Velma’s Wicked Delicious Kettle Corn has been popping at farmers’s markets and craft shows across throughout New England since 2006. Today, we speak with Eric Bickernicks, the owner of this kettle corn business to discuss how to start this type of business, what it’s like to be an operator, how much it will cost to start this type of business, and the equipment you’ll need to get up and running. Eric first got the idea to start a kettle corn business while visiting a fair near his home. He couldn’t believe the length of the line that was being formed next to a little kettle corn stand. After ..read more

Planning to conduct a SWOT analysis for your food truck business? That’s really smart! Going through the process of identifying your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) will help you be more prepared for the realities of operating a mobile food unit. The SWOT analysis offers a deeper understanding of what makes you different locally and how you’ll specifically address shortcomings of the business. While it’s impossible to foresee every possible downturn that could happen in a food truck business, completing this template will have you more prepared for what’s to come. SWO ..read more

Thinking about starting a burger restaurant or truck? We conduct a deep dive into the $100+ billion dollar burger restaurant industry in the United States, the estimated costs to get started, and profit potential for this massive food business opportunity. The companion podcast for this market analysis is brought to you by our sponsor Gusto. Burger Industry Analysis Outline:  Introduction to the burger industry Options for creativity with burgers Economics of burgers Cost breakdown and potential markups/margins How we do burgers at Ancho Honey. Introduction In the United States, our ..read more

I got a question from one of our food business academy premium members last week that I felt would be valuable to share with all the readers / listeners of this podcast. She asked about the best ways to test market her new food products and get feedback.  The answer is in the notes below and audio lesson — thanks for sending in the question, Haley! What is Test Marketing?  Test marketing is a way to see if there’s demand for your product. Without testing, it’s possible you could be creating a food product that no one wants. If nobody wants your product, you unfortunately don’t have a ..read more

Wondering what to name your podcast? I’m here to help you choose a name, topic, and even share how I make money with a podcast. I want you to know what to expect before pressing record on your first episode. Click on the navigation links below to jump straight to the section that interests you the most. I’ll start off by sharing more than one hundred podcast name ideas for different topics. Then I’ll share my advice on getting started and income details for podcasts. Let’s do this thing! Food podcast name ideas Business podcast name ideas Interview podcast name ideas Girl podcast name ideas S ..read more

This is an emergency podcast episode for restaurant owners that need more customers right now. In these challenging times, people are staying at home, watching Netflix, and spending even more time on their phones than ever before. Much this is being spent scrolling through Facebook and Instagram feeds. Is your restaurant advertising on Facebook or Instagram? Today’s episode is all about putting your restaurant in front of these “at home” consumers using social media advertising so your restaurant is the obvious option for delivery, take out, or curbside meals. If the thought of advertising i ..read more

Want to look inside the business plan of a real food truck business? We’ve organized detailed business plan templates from successful food trucks and made them available to you in PDF and Word doc in this post. In addition to offer templates, we give you detailed instruction how to complete each section of the plan using this guide. Before we dive in, keep in mind that it could take weeks if not months of planning to develop a business plan that’s helpful. Whatever time takes for you to write the business plan will be well spent. When researched correctly this document serves as the “game plan ..read more

In today’s episode of the podcast, we catch up with Natascha Hess of The Ginger Pig in Colorado. Natascha was in our first ever Food Truck Academy program a few years back and has gone on to have tremendous success, including being awarded the Best Food Truck in Denver. Natascha Hess of the Ginger Pig. Fast forward a couple years, Natascha is opened her first restaurant at Rosetta Food Hall in Boulder, Colorado. If you live in the area be sure to give the restaurant a visit for authentic Asian street food. This interview is an excerpt from part our annual Food Truck Academy class earlier this ..read more

Thinking about starting your own coffee truck? In this blog post we guide you through the steps required start a profitable mobile coffee business from someone that’s already done it. Our goal is to give you the real deal of what it’s like to operate this type of business (spoiler alert: you’ll need to be an early riser) on a daily business to help figure out if this really is the right business model for you. Learn how to start a small coffee trailer like this one. Table of Contents Background Developing a Brand Daily Operations How much does it cost to start a coffee truck? How profitable ..read more

Jennifer Jacobs is the owner and founder of Wandering Whisk Bakeshop in St. Petersburg, Florida. Jennifer owns a boutique bakery studio with an emphasis on custom-work for weddings, corporate events, and catering. Jennifer Jacobs, Founder of Wandering Whisk Bakeshop. But it wasn’t always this way. Jennifer had extremely humble beginnings. In fact, she operated the business out of a home kitchen the first half-decade. During this time, Jennifer would begin baking after logging 8-hours on the overnight shift at the Home Shopping Network (HSN). Jennifer started her business in a small apartment w ..read more