How to succeed with your
Food Truck
“
For the entrepreneur
CONTENTS 01
Hii You ! //
page 06
02
About the Organization //
page 16
03
Business Mentor //
page 22
04
Successful Business //
page 40
a Vision & Concept // page 44 b Customers // page 50 c Marketing // page 94 d Food Truck // page 112 e Production // page 126
05 Courage to live your dream
//
page 142
06 Case Stories // page 150
07 Link Overview // page 174
08 Credits //
page 181
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The world doesn´t need any more hotdogs from petrol stations and lousy kebabs - Christ ian Mørck Dire ct or, HiiYou
1
Hii You !
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Hooked Seafood Kitchen / Nørrebro Park
Hii You! This book is able to support, help and inspire you, who want to take a plunge into freedom, and become entrepreneur with your own mobile business. Is your answer Yes to one or several of the following questions? In that case we recommend, that you continue reading. This book is loaded with useful knowledge, tips and inspiration about running an independent Food Truck business.
01
Do you have a dream of being self-employed?
02
Do you have doubts about, what it takes to start your own business?
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Are you fond of spreading joy, and being part of what happens in your city?
04
Do you find it difficult to manage issues as administration, operation and marketing?
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Do you have a preference for cooking and recipes?
Did you answer Yes more than once, then let´s get going. Everything you need, you will find in this book. Enjoy From all of us in the Hii You organization
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There are many reasons, why a mobile business might be the right choice to start a life as self-employed with, instead of establishing for instance a restaurant, bar or café.
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Success comes with experience. You are not supposed to know everything from the beginning
Establishing a traditional restaurant will easily cost you millions. To get you going with a mobile business, will only cost you forty to one hundred thousand crowns. With a traditional restaurant, you depend on the customers to find you. With the Food Truck, you go to where the customers are, which gives you a huge advantage. You have constantly direct contact to potential customers, who will benefit from meeting you, who has the passion for the product, face to face. You are so to speak at eye level with your customers. This book is developed for you, who hasn´t run a Food Truck before and who hasn´t been self-employed, but has a dream of it. The purpose with this book is to uncover, what it takes to master your mobile business.
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According to leading business coaches a lot of people have a secret dream of being self-employed, but we do not dare to give the dream a chance
Together with leading international business coaches we have identified the factors that keep people from doing what they dream of, to create their own business and become self-employed. Through interviews with entrepreneurs and contractors, and through conversations with people, we have learned that fear is the main reason, why people do not dare to face a new adventure. Often it is only a few uncertain parameters, which make the difference between deselection or the realization of the dream. In this book, we list the assumptions you need to be in control of, to achieve a successful mobile business. The good news is that you need not to master everything yourself. You can cooperate with others, and you can outsource tasks.
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Persisk / HiiYou Amager Beach
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I think it is a great pleasure, that we, as ordinary people, can create a trend with quality food, that everybody can afford - Fo o d Truc k o w n e r, Tho mas J un ke r
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Deep fried Fish / HiiYou Fisketorvet
2
About HiiYou Organization
18
HiiYou Meeting Room / BROEN Refshaleøen
About HiiYou Organization Our incentive to throw our soul and work into Street Food production, is besides a preference for Street Food, that we in a larger market analysis concluded, that there was no other company in the European market, which showed an interest in developing and producing quality Food Trucks. One thing led to another and after indescribable many challenges and day work, in a few years, today we proudly present six different types of mobile products, and what is properly the best Food Truck in the market. Today we are a team of 100 persons, who gets up every morning to secure, that we constantly learn from our customers’ use of Food Trucks, in order to continually improve and optimize the product. We are certain, that it is for your benefit, because we have solved the task, on which you ground your mobile business, with a quality product and workplace. Hii You has developed its organization in Denmark, in order to help entrepreneurs to succeed being self-employed, and furthermore achieve a satisfying and profitable weekday, hoping for a greater Street Food community to the benefit of all partners.
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There was no other company in the European market, which showed an interest in developing and producing quality Food Trucks
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Our organization has pinned Food Trucks and high quality Street Food on the map in Denmark, and we are heading towards a larger promotion in more countries in Europe. Apart from a unique production, and lay-out of Food trucks by MobileKitchen.dk, we also support indoor and outdoor Street Food markets all over the country, a Street Food cultural project called HejKBH.dk, and the mobile catering company MobileChefs.com. All these activities are now to be gathered under Hii You, as one whole organization. We have a thorough knowledge to challenges and possibilities in the market, and have developed a course from A to Z, that will help you on the way, from idea to success. We are nobody without our organization’s skilled employees, volunteer staff, partners and members. The happy and competent enthusiasts we are, the more we can improve the food level, the selection and strengthen the community inside Street Food.
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Today we are a team of 100 persons, who gets up every morning to secure success for your mobile business
The Hii You organization is here to help you and support you, through the entire process, and the operation of your mobile business. During the last 12 months, our organization has acted as mentor to 45 entrepreneurs, and supported them to realize their dream about a mobile adventure in Denmark. Most of them have already achieved freedom, success and even economic profit. We are looking for new partners and suppliers all over the country to Street Food markets, and to our mobile catering.
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We help entrepreneurs in Denmark to establish their business, to achieve a satisfying and profitable weekday. We are hoping for a greater Street Food community for the benefit of everyone
HiiYou Office / BROEN Refshaleøen
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3
Business Mentor
Business Mentor The Hii You organization, whose experience and research is the foundation of this Food Truck book. A team of committed and engaged members of the organization are ready to help and guide you on your Food Truck journey. We hope you are inspired and motivated to start. Be aware, that we are here to help and support you. We cannot shop, cook and clean for you, but be sure we can give you a hand. You are free to choose in what way you want our help and support. We, as well, have some claims for you, if you join our catering community and we expect you to join us wearing your “love glasses�. The most important and dignified job your mentor has, is to ask you many questions, and guide you through your business plan in all its details. When you are ready to make the decision, your mentor introduces you to colleagues, design advice, graphics, advertising, marketing, sales etc. If you want to be a part of the Street Food community, and want to attract more customers and expose through the catering community, your business mentor will introduce you to the team in Hii You. Your business mentor will help and guide you, all the way through the process of establishing your business.
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Daniel Mikkelsen / Sawasdee
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The advantages of writing a business plan 01
With a business plan you don’t have to think constantly about your ideas and thoughts.
02
It will make it possible for you, to make up your mind about important details, and to do research and establish a plan. Even if you don’t follow the plan, it is very important to make one, because it is the process, that gives you time to breathe, and secure that you think and plan all details concerning your business.
03
Achieve peace of mind and start your business journey without worries, and make it easier to get feedback from your advisers. It might as well result in the fact, that you can develop and optimize your plan or make your concept even better.
04
You can update your business plan, whenever you want. A plan like that is always under development, and when you return to the latest version, something new has always happened.
Make your business plan vivid by adding images or graphic. We have been so kind, that we have developed a complete template for you, which will make it easy for you, to start your vision and plan. The table of contents for this template matches the chapters you have read in this book. Ask your Business Mentor for help to fill out your business plan or ask for sparring, when you are in need of support or counseling.
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These are the main topics in your business plan
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Homegrown / KartoffelrĂŚkkerne Greek Treat / Charlottenborg
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Bode's Bagel / HiiYou Højbro Plads
What does it take? To be approved as a Food Truck partner at Hii You, it takes, that you have the skills that will make your partnership successful. You must be able to inspire us, with your food concept, and we must have a feeling, that you are in control of your economy, so that our financing and support not are in vain.
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Conditions for a successful mobile business The persons, who are most likely to succeed, are enthusiasts. Archetypes, who are passionate about their own ideas and who has the courage to realize them. But even the most competent or well educated business people, rarely master all the topics or conditions, it takes to run a profitable business. You must know the limitations of your own talent, know your own forces, and get help from others when necessary. Today there are both small and big companies, that offer their services within different areas of knowledge. Use them, when you lack the knowhow or when you don’t want to spend your time on it. It is much wiser to do so, than to believe that you can do everything yourself. If you try to do everything yourself, you end up working around the clock without achieving success. It is much better to let go, to those who can help you.
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Laura´s Bakery / HiiYou Højbro Plads
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From idea to realization To get started with a successful business you can benefit from, the following timeline and the business plan below, which are the main topics for coming from idea to realization.
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The first 100 days Before you start your mobile business it is important that you make yourself clear, what is your plan, when you are ready to start. Where will you find your customers? Where will you go to? What is your plan?
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Evaluation of your Business Plan If you choose to make a business plan, share it with people who can help and give you qualified feedback. People who are experienced and worth listening to. If you choose to make a business plan, share it with people who can help and give you qualified feedback. People who are experienced and worth listening to. In Denmark, the Street Food industry is rather fresh and for that reason, it is a little limited, from whom you can take qualified advices. That is why, you are more than welcome to get your plan evaluated by business mentors from the Hii You organization, or ask for sparring of ideas and solutions in different questions. If you have very challenging questions, our business’ mentors are in a position to involve employees and volunteers in the organization. We have experts in the following domains: Economy Strategy Admin. Technics Service Customers
Catering community, technical platform of events, knowledge about big events, locations, stalls, menu cards, prices, terms, Street Food markets etc.
