Author: Steve

It’s here. A new season is upon us and with it comes a clean slate, a chance to make your hot dog vending business bigger, better, funner (yes, I said funner) and more profitable. I want to introduce you to a concept that has the power to take your business to the next level with very little effort or investment.

The concept is called “critical non-essentials”. There are certain things in your business that are essential. Things like your hot dog cart, propane or electricity, the food you sell. These are just a few but you get the idea. Remove any of these essentials and your business grinds to a halt.

Then we have non-essentials. These are things that make our business better in some way, but if push came to shove we could live without them. Things like music, professional signage, uniforms.

In any business, the number of non-essentials far outweighs the essentials. As a business ages and matures it has a tendency to accumulate a large quantity of non-essentials. This is not necessarily a bad thing, unless a particular non-essential outlives it’s usefulness or hinders growth.

This is a good time to evaluate the non-essentials in your own business. Make a list with two columns. List your essentials on the left and your non-essentials on the right. Then go through the right hand column and evaluate whether each non-essential is contributing to or hindering your business growth. Keep the good ones and cut the ones that have outlived their usefulness. Weed out the under-performers.

You can benefit from this exercise even if you haven’t started your hot dog biz yet. I know that I had a pretty clear picture of my business long before I served my first dog. I had been dreaming about it for years and I knew what I wanted it to look like. Go ahead and do the exercise using the picture in your head. I know you have one, 😉

Now let’s talk about the game changers. Every once in a while we add something to the business that is nothing short of transformative. Some non-essential that makes a huge difference in the bottom line. I call these things critical non-essentials (CNEs for short), because while they are not strictly essential to the fundamental functioning of the business, they are absolutely critical to sudden, massive growth spikes and monstrous, overnight leaps in profitability.

One of the greatest CNEs that I have ever witnessed was at Double D Dogs, a local hot dog biz here in St. Louis with multiple carts at many Home Depot stores around the city. At each one of his locations he has a small table off to the side of the hot dog cart and it has one purpose. It holds what I would estimate to be at least 70 different bottles of hot sauces. No kidding. There’s a you-know-what-load of heat on that table.

The visual effect is stunning. It’s like finding the holy grail of hot sauces and it’s totally overwhelming. Folks just stop and stare at them all because they’ve never seen anything like it.

That table is his CNE and it freakin’ works! But not for the reason you would think. It’s doesn’t work because people want that much choice in their condiments. In fact hardly anyone actually uses any of the hot sauces. It works for two other, much subtler reasons.

First, it stops people dead in their tracks. If they hadn’t had a compelling reason to stop, inertia would have carried them on past the cart like a stick in a river current. But once they were stopped, they had a chance to get curious. They started to look the cart over. They had time to look at the menu and to smell the food. And a large percentage of those people (who never would have stopped had it not been for the hot sauce shrine) end up buying a hot dog. Or two. And a coke, oh and some chips too…

The second reason is the word of mouth it generates. People love to be the first to share something new and different with their family, friends, and co-workers. It’s human nature and we all do it. I have heard about “the hot dog cart in Home Depot with like a thousand hot sauces” from many, many people over the years. It’s the best form of advertising there is. And it’s free.

Critical non-essentials are usually something done on a whim with little forethought, and therefore can be tricky to purposely engineer. This is why it is so important to constantly experiment with your business. We all want to believe that our success is the result of our superior entrepreneurial mind, meticulous planning, and razor sharp foresight, but the reality is that most of the time we just stumbled onto something super cool that worked a lot better than we thought it would.

-Steve

P.S. Got a cool CNE that you use at your cart, or maybe just an idea for one? Share it in the comments! And if you enjoyed this article please share it on your Facebook by clicking the blue “f Share” button at the left. Thanks!

You gotta see these pics of Jay Alber’s Side Serve  E-Z Built Hot Dog Cart. He did a really nice job with it and sent me some photos. Jay writes…

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Froze my butt off this winter building it, but its done. I still have to put my decals on so please don’t post the pics ( if you decide to) until then. I want it to look the best it can. I’ll send more. Passed inspection no problem. Quick question, I want to put a griddle in. Any suggestions on the best one? I was thinking going Camfire Grills way, with the harbor freight grill with the Griddle Q on top. That’s about $240 all together. That’s a little steep. Do you know of some other way to go that will work well? I’ll spend the$240 if that’s the best option.
Thanks Steve,
Jay

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I couldn’t wait any longer for Jay’s decal pictures. I’m so proud of him and the cart he built for himself and I just had to share it with my HDCN readers. Please don’t be mad at me Jay!

