What is Up-selling?

Up-selling is a way of offering extra products during and after the sales process of your customers. The best up-selling techniques usually involve related purchases to what the customer is already buying.

In my opinion, up selling additional or related items to a customer, whatever business you’re in, is a win-win situation both for the customer and the business. It’s a way of giving your customer more of what they what in the most simplest, quickest and helpful way. You’re not being all salesey and pressuring anyone into anything, you’re helping them get more of what they want. In fact, if you’re not helping your customers have more of what they want in the form of up-selling, you are in fact holding them back from getting more of what they want or often didn’t even know was available to them.

It’s estimated that over 60 percent of customers will opt for some sort of up-sell if it’s reasonably priced, and if it’s related to their original order. If you are a catering trailer business owner, those figures should be music to your ears, because offering your customers tasty food up-sells can quickly and easily increase your daily profits.

3 Super-Profit Up-sell Tricks to Use in Your Catering Trailer Business

To get the most out of up-selling in your catering trailer business, you must make sure that your employees always use at least one up-selling technique when someone orders something. Make this mandatory in your business and your sales will increase. Not every customer will go for it, but many people will take you up on a decent up-sell offer.

In the catering trailer business there are 3 main up-sell techniques you can use to increase sales in your catering trailer business:

No.1.  Upsell in Sizes. Bigger is Better – Whatever your customer orders, try to up-sell them a larger size. Instead of them walking off with a regular burger, fries and drink, you or your staff will try to convince them to take the medium, large or jumbo size. This works especially well if you have already priced the larger sized order at a discounted price, compared to the regular sizes.

No 2: Up-Sell to your customers surrounding party

When people visit a mobile food outlet they generally do so with surrounding friends or family members and often only one or two of them is actually buying something. A great way to improve profits is to simply ask the rest of the party if they’d like anything too. A good bulk order discount like 5 for that price of 4 or perhaps a free tea or coffee will usually persuade a group of prospective customers into a profitable bulk purchase, and often repeat custom from future purchases.

No 3: Up-sell 2-for-1 deals and related items

When a customer is purchasing you simply ask if they would like 2 for a discounted price or simply offer a similar product that compliments their original food or drink item such as a cookie to go with their coffee or fries to go with their burger and so on.

Up-selling offers are endless and will bring in a surprising amount of extra profits for your business once you start implementing them, best of all they’re FREE to use and implement right away in your business!

These are always changeable and you can offer these at any time of the year and optimise your offers and tweak your upsell items to increase the ‘take rate’. Not all of your customers will take you up but even a small 5-10% take rate will make a substantial difference to your catering trailer business.

In fact, if you learn how to do this properly, you’ll easily achieve a 25-50% take rate when offering upsell items that compliment your customers original purchase.

Think of it this way, every time you don’t upsell your customers more of what they want (delicious food and drink from your catering trailer business) you’re leaving money on the table AND preventing them from enjoying more of your fine food and drinks, often at a reduced price, often that they didn’t even know was available. So put this to work in your business right away!

These 3 modes of upselling are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to optimizing your catering trailer business for sales and increasing your bottom line. Over the years I’ve figured out many easy-to-implement systems and sales techniques that can literally double your business overnight.

You can try to figure them out on your own and or you can check out my Mobile Catering Mastery course here today and use the copy-paste techniques to grow your catering trailer business with strategies that work in the real world and make attractive offers, deals and upsells that customers LOVE to buy. Grab your copy here now RISK FREE

There are many resources that talk about business plans, and general business plan templates. However, finding a good money-attracting MOBILE FOOD business plan template to fund your catering trailer business that you can edit, use and apply in your own mobile food business is a rare find.

…the good news is, you can actually get one right now along with a whole hoard of other essential mobile catering trailer business templates, checklists, forms, contracts and systems to start and grow your business. You can check out the details here: Mobile Food Business Plan Template

A good mobile food business plan will help you create clear goals to develop your business. It also helps you focus on running your business and eliminating some of the related stress of not knowing what direction your business is going to take.

One of the main functions of your mobile food business plan will be to attract and ultimately GET financing from a bank, investor or other lending institution to fund your start-up, so writing a PROFESSIONAL business plan that outlines the first few years of the business is essential, get this first part wrong and all the dominos can tumble later on.