Design
graphical designers, art direction, logo, foil processes, advertising, signs, photo shoots, styling, editing, production etc.
Events
Support for pop up events, festival planning and processing, support to client events etc. Branding, marketing, social medias, PR, etc.
Marketing
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Bookkeeping, financing, revision, cash resources and budgets Vision, basic values, strategy on high and low level Management experience, knowhow, HR, employees, authorities, licenses etc. IT, cash register, credit card systems, white goods and electricity systems Service resources, knowledge about all conditions of Food Trucks
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Chela Empanadas / Verdenshjørnet Nørrebro
Helpful Hints to achieve Success To become a success with your mobile business 01
A strong desire to create (the desire will keep you busy with your visions and plans)
02
Persistence (success doesn’t show immediately but appears day by day)
03
Flexibility (it is important to be able to change things and reorganize if something does not work)
04
Solve challenges instead of finding problems. (A positive attitude to life and challenges make it easier to attract nice experiences and happy days)
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Love to the service business (if you do not like to provide service and make people satisfied – a Food Truck is not the right choice for you)
06
Specialize in specific food genres or dishes. You'll want people to come looking for your Food Truck in order to get exactly what you have to offer. - If they can get it somewhere else, they'll go to the nearest option.
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Be proud of your business and take good care of your truck, appliances and commodities. Chances are that your passion will be perceived as high quality standards which will attrackt more and more customers.
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Put your brand identity on all your material such as: aprons, signs, napkins, menus, cups and wrapping paper. This will make your business appear more thought through and well-established.
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Be aware of who you hire to be part of your Food Truck business. Make sure it's someone who reflects your brand values. A person capable of qualified customer service and self-monitoring.
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4
Successful Business
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Hooked Seafood Kitchen / Fish Burger
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Don't compromise on quality and taste You can make it easy for yourself, and choose to sell a few but exclusive dishes. In that way, you will have time to perfect and optimize your product, and at the same time your customers will come back to you, to get the unique product you offer.
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a
Vision & Concept
Vision & Concept
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Create what you love the most, and share it with the world
You do not need to invent a whole new industry or to reinvent the wheel. Instead you should take advantage of, what is obvious, to contribute with something you love, in an industry, that has all ready proved to be a success. Street Food industry is growing explosively all over the world. What is your concept? Of course it would be preferable, to be the one and only with a culinary concept like yours. But if your concept is good enough, there will be room for a similar food concept on every street corner.
01
Consider what your contribution of culinary experiences to the world should be.
02
Imagine a queue of 100 persons in front of your mobile business, and take care to make a simple menu card with max 3 dishes.
03
Consider what expression and style you want to expose, and c onsider how your logo and the foil on your Food Truck should look like.
04
Imagine the look of a uniform, on you or your staff.
05
What makes you unique? How can you attract attention and interest? Do you have a history, you can use in your concept?
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What are you passionate about? Ecology, local raw materials, extraordinary loving service or high food quality?
Inspired by the above mentioned, you can describe and articulate your vision and your values.
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Homegrown / Copenhagen
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I think my success is due to the fact, that our food is always the same. I shall never disappoint one single customer, and that’s why it is so important, that the product always taste the same - Fo o d Truc k o w n e r, R i c hard Ki l d e
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LêLê Street Kitchen / Ricepaper Rolls
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Customers
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Good service gives good publicity
Customers What it takes to make your mobile adventure possible, and eventually create financial freedom for you, depends on, your ability to please your customers, and make them return to you. Attitude and customer service The expression of your Food Truck makes an impression on potential customers, and is essential to, whether a customer choose you instead of other options nearby. Our experience tells us, that first impression is of giant significance to the customers. Our best advice is to keep your Food Truck styled, clean and appetizing. Just like your food. Good customer service is central to provide. In your Truck, you and your staff are very close to the customers, and it is expected, that the service is warm and welcoming, even if it’s a busy day. The customers are your most important ambassadors, and if the food is good, and the service caring, customers are more than willing to recommend your food concept.
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Your expression determines the customer’s impression, and that is essential to, whether you are chosen or not
The Product First and foremost the product you serve is essential, in order to achieve success, and to make the customers return to you. Imagine you and your Truck in a market place. Look around. Where do you find the longest queue? The longest queue is where expression, customer service and food concept form a whole. If the longest queue isn’t in front of your Truck, take a look at the other trucks, and be inspired to adjust, change and improve.
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Rosario Sanchez / RelĂŚ 5 year Birthday
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Everest & Greek Treats / Verdenshjørnet Nørrebro
Are you adaptable? Even if you have invested a lot of energy and thoughts in developing your food concept, be prepared, that it is very seldom, that you get the final menu and the final concept from the start. It requires, that you are ready to adapt. Listen to your customers and have others to talk to your customers, to make sure, that you get a sincere feedback. There are several factors, which make the difference to the big success.
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Is your price at eye level and attractive? 10 to 15 dkr. might determine, whether the young people choose your offer. Your price for a signature dish should be 50-70 dkr. VAT incl.
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You might have an extraordinary dish to 100 dkr., if it has value for money. Remember the customers have expectations to both the price and the quality.
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Reconsider your dishes and your food concept. We have experienced talented chefs, who had to drop their business, because they didn’t listen to their customers, and they didn’t adjust their concept to Street Food markets. But where there is a will, there is a way to the customers’ hearts.
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How do you make your dishes? In a Food Truck everything is visible to the customer. Be willing to adjust the way you prepare and serve your food. The guests in your Food Truck love to watch, how you authentically prepare the food, without too much semi-finished products. The customers love a good show.
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Are your signs and menus easy to decode and understand? Pay attention to all details and reactions from the customers and try again.
Mikkel Elmer Business Mentor
HiiYou.org 55
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Check out where in the city you'll want to sell your food
Availability An advantage can also be a bad thing. Of course you need to try different options and places, before you find the right location for your Food Truck. Just be aware, if you constantly go to new locations, it’s hard to work up a regular connection. When you have made up your mind about locations, share it with your customers, so they know, where and when to find you.
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Hii You.org has invented a mobile App for you to expose your food concept and brand for free. And by implementing a GPS, the customers can find you everywhere
The whole idea in mobile business is, to be where the customers are, and not the other way round. Again, it is very important to have some regular routines around your presence, and remember to involve your customers.
Choose you customer strategy There are endless options for you and your mobile business. In this passage we list up, some of the many options of presence, activities and client strategies, you can choose. Even though a mobile company can do business everywhere, it is significant to have a plan. Without a plan of where and when to park, you can end up driving around, from one destination to another, and not necessarily get a lot of customers.
Where to place your Food Truck? The politicians want better and healthier food for citizens and tourist. Therefore, it is now possible to get a mobile sale license in the big cities. Many smaller cities are about to start allowing street sale as well as a test or by changing the laws. At the back of this book, you find links to the region´s websites under “city life”, and hopefully you can find everything you need to know there.
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HiiYou Sankt Hans Event / Amager Beach
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Panca Peruvian Rolling Restaurant / HiiYou Fisketorvet
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A license is given once a year and it´s easy to prolong the license. The license has to be visible and placed in the mobile truck
Be attentive about: 01
Make sure to keep clear lines with the competing restaurants and bars in the neighborhood. Even if you have your license to park and sell, it´s good behavior to greet and introduce yourself.
02
You can contribute to a nice and joyful atmosphere in the streets, by showing consideration to drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.
03
Try to find a location with a lot of human traffic.
04
You can possibly park on private parking places and areas, but remember always to clear it with the owners.
It is amazing how almost everything is possible, when you have a friendly and positive attitude to other people about where to park your Food Truck. We have examples of people in the neighborhood cooperate with the Food Truck to help lifting the level of the offers and services for the customers. Many pubs do not serve food, and a cooperation between the Food Truck and the pub can be a benefit for both of them. Be creative. Drive around the city, experience in new ways, look with new eyes and imagine where and how you can bring joy with your food. Maybe you already have plans about where to place your Food Truck. If you are looking for inspiration, take a drive around the city and find out where the people are, and where the parking options are. On the best locations, you have to be there early in the morning to get a parking place. Be aware, that sometimes the best locations are in the peripheral of the town and not in the center. Some of the best turnovers in Food Trucks are made in the harbor, outside parking places and other not obvious places.
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Take a trip around the city to be inspired
The HiiYou Organization has made an understanding with The Castle of Charlottenborg (Art museum) about cooperating in their beautiful garden in the central Copenhagen – and together we can create an environment, which might attract thousands of customers for their exhibitions
"You can download the program Google Earth. Here, you can “fly” above all streets and areas in the city. You can take a “walk” on street level, and check out all the neighborhoods, as if you were there for real. Consider and study your potential places, before you make your decision. When you have chosen one or more places, you would like to test, we recommend you to stay at the location for a while. Passers (your future customers) need to be tempted once or twice before they hook up.
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Even if alone is good, it’s stronger to stand together. Whether you like it or not, it’s a fact, that 3 to 5 Food Trucks standing close to each other, attract more customers.
