After a great spring launch or start to your summer, your food truck is suddenly a local favorite food truck. You’ve experienced a huge rise in sales and catering requests as your customers reach out to their friends and families for a dish “they’ve just got to try for themselves.” Local papers are raving about your signature dish. Your likes on Facebook have tripled in the last month. With all of your hard work paying off…you’ve made it. Unfortunately, with this increased business also comes new risks that most food truck vendors never consider which can slow down food truck growth.

If you’re not prepared to manage these new risks, your opportunity for continued growth could turn into a nightmare. Luckily, protecting your food truck from this worst case scenario isn’t that difficult.

Three common risks that slow down food truck growth:

Keep it clean

The first of the risks that slow down food truck growth revolve around the cleanliness of your food truck. So let’s say it’s the end of the shift and your staff is tired. They’ve just served twice as many customers as usual, and they still have to clean up. Eager to get home, they hurry through cleaning the truck, even though it’s a mess. Over time, grease builds up in the deep fryer. The buildup causes a fire, forcing you to replace your totaled food truck.

Keep your food truck open by implementing a highly regulated, continuous cleaning routine throughout every shift. Even better? Hire a third-party cleaning service that will clean your truck when you get back to the commissary. Hiring cleaning professionals will ensure your equipment is well cleaned, without having to rely on your staff for meticulous work at the end of an already tiring shift.

RELATED: 3 Steps To Making Sure You Have A Clean Food Truck

Staff up

Even though your revenue is increasing, you’re not yet ready to hire new staff, so everyone works harder than normal.

All business owners experience growing pains between when they first need new staff members and when they’re finally able to hire them. When you start your truck, make sure you have back up employees that are willing to help out on busy shifts or help with catering jobs so your regular staff can take some time off.

Put more eggs in the basket

Since food trucks have traditionally been part of the locally grown dish trend, they start off with increased risk. If your local suppliers are hit with limited supplies due to weather, you don’t want to shut down while you are waiting for ingredients to get back up to normal levels. Reduce your risk of having your food truck business interrupted by diversifying your suppliers, especially if your bestselling dishes rely on what they provide.

The Bottom Line

Food truck growth problems don’t have to remain a permanent issue. If you’re a food truck vendor who knows your company could experience more steady growth, take the time to analyze and reflect on the above. Take the steps needed to get your internal, external, managerial, and financial aspects aligned and focused. With the right strategy, you can keep your mobile food business healthy and growing.

Have you seen other risks that slow down food truck growth? What are they and how did you avoid them? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Share them in the comment section, our food truck forum or social media. Facebook | Twitter