Hello Steve,
I purchased your Carts of Cash course a while ago and I thought I drop you a line.
I am based in Poland, Europe, so my experience may not be that relevant, but anyway.
I have really enjoyed your books as they give valuable info about hotdog vending. Moreover your story is a true confidence booster if someone gives up working for somebody. Well, it really sucks working for somebody, if you can make such a decent income on your own, doesn’t it?
I follow your newsletters and radio interviews. It is really encouraging to hear success stories of another hotdoggers.
I only do special events now as it is difficult to secure an outdoor spot here in Poland. It entails lot of red tape and is time consuming. I did not want to miss the summer time so special events were my only option.
It is two of us operating the cart, me and my fiancee. We usuallly average 500 dogs during 2-day gig. Entry fee comes to 10% of gross sales.
But we have done some big events as well when we net nearly 1000 dogs during 2 days. Your tips for speedy service were really handy. I have them prined out on a small piece of paper. But we did burn down one pan during the learining process.
After summer time is over at the end of September, I will get down to sign up a permanent indoor location. I do intend to hire somebody and myself concentrating on finding spot for another cart.
Weather during fall and winter is quite harsh here so working outdoor would not be bearable. I am scouting places like university campuses, high schools and shopping malls.
A few words about our cart. I have attached pictures as well. The cart I have is a bit different from the one commonly found on american streets. I doesn’t have the 2 shelve compartment on the top of it.
It is labeled here as a high capacity unit. It comes with a total of six cooking pans. Three of them we use to cook dogs and the rest are used as bun steamers.
In addition two small pans for condiments are also standard equipment. It has got a sink with cold/hot water which runs on rechargeable battery. There are fresh and waste water tanks. It has a built-in cashbox which is of a convenience when dealing with lot of change.
Well, I don’t want to drag on any longer. Anyway, If somebody turns to me about advice how to start hot dog business I will have him read your course first. I am certain it will save him time and money.
Steve, one question, do you know any formula that calculates how many hot dogs you can sell if you know the number of students/employees that occupy the premises where you plan to set up? I know it is difficult to estimate. I was just wondering of any method which helps to evaluate any permanent spot.
Steve, your patience with my english is appreciated. I know it needs to be polished.
Best regards,
Robert
Any tips on estimating sales based on population of the premises? I have a rough, and I mean VERY rough figure in my head but I can’t wait to hear what you all think…
Comments people – let’s hear you!
-Steve
Robert,
Great looking cart!
A good rule to follow if you have an estimate of crowd attendance is to take a 3-5% of that number. (Example-10,000 estimated to attend would be 10,000-3%=300 hot dogs, 5% would be =500 hot dogs. However if you are the only food vendor at an event you may bump your numbers up a bit. I always recommend you have someone who can be a runner and go get more supplies if needed. If that’s not possible then once you sell out, then your day is done. You can always ask a local restaurant to store some product in their cooler for a small fee, just in case. Good luck
Jeff
Thanks for sharing your story Robert. It’s great to see how it’s done in other parts of the world.
Your English is awesome, no worries there!
To your continued success,
-Steve
Robert: Don’t worry about your English; I know the feeling. French is my native tongue, and after years of residing in the US, I still can’t speak English. 🙂 Well, I can write, but my accent!!
250 dogs per day is awesome!!! That is a really nice cart. What kind is it?
About estimating the amout of sales, I’m going to guess 5%, and that is just a guess. If there are 2,000 people, one should sell at least 100 hot dogs.
Actually, that seems like a low estimate but it also depends on how many other vendors are around you. If you’re the only one, then it should be much higher.
Goodluck w/ finding a permanent spot for next summer, or continious events would be good. 🙂
Louise
Hi Robert,
Estimating the amount of hot dogs is, in my opinion, the trickiest part of the whole business. You can estimate with Jeff’s 3-5% rule only if you know how many people are going to be at an event. That is the rule I use (thanks Jeff I use that rule ever since you first mentioned it).
But some free to the public events do not track how many people they have attending the events from year to year. So I guess. I use a couple of resources to make an educated guess. I look at the population of the area we are going to be set up in. City Data online is a great tool here in the States, I do not know if Europe has the equivalent. Also a lot of towns have a website that posts the most recent population count. I use both of those to get an idea of the amount of people that might be attending an event and then use the 3-5% rule. Then I add that amount by half again. Anything that is left over I just add it to the follwing weeks event or I sell it at the spot I set up at when not doing events.