In Denmark, Street Food is still rather new for many people. When several Food Trucks stand side by side, something magical can happen. People attract people, and more Food Trucks mean more people, who get curious and open-minded about new food experiences. "
Birgitte M. Schultzer Event Director
HiiYou.org 60
Persisk Street Food / Charlottenborg
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Noodle Salad / LêLê Street Kitchen
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What dish do you want to serve, and make the whole world taste? Create your favorite food, and share it with the world. What makes you special, and what is your passion? Costumers love authenticity
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LêLê Street Kitchen / HiiYou Højbro Plads
Customer Possibilities Here is an example list of where to find customers for your Food Truck:
01
Central spots in the city where you get permission to facilitate events
02
Temporality - make use of the fact that there are building projects and new neighbourhoods under construction, by offering food for Labour workers
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Schools and universities - Make students happy, by offering an alternative to their canteens and events
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Offer companys a permanent Food Truck day a week, or offer catering for company events and parties
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Enjoy a day in nature and serve your delicacies for nature lovers at the beach, by the forest or in a public city park
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You can make good use of the city night life and serve food for night owls, party animals and late workers
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Offer catering for private parties and company events
08
Participate in festivals
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Participate in larger sports events
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Become part of an indoor food market and get a permanent base
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Become part of an outdoor food market and get a permanent base
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Join local Streetfood communities and participate in the creation of Pop-up events on central spots in the city
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There may be good sales opportunities around education facilities
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You can apply for license to a central stall in the city
Stalls If you feel better having a permanent place in the city, you can apply for a stall. In “old days�, Hotdog Trucks were dominating on the street corners, but after Food Trucks coming to Denmark, history has changed. Most Regions in Denmark have some permanent stalls, which you can rent, regular or partly. Even in Copenhagen, the rent is very cheap. In the link guide, you can find ads about stalls in Copenhagen and Odense.
Central places and stalls in the city In many cities, it is not legal to place your Food Truck in the most central and primary streets and squares. In addition, some places need a special permission. Talk to the local City Council, about using a central place for a nice purpose. Sometimes it is possible to get a few days for a special event, sometimes the City Council gives a license for the whole season to get more activity and atmosphere in certain central places. Keep an eye on the city squares, and take contact to the City Council, if you are in a town with stall restrictions. An alternative is to involve yourself in event making/planning in the city, flea markets and concerts, and cooperate with other Food Trucks to put spotlight on your brand. Successful events take time to plan, but often it is a good investment in the local society and the City Council.
Temporality Neighborhoods under construction and construction sites are worth keeping an eye on. Hundreds of craftsmen and workers are potential customers, to be enriched with your nice food. Neighborhoods with little or no restaurants are waiting for you to make nice profit.
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The Hii You Organization arranged 62 events on central squares in 2015/16 and hosted more than 145 free live concerts. Hii You launched the Food Truck concept all over the world and had more than 200.000 visitors. The Hii You Organization support and help the members doing pop-up Street Food events.
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Street Food Marked / Verdenshjørnet Nørrebro
Schools and Universities Large schools have 500 to 20.000 students, so it is worth placing your truck nearby, and give them an alternative to the school canteen. Especially if you choose to give students discount, you have an advantage. Talk to the headmaster, and try to make an understanding about parking on a central spot near the students. Recently a Region on Sjælland showed an interest in having 50 Food Trucks circulating between schools and nursing homes. They did not want to invest millions in industrial kitchen companies. Universities or the like often arrange parties, which is a great opportunity for Food Trucks to contribute with lovely food for hungry students.
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There is a prospective market near educational institutions
Companies More and more companies want a Food Truck-day once a week, in order to have an alternative to the staff canteens. Ask them, if they want to have a test period, and at the same time, you can offer to be there for intern event and business lunches. Often it is a nice surprise for the companies, how cheap it is to rent a Food Truck.
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Take your Truck to the beach, the harbor or the forest, and enjoy nature and the weather, and please your customers at the same time
Nature There is nothing better than to go out and enjoy nature – as well for Food Truck owners. You decide the view, and on sunny days, you can gain long queues by the beach, the harbor and in the woods. You can go to see well-attended park and reserves, where there are many people on sunny days.
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Consider being open in night hours aswell
Working at Night If you want to take night shifts, we know that Food Trucks have had great success, placing their trucks in front of the local nightclub from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. From Aarhus and Copenhagen, we have had income reports on more than 25.000 dkr for one night’s sale. Are you a night bird, it is a good idea to make agreements about parking in the yard or close to the entrance? The bar will be delighted too, about you serving the guests.
Street Food Catering There is a huge business potential in making Food Truck catering:
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01
Think about, what does it take to start your car and drive to an arrangement?
02
What minimum of dishes do you have to sell in advance? If you from the startup of your business decide to go out for just 30 dishes, then many companies and private arrangements will appreciate your presence.
03
What is your initial fee? Often the customers are willing to pay an initial fee from 1500 to 5000 dkr. and mileage allowance on top of that.
04
Put together a catering menu containing 2-3 dishes, and set a price. In that way you raise your income at your catering arrangements.
05
Be a part of a mobile catering readiness, and join large culture events. You can facilitate yourself, and make your own jobs through your network, but you can also be a part of a catering readiness/partnership. That will extend your base of customers.
Manzel / HiiYou Amager Beach Party
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Hii You has a greater catering organization, and its primary function is to sell services to organizers and event-makers Get help to achieve branding, visibility and marketing by the Street Food community, and get access to your private calendar, to form a general view of all the events every day. Ask our team, if you can be considered as a supplier. For the moment, we look for catering suppliers from different food cultures in Jylland and Fyn – and we need food concepts in Copenhagen as well. At hiiyou.org you can see the present members of HiiYou
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"If you become a member of our cooperative sale- and marketing platform, our team will make sure, that you´ll be marketed and presented to organizers of all the big events (højtraffikale?) in the country. In addition, you will be introduced to larger companies who need catering. Furthermore, the organization will invest in PR and marketing for you and your mobile business, on their own expense and risk, based on the vision to create a strong community. And together we can do 15.000 menus instead of 30.” - Birgitte Schultzer, Event Director HiiYou.org “As a member, you become visible to more well-known brands like Just-Eat. Offer the customers the opportunity to get their favorite meal delivered to the doorstep. Highlight yourself at Billetto.dk, a place where 1100 event makers operate, and can book your Food Truck for their arrangements." - Christian Mørck, Director HiiYou.org
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Together with HiiYou we have designed a special Food Truck landing page. We are ready to send out 60 cars to your Food Truck to collect and deliver your delicacies.” - Ju st-eat.dk
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We are proud to present, the especially selected Food Trucks and mobile bars of Hii You, to our 1100 event makers. We expect this initiative to be a great success - Pat ri c k B o rre , B i l l e tt o. d k
HiiYou Sankt Hans Event / Amager Beach
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Be cautious if you cooperate with festivals
Festivals In Denmark there are more than 170 musical festivals a year. Unfortunately, several of them take place at the same time, during the summer season, but it does not change the fact, that thousands of hungry people are gathered at the same time. Some of the festival organizers demand rather high rents paid in advance. For that reason, you have to consider, whether your concept fit in that particular type of festival, before you pay in advance. Festivals are very popular around the country, and even the smaller ones, can be very profitable under the right circumstances.
“
In the HiiYou organization we only co-operate with a few festival, owing to the fact, that we don’t want to be a part of greediness. Year by year, we notice the interest in taken the food quality to a new level, and get Food Trucks to the stalls. You can choose to negotiate with the festival by yourself or you can be a part of a co-operation, who takes control of the agenda
Sports Events Around sport, Denmark has a tradition for associations and societies. You have some nice opportunities to make good business in the world of sports. Go to the local sport clubs or choose between more than fifty great sport events a year, all around Denmark: bicycle races, marathons, ironman, horse-riding competitions etc. Most of the organizers behind these events will be grateful to have you and will charge you fairly.
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Rasmus Walter / RelĂŚ 5 year Birthday
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HiiYou Sankt Hans Event / Amager Beach
High-traffic Events Many days every year, thousands of people gather to different kinds of arrangements: concerts, harbor festivals, culture events, markets, village fairs etc. Keep an eye on the activities in your neighborhood, and make sure your calendar is up to date. To get an overview of the different types of concerts, festivals, culture events among other things, check the internet or ask Hii You.org. They have systemizes the most relevant activities, and as a member you have access to that system. Then it is just up to you, to find out, what specific activities and appointments, you want to commit yourself to.
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Right now Food Markets pop up everywhere in Aarhus, Kolding, København, Aalborg, Vejle, Odense and Oslo. New initiatives give you the opportunity to take your Food Truck to the indoor markets in the wintertime, and secure your income during the whole year
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Careful preparation makes the job easier in the future Be prepared of the unexpected: to be out of stock, the credit card machine breaks down or you run out of gas. In that way you are always prepared and able to handle unexpected incidents
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Stegen & Dellen / Aarhus Street Food
Indoor Food Markets The interest of food markets is explosive in Denmark. Inspired by cities like London, that every day in the week offers more than 20 larger food markets, several cities in Denmark have now taken initiative and with great success. Torvehallerne in Copenhagen has now more visitors than Tivoli. The Street Food market on Papirøen has thousands of daily visitors, despite a threatening closure in 2017. Round about in the country, more than 20 new food markets are about to be established.