As you know, the E-Z Built Hot Dog Cart was designed from the beginning to be customized. You start with the basic plans, watch the videos, and then you can easily modify it to build the cart of your dreams -just like Jay did. You can click here get some great custom hot dog cart ideas.

Just stretch the cart body by a foot or so to accommodate the extra cooking station, and rearrange things for a side serve version. Go ahead and get your plans here, watch the videos and see for yourself. Like I said, once you watch the videos it will be crystal clear.

As far as the flat top grill goes, I too love what Jason Thurston did with his E-Z Built Hot Dog Cart, the famous Campfire Grill (you can see pictures of it here). I would suggest going that route (camp stove with a Griddle Q) if you have the money. Think of it as an investment – because that’s exactly what it is. You’ll have it for years and the flexibility it adds to your menu will pay for it many times over.

If you need to stick to a tighter budget, I have had success using a portable camp stove with a regular old frying pan to do my grilled onions. They turn out just great. I set up the stove on one of the wing shelves on my own E-Z Built Hot Dog Cart.

In fact, I’ll be using that set up tonight. I’m doing a gig at a local school. They’re showing a movie on the gym wall and all the kids bring their sleeping bags and pillows. They spread them out on the gym floor to watch the show (A Bugs Life), the parents get to sit in the bleachers (thankfully), and I’m serving the dogs from my cart. Dinner and a movie, I can’t wait!

Anyone have any other suggestions for Jay as far as flat top grilling is concerned? Let us know in the comments!

All you other E-Z Builders, send your pics to steve@HotDogProfits.com. I really love seeing what you clever folks are doing with my plans.

Again, awesome job Jay!!!

-Steve

Click the pictures below for a larger version.

Today is President’s Day. The mail isn’t moving and my kids don’t have school. I think I’m going to spend the whole day with my family.

If I worked for someone else, I would have to either burn a precious vacation day, or call in sick. Even though I’m not sick. Ever done that? Me either 😉

When you work for someone else, your life is not entirely your own. You give a large portion of it to the man in exchange for money. Been there, done that, couldn’t deal with it anymore. I hit the eject button on that deal a dozen years ago.

I have done a lot of things to make money since I bailed out of the rat race. Nowadays my “job”  is to help you escape. To find you, grab you by the arm and lead you to freedom.

I can show you how to start your own hot dog cart business – if you want to do that, I’m the best in the business at it. I can also show you some of the new opportunities that I have discovered. And I can show you how to combine the two to really take your business to the next level.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about my mission statement. I haven’t fully developed it yet, but it’s centered around this fact: I wake up every morning to serve you.

However today I can’t do that. Today my boss told me to serve my kids.

-Steve

This is a special edition of Hot Dog Cart News. Remember – you saw it here first!

E-Z Built Hot Dog / Shaved Ice Cart. This morning I released an article about converting my E-Z Built Hot Dog Cart Plans to a shaved ice cart. One of my customers, Rick Petersen did an awesome conversion which has generated a TON of interest from all of the readers here.

The biggest question I’m hearing is which shaved ice machine should you use? I wasn’t sure so I did some quick preliminary research just to see what is available in the different price ranges. Here are a few options…

Gold Medal Products Co. Shave-A-Doo Ice Shaver, Silver

Gold Medal Products Co. Hawaii’s Finest Ice Shaver, Silver

Gold Medal Products Co. Sno-Master Sno-Kone Ice Shaver, Blue

Gold Medal Products Co. Olde New Orleans Block Ice Shaver, Silver

All you slingers who are also shavers – I want to pick your brain on this. Let’s talk sno cones and shaved ice equipment in the comments!

-Steve

Hey Steve:

We corresponded about a year ago, when we first got our cart on our arrival to the Spokane,WA area where my wife grew up. Me myself am a lifelong beach boy from Northern California (SF Bay Area) so having to actually wear pants in winter has been a new experience and challenge for me to say the least lol. Im easy to spot here, as I am the only idiot out here wearing shorts while I’m outside shoveling snow lol.

