Author: Steve

Hey Steve, I need some help.

I’m offering delivery because of the large medical complex near to my cart. This is my target market. The majority of these workers don’t leave for lunch.

Is there any preferred way to keep the dogs hot when the customer gets them delivered?

I’m keeping my delivery circle to a 2 mile diameter. It’s not like delivering a pizza with molten cheese on top to help keep the pie hot. Dogs may cool down quickly.

Do any other slingers deliver multiple orders and how do they keep the food hot when delivered in say within 20 minutes?

-James N.

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Great question James.

The key is a concept from physics called “thermal mass”.  Without getting all “Einstein” here, thermal mass means the temperature times the mass of an object.

So, the hotter the dog, the longer it will stay hot. Or – the more dogs there are in an order, the longer they will stay hot. If you have both, that is the holy grail.

This means setting minimum order quantities, not only to keep the food hot but to maximize your profit margin on each order.

Wrap each dog in foil sheets, pack them close together (without smushing them) and transport them in a cooler. Yes, coolers keep things hot as well as cold. Use a cooler just big enough for your biggest delivery orders. The more empty space in the cooler, the less effective it will be at keeping things hot.

Make a Hot Plate. If you want to go high tech, have a machine shop cut you a piece of 1 1/2 thick aluminum plate about the size of a steam pan lid. Be sure it will fit in the bottom of your cooler. Keep that plate hot by letting it sit on top of your steamer.

When you get a delivery order, place the plate in the bottom of your delivery cooler and put the foil wrapped hot dogs  on top of the plate. This will keep them hot a lot longer because we have increased the thermal mass of our delivery order.

Don’t forget to use your delivery cooler for advertising your cart. Get some vinyl graphics made with your logo, phone number, and website and apply them to your cooler. You could even do a full vinyl wrap! It’s a great way to let everyone know who you are when your delivery person arrives at the office or factory.

How about you, slingers? Got any tips for James about doing hot dog deliveries?’

Lets talk about it in the comments below!

-Steve

Hi Steve and everyone,

I need some help on a name. Ive got a few jotted down but, maybe I can get some other ideas.

My name is Derek
I live in Dallas, Texas
I have a Basset Hound named Woody

Thank you.

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Let’s help Derek name his new business. Leave your suggestions in the comments.

This is always really fun. Have at it, slingers!

-Steve

Hey Slinger,

I just heard from one of my  Premium Members who wanted to know how to do hamburgers on his hot dog cart.

As always, the first thing you need to do is to check with your health department to see if your local codes allow it.

You may need to upgrade some of your equipment to comply with the stiffer regulations that go along with handling meats other than hot dogs.

There are generally two ways to serve hamburgers from a cart.

1) You can cook raw hamburger meat at the cart on a grill or flat top griddle, or 2) you can use pre-cooked burgers and keep them hot in your steamer.

One of the big advantages of cooking on a grill or flat top is the smell. Just as with peppers and onions and especially bacon, the smell of food on a grill is a big customer draw. Of course, the drawback is the increased complexity of your set up and the fact that you will probably get bumped up into a more strict food code category.

Also, grilling to order takes a lot of time. Unless you have steady lines 15 people deep, you can’t get away with throwing 10 burgers at a time on the grill. You’ll waste a lot of meat that way.

On the other hand, pre-cooked burgers are so fast to serve from a steamer and your cart is already set up for it. In fact, if you don’t want to pre-cook them yourself at your commissary, Sams and the restaurant supply stores sell a pre-cooked frozen hamburger patty that works nicely. The fact that they are frozen is a plus when it comes to transporting and cold storage on the cart.

The disadvantage here is that you don’t get that fresh-grilled taste (or the customer drawing smell), and customer appeal is not quite as good.

How about you slinger? Do you serve hamburgers on your hot dog cart? If so let us know how you do it, including any tips and tricks, in the comments below. Also let us know if it has increased you daily sales.

In other words, do you think it is worth the extra effort of stocking, storing, and cooking yet another food product?

Thanks!

-Steve

Steve,

Attached are some pictures. The second one is the first hot dog I served at my Grandson’s 1st birthday party!

Hot off the press, again. A festival wants me to vend for two days (Friday 5-10) and (Saturday 1-9). Booth cost $100. But they also want to hire me to entertain for 2 hours at my normal rate of $300.

My wife will cover for the one one hour I need covered. I will be in a parade and stroll the fairgrounds as a stilt walker.

By the way, I picked up my 2003 cart that had been only used 3 times and stored inside for only $1,000. Otherwise, I would have bought your plans and I still may for the next cart.