One other thing I ran into this year is competing events, scheduled at the same time, that are close to the event you are scheduled to attend. Those can draw down your numbers and you should be aware of that kind of thing. The more you know about the spot you are setting up in the better your chances are of making an educated guess.
I have limited experience so far but things are working out really good using these resources. Good Luck Robert! HAVE FUN!
Steve, now that you are world wide when are you going public and selling shares of yourself? I can just see you on the Stock Exchange now SHDP.
Tim,
Selling shares of myself?
At six feet tall and 260 pounds, there’s plenty of me to go around!
-Steve
I found a formula that works most of the time. No formula works ALL the time. I get the estimated number of people attending the event from the promoter. They can at least tell you what the attendance was last year.
I use HALF that number as my starting point. I then divide the starting number by the number of vendors and the result is the number of people I expect to serve.
Example:
10,000 attendees divided by 2 = 5000
20 vendors — 5000 divided by 20 = 250 customers
Of course this can vary and if you are good at drawing a crowd, you can outsell your competitors. I too work mostly festivals and larger events and love them.
Good luck with your business and welcome to the world of hot doggers!
Thank you all for your comments.
After running special events this summer I know sales estimates are difficult.So the more I appreciate your tips.
But what I learnt this summer as well is to follow weather forecasts.If weather is bad than your sales might be greatly hurt.
After all I really enjoy special events so I am looking forward to next summer.
Best of luck to all hot doggers from Carts of Cash!
Louise,
My hot dog cart is a high capacity unit.It has 6 cooking pans.I have never used all of them yet at the same time.If I do in the future netting 1000 dogs per day should be no problem.:)
Hi Robert,
Congratulations on your beginning success.
I do have to ask if the Mustard and Catsup set-up is standard in Poland. I have never seen this kind of dispenser before.
Good luck with your continued success and I hope you find a winter location.
Hi Robert,
I am about a month into this business. I just had my first special event this pass weekend. There are several things to consider when trying to estimate how many people will stop and buy your hotdogs. One is not to be placed between two large concession trailors that have a large menu. Everything from “Gator on a stick to funnel cakes”. I exspected to sell 300-500, sold 128. A real learning experience. Moral of the story is even the best laid plan can fail. The 3%-5% seems reasonable to me, just remember the other variales mentioned,(weather, competing events,ect. Good luck on your adventure.
Gene
GOOD DAYS and BAD DAYS!
I have to be fair on this Blog, and I can’t just talk about the GOOD days, I recently finished my contract with a local park. I’ve been selling Hot Dogs all summer and did very well. In efforts to continue marketing my stand to the local community I have been selling in, I contacted the city and told them I found a new location (76 Gas Station) and I was going to be setting up my Hot Dog cart. Well, they slammed on the brakes quick. They advised me that I could only sell for 14 days per year. I quickly brought up the fact that I’ve been selling for the last 5 months in the parks without issue. After several phone calls with different officials and city big wigs the city finally one. I explained that the gas station that I wanted to sell at was going thru some tuff times and that my objective was to help drive traffic into their business. I even stated that I felt it was far more attractive to have a Hot Dog cart slinging dogs on Main street compared to a vacant piece of commercial property on Main st. Well bottom line they did not budge. According to the city the park was under different zoning and the rules did not apply to them. So, for now I will comply, but I will not retreat. I will find a way to make it happen. Until next time, KEEP SLINGING THOSE DOGS.
Cindy,
Most of the costumers prefer mustard, but ketchup is quite popular as well.I got hold of original Heinz sweet relish.It is mouthwatering but really expensive here in Poland.
The dispenser proved to be really handy.And it lets you use up the bottle to the last drop.
Best of luck to you.
Robert
Hi Gene,
Don’t be upset with your first event.As you said it is all learning the ropes at the beginning.I had a few failures when there were too many competing vendors at the festival.Now I try to choose a promoter like a city council or some public organization linked with a city.Unlike the event agencies they are not so money-motivated.So they typically charge you a reasonable rent.They dont allow too many food concessioners to the festival.But I dont know if it is similar story i USA.
I wish you great sales at your next event.
Robert
Robert
Hello.
I want to start this kind ok business in Europe. But I want to know the cost of this cart.
Pls. give me some advices.