Anyway Steve I mentioned in our last correspondence last year, that before we moved here with are two girls ages 4 and 12, I spent the last 22 years as a Senior Homicide Inspector in the Bay Area. I have always been a very physically athletic guy my whole life, and I was enjoying a very successful and rewarding career. Needless to say Steve, that all quickly changed a few years back, when at age 43, I sustained a near fatal aneurism which left me hospitalized for nearly three months. Because of the specific physical demands of my career, reality was I was going to have to retire which I officially did last year.

Needless to say Steve this was a very scary endeavor and unfamiliar waters for me, but its sorta funny how fate and crisis really gets your creative juices flowing. After spending all those years in an environment that would make most people pissed, and sick, I decided I just wanted to be a normal guy and do something “normal”, because I started my career at age 20 and never really had a chance to know what “normal” was as the job jades you quite quickly. We mulled over several ideas including kettle corn etc, but for some reason I told my wife out of the blue “Lets get a hog dog cart”. I then started my endless days of researching everything hot dogs, then came up with a name “Bubbadogz”, affectionately after my father-in-law “Big Bubba” who is a real popular guy in these parts. Up to this point Steve the only food experience either one of us had was I was a bus boy while in High School, and my wife was a waitress while in College, but that’s about it. I did know the fact I was a self admitted clean and organization freak that relished (no pun intended) tradition, and everything old school was going to play an integral part in our start up success. There was one little caviat I was banking on, and that was using some of my childhood experiences hanging out in my grandfathers two SF beachfront amusement parks when I was kid. There was a lot of shiny stainless steel and the colors yellow and red in both parks and I remember those colors were like a magnet to a kid then. There’s something to be said about those colors I guess alas McDonalds, In-and-Out Burger etc. This is the reason I tried to stick with that color scheme as well. Even Ronald McDonald wears those two colors.

Anyway Steve we have enjoyed a lot of success here in a short amount of time, and now we only do special event stuff due to a hectic softball schedule with our girls etc. which quite honestly Steve is just fine with us.

I wanted to write this because I noticed a lot of new folks from all walks of life popping up in our forums that seem to be looking for a little motivation and start up advice on their new endeavor. I’m no expert and no one special by any means Steve, and I quickly gained a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for all those who do this for a living because its not just about buying a cart and just cooking hot dogs in it. I quickly learned its a lot of hard work and takes a lot of determination and ingenuity to make it work. I think a lot of people come into this thinking they can just sell hot dogs and make a few hundred bucks a day, then quickly get discouraged and their cart ends up on Ebay. While some actually do, there’s a lot more to it that goes on and those who do that amount per day, work their butts off for it between the cleaning, prep work etc. If your new and reading this, your sometimes looking at 14 to 15hrs a day 6 to 7 days a week so take a minute and really think what your getting into first.

My message here is never give-up, and take advantage of the awesome forums and social media outlets available to you. Also don’t take short cuts on your food to save a few bucks and risk a bad reputation, because with the social media outlets such as Yelp. Urbanspoon, etc out there now, your literally pulling the rug out from under your feet, and you’ll be out of business in a hurry. I’ve seen these guys at fairs etc literally selling one dollar sub-par hot dogs on hot dog rollers. They never get invited back again. So think like a consumer (which you are as well), and think about what attracts your attention, then follow your own instincts and standards and you’ll be on the right path.

I guess I can go on and on Steve as this is already long winded. The real heros out there, are the ones out there everyday rain or shine doing this for a living. We had an old cliche in my office and it was “My day begins when yours ends”. I had numerous 30 plus hour days over the years, but nothing I did ever measured up to the amount of physical labor like these doggers out there do everyday.

In closing, if your new to doggin or thinking about doing it, be diligent and relentless with your research before you do anything. Take advantage of the many social media forums out there such as HDCN, Facebook, Roadfood.com etc. The people on these forums are from all over the U.S. and are probably the most generous and helpful people you’ll ever meet or talk too in any industry hands down. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at all the different backgrounds these folks have. Anywhere from Doctors,Teachers, Lawyers, Electricians, Engineers, etc, etc the list is endless.

Anyway Steve hope somebody might find this helpful.

Best wishes and “Carpe Diem”
Matt Wasteney-Owner/Founder “Bubbadogz”
Liberty Lake, WA 99019