9 Steps to Writing Your Mobile Food Business Plan

Here are 9 essential elements that you need to include in your mobile food business plan to help get the funding you need:

Executive Summary – This is probably the most important part of your business plan. It’s what readers will see first, so you need to make a good impression with it. This is an overview of your complete plan, and goes into the history of your business. It explains to readers why you feel your business is hot and why you think it’s going to be a winner.

Business Description – Your business description of your mobile food business plan should show how the various elements of your business fit together. You should describe what your business is all about, and list important factors reasons why you believe your business will become successful.

Determine the nature of your business, and list how you are going to fill a need in this market with the food you are going to serve.

What are the unique ways that you will serve your customers? Describe the type of staff you will have, and what you think gives your business an advantage over the thousands of similar mobile food businesses that are already out there.

Market Analysis – The market analysis section of your mobile food business plan demonstrates that you have a good understanding about your company’s business. It includes your target audience, competition evaluation and geographic details.

Products or Services -What kind of food are you going to sell? This section should include your products, highlighting the benefits to your customers.

Concentrate on areas that give your business a clear advantage. Make sure that all of your products and other services are listed. You can even list products that you plan on launching in the future to show that you are thinking about long-term menu options and business goals.

Competitive Analysis – In this section, you should review your competitors. Regardless of what kind of food business you are in, you’re going to have competition. There will be other food businesses that sell the same or similar products, sometimes mobile, sometimes brick-and-mortar.

For this reason, you need to know who your competitors are. You need to evaluate them with a sharp eye on their weaknesses and strengths. If some of your competition is strong in certain areas, you need to have a solution for that, and list strong elements of your business.

Marketing and Sales – Marketing is the process of attracting prospects and turning them into paying customers, and it is the strongest force behind your business and success. So, you want to list your marketing strategies here. List the ways that are unique for your company and the types of food you are going to sell. List techniques you are going to use to really push sales and ways that will help you build customer loyalty in the coming days and months.

Management and Operations – This section of your mobile food business plan will target your operations, your organization and your equipment. You should list how you plan on managing your employees and your company.

Obviously, if you are a one person operation, you won’t have much to list here. However, you can still list what all of your responsibilities are, and your experience in the food industry.

Request for Funding – No mobile food business plan would be complete without a section asking for the funding. You need to show your present financial needs, and what your requirements will be over the next four or five years. You need to have financial strategies in place, because banks and other lending institutions want to know how you are going to be using their money.

Creditors need to know how you are going to be able to repay your loans. Carefully create this section of your business plan, because it determines the likelihood that you will receive funding.

Financial Plan – This should be written into your mobile food business plan after you have analyzed your market. Make this part clear and accurate with achievable numbers. This will be scrutinized by those, who might be willing to invest in your company. They want to be sure that you will be using their funds wisely, and that you know what you’re doing.

…and that’s the main problem. Many mobile food vendors don’t know what they’re doing and fall at the first hurdle when it comes to setting up their business and creating a professional mobile food business plan.

Writing out a professional mobile food business plan on your own can often take days, weeks even months to write, craft, edit, refine and finish…and paying a professional will cost thousands. The good news is, YOU CAN FIX THIS PROBLEM RIGHT NOW.

In my Mobile Catering Mastery program I give you a complete done-for-you fill in the blanks successful mobile food business plan template you can take to the bank or investors to raise the capital you need to get going.  Check it out here

You’ll save hoards of time and thousands of your own money using my quick-mobile food business plan template so you can get the funding you need fast.

Click here to check it out RISK FREE now

Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

My program Mobile Catering Mastery is a world-class education about how to really get started in this business from the ground up, not just on starting out, but on EVERY aspect of growing your mobile food business to the point of success.

You’ll get an entire training on getting through all the red tape, creating a delicious menu, getting into profitable locations and events, and some killer tips on how to effectively attract more customers using unique deals, offers and marketing tricks.

…but you’ll also learn how to start up and PROFIT without having to risk any of your hard earned money up front.

