Just got this question from Cindyann via the contact form on our website:
From: Cindyann
Subject: how to lease my cart
Message Body:
I have a hot dog cart and would like to lease it out to be used by an experienced hot dogger. How do I go about finding someone to do so.
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Leasing your cart to someone for a daily, weekly, or monthly fee is the holy grail of hot dogging. I have never personally leased out any of my own carts so I’d love some reader feedback on this.
While I’m sure it has been done successfully, it does have drawbacks that are not immediately apparent on first glance.
1. Controlling your brand. If you have spent a lot of time and money building up a recognizable brand name, you put it a risk by handing it over to a non-employee. Yes, a bad employee can also do damage to your hard earned reputation but a lessor has even less to lose by messing things up.
2. Equipment damages. You better have a contract in place that has a damages clause in case the lessor damages your cart.
3. Liability. Will your current business liability policy (you do have one, right?) cover a person who is leasing your cart out. Check to be sure.
4. Experience is hard to come by. Let’s face it, most truly experienced hot dog slingers have their own carts and finding someone who is reliable, clean, personable, and most of all honest is not as easy as it sounds. Lessors are in it for the short haul which attracts those who need quick money for a day or two and then disappear. Employees are a better long term solution.
5. Who provides the inventory? The hot dog cart owner or the lessor? If you leave it to the lessor you lose control over the quality of the product being served. Not a real big deal if you cart is unbranded, but it’s a huge deal if you’ve already got a good name in the community.
How to find the right lessor.
If after reading this you still want to lease out your cart to someone I would try to find a lessor that I already know. If you can’t find a personal friend to lease the cart, ask around in your circle of acquaintances to see if they know of anyone.
I would be leery of posting an ad on Craigslist for fear of having to weed through 40 bad candidates for every good one. That would take a lot of time.
I don’t want to discourage anyone from going down the leasing path if that is their goal. If done right it is an awesome business model that provides a lot of leverage for the hot dog biz owner. Just be prepared to overcome the obstacles mentioned above.
How about it slingers? Would you ever lease out your own cart? Where would be a good place to find a decent lessor if you want to try out this business model?
-Steve
2). Not if but when. Hopefully it’s minor damage but I have been on both sides and people just ruin stuff Unintentionally of course. Just a matter of minor or major damage.
Good point Annmarie.
After reading this, I have to ask, Why is it the Holy Grail?
Because of the leverage. If someone else is running the cart then you can make money without having to put in the hours.
If you have a system for making money where your income is no longer directly related to how many hours you work, the sky is the limit. You now have the ability to “scale” the business as big as you want to.
I have a hard enough time trying to find someone I can trust to help me out when I have multiple events so I don’t think I would lease out the cart. I would be interested in hearing some stories from slingers who have gone that route and if has worked out or not.
Me too. I have always used family members when I had more work than I could handle.
I rented a couple of apartments I owned at two different times in my life. These were places where people live and I didn’t care for the way they took care of my property. I ran a large Mobile Home Park saw some of the same problems. Lending my equipment to anyone other than I know is scary to me.
They may have to back it up in the driveway, and maybe they can’t even back up the car. When I get tired of running my own cart, I’ll just sell it.
Steve I know this is negative and you’re probably looking for upbeat positive comments, so you’re welcomed to not post this one if you chose to do so.
Regards,
Boo
Not at all Boo. Putting your money maker in someone else’s hands is risky. I appreciate your point of view for sure.
Other problem is trying to find your cart after it disappears. The renter sells your cart for the cash then splits. You can do credit checks, references, background checks whatever but you’ll have the same problem creditors have trying to collect a delinquent debt.
Imagine that. Man that would stink…
This is a great opportunity to help yourself and a Veteran. Call your local VA- or type it into your browser- Veterans Admin Jobs- and locate the person in charge of re-training, or job training- call and ask some questions- the director can refer vets who are looking for a fresh start, or someone interested in the food service business. Of course this does not guarantee anything other than the Vet is going to answer to the person in charge of the training-but it sure beats running a craigslist add!
I love it Robert! Thank you for the great resource.
Renting out my equipment now days would be a BIG NO. There isnt very many honest hard workers out there specially where i live. It would be sold and it wouldnt be worth the headache of worrying if i would get it back and what condition it would be in. I have worked to hard and long for this. Nobody can take it or distroy it for me. Thanks steve for letting us voice our appinions on this
This seems to be the consensus for sure.
how much is it to rent a cart
How much ‘ya got? 😉 Just kidding Rusty.