Outdoor Food Markets
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In winter time you can benefit from heading south
Just like indoor markets are growing, even more outdoor Street Food markets are being established on several places in the country. On outdoor food markets, you might have a permanent stall or you might participate with your Food Truck, on the same conditions as the other stall keepers in daily basis. Typically, you pay a day’s rent, which is 500-950 dkr or a percentage of your turn over. The rent depends on the location, the castle place in Copenhagen or the harbor in Aarhus.
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There are several opportunities for you to find your way to success with your mobile business, and great opportunities for your business to grow over time
If you get sick of the Danish weather, remember, it is always a possibility to go to the south, where the sun is shining and in that way expand the season for your mobile business.
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We are proud of being in charge of outdoor serving on Ofelias Plads, which is placed next to Skuespilhuset between Amalienborg Slot and Operahuset in the port of Copenhagen. We look forward to get daily visits of Food Trucks from the Hii You organization to everybody’s joy. - Directo r o f Luft kast e lle t E r ik Skibst e d
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Street Food Market Verdenhjørnet in Nordvest located on Lygten 1 is the perfect example of entrepreneurship and integration. - M ayo r o f Co p e n hag e n , Fran k J e n s e n
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We hope to establish the most exclusive Street Food environment in Denmark in our beautiful courtyard near Kgs. Nytorv and Nyhavn. We believe that a lively environment in the yard, will attract more guests to Charlottenborg Kunsthal, and at the same time give pleasure for tourists and citizens. - Directo r o f Charlott e nborg Mich a el
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We look forward to establish the first Street Food market in Norway in the heart of Aker Brygge in Oslo. We look forward to see Hii You contributes with high quality food concepts, and to build infrastructure for indoor stalls - D i re c t o r To rb e n An d e rs e n
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HiiYou Street Food Market / Fisketorvet
Stalls & Pop-ups There are many opportunities to find exiting locations everywhere in the kingdom, where it is possible to create a temporary pop-up Street Food market and provide conditions for a permanent location. Through “Hej KBH”, Hii You has tested different traffic squares and areas in Copenhagen, for instance Christiansborg Slot, Højbro Plads, Islandsbrygge, Amager Strand, Den Røde Plads and other places. All over the country, local authorities are open-minded to make the city´s central squares available for several days for events. Often it is free of charge, but as an organizer, you are obliged to clean up after yourself, ensure peace and order and pay for electricity etc. Only imagination makes limits to where you can dream of making your own Street Food pop-up event. However, it takes more than the presence of you own mobile business, if you want a permission or you want to attract many guests. Being 7-15 Food Trucks together, attract more gusts, and create the attention you want.
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There are countless pop-up locations and stalls in Denmark
If you as an entrepreneur want your weekdays to be characterized by routines and security, it is an option to get a permanent stall in a Street Food market. In Copenhagen alone, 10 new food markets are expected in 2017, and all over the country, people are taking initiatives to create nice conditions with indoor Street Food. Everything from old barns, buildings and tents can be used, in order to shelter you and your guests. Keep an eye on initiatives in your neighborhood, since you can benefit from having your Street Food business indoor. It is an exciting adventure to go where the costumers are. However, the permanent conditions and the community with other is an interesting alternative. All over Denmark Hii You is starting up permanent food markets to enrich the citizens and you as entrepreneurs.
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I find it very satisfying, that you don’t have to be a Michelin restaurant, in order to bring happiness to people - Fo o d Truc k o w n e r, Tho mas J un ke r
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Marketing
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Protect your brand and make sure you have an integrated identity
Marketing Your marketing is your visibility outwardly. It is determining, that your costumers can find you at the social medias, in the press, by events and in the townscape. In contradictions to other kinds of businesses, you can go where the costumers are. It is also important to have an identity, and an expression that makes your name easy to remember and find, when your costumers are looking for you.
Food Truck names It is important you choose a nice and short name for your company/Food Truck. If you do not run a restaurant, and do not have a brand, you must develop a name that matches your vision and food concept. It is important that the name is easy to pronounce, easy to spell and easy to remember. Your name should be street cool and catchy and perhaps have a funny and challenging title. Do not choose a name that provokes, you risk repelling the costumers. Use some ordinary and understandable expressions, and words from your food culture. It is an advantage to name your Food Truck and your company the same. Another company might already use the name you want, so make sure to check it out on the internet. Take a look in the link guide for advice about company name, trademark protection, vacant domains etc.
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Taco Pop / HiiYou Amager Beach
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Logo When you have chosen your company name, you are ready to create your logo. It will be an advantage to integrate your company/Food Truck name in your logo. After that, the challenge is to choose what font you want, colors, and what expression you want in your graphical logo. Make sure to get many different proposals and expressions, before you make up your mind. In order to get feedback, share the suggestions with your surroundings, but most important, you must choose the one you like the best. Remember your logo must match your vision and your values, and radiate what you stand for. It might be an advantage for you to describe your vision and your values, plus your wishes for your logo and make designers for all over the world participate in a competition. Check it out at www.99designs.com.
Graphic Material
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It is preferable to use the same designer for all your business materials
When your logo expression has been defined, a guideline will be designed how to use it. Take care that everything from logo and advertising to marketing materials, match the same spirit, style, colours and expression. You can profit from using the designers, who made your logo, to make some more material like business cards, letterhead and other things.
Foil Design and outer Expressions It is important that your Food Truck radiate your identity, your estimated expressions, and match your logo as well as your food concept. We suggest, that you make a brainstorm with all your ideas to visual expressions, images, colors, graphic, slogans etc.
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It is essential to have great pictures of both your truck and your food
3 tips about the appearance of your Food Truck 01
Visualize how the car will look from all sides.
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Take a look at Google Image Search or image databases such as pinterest.com, imagebank.com and others, to identify the style you want for your concept.
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Think about how you also can decorate and style your Food Truck with light chains, flowers, plants, herbs, flags, signs and other things.
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Your graphic material, from your Food Truck’s foil design, logo development to social media graphics, can be created by the experienced designers in our organization Hii You
Photos and visualization of your business Make sure you get some professional photos of your Food Truck in nature or in a market place. Be sure to make a photo session, where you ensure that there are happy people around your business, and interaction between you, your staff and the customers. It is very important to have useful imagery for your various promotional activities e.g. brochure, website and social medias. It is a great advantage to share pictures of your mobile business in different situations, and remember that happy faces give the best impression.
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La Tienda / HiiYou Højbro Plads
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Wontons / LêLê Street Kitchen
Menu Card It is very important, that you have professional photos of your food. We recommend a menu card with your dishes that is simple and easy to decode. You can elaborate on the main ingredients in your dishes. Make a list of additional options and list the prices incl. VAT. It is also very important, that your menu card can be distributed in a fine image quality and preferably in PDF format. If your are part of the catering community at HiiYou.org, we will help you to set up the menu card, and make a profile for you on our shared website and marketing platform. When you develop the content of your menu card, remember to include a fine vegetarian meal and a meal for the children, or else you might be deselected both at the market and online.
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At the HiiYou organization you can have food photos taken by our professional photographer
Website Your customers expect to find you on a website. Make sure to get a domain that reflects your name. Even if you initially, do not want to create your own website, it is always a good idea to make sure that you have the right domain, when the day comes, and you are ready to make a website. Instead of making the website yourself, we recommend that you find a graphical designer, who can build your website from a template. You simply choose the template you like the best, and then your logo, text and photos will be added. It is easy, and it only costs very little money.
Social Media If you choose not to have a website from start, we recommend that you create a profile on Facebook and Instagram. These are the most popular social media in Denmark. It is free, and you can easily make a profile on your own, or you can ask for help in your network.
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An eyecatcher is created by posting a photo of your bulletins
It’s worth investing a few thousand crowns in making visible notices or ads on Facebook. You need to have more than thousand followers on Instagram or Facebook, before you begin to feel the effect of your efforts. It’s not a question of reaching out for your own Facebook friends, but a question of reaching out for potential customers, who in advance, show an interest in street food, food, recipes, events and culture in your community. This can be done through targeted marketing on Facebook. You can benefit from uploading where you are every day on Facebook or Instagram, and in that way share what happens in your mobile adventure. You might also benefit from local marketing centered round the location of your Truck. By this action alone several Food Trucks have created a successful business.
Marketing on Facebook If for example you create a fan page or a company site for your Food Truck on Facebook, this might be the basis for your whole marketing. As a minimum it demands these three things from you, in order to turn it into a fantastic tool for you.
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01
Create your own universe. Every time you post a notice, you create an eye-catcher by connecting a photo that matches your text.
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Marketing are not about selling products. Marketing is about creating relations to your customers. In the same way as you serve food from The Food Truck, while you small talk with the customer, you also create good relations to your local environment and potential customers if you through words are able to create relations in your Facebook marketing. This requires that you share small personal stories from your personal life in the Food Truck. It also requires that you show an interest in your followers, and ask them inviting questions.
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Create publicity by creating competitions, where it is possible to win your expert knowledge or even a gift voucher to your Food Truck.