Go here right now: Risk FREE trial of Mobile Catering Mastery

What makes mobile catering trailers unparalleled to most food businesses is the fact that it’s possible to change locations whenever you choose to so you can try out new areas and optimise your business for the most profitable locations.

…and that’s the million dollar skill, GETTING into those profitable locations and BIG money events. It’s a whole subject and an art in itself, which I’ll walk you through in later materials…

State and local health laws require that food equipment and utensils for mobile catering trailers are cleaned in commercial kitchens. That means that you cannot just clean your equipment at your house, even if it’s clean unless it is a REGISTERED commercial kitchen. Since food industries are regulated in most countries, this helps prevent disease from unsanitary conditions.

Mobile Catering Trailers Secret Trick to a FREE Health Checked Commissary

What happens if you can’t find a good location for a commissary in your area? What if you don’t have the upfront cash to pay for a proper commissary? This is a common problem that many people face when starting in the business of mobile catering trailers, and one that i’d like to address here.

Most people are only aware of paying for their own food commissary. This requires you to go through the process of getting business and health permits, and can cost you money that you might not have when you want to get started.

A great sneaky little-known solution is to use industrial kitchens from other local organizations who already have a health-checked commercial kitchen (commissary), such as churches and town halls. This gives you the perfect way of legally setting up your mobile catering trailers much faster, not to mention cheaper.

Almost nobody uses this little known tactic. You see, churches and town halls have large kitchen facilities that are hardly ever used. All you need to do is contact the town hall in the area where you plan on operating your business or simply ask your local church. Both have industrial kitchens that are already licensed and ready to use.

You simply trade your mobile food services once a month for one of their meetings for the use of their health checked commissary.

It’ quite the win-win situation. You get to use the churches kitchen facilities (that you’ll often be legally required to do so to operate your business) and the church members or village hall members are able to enjoy your mobile food services once or twice a month.

If you are an active member of a local church or town/village hall, you probably already have a good relationship with the people necessary to use this technique of trading your services for use of their facilities for free. If not, no problem, in my mastery program I include a word-for-word template you can use when approaching these organisations either in person or by letter, you can check it out here.

If you thoroughly check out your local area, you’ll most likely come up with many other organizations that have health-checked commercial kitchens you can use to get a free commissary for your business using this technique.

Of course, these tips are just the tip of the iceberg!

If you really want to turn your food passion into a PROFITABLE mobile food business and earn a small fortune from selling your foods to a long line of happy returning customers, then I’d suggest you grab a copy of my program Mobile Catering Mastery.

It’s a world-class education about how to really get started in this business from the ground up, not just on starting out, but on EVERY aspect of growing your mobile food business to the point of SUCCESS.

You’ll get an entire training on getting through all the red tape, creating a great menu that attracts customers, getting into profitable locations and events, and some killer tips on how to effectively attract money-spending customers using unique deals, special offers and effective marketing tricks you can use to literally DOUBLE your business.

…but you’ll also learn how to start up and PROFIT without having to risk any of your hard earned money up front.

Go here right now: Risk FREE trial of Mobile Catering Mastery

Mobile food businesses operate under tight schedules, and WILL include times of stress and pressure. You’ve got to make your food look delicious, served hot and fast, at a good price, at the same time as keeping everything clean within your local standards of food hygiene, and of course, keeping your customers HAPPY.

Catering trailer sales and the mobile food vending market have shown no sign of slowing down. People will always need to eat, and mobile food businesses offering good food at a good price served quickly will always be in high demand, ESPECIALLY in harsh economic times.

How Much Money Can I Expect to Make from My Catering Trailer Sales

The amount of money you can expect to make from catering trailer sales will depend on your work ethics, business sense, and determination to work hard and smart. You can expect to work long hours in the beginning. Your time isn’t just spent selling your products, but cooking food and preparation, and storing and cleaning when you finish each day.

Some mobile food vendors are happy to earn a decent living of around $10K-$50K from their catering trailer sales at weekly markets, roadsides or industrial areas. Other vendors simply trade part time on the weekends to supplement their income. While some are happy to ‘make a living’ and earn a decent income part-time or full-time, there are many mobile food entrepreneurs who earn small fortunes.