How about it slingers? What would be fair?
If I were to lease my cart(s) out to someone other than family & well known friends, it would definitely be to Veterians! ALSO, please consider setting up with local blood drives & disaster relief fundraisers! You could arrange to feed the volunteers for free & donate $1.00 from each sale to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc. You should still be able to make some money, but even if you don’t, you’ve made a great impact on the community with your generiousity. I’m confident that people in a disaster, both victums & volunteers would appreciate your efforts. I went to college in the tornado ravaged city of Moore, OK & I know that any help any slingers could provide would be greatly appreciated.
Great ideas!
What about renting your cart out to someome but insisting that you accompany the cart at least for the first few times. You could always put a GPS tracking device (I kid you not) on your leased cart! That way you could track the cart.
I thought about that but didn’t know if it was practical.
Hi Fellow Doggers,
I tend to agree with everything that you have to say about this leasing a cart deal. I had my youngest daughter work a horse show for me one time when I was out of town and when I got back my cart looked like it had been out four- wheeling it was so full of mud and everything else.Just think if some stranger leases your cart it may not come back at all except for maybe sitting on a two wheel chassis !
Was your cart four wheel drive? 😉
where and how much to you want to rent your cart. how much down and what kind security deposit do you want for a three month trial with option for more or option to buy. is it n.s.f. stainless steel approved please forward details
I hear a very popular problem.
I’m worried about *my* cart being stolen.
This is a good thing to worry about but let’s take a different approach.
Have you ever heard of people flipping cars?
They usually(not always) buy a garbage can fix it up and sell it.
However, it would not be wise to sell your primary form of transportation. You should have a car for yourself so you can go buy your parts for that new car that you plan on fixing up.
I digress, if you want to lease a cart out, don’t lease the only cart you have. Buy a humble little cart that won’t break your heart if it get’s stolen, broken down, or dirty. Make it a 12-24 month lease.
Give them management control. When something really nice belongs to someone else it’s easy to say, “Who cares? It’s not my problem.” But when something really nice belongs to you- you want to protect it. It’s true. Look at all these posts you have something really nice and you don’t want to share it because it belongs to you and you want to keep it safe.
Synopsis:
Keep your cart as a “main base”. Buy a smaller model and lease it out. Make certain they know what they are doing.
Side notes:
-College students(business majors) are ideal for finding responsible slingers because you can teach them how to sling if they don’t know how. It’s probably best if they don’t because some slingers might believe their way is better than yours and will be too stubborn to learn anything new. However, they have already learned how to make money and where the best locations are to monetize. A great benefit to this is you can weed out the irresponsible ones by simply speaking with the career services counselor(s).
-Talk to a lawyer. Get a contract so that you will not lose any money in the event they break the lease or break anything on the cart. Hold them accountable for all damages on the stand so long as they are leasing it.
-This IS the holy grail for slingers. MASSIVE PASSIVE INCOME. You make money when they are working if you like that idea buy another cart and lease it out to someone else. At the end of the 12-24 month lease give them the option of upgrading for $X,XXX.XX to a better quality cart. If they last 24 months they should have gained some sort of trust. When they upgrade to the new cart you will repossess the old cart(include these details in your contract). You can use the old cart for the next person(if you wish to expand). Over 5 carts in different locations may seem overwhelming to you now. But soon you will build a large network of people you trust and people who know how to sling dogs the way you want to. You will be making enough money that you can hire someone to go to each location to teach. Visit each location often in the beginning so you can monitor how often your managers are cleaning, how much business they are getting, and make sure they are giving your company a good reputation.
Great comment Walter. You present a very well thought out plan for expansion. We all appreciate it!!!
I’ve heard of adding to the contract that they must be bonded with the owner as the beneficiary if something goes wrong. I heard that it’s around $50.00 to get bonded for the amount necessary. Hope that helps somewhat.
I know this is an older thread but consider this. You keep your brand to yourself. Create another brand to offer thru a franchise agreement. It would be a great way to assign all liabilities as well as specifics as to what can an can’t be sold from the unit. Franchise fees and or percentages could be specified as well as certain financial qualifications and obligations. What do you think slingers?
Interesting Russ. But why a separate brand? You would benefit from the brand at your own unit.
How about a lease to own business
What would be a good way to structure that to make it fair for everyone involved
It all depends on your situation. A percentage of sales is the most fair, but most people don’t want to work for that. They want a guaranteed dollar per hour.