Latin Lovers / Verdenshjørnet Nørrebro
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Street Food Market Selfies / Verdenshjørnet Nørrebro
Marketing on Instagram Instagram is a digital image universe on the net, where you tell stories from your life through beautiful pictures. If you never have been fond of expressing yourself in writing, then Instagram is your new friend. In this media, text is inferior, the images are in focus in this way, and you have the possibility to reach out for an audience that does not speak Danish. In order to get success in your Instagram profile, you must be aware of these three important things.
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Instagram users are aestheticians. That means they relate critically to the atmosphere and beauty shown in the pictures. Make sure you have the technique and show interesting, humorous or beautiful motives, that tells the story. Luckily, pictures of delicious food are popular.
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One of the large advantages of Instagram is the ability to hashtag certain search words. This means you can do hashtags for instance #foodtruck #food #streetfood and other things under your picture. In this way, everyone who shares the same interest can easily find your pictures and notices under these hashtags. This will give you more followers, and what is even more important, followers who has an interest in the issues you post pictures about.
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In order to get new followers it is important to interact with likes and comments on other Instagram profiles. Interaction, one hour a week, with others in the same business might bring many new followers to your profile.
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Get publicity in both local and national Medias
PR in the press Take advantage of the strong effect of the press to get free publicity. When you have established your mobile business, you have several options to achieve publicity in the local and national media. It is easiest to achieve publicity in local media, and most relevant and valuable for you. Find some exiting angles, on what you imagine the local citizens might want to read about. Share your story: tell about your mobile business, about the joy of serving the citizens, exactly where they are. Write down funny experiences, when you experience them, in order to put them together to a funny and interesting story for the local press.
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Your customers should be able to reflect in your stories
It is surprising how much publicity the first 50 Food Trucks in Denmark have achieved. The citizens love Street Food and Trucks! The stories about your mobile adventure the story about your background and the story about your food and culture. Remember to take this opportunity, and get help from a friend, who has writing skills to help you create the right journalistic angle and give it to the local press. Often you will participate in catering jobs, where the media is present. This is an opportunity for you to offer some nice food, and hand out some brochures.
This is how you get your story in the media “Every single day, the press gets thousands of different stories. Every day they have to choose among hundreds of them, and that is why, it is essential that you stand out from the crowd. On the other hand, do not be nervous about your story being insignificant. Local papers and television keep focusing on small, good local stories. And if your story has a focus on something that might be of interest for a lot of people, it is certainly within reach to be broadcasted in national media.” - Louise Von Linstow, Visual communication and PR
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Find a unique angle to your story, preferably an unusual story or a success story. The story must appeal to people´s emotions, and the reader needs to identify.
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No reporters or editors are interesting in selling your product. Drop the focus on selling a product, instead focus on telling a story, which gives something to the reader and creates publicity for you.
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Personal stories sell newspapers. Your chance to get a story in the local news (Go´morgen Danmark, Lorry, etc.) is better if it is personal. For instance, about you, your family, something you did, experienced, instead of a story about a product or a company.
Street Food Market / Verdenshjørnet Nørrebro
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Spring came and I was at a Bruce Springsteen concert in Parken. During one day, I sold pork sandwiches for 67.000 DKK. It was amazing! - Fo o d Truc k o w n e r, D avi d B ruun
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Food Truck
Food Truck This chapter is developed to secure that you are on the right track, when you choose your Food Truck. No mobile business without a Food Truck, unless you prefer to start your business, on a rebuilt bike or moped. The dream of “doing it yourself” Perhaps you have dreamt about a cute Food Truck, made of an old ambulance, a fire engine, retro Citroën or school bus with a special patina or expression. In USA Food Trucks very often is a bus, with a small window in the side of the car, and the waitress, with meter’s distance, looks down on you. Even if a bus can offer a larger room for kitchen and back-office, there are a few things you should pay attention to, if you want to rebuild your own Food Truck.
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Be aware, that you might not park, where the customers are, and you can't use the mobile sales permissions in the city on the same conditions as ordinary cars, if you choose to remodel a larger unit. It also takes a license for trucks.
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The dream about rebuilding an old car or van is beautiful and might work over time. But this solution is hard to finance, and often you have a project, where the rebuilding is equivalent to building a new kitchen or bath room. It will also include a lot of different craftsmen.
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It is easy to dream and draw on a napkin, but when reality knocks on the door, the combination of the above mentioned resources, will make the dream a challenging reality.
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Be aware that rebuilding takes longer than you expect, and when you build you do not make any money.
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Be careful about expenses, when you work out wages, materials and white goods. A rebuilding project might easily cost you a fortune.
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The legislation in Denmark is very strict, when it comes to approval of the vehicle considering the weight, dimensions, legal wiring and sanitary facilities.
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Fire authorities are supposed to approve materials and the rebuilding.
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A special certified plumbing and heating company needs to approve the wiring, and make sure, that the truck has the same standards as a professional kitchen.
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The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration has a lot of legal requirements about sinks, hot water and floor material. In addition the floor must be washable, and there is a legal requirement about drains, paper and soap near the sink etc.
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Be aware, that more local authorities are very selective about which Food Trucks get a stall. They also have regulations about the size of the trucks. After a comprehensive rebuilding, you might end up in a struggle about permissions, with local authorities.
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When rebuilding an old truck remember to check: 01
That the rebuilding doesn’t end up costing more, than a new professional truck
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That you have the capital to financing a used Food Truck, rebuilding and equipment
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The directions of the Danish Transport Authorities
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The directions of the Fire Authorities
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The directions of the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration towards your kitchen
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Permissions to sale license and stall from the local authorities
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That you calculate extra time and money to finish your rebuilding, and get all the licenses from different authorities, before you can start your mobile business
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Visit HiiYou.org, and check your options, to get a new professional Food Truck, designed for your needs
Køkkenelement / Mobilekitchen
Stainless Steel Interior / Mobile Kitchen
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Food Truck / Mobilekitchen
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With a blank canvas of high quality, imagination is the only limit - Mo bile Kit che n
HII You / Food Truck Ford Chassis / Mobile Kitchen
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Stainless Steel Interior / Mobile Kitchen
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I do not think about how much profit I make on every single customer. But I do think about, what he tells his 30 acquaintances, about my food and my service. - F o o d Truck owne r, Richard Kilde
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Production
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Success comes when all aspects of your business work together
Production In this way your customers get the best experience “We have been there”. And we know that success comes when you are in control of buying raw materials, cooking, cleaning and customer service on daily basis. Through our experience dealing with Food Trucks, we have found the perfect formula, which will give you a fantastic week day in your business. There are important choices to make, which will ease you work in the Food Truck. Our competent members are willing to help you with everything. The talented people, who already work in Hii You Food Trucks, will share their experiences with you, so you can create the best conditions and product for your customers. Bottom line, success is a question of giving the customers more than they expect. You can do so if you have the energy.” Mikkel Elmer, Business Mentor in Hii You and founder of the first Food Truck Burger Jack in Denmark
Three good advices about raw materials
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01
Be determined about using raw materials of high quality. As far as possible, use fresh, organic and local materials. Our customers are often conscious of quality and they will easily discover whether the raw materials are of a high standard.
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Create a menu card with only a few dishes, and make sure that the ingredients are used in several dishes. In that way you minimize the food waste.
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Take contact to your Food Truck colleagues, about shopping certain materials together. Often you can get a discount when you buy larger amounts of materials.
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Three good advices about preparing the food 01
When your menu is a success and a good sales base is secured, it might be an advantage to outsource the preparation of the food. There are several companies in Denmark, who has specialized in following a certain recipe on special raw material, and who can prepare and pack your products in plastic batches. In this way, you can order 50-100 pcs a time. Typically, it will cost you 5-12% more in consumption but it is worth doing, if you have a demanding queue of hungry guests. In this way you do not have to use your energy in food preparation, nevertheless that is how most people start.
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You can easily prepare and cook the food in your mobile kitchen. If your Food Truck is delivered by Hii You.org, it is approved as a professional industrial kitchen. We have experienced, that more Food Truck owners prefer to prepare the food in their own private kitchens, but be aware of the fact that the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration does not approve this. It might be a very expensive affair to establish your own industrial kitchen and will include costs, you do not want in your start up. In case you want access to an industrial kitchen, we recommend you rent space somewhere or alternatively participate in a kitchen community with other Food Trucks.
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Your consumption of raw material should maximum and totally be 30% of your budget. Make sure about that in your start up period, and before you establish your operation. Remember to check your consumption of raw materials frequently. Even if your consumption of raw materials differs with 5%, it will have an enormous effect on the bottom line.
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Consider a kitchen community with other Food Truck owners
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Cooking No authorities insist on, that you are a trained chef in order to prepare and serve from your Food Truck. Anyone could succeed in serving nice food in the streets. That is already proved in Bangkok, Singapore, Brussels and Mexico City: the capitals of Street Food. What is most important is that, the person in the kitchen is committed and loves the process in cooking. When the Food Truck owner himself is in the center of the business by serving his favorite dishes, and gives the customers a nice service that is the recipe of success. Some Food Trucks’ owners in San Francisco and Amsterdam have reached rock star status. They introduce new menus at press events, and the customers are fighting to be the first to taste the new street food of their MasterChef.