The mobile food business is no stranger to newbies starting out from a small food unit and building a $1M+ dollar empire in just a few short years by expanding their operations into new locations, markets, festivals, outdoor events and offering additional private catering services to parties and functions etc. Many catering trailer businesses often reach the $100-$250K per year mark from trading at profitable locations within their local area. The real trick is to learn how to find and secure profitable locations and events for your business.

7 Essential Steps to Increasing Your Catering Trailer Sales:

1: Start with a Strong Business Plan – A business running without a good business plan is like a house built upon sand. If you don’t have a strong business foundation set out with a planned strategy and execution, you’ll have a MUCH harder time raising money and getting successfully up and running in business.

2: Start up Capital – A big mistake with many entrepreneurs make is not having enough start up funds. Understand that having enough money to purchase all of your equipment, food, licenses, insurance and your catering trailer is just the beginning. You also need enough money to pay your staff for at least the first three to six months and allow a financial cushion to absorb any ongoing costs for at least the first six months to deal with any slow start-up catering trailer sales periods if you need to.

3: Strong Friendly Work Ethic- Expect to be the hardest working person in your operation. A lot of your business will be built upon word-of-mouth in the beginning. Customers should feel and sense your energy and excitement from you. You’ve got to be enthusiastic about serving other people, if you or your staff seems uninterested in the job you are doing, it will show and drive away any repeat custom.

4: Know Your Competition – Another factor that will help with your catering trailer sales is to know what you are up against. Take the time to observe other successful mobile food trailers, their menu’s, their theme, everything. It’s not that important whether they are selling the same foods as you. What is important is how they MARKET their foods, drinks and business and how YOU can out-sell and out-cool them to attract more custom.

5: Keep a Clean Appearance – If you keep your trailer spotless and your food looks clean, you’re likely to be in business a lot longer and make people happier. Train your staff to keep their hands, surfaces, utensils and everything else as clean as possible because you and your catering trailer are centre stage to a crowd of money-spending word-of-mouth spreading customers.

6: Keep a Journal – A journal or small notepad is an entrepreneurs secret weapon. Many wealthy individuals such as Richard Branson swear by it to their increased productivity and success. Set yourself goals for each day. Keep your tasks prioritized and list things that you need to do every day. This keeps you organized and helps you save time. Most importantly jot down your mistakes and anything that is slowing you and your business down, then write out next to them the action step necessary to correct, improve and optimise your catering trailer sales.

7: Marketing – Ultimately how you market your business will be the make or break of your catering trailer sales and business itself. Learning how to market your catering trailer business and attract customers to your outlet is undoubtedly the highest leverage in your business, and fortunately, one you can LEARN TODAY.

How to Increase Your Catering Trailer Sales Starting TODAY

It took me years of trial and error and thousands of my own money to figure out the systems and techniques that work like a champ in the mobile food business.

You see, most mobile food vendors don’t really ‘get’ this part of the business and fall flat on their face when it comes to marketing their business, attracting money-spending customers and increasing their daily catering trailer sales.

In my Mobile Catering Mastery program you’ll learn how to literally DOUBLE your business using some unique customer attraction techniques and up-selling strategies that you can copy and paste into your own business to get more catering trailer sales right away.

Inside, I teach everything from the ground up on starting and growing your own mobile food business to the point of success.

You’ll learn the best ways to get into profitable events and locations and you’ll get over 50 pre-made business templates, checklists, forms, schedules and contracts that you can use to get started right away.

Take some time to invest in yourself today and learn how to literally sky-rocket your catering trailer sales with my quick-easy techniques and systems. You can click here now to try it today RISK FREE

The decision of buying any catering trailers for sale should be made with some degree of sensible thought as this decision will affect numerous outcomes in the long run.

For example:

• It’s the core of all your marketing and will be attracting the eye of potential customers from every direction.

• The new or used catering trailers you buy represent how customers identify your business, products and brand.

• Your catering trailer also determines what food, drinks and other goods you are able to sell when it comes to the internal equipment included and gives a good indication of the menu options you are able to offer.

• It also determines how quickly you are able to operate and effectively sell items through its structure and internal layout which if positioned correctly can exponentially improve your productivity, serving speed and income.

