Hiring vending employees is a vital strategy to grow your street food vending business.

I need more help!

It’s gotten too big for me to handle!

I need more carts and stuff! What about employees???

I sat down with Jason Brown the other day, after some technical difficulties, to discuss all this stuff.

Skip to 11:40ish to hear our actual conversation, if you don’t wanna listen to me rant, ramble, and rave for almost 12 minutes, lol

• 13:00  How do I run more than one cart?
  • Figure out who can be a manager, versus just an employee
  • You have to cultivate managers. Train them on everything!
    • Setting up, towing the cart
    • Show them everything to see if they can handle it
    • Then let them work with another employee to see if they can handle it
    • Gives you ability to expand, so you’re not tied up running day to day stuff
• 15:30      Pay them well
  • Jason, “I never touch the tip jar… always goes to the employees.”
• 16:30      Ben’s hot dog expansion plan
  • 22 carts… bad idea… Don’t do that.
  • Gave people a share of the profits. They were 1099 subcontractors
  • They get a business license….
  • 50/50 profit share (after all expenses)
  • Kept their tips.
  • They made money, I made money. Win, win.
  • Alleviated W2s, social security, workman’s comp…
• 20:00      Catering, Jason paid them even more…
  • Commissions, plus pay, plus tips
  • Slow to hire, quick to fire
  • Culinary degrees don’t guarantee they can cook, or that they’ll be great street food employees.
  • Take care of your employees!
• 22:30      How to find employees for events?
  • Facebook ads…
  • Jason avoids friends and family
  • Check with your local college (Dean of Students) job board
  • Retired people are awesome!
  • Make sure employees know your food
  • Culinary schools, interns, get credit for school and get paid…
• 24:00 Ben burns his biscuits! Don’t do that…
• 25:15      How to do 1099 in food vending?
  • Have to start their own business
  • Can be sole proprietor. They don’t have to set up an LLC.
• 25:45      But business license too expensive!
  • Food business is cheapest to get into
  • Learnhotdogs.com/getit
  • Don’t jump over dollars to pick up dimes!
• 27:14 If you don’t have the money to start, check out learnhotdogs.com/broke, or cottage food!
• 29:20      Health insurance for vendors?
  • Jason has a great idea
    • Make more money, then you can afford it. Factor it in to your cost of doing business.
  • Small Business Association has a program
  • Make sure it has major medical: the most important part.
  • AFLAC has worked for Jason in the past.
• 34:48 Start from home, kitchenincome.com with little to no money
• 36:50 How about hiring from a Temp service?
  • Jason says not really
  • Maybe for general labor
• 38:30      Ben gives some examples of 1099 employees
  • You’re the general contractor
• 39:30 What program to use to keep your business finances organized?
  • QuickBooks integrates with Square
• 41:15      Pulled Pork sliders, multiplying your profit
• 46:00      Buy new equipment. It’s a tax write off.
• 47:00      Advice for your first day!
  • Check out this link, Learnhotdogs.com/40  
  • Your customers aren’t experts. However you do it, you’re the pro. Own it.
  • It’s not an emergency room. No life and death.
  • Mistakes are okay. Make a joke out of it.
  • Enjoy yourself: be friendly.
  • Take extra shirt/apron, and clean backup tongs in case you drop them in the dirt.
• 50:40 What if an event wants a percentage?
  • Depends, but Jason doesn’t go over 10% of net.
• 52:55      Launching your first cart.
  • Make sure you know how to run it, before you try to train an employee.
  • Once you know how to run it, then teach them everything you know.
• 56:00 Get your social media going before you start.
  • Actual content, not just “We’re gonna be here…” Be consistent with it.
• 57:00 What about the sink requirement?
  • Check out this resource: learnhotdogs.com/Sink
• 59:30 Keep records: weather, events, days of the week
  • Check out this article.
• 102:30    Would a hot dog cart work in Ireland?
  • Yes! We have vendors in Ireland, and in buttloads of countries around the world!
• 104:45 How to price your dogs (and any product)
  • Know your costs
  • Know your market
• 107:00    Ben needs to go make fresh, non-burned biscuits…

Love ya! Keep on vending!

Now watch the video!