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The world doesn’t need more bad hotdogs and kebabs from petrol stations
The most successful Food Trucks on the market are the ones which have the best quality of raw materials, and a special food concept. Whether you make classics like burgers and meatballs or regional dishes from Peru, it is essential that your food is well prepared and tasty and make your customers come back again and again. Food from a Food Truck should always be the cherry on the cake from your specific food culture. And if your customers wake up in the middle of the night wondering where they can find you and your truck – you have done your job right. Maybe you have heard stories about successful chefs, who yell at the customers and give terrible service. We as well have examples of Food Trucks’ Chefs behaving like that and still having long queues every day. In the end of the day it is the quality of the food that decides whether the customers are loyal. However we hope you agree with us, when we say that it is worthwhile to be friendly, kind and service minded.
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Persisk Street Food Gourmet / Stew
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Appetizing photos of your food raises awareness Make use of social media, it is your food everything is about, make sure to upload delicious photos, that shows your product in an appetizing way
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Homegrown / Copenhagen
Do you know how you get success in your business? By giving people a little more than they expect. Always a little more. They will return to you, and they will recommend you in their social circles. Below here, we give you some inspiration, about how to give people a little more, than they expect.
Good to know about handling customers Besides your good food, the customers also need a good experience about your service level. If the queue is long, there is no time for long and deep conversations with the customers. Some of the most fulfilling moments you can get in your mobile business, is the meeting between people. No matter, where or who you are, if your mind is open and curious, you can always benefit from a meeting with other human beings. If you have an empathic and humorous attitude to the customers, and the truck life, you will be rewarded with a feeling of true freedom.
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Interact with your customers, even if the qeue is long
Important advice about styling your Food Truck “It is important, that there is compliance, between the food you serve in your Food Truck, and the outer expression, it has. To create a holistic impression of your Food Truck, where the surroundings match the food, which creates confidence and joy for your customers. Imagine that your Food Truck already from a distance will tempt the customers to come closer to you.” - Louise von Linstow, Visual Communication, HiiYou
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It is essential, that you think about, how you make your Truck special in the streetscape. This can be done in many ways, and is only limited by imagination. Do you want flowers and plants in your Food Truck? Do you want a board with positive or humorous posts, which make the customers smile? You can create magic around your Food Truck, for a little amount of money, and invent funny solutions and different set-ups, with recycled materials like euro pallets, driftwood, zinc buckets etc.
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Your customers expect that you have trash bin, napkins, straws, salt and pepper, so take care to have these things right from the beginning.
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Create a red thread from your food to your décor
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Think about where you park your Truck. You should not bother the traffic or be too close to a restaurant that pays a high rent, without having a positive dialogue with the owner of the restaurant first. When you have found the spot, where you want to park, use the sun, the weather and the wind to find the best view and the best impression.
About hygiene in your Food Truck Continuously to empty your trash bins, taking care that the customer bar is clean and tidy, and having a high hygiene standard in the kitchen, are for many customers of crucial condition. We have experienced several chefs, who cook the best food, but “stands in salad to his knees”, and therefore are deselected. We do not want to sell catering or Food Trucks with an inadequate hygiene. Be aware, that there are special rules for cleanliness and cleaning of industrial kitchens, and for mobile businesses, too. As a mobile business, you will get a written message from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, about when they will check on you. They cannot come unannounced, since they don’t know, where you are. They also turn up at big events, like festival, concerts and events. You must sign up for the Smiley scheme, and make sure you keep a happy Smiley. A bad Smiley, means no customers. You can sign in for a special SMS arrangement, where an adviser from a company for food, tells you when and what, you must do in connection to the cleaning of your mobile kitchen.
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Persisk / Charlottenborg
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What sells best in our Truck, and what is trendy at the moment, is nutritious food that makes your stomach full for a long time - Fo o d Truc k o w n e r, S i mo n H an s e n
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Courage to live your dream
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René Redzepi & Rosario Sanchez / Relæ 5 year Birthday
Courage to live your dream What keeps you from starting up your own mobile business? We meet many competent and prepared individuals, who just need the last push to take the great leap forward, and become self-employed. Maybe you have the need, the dream, and the ideas to start and still you have doubts, if you can make it. In that case, we help people to decode their worries. In cooperation with international business’ coaches, we have collected some inspiration, which maybe can change the perspectives about all the concerns around starting up a business. Hopefully this book can help you to find out where to start, and what to expect. When you are about to start something new, it is naturally to have doubts. The best advice we can give you, besides a helping hand, is this: Find someone, who already is a success in your future business. Study that person in details, what did he do to achieve his present level? We do not know the specific way from the beginning, but we find out day by day, when we start walking.
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Clarifying Questions When you need to know, what holds you back from starting up as self-employed, you must know yourself and your way of thinking. Do you have a rational or irrational fear about starting up and are going to listen to that fear or not? The following questions are made, to make you think about it. You can write them down and answer; it will give you a more clear perspective.
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What are you worried about?
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What keeps you from making the decision to start up?
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What are your needs for help?
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What are the reasons, if you fail starting up your business?
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What does it take you to make the final decision?
Fear crushers Here is a list of typical fears from new self-employed Food Truckers. We have asked our business coach and a psychologist to comment these classical thoughts of failure, and maybe you can be inspired to find the answers to your own questions and worries. POSSIBLE FEAR: "No one in my social circles is self-employed and I am afraid of what people think about me " We are human beings, and whenever we do something new and different, we attract attention. We observe each other all the time, and whether you feel fear or joy about it, it has nothing to do with your project. It is all about the observer. Do not try to find the answers in the observer´s eyes. The best you can do is to ask yourself: Who am I doing this for? Is it for me? Is it for my surroundings? If you want success, do it for yourself, not for others. No matter what kind of thoughts and feelings, your friends and acquaintances may have about your project, be sure, that one way or another, they will be inspired to look at their own dreams, ways and lives. Depending on what kind of past your friends have, looking at you
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RenĂŠ Dif is serving people from his Dif Food Truck
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RenĂŠ Chip / Amager Strand
and your project will raise negative or positive reactions in their nerve system. It is not depending on your success or failure. POSSIBLE FEAR: "I am not a trained chef and I am not an expert in cooking or having a Food Truck. Do I dare starting without feeling like an expert?" Maybe you don’t feel as an expert right now. What does it mean to be an expert? It takes, that you know your profession very well. The only way to do that is to be in it every day. Nobody becomes an expert by taking an education or study a subject. The expertise goes with the experience, and you can only get experience in one way! To be with your customers every day, listen to them, see how they react on your food, test different methods etc. All that is what makes you an expert on your specific menu, your customers and your brand. Maybe some territories never become your cup of tea, for instance economy or marketing? When your business is well established, you can always delegate these tasks. Until then, you can seek help in the Hii You organization. We have a team loaded with experts, ready to help. We get up every morning, happy about helping and supporting self-employers like you.
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Case Stories
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Stegen & Dellen / HiiYou Den Røde Plads
Danish quality classic
CASE STORY
A well thought strategy created a success
Stegen & Dellen
David has created a Street Food concept that is so popular, that many of his regular customers send him complaint mails, if he changes the menu. He has customers, who say they have become so addicted to his meatballs that they will drive all around Copenhagen to find his meatballs at 2:00 in the morning. The Roast and the Meatball has a turnover between 15-30.000 dkr. on a good day, and has recently expanded the business with a permanent stand in Århus and more employees. Success came when David began matching his product with the right clientele. The Roast and the Meatball went from driving around Copenhagen, here and there, to thinking more strategically and using time to find the right events to partake in, and that made all the difference. It was winter the first 3 months. We drove around and there was no response, it was hard to make ends meet, and I remember one day especially, it was bitter cold and had only sold for 350 kr. the whole day. When I got home and getting ready to empty the truck, I discovered that I hadn’t closed the refrigerator before driving home, and there was food scattered
everywhere. I went over to the Hii You organization, who had helped me get the business started and put the keys on the table. But they are experienced and know that if you are patient and strategic and have a good product, then it will eventually work out. They helped me find events and asked me to hang on and promised that it would soon pay off. And they were right. Spring came and suddenly I stood at the Bruce Springsteen concert and sold for 67.000 kr. in one day. It was totally wild”, David tells with a smile. David’s experience with concerts and sport events has been very good, and The Roast and the Meatball has used valuable time finding where and in which connections their traditional Danish Street Food such as meatballs and pork roast sandwiches with dressing made from scratch, fit in. 153
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This means that David and co. don’t have to drive out every day,but instead, sell enough at i.e. football arrangements in Parken, at concerts and festivals, so they can take some well-deserved days off in between.
keep up with the demand for pork roast sandwiches. Then I thought of having a grill outside, that could heat the buns when it was busy. It smelled good and actually drew customers. Sometimes you have to think outside the box.
“One of the good things with having a Food Truck is that you can adjust the work load yourself, scale up and down depending on how much you want to work. We can work hard, 3 days, 16 hours a day, and then park the truck for the next 4 days and catch up on paperwork. This year we were much better prepared for the winter season. Planning and strategy are the keys, and now I know what works and what doesn’t work with our concept. Of course, there are still bad days where we don’t sell out, but that’s how it is with a Food Truck. It’s like fishing, sometimes you have to move around to see where you can catch a customer.
