brick & mortar setup (yes, bad weather might drop sales but they wont totally kill sales). I've worked festivals that should do 5000.00 in a weekend, that have ended up doing 750.00 because of the weather. Or have been totally cancelled. I've even done shows that previous weekends weather has caused major troubles for me even though the current weather was beautiful (Nashville this past weekend, the previous weekends flood still affected sales majorly even though the weather was beautiful). You'll find yourself watching the radar, learning to read the clouds & praying for better weather will become your biggest time taker! I've also learned to hate wind with a passion.
You'll probably be doing less traveling than I do but I also thought that would be the case when I first started. Until I realized that I had to keep expanding my travel zone gradually just to find enough work to stay in business. Now I travel in about a 1000 mile radius of Memphis. So far this month I've been from Memphis to South Carolina to North Carolina to Atlanta, to Nashville & back to Atlanta. Sunday I opened up at 6AM in Nashville, closed at 6PM cleaned up & hitched up the trailer & got on the road for Atlanta & arrived in my Hotel at 3AM. Fun day. I've spent a grand total of 30 days in my home in Memphis so far this year. Im actually working on something that will keep me in town a little more (Im opening a small brick & mortar shop again!!) and Im focusing more on my local catering (wedding, corporate, etc) and Im going to try to drop some of my smaller out of town shows. I'll still keep my big out of town shows that should (depending on weather) bring in good money but the little ones that I currently do just to bring in some money I will no longer do.
Mobile is alot of work but the biggest advantage to mobile, is you decide when to be open & it wont affect your business. If you dont want to work one week & dont have any good events that you could be doing, you dont have to work. With a brick & mortar, you've gotta be open every week. You cant close up for vacation (or a break) Yeah, I work 90% of the weekends out of the year but Im usually off Monday-Wednesday (of course I have stuff to be doing but Im not open for business) I usually put in a 50+ hour work week between Friday Sat & Sunday & I spend alot of time on the road. I eat alone in restaurants alot but hey, Im doing what I love right!

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