Many entrepreneurs dream about their catering business. One of the pretty good business ideas is a cafe on wheels.
This cafe is unusual in appearance and attracts with low prices. An institution of this kind can make pretty good competition with ordinary cafes and restaurants.
Business ideas on wheels are new for our country. To translate such an idea into reality does not take so much cost. You can fulfill such a guest’s wishes that an ordinary restaurant cannot do - come to his guest.
The specifics of the mini-cafe on wheels
Before you open an institution of this type, you need to decide on the contingent of visitors. Based on the type of your establishment and the prices of products, you will often be visited by children, schoolchildren and students.
Each entrepreneur of such a business should come up with an original style of his institution. First of all, you need to consider the interior of the cafe on wheels. Since the cafe is mobile, you need to take care of sound insulation so that it does not bother your customers.
It would be nice to look at audio and video acoustics, which can be used not only during a banquet, but also on weekdays. If you decide to hold events in your institution that will bring you a rather big additional profit, then do not forget about the entertainment program and banquet menu.
You also need to think about the cafe routes in advance, do not forget about all the attractions of your city. You can come up with various promotions suitable for your institution, for example, regular customers discounts, as well as discounts on birthdays. Do not forget to make a book of regular customers whom you would notify about your promotions by SMS or by phone.
The cafe menu on wheels
As for the menu, we need a special approach for such an institution. For your visitors you must exclude alcohol. In extreme cases, low-alcohol cocktails can be included. A mobile cafe on wheels cannot have its own kitchen, which means that the cafe will work on semi-finished products of a high degree of readiness, that is, which you just need to heat up.
It can be such dishes: soups, side dishes and bakery products. You can conclude an agreement with any restaurant, cafe and even with the dining room - you decide. If the budget will allow, then, of course, it is better to order in a good institution. Do not forget that if you buy fried salmon at a restaurant at the same price, you will not be able to sell it at your own place, it will be too expensive for your cafe.
Hiring workers
For customer service, you will need a driver, a waiter and a so-called cook who will warm up and make coffee. If you want your institution to work seven days a week, and this is desirable, then you need to take 2 or 3 people (1 person per shift). It is advisable that drivers have experience.
Essential Kitchen Utensils
For a cafe on wheels, you need to choose the necessary equipment, but consider the following: if you suddenly get dirty, there will be nowhere to wash it. Your cafe is moving, and a standing glass on the table can fall at any time. Having broken 100 glasses, it is necessary to consider a loss.
Necessary equipment for a cafe:
- Kitchen.
- 2 tables for equipment.
- Microwave.
- Coffee machine
- A couple of refrigerators.
- Cabinets for storing dishes.
- Dishwasher (if the dishes are reusable) or containers for used disposable dishes.
- Forks, spoons, half-serving plates, small tablespoons, saucers, trays, napkin holders, bread bins, etc.
- Hall.
- Chairs and tables are plastic or wooden. All furniture must be bolted to the wall and floor of the bus.
Prerequisites for a cafe
Do not forget about heating in winter, heating the lower steps, and in hot weather - air conditioning. As for the parking, you can agree on it with one motor company in your city. There are two ways to organize this kind of business:
- Buy a franchise.
- Create your own brand.
The franchise price is quite high, it is 90 thousand euros, today it is 4 410 000 p. This includes: a double-decker bus (American-made), the right to use the brand, the initial advertising campaign and the recipe. But in Russia they try not to mess with this type of transport, but our domestic ones buy and make a cafe-bus to their liking. In addition, you need to collect the necessary documents:
- Permission to open a cafe on the bus.
- Certificate of state registration.
- Help medical examination of all employees.
- Permission from the fire safety authorities.
- License for the sale of goods and alcohol.
- A document with positive results of sanitary inspections.
Planned Initial Costs
Bus - 2 800 000 rubles.
Equipment - about 150 thousand rubles, depending on how much you put.
Cafe and interior decoration - 90-120 thousand rubles.
Total: 3,050,000-3,070,000 rubles.
Monthly expenses:
For fuel - (consumption 30l / 100 km, 100 km per day, 25 rubles per liter) - 23.25 thousand rubles.
Bus service - 15 thousand rubles.
Salaries: 2 drivers - 20 thousand rubles, a waiter - 15 thousand rubles, a cook - 10 thousand rubles, an accountant - 7 thousand rubles.
Total: 142.25 thousand rubles.
Company profit
If you take on average that a mobile cafe on wheels will pay off in a couple of years, then every month you can get 125 thousand rubles of revenue. With an average check of one hundred rubles per client and a 50% mark-up, the institution should serve 100-120 visitors every day, these figures are completely real. With such a profit, the enterprise will not work at a loss for itself.
Problems opening an unusual cafe
Cafe-bus is an unusual institution and quite interesting, but unfortunately, the sanitary and epidemiological station and other stations responsible for the cleanliness of the enterprise are a big question. The question is whether this kind of business can turn out to be impracticable in reality. Maybe even easy, consider the reasons.
Rospotrebnadzor will be against such a bus that it would travel around the city, because the catering company should be connected to city communications. Fire safety rules state that at public catering enterprises, without exception, there must be two evacuation exits, and the bus only has one door.
If in your city the population does not exceed 200 thousand people, then such a cafe should not be opened. The population of such cities has their own opinion, it’s cheaper to go to dine home than to go to a cafe. The next problem is Russian roads. Any stop provokes the spill of drinks and hot dishes. Based on this, only packed dishes should be present in the cafe menu.
Positive aspects of a mobile cafe
Not every day and not every season will be profitable. For example, in the warm season, your business will be useful for the population, and on frosty or stormy days no one will come to you. Although the authorities themselves have a negative attitude towards this kind of business, such a cafe would be useful on big holidays, such as the parade on May 1 and 9, and other events.
Having listed all the shortcomings of such an institution, we doubt whether such a business will pay off and whether it will bring any profit at all. Normal profit It brings an institution with 50 seats or more, and such a bus accommodates about 20-30 people.Despite this, nothing can stop a motivated entrepreneur, and he will translate this into reality. With a lot of effort and patience, you can make such a business pretty good.
In different countries, a mobile cafe on wheels is considered acceptable, for example, in Japan. Only in this country do snacks such as takoyaki balls, the main component of which is the octopus, are prepared. In addition to cafes on wheels, there are many businesses of this kind in the world, for example, take San Francisco.
There is a mobile restaurant made from an old school bus, and such a restaurant is very popular. It is regarded more as an entertaining option with an assortment of fast food menus.
The first project of such a mobile restaurant was launched in Los Angeles in 2008 by chef Roy Choi. He offered visitors Korean and Mexican cuisine. Such a business also exists in China, where it is also very popular due to the huge population.
A few years ago, the Moscow government gave the go-ahead to entrepreneurs to open such a business, but so far only drinks are served there. In many cities of Russia, cafe trams or cafe trolley buses travel in the summer. This type of institution will look good in cities with a large influx of tourists. If the population wants to see this type of catering, the government will allow such a business to exist in every city.