David’s tips for making your Food Truck a success:
According to David, aside from strategy and planning, it requires creativity and new thinking to have a Food Truck. David has an education as a chef, and used to work in a much larger space than a Food Truck kitchen offers. “With all the many sandwiches I throw over the counter, it was difficult to keep up with all the toasted buns in the beginning. Preparing a serving shouldn’t take more than 10 seconds here at our truck. Having to cook pasta for 3 minutes wouldn’t work for us. We want to give our customers a good service, and not let them stand in long lines and wait for their food, so we had a problem with the oven and couldn’t
01
Investigate what is missing in the Street Food market and choose your food concept based on supply and demand
02
It can pay to take the time to create a regular customer base by investigating what type of arrangements you sell best at, and come to them regularly. Strategy is the code word.
03
Take time to tell your customers on the social medias, where and when you will be somewhere.
04
Look your customers in the eyes and take time to talk to them – they don’t forget that. You may even get feedback on what they really think of your food.
05
It is important that you have a hold on planning, so serving the food doesn’t take more than a few seconds.
“
Having a Food Truck is a little like fishingsometimes you have to drive around to see where you can catch a customer - St e ge n & De lle n
Stegen & Dellen / HiiYou Den Røde Plads
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Panca Peruvian Rolling Kitchen / HiiYou Fisketorvet
The rolling travel guide
CASE STORY
“My love for Peru became my new way of living”
Panca Peruvian Rolling Kitchen
Panca, owned by Simon Branner Hansen, leases his Food Truck from Hii You. Panca has only 2 months behind him, when we meet him for an interview at sunny Svanemøllen beach. The rolling restaurant sells healthy and delicious Peruvian food with a modern twist. With us, you don’t know what you will get from one day to another. We don’t have a permanent menu, and that means I make whatever I’m in the mood to make. It has to go with the weather, and it may be a bit of a surprise. That’s how I like to live, and this is reflected in the way I work and create a menu,” says Simon, the owner. Common for all the food I serve from the truck is that it is all inspired by traditional Peruvian dishes, the type of food you would be served when visiting a Peruvian family. Simon’s life changed, when he settled in Peru, where he worked for 11 years as a travel guide for Danish groups. There he was introduced to Peru’s gastronomic world, which he has a special love for. He met his wife there, and now they have 2 children. Together, they have developed the concept for
Panca, Peruvian Rolling Restaurant, which they came back to Denmark to start. “I have had a wish to start a Peruvian restaurant for 7 years. I love the Peruvian kitchen that is filled with healthy nourishing raw materials like Chia, Quinoa, Stevia and over 3300 potato sorts. Peruvian food hardly exists in Denmark, and we are attempting to spread the knowledge of the varied kitchen it is, and use authentic spices and methods in our food concept. Panca typically serves dishes like lamb stew with rice, quinoa salad, sandwiches, smoothies, mint iced tea, soup and other healthy dishes. According to Simon, particularly healthy food is Food Trucks future. What sells best in our truck, and is in now, is nourishing food that fills you for a long time. A kind of slow fast food.” 157
“The best day for our Food Truck was a fantastic catering job we had. You prepare the dishes at home, then go out, open the truck window, and serve precisely the number of dishes ordered. You are prepaid and avoid wasting raw materials, as you can calculate purchases. That is a very good way to insure a profit.” Simon, Panca Simon emphasizes the importance of making the Food Truck personal and on top of using a recognizable foil and logo design, decorated with sensational things of symbolic importance to Peru. “It is important to have something unique in your business that sets you apart. In the design process, it was important for me to be different than everyone else, for me it is important that you can recognize the truck, once you have eaten here. Our experience is that the people from the Hii You organization were able to help us find a recognizable logo that was just right for our truck. We have often heard people say, - hay; there is the truck with the bull! – It may be they cannot remember our name, but they recognize the bull logo. For Simon, who has only been at it for 2 months, everything is very new, and it hasn’t been a long time from making the decision to taking action. “When we had decided that our Peruvian restaurant should have wheels, it went really fast. We found the Hii You organization, which leases the trucks, and have a handle on everything about mobile businesses, and we 158
were amazed that it was possible to have everything ready so quickly. It only took 3 weeks, before we suddenly stood there with the truck. They are very professional. We had a good startup phase. “Together with the design-team from Hii You, we changed our idea into a fantastic design, which we are very happy about. It has certainly become just what we wanted. The whole process went so fast.”
Simons’ 5 best pieces of advice to you who wants to start a Food Truck: 01
Make sure you have a business plan before you start up. Economy has to be in place
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You really have to believe in your concept and make it unique
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Be aware that you have to be ready to put all your energy into the project, if it is going to work
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You have to be open towards receiving all sorts of customers from all walks of life
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Don’t give up, even if your feel it’s going downhill. It will go up again
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To be able to drive out to any party at 2:00 in the morning and open your truck window is the genius of having a Food Truck. Or a sunny day at the beach, where we sell refreshments, while the kids swim. ... That’s freedom! - Panca Pe ruvian Rolling Ki t c he n
Quinoa Salad / Panca Peruvian Rolling Kitchen
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Make sure you have a business plan before you start up Economy has to be in place. You really have to believe in your concept and make it unique
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Panca Peruvian Rolling Kitchen
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Bangkok Street Kitchen / HiiYou Islands Brygge
From rye bread factory to successful independent Bangkok Street Kitchen is a Food Truck concept that is rapidly developing with Richard and his wife in charge. The Food Truck sells delicious classic takeaway Thai food. The couple started their truck in the summer of 2015 and had so much success, that they have just decided to lease yet another truck through Hii You. However, the couple’s story doesn’t have such a rosy beginning. “As of yet, we haven’t experienced a single bad month with our truck. –we have found the source to success with our concept. Now it cannot go fast enough with starting as many Food Trucks as possible,” Tells Richard, who, together with his wife, has the truck Bangkok Street Kitchen, which in peak season has a turnover of about 200.000 dkr. excl. VAT and about 140.000 excl. VAT in the low season. However, the story of their success starts a completely different and less inspiring place. Two years ago, Richard stood in a rye bread factory struggling to pay off a large debt. “My life at the factory was so predictable: I was on the verge of a depression. For nine years, every day at the factory was exactly the same, everything stood still. It was a
CASE STORY
Bangkok Street Kitchen
giant hamster wheel and I really wanted to break out, but I felt stuck, because I owed so much money. I wanted to start my own Thai restaurant. In Copenhagen, you have to pay a large takeover fee to rent a shop, and that was not possible for me at the time. My wife and I coincidentally found an ad for the Hii You organization and the possibility for their help in getting started. We decided right away to go all-in for a Food Truck.” The couple had a division of work tasks from the start, where the wife stood for developing the menu and preparing the raw materials, and Richard took care of administration and the truck.
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But already after the first 3 months, the couple had a large enough turnover so they could hire the first 2 employees, who now take care of the daily operations of Bangkok Street Kitchen. According to Richard, one of the many keys to success is to use time to train employees to be able to take responsibility, but also let them grow with their responsibility. Show them that you appreciate their efforts. “It is my job to teach them well, and then make my business grow together with them. They must grow at the same rate as the business and expand their areas of responsibility,” Richard explains. Raw materials are cut in the morning and packed in portions into bags, so it is easy to prepare the perfect dish directly in the truck. In that way the staff don’t have to be master chefs, but can easily make the same portion, as Richard wants to have the same standard every time. Richard tells, “One the reasons of our success is, that we are consistent with our food. I NEVER want to disappoint a single customer, and therefore it is important, that you know what you get, and that the product is the same in taste and texture every time.” Richards’s wife has developed a seasonal menu with 6 – 8 dishes on the menu every day. As this is a relatively large amount of dishes to serve in a Food Truck, they strive to use many of
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the same ingredients in the different dishes, and that it is mainly sauces and spices that differentiate the dishes. Richard has come a long way in a short time from the days in the rye bread factory to his permanent place in Greve, where Bangkok Street Kitchen’s staff serve take away street food to busy Danes on their way home from work. Weekends are used on Hii You’s popup events in Copenhagen or festivals throughout the country, and the couple has recently ordered a new Food Truck, one that will be sent to Ibiza and Malaga, where Richard’s brother lives and the other will be set up permanently at Hii You’s Street Food market on Nørrebro, Verdenshjørnet. “It hasn’t been easy to start up, but it is the best thing I have done with my life, and we have found a formula that works. One of the things I desperately wanted when I was working in the factory was to have more time with my children, and now I have that, thanks to our Food Truck. It means everything to me, to get to see them while they are growing up. Time with them never comes again.”
“
One the reasons to our success is, that we are consistent with our food. I NEVER want to disappoint a single customer, and therefore it is important, that you know what you get, and that the product is the same in taste and texture every time - Richard, Bangkok St ree t K i t c he n
Panaeng Curry / Bangkok Street Kitchen
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Richards’ 5 best pieces of advice to you who wants to start a Food Truck: 01
02
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Don’t worry about how much you make on a single customer, but instead, what that customer you now are serving will tell their 30 friends about your food and service. If a customer has had to wait in line a long time, we give them a discount. Or if they are not satisfied in some way, they get a sincere apology and compensation. It pays to be generous and service minded. Visibility is alpha omega. Visibility is everything from design and color of the truck, which must stand out in the street picture, to visibility on the social media. In a year, we have 5000 followers on Facebook, who we present with our menu and info of where we are parked. Remember, everything counts, also the small things, such as lamp chains that light up the truck in the dark and create attention on a cold and dark day.
