Are you like every food truck owner I’ve spoken with and are continually looking for ways to cut down on expenses in your food truck business? If so, then today’s your day. We have put together 10 simple techniques for food truck vendors to cut food truck business expenses and increase your profits.

10 Ways To Cut Food Truck Business Expenses

Streamline Your Food Truck Menu

The first way to cut food truck business expenses is to look at your menu. A food truck vendor needs to have a menu that most efficiently utilizes the space, labor and inventory available within the mobile food kitchen. If you run a cart, trailer or truck, the kitchen size will vary, but for your specific kitchen platform, you must have a menu that is efficient to your needs.

Take the time to review your sales of each item you currently sell and cut down on items. Look for menu items that have unique ingredients and may be costly to source. Also take into consideration the labor that comes with preparing each food truck menu item.

RELATED: The Food Truck Menu: An In-depth Look

Develop Operating Standards

Have standards and procedures to be followed in each area of your food truck. To ensure compliance, ensure consistent monitoring. This does not only help you serve your food truck customers better, it also helps you save on costs, especially if some of the measures taken are on cost cutting.

Think About Alternative Energy Sources

Green energy is not only appealing to customers, but it also helps food truck owners cut down on energy costs. Consider installing a solar heating system for your hot water needs. As a bonus, some states offer tax credits on renewable energy. Also, look into using equipment that does not consume a lot of energy to cut down on energy expenses. Take a look at your light bulbs and what an LED can save you per day and what the government is willing to give you back in a rebate.

Examine Kitchen Layout and Equipment

Prices of food fluctuate with time and similarly, operations within a food truck also need to change with time. Efficiency can be improved through regular reviews of the layout of your equipment.

Recheck Your Bills

Have your food truck accountant sift through bills looking for errors, overcharges and can eventually negotiate a better deal for services provided to your food truck.

Credit Card Cost

Some food trucks owners are faced with expenses relating to credit card processing fees. If this is your case you should contact your processor and have their company explain all the fees charged as per the monthly statements. If the company won’t explain the fees, then look for another processor.

RELATED: Repair Your Credit Score Now With These Simple Tips

Inventory Management

Even though most food trucks don’t have a lot of inventory, inventory management has a direct impact on profit margins and cash management. This management can be done by labeling perishable products with dates to minimize spoilage and cutting down on the time you have to spend shopping or placing orders.

Co-op With Restaurants & Food Trucks

This might be of help especially when it comes to purchasing supplies. Join or create a buying group. This will allow food trucks to purchase in a group which not only saves on purchases, it also eliminates the need to deal with multiple sales people or negotiate for better prices.

Ask for Suppliers’ Help

Suppliers have a vested interest in making you happy and can similarly assist when it comes to cheaper options of products or techniques. Since they are not familiar with how you manage your costs, asking for several tips on costs cutting from them might give you new ideas to cut food truck business expenses.

Before You Sign That Contract…

Our final step to cut food truck business expenses is for you to avoid contracts that auto-renew. Get out if services being provided aren’t cancelled within a given time frame. Contracts with pricing running out before the contract, contracts that cannot leave you even if you relocate. This will assist you in not being stuck with non-beneficial terms that come with a contract.

RELATED: Adding Curbside Pickup To Your Food Truck Business Model

The Bottom Line

Cutting costs can seem difficult, but using these tips, we’ve helped you get started. We hope this article helps vendors cut food truck business expenses. Share your thoughts on this topic in the comment section, our food truck forum or social media. Twitter | Facebook