• After buying your outlet from the vast amount of catering trailers for sale, it will be THE biggest asset of your business proving you with a sustainable income and providing your catering trailer business value both on and off paper.

• It will probably be the greatest single investment of your business and depending on the size of your operation and budget could be a large outlay ranging from just $500 up to $200,000 or more

The catering trailer and gear you use is an essential part of running a effective mobile food business, therefore it is important to know what to look for, the legal implications involved with owning and using your equipment, how to get the best deals when buying catering trailers for sale and how to use your equipment properly.

Negotiating used catering trailers

Many people buying new or used catering trailers for sale, when trying to negotiate on price, will do what I call the damaging admission. They attempt and slay the thing that they are trying to buy and attempt to harm and de-value the used catering trailer every which way possible. I don’t know about you but doesn’t this concept just sound and really feel wrong?

I’ve found that the damaging admission hardly ever assists in any negotiating scenario and most of the time tends to cause friction between the buyer and seller of the catering trailer for sale and often offends the seller by offending their ‘baby’ that they’re most likely to be emotionally attached to.

Think about it, this used catering trailer has most likely been paying their mortgage and feeding their family for a long time, so slaying the thing is not always the best thing to do here.

When negotiating for used catering trailers for sale I find it has always been useful to come across as a friendly person who has some interest, with a somewhat limited budget however has some authority and should be taken seriously.

If you can ‘sell yourself’ so to speak, and get the seller to want or choose to sell the catering trailer to you instead of anybody else you’ll have a much smoother transaction when negotiating on price and terms for catering trailers for sale.

Some simple negotiation techniques will go a long way and will frequently help lower the costs on your used catering trailers, equipment and generally reduce your overall business expenses.

Here is my short 6 step action plan for buying any used catering trailers for sale or any type of mobile food stand for your mobile catering ventures.

Step one: Plan for the road ahead

Have a strategy from the beginning and know where you are going to trade from, who and where your target market places are located, the food, drinks and menu items  you will be offering and what equipment you’ll need. Preparing a catering trailer business plan will provide you with great structure and direction and also help you substantially with any financing you might require.

Step two: Refine your search from the catering trailers for sale

Narrow down the search for the used catering trailer and your equipment after establishing your business plan. Know precisely what type and design of trailer and equipment you will need and take into consideration the health and safety requirements and also the electrical requirements for the trailer and equipment.

Step three: Go over the details of the used catering trailer

Interview the owner or seller over the phone and ask the some key questions before going for a viewing such as:

• Will they negotiate on price or terms?
• Is the framework, chassis, electrics, wheels and tyres in good condition?
• Is there any rust around the catering trailer?
• Is it clean and presentable?
• Does everything work?
• Why are you selling? and so on…

Step four: Inspect and examine the catering trailers for sale

Place yourself in a health and safety mindset and know your stuff. Check that all gear is operating and legal and make certain any certificates are valid and are up to date. Asses the used catering trailer as a company asset and think in terms of return on investment.

Step five: Negotiate on price or terms

Negotiate like a pro by conversing a little with the seller. Express your interest (but not too much) and attempt to negotiate without the damaging admission (attempting to de-value the used catering trailer) and instead come across a professional buyer with a limited spending budget who’s taking a look at other catering trailers and is simply concerned with the overall asking price.

Step six: Prepare yourself for the catering trailers business

Educate yourself as much as you can and attempt to immerse yourself within the mobile catering industry. Learn as much as possible about the road ahead and prepare for business professionally by reading up on the very best techniques, methods and systems in the business.

Unfortunately, many catering trailer vendors FAIL not knowing exactly how to effectively launch and grow their business and have no idea on how to really make a good income from their mobile catering trailer business.

Take some time to invest in yourself and learn some quick start techniques you can use today to avoid the costly mistakes and get started successfully.

In my Mobile Catering Mastery program I take you step by step through the whole process, from start to finish. You’ll learn how to effectively get into profitable pitches and locations with your catering trailer and make a great income from something you actually enjoy doing for a living.

The techniques, training and done-for-you templates you get inside will transform your business whether you’re an experienced caterer or just getting started, and will make sure you don’t screw anything up or get shut down. You can check it out here