03
Make sure you have specific routines for arranging your Food Truck. Arrange it so it works for you and your staff, so everything is easy, both for preparing the food and for cleaning.
04
Make sure your customers can always find you. It doesn’t help to park random places all the time, but rather have some regular spots, so customers can come again, and tell where you are on the social media.
05
Try to find employees as soon as possible. In the beginning, you may lose money, but you cannot grow without help.
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Make sure your customers can always find you It doesn’t help to park random places all the time, but rather have some regular spots, so customers can come again
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Bao Bao / MJ's Oriental Buns
An oriental love story
CASE STORY
Thomas Junker and his wife, San Poo, started MJ Buns, which sells oriental inspired sandwiches with ecological fillings. Thomas and San Poo have had their food truck from HiiYou.org since October 2015 and mainly work in the capital districts of Sweden, where they live
MJ's Oriental Buns
“We got the idea to start our business as we both come from the restaurant branch and wanted to start for ourselves. We considered a take-away restaurant, but we did not have a sufficient budget. So we investigated the market for alternatives and decided that a Food Truck from Mobile Kitchen was the right move for us. You don’t need a large budget to start a Food Truck and it’s a very different way to have a restaurant. It offers more possibilities, as well as challenges, but there is the advantage of being able to plan our own strategy, drive where we want, where things are happening and where the customers are. We get around to many places and not restricted to a dead area where there are no customers,” Thomas tells. In the beginning, Thomas and San Poo were nervous whether the Food Truck could break even, and considered the concept, at length before they were sure, Thomas tells. The fear of starting a Food Truck, or any project like this,
is always, will it work or not? Is the market right? Have we chosen the right concept? In the beginning you are in uncharted territory.” The couple used a long time researching the street food market to find out if other similar food concepts existed locally, before deciding to try out such an unknown product, inspired by San Poos homeland, Thailand, consisting of Oriental steamed bread filled with for example cabbage, meat and legumes in delicious spicy sauces. Their most popular dish, their signature dish, is Korean inspired marinated sweet and sour pork served with Hoisin sauce and Kimchi. “We chose a concept that there is very little of in Copenhagen. That proved to be a disadvantage in the beginning, because it is a more or less unknown product we are trying to market. People don’t know what oriental buns are here. Therefore, we have used twice as much time and energy, marketing and introducing our new food concept, 169
which would not have been necessary, if we had chosen something classic that people already know, such as pork roast sandwiches or burgers. If you chose a well-known menu, there is a demand for you can be a success from day one. On the other hand, the disadvantage of selling a well-known street food menu, is, if it isn’t good enough and you don’t manage to make your own mark on the menu, you can really flop,” tells Thomas. To market, for us in Scandinavia new food concept with oriental sandwiches, the couple has used Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and participated in food markets and street food events such as HEJ Copenhagen. MJ Buns has also begun using organic ingredients and has adjusted the recipe for the steamed bread, so it now is coarser and thereby healthier. In the spring of 2016, the couple’s marketing work and efforts to refine their menus really began to bear fruit. “We are experiencing success and feel we have been very well received. Our decision to go organic has made an incredibly big difference. People have become very conscious about preferring quality food and demanding better raw materials. The demand for ecology and local products is on the rise. In Sweden, they are even further along. It is our hope, that we can help the fast food trend become a better experience, which is our goal.
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To start your own Food Truck, you have to be brave and persistent. You have to be able to talk to people and be ok with not standing in the kitchen and hiding. You have to be happy and positive, make a funny or warm comment. In doing so, you can lure the customers to your truck, so they don’t just walk past. If they “buy you”, they will also buy your food. Patience is certainly a virtue, but we can see that the results are coming now. The first winter was hard, but we had expected that. We chose to park the truck and return to our regular jobs and return in March, where the season starts up again. And from there on it has gone well for us. We have planned our vacation in January and February so we are ready to roll up our sleeves when the season starts again”. We are considering finding the right indoor markets for the winter season, where we can have a permanent stall, but our goal is to work hard all summer and travel in the winter. We give up a lot in the summer, as our philosophy is to work hard in the summer, while customers are available and then enjoy the winter months in Thailand. That is our dream.
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The best thing about having a Food Truck is the freedom it gives you, to be yourself and decide yourself, how to use your time, your daily planning - MJ Orie nt al Buns
Bao Bao / MJ's Oriental Buns
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It is important to have the community with other Food Trucks from the Hii You organization. This spring we had a fantastic experience, where we made our own little pop-up event in Copenhagen. We were a little skeptical, Easter is usually a family holiday, where people eat at home, but we drew 40005000 people and they sat in the sun and enjoyed having a spontaneous party in the middle of the street. It was wonderful to see how much you can do yourself, especially when we stand together, as we do in Hii You.
Thomas' 5 best pieces of advice for you who wants to start a Food Truck:
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01
Take care of your product, meant in the way that when you first have found your food concept, make sure you make it special. Make it your own.
02
Use the quiet months for planning. Because when the season starts, things go really fast.
03
It is about the whole package. People eat with their eyes and taste buds, but mostly with their nose. Therefore, it is a good idea to prepare some of the food directly in the Food Truck, so the aroma spreads. It draws customers and creates a special atmosphere around the truck.
04
Good raw materials are a must. People are aware and critical, and if you don’t use good raw materials, the customers notice that right away.
05
Be a part of the community where there are colleagues, backup and help is available, if something turns up or goes wrong.
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Good raw materials are essential People are aware and critical, and if you don’t use good raw materials, the customers notice that right away
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Link Overview
WEBSITES 176
01
www.kk.dk/gadesalg
Mobile sales permits Copenhagen
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02
www.aak.dk/gadesalg
Mobile sales permits Aarhus
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03
www.hiiyou.org
Get help and advice on mobility
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04
www.mobilechefs.com
Mobile catering Community
05
www.billetto.dk
Ticket/event network //
06
www.just-eat.dk
07
www.cvr.dk virk.dk
Check availability of your name //
08
www.nemadvokat.dk
Create your company
09
www.revisionkbh.dk
Accounting & Audit //
10
www.al-bank.dk
Customer friendly bank //
//
They can deliver your food //
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11
www.99designs.com
Design of logos and more //
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www.dk-hostmaster.dk
Check domain name
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www.mobilekitchen.dk Find your new Food Truck
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www.foedevarestyrelsen.dk
hygiene requirements //
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www.virk.dk
Define your industry codes
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www.erhvervsstyrelsen.dk
About Aps companies
17
www.erhvervsstyrelsen.dk
About IVS companies //
18
www.skat.dk
About taxes and VAT //
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www.izettle.com
Credit card terminal
20
www.hiiyou.org/bm
Define your business plan //
// // // //
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“
Claim your freedom - Bring life to your passion. We look forward to help you on your journey. - C hrist ian Mørc k CEO, H i i Yo u
CHR IST IA N MØ R CK & LO U I S E VO N L I N STO W
Ho w t o s u c c eed w i th y o u r
Food Truck Business
DES IG N L EA MA RI E C HRI S T I A N S E N P HOTO G R A PH Y J ERI C HA U P ROD UC T I O N Ap S MUGGE LU I MA THI A S L IM A
P R INT EC OGRA F A p S
T HA NK YO U "Byl i v " C o penha g en M u n i c i p al i ty A a r hu s Mu ni c i pa l i t y , Tec hn i c al ad m i n i s tr ati o n J er emy Kl e i n Br i t t L yk k e C o l l ea g u es o f t he H i i Y o u T e am
T HA NK YO U PA RTN E R S
Ave rage M e at ba l l s
Fr i C o c k t a i l B ar
N u tr i f l o r a
Arian a
Fr u i t D o c t o r
O s c ar s B ø f
Bage l Club
Fu eg o
P an c a P e r u v i an
Ban gko k Street Ki t c hen
Ga dek ø k k ene t
P e d r o 's
Be lla' s Din e r
Go u r met S haw ar m a
Persisk
Billig Bar
Gr eek Tr ea t
P i g s & P ar s l e y
Bo de ' s Bage l
Gr i l l ed C hees e
René Chip
Bo rn ho lm på Hj u l A pS
Hea l t hy Bi t e
R o y al S h aw ar m a
Burge r J ack
Ho o k ed
S aw as d e e
Cám Ón
The Ho u nd
S e r v e Y o u r Dar l i n g s
Ch e la Em pan a da s
I t a l i a n S t r eet T r e ats
S te g e n & De l l e n
Crispy' s Fish ' n' C hi ps
L a Ti enda
T ac o p o p
D uck It
L a u r a ' s Ba k er y
T h ai H o t Ch i l i
El J e fe
L êL ê S t r eet K i tc h e n
T h e M e x i c an Do n k e y
Eve re st
L i ma by Mer z e d e s
Ugood
Firma Bar
L i t t l e I ndi a
V i tab o o s t
Fo o d Squad
MJ Bu ns
Wokken
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The ultimate guide for you, who wants to know everything about how to start your own Food Truck. Marketing Food Concept Handling of the Food Administration Operation Economy Customer Service