Are you thinking about hitting the streets and serving up some tasty treats? It's an excellent decision given the food truck industry has a huge 7.9% annual growth rate for the past 5 years, has a low start-up cost of approximately $50,000 to $100,000, with expected annual revenue of $250,000 to $500,000!
Bob Cuesta, Founder of the Empanada Dada Cuban Food Truck, shares his best advice to help you launch, brand and build a successful food truck business.
In May of 2017 Bob left Corporate America and launched the Empanada Dada food truck. It’s based out of Lowell, MA and can be found at local farmer's markets, fairs, corporate venues, and festivals around Eastern MA and Southern NH.
Bob goes deep into every aspect of the food truck business - from build out to customer experience - he covers all the nitty gritty details from his own food truck founder journey.
If you’d like to learn how to provide an outstanding social media customer experience, please follow Bob on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn – the way he brands his business and keeps the customer connection happening on all 3 platforms is amazing. Links to his social media accounts are below.
Bob shared two pieces of advice that are significant for ALL startup founders.
“You can have a great product, the best product in the world. Your food could be so tasty, but how do those customers leave you after their purchase? What was that interaction like? For me, I really believe 40% of it might be the food, but 60% is really about how you represent to your community and how customers feel when they do business with you.”
Bob said he always makes sure his customers are satisfied, they're getting a top-notch product, but he also makes sure he has made a meaningful connection with them.
We all need to remember that with our customers and clients right?
Bob also shared an important aspect about the entrepreneurial journey.
He came from 20 years being in a call center surrounded by people ten hours a day. Now, he’s a little bit lonely. That's how it is. Being an entrepreneur, you're wearing 15 different hats, so while he may service 200 customers, the conversation is usually "What would you like?" and "Here's your change."
You're not really talking about your day, so having a support structure is so important. Bob says at home, if you don't have the support of your spouse, your kids, it's going to be really, really difficult for this startup experience to be successful. You need to have that backbone support and that really starts with home.
And yes, he said having a mentor is equally important. :-D
I met Bob at EforAll, a 12-month, non-profit accelerator program in the Greater Boston area. I was his mentor/coach, and it was my sincere pleasure and honor to watch this founder launch, brand and build his successful food truck business.
If you have any questions for Bob and me or would like to continue the conversation … please leave a comment below … we’d love to hear from you!
If you need startup mentoring – please visit my website, andelyons.com where you’ll find all the ways I can add value to your startup journey – strategy calls, pitch deck and one page business snapshot coaching, WBENC application support for women business owners - I’d be honored to mentor you– so please don’t hesitate to reach out.
If you’d like to receive an alert whenever I post a new episode, please follow me on Spreaker, Stitcher and Google Play… and let’s connect on social media, too!
Until next time, stay strong, stay focused – and please remember – you’ve got this – Cheers!
Ande ♥
Empanada Dada's Social Media Links and Website Link:
https://www.facebook.com/EmpanadaDada/
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