Thanks,

David Ficke, Casey’s Hot Dogs & Entertainment

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David, I LOVE your presentation!!!

I always teach my students, “Don’t sell a hot dog. Sell an experience!” You are doing a great job of it.

Sell ’em all!

-Steve

Click the pictures below for a larger image.

Hey Slinger,

As you know we have built hundreds of websites for hot dog cart operators across the country. Our free website service gives you a very high tech finished framework made just for hot doggers and mobile food vendors. It includes software that allows you to capture your customers email addresses so they will receive all of your blog posts in their email inbox. This is awesome for letting them know what specials you are running, where you are going to be that day, etc.

We do all the hard work. All you had to do was add your own pictures and text. Until now…

I am now offering a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT DONE FOR YOU service. Send me some pictures in an email along with your phone number. I’ll give you a call to find out more about your hot dog biz. Then I’ll build out your whole site for just $50. You do nothing.

Here’s how to take advantage of me, uh – I mean take advantage of this great deal:

1. Sign up for the cheapest web hosting through this link:

http://HotDogProfits.com/hg

Right now you can get half off your hosting by using the coupon code MARDI GRAS, but you must sign up through my link above.

2. Email me pics of you and your cart in action (or just stand by your cart if this is your first season), pics of your food, some events you’ve done, etc. PLUS your phone number so I can call you personally.

That’s it!

Here is a site I just did for Hot Dawg Mike so you can get an idea of what I can do for you.
http://WeenieWagonMike.com

This is a limited offer so don’t snooze. Once again, I’m doing all the work on this deal. You do nothing.

I look forward to working one-on-one with you!

-Steve

P.S. If you have already signed up for my free website deal this offer applies to you too!

Hey Slingers,

I am curious as to when the hot dog cart season gets into swing for hot doggers in different parts of the country.

I’m about a month away from slinging season here in Missouri. How about you?

Also tell me what you are going to do that’s new this year!

Let me know in the comments.

-Steve

P.S. I got a huge response to the article on conquering your fear of starting a hot dog cart. I just posted a video on the Hot Dog Profits Facebook page that will totally motivate you to have your best year ever.

If you have any doubts about your ability to succeed, whether you put it in your head or someone else did, you MUST watch this.

While you are there, would you please like the page (not the video but the page itself)? Thanks!

Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/hotdogprofits

Hi Steve,

My dream is to open my own restaurant, one day it will happen but for now i have to start small and build something.

I’m from NY and hotdogs or dirty dogs as well call them are the best.

I live in Florida now and I have a job and I want more, but I’m afraid. I’m a single Mom living pay check to pay check so the thought of losing money scares me.

I know I have to start somewhere if I want to get somewhere.

How did you overcome your fear of failure, or fear of losing money that you really don’t have.

-M

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Hi M,

First off, I salute you and all single Moms out there. I know how much work and worry goes into raising kids, but to have it all on one person is a challenge for sure.

It’s totally normal to be nervous when you start your own business. In fact, it’s a good thing.

It means that you are serious. It means that you want to succeed very badly. It means that you really care about this new adventure.

Now I’m going to tell you how to overcome 80% of that fear:

Build your own cart. It’s not hard at all. Seriously.

When you finish it your hot dog biz will already be profitable. If at some point you decide that the hot dog biz isn’t for you, you can sell your cart for way more than it cost you to build. It will probably even cover your other start up costs.

But once you get out there and start slinging dogs, you’ll be hooked for life. You’ll never sell that cart because being a dog slinger is soooo much fun!

The way to remove the rest of your fear is to take action. When you actually do something, even one thing, to move you closer to your goal you will get a sense of accomplishment.

Each successive step that you accomplish will give you more confidence. More confidence makes it easier to take the next step and before you know it you will arrive at your goal.

That’s just how it works.

Let me know if you have any specific questions that I can answer Maria!

Go for it!

-Steve
http://HotDogProfitsPremium.com

Here are some sample flyers sent in by Hot Dog Profits readers. Nice job!

Keep ’em coming!

-Steve

click the picture for a larger image

 

Hey Slingers,

I just had a request from one of my Premium Members for a sample hot dog cart flyers to promote his new hot dog biz. There are 50 customizable menu templates inside HDP Premium but I don’t have any flyer examples.

I would really love to see what you slingers are using for flyers. Snap a photo of your flyer, or create a PDF or JPG image and send to to me at steve@HotDogProfits.com.

I’ll share them with everyone right here as soon as I receive a good sampling. Here is one that I used a couple years ago.

Thanks!

-Steve