Transcription
Have you ever walked up to a food truck and had a delicious taco burger and then stopped to wonder, "Can I make a living doing this?" If you guys are interested in starting a food truck business, you need to stay tuned for today's inspiring episode.
Today, we'll be talking to the owner of Vet Chef Fusion, Kyle Gourley. The name of the game is speed. You're not a restaurant. Fill them up and get them out of here. Since starting his food truck business in 2016, three years after completing his culinary management degree, Kyle has managed to double his sales every year, and now he's in the six-figure range.
"You don't have time to focus on marketing sometimes. What was our most important thing is putting out the top quality that we possibly could." What about doubling sales year after year? How are you doing that? Kyle is a U.S. Marine vet. He's got an inspiring story with his rock and roll, rocky start, yet five years later, he's a success. We want to share this story with you.
As of today, what's your yearly revenue? Your investment is not wild. You can get into a cheap truck for $50,000 bucks. What are the three tips for people looking to start a food truck business? YouTube rewards your engagement, so please comment. Ask questions below. We've got our vlog in the description below. If every question isn't answered, we'll answer it on our blog. So stay tuned, and let's go meet the legend.
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Kyle, hey, what's up, man? To see, I'm Paul. YouTube Paul. Nice to meet you. We're ready to ask some questions. All right, let me show you a story. Let me come out. Awesome. I'm excited. You guys, it's gonna be an awesome episode. The Vet Chef Elite Fusion Food. You've got an incredible story. Tell us about your military experience and how that led you to starting a food truck business.
Basically, I was in the Marine Corps for four years, from 2004 to 2008. Did, thankfully, only one tour to Ramadi, Iraq. I was one of the services. Thank you. Thank you. It's one of the fortunate people that only have one tour under my belt, unlike my friends who have seven or eight. Went to culinary school and knew from my military experience, I didn't really want to work for somebody again. So I was like, man, what can I do? I'm not a little young, don't really have any experience. Open a restaurant? Why not a food truck?
Nice. You were just looking for that opportunity where you could be on your own, not work for anyone. Fit the bill, and you know, a small startup cost, which is obviously pretty important. We were looking at some of the restaurant numbers. It's like, holy cow, man. How, how like, how could I take that leap? And the nice thing about a food truck is, let's say, you know, you got a restaurant and then they just started deciding to do construction on that road, and next thing you know, you're out of business. And it's not even, I don't care how good your restaurant is, not even your fault. So now we just get up and move. Nice. So I like it. It's like a restaurant on wheels. Exactly what it is.
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So looking at your trailer truck, what was your initial budget? I mean, what did this setup cost you on opening day, including opening inventory? It was $41,200. Break it down for us. What does that entail? I already had the truck. The trailer cost me roughly $26,000. Bought it new. So I had it customly designed for me. You know, you're working on speed. You want the fryer where you want the fryer. You want the grill where you want the grill. So you're working down the line and and trying not to move. So, about $8,000 of equipment, and then, you know, all the permitting and all that stuff. Okay. So yeah, yeah. And why, why this particular menu? Not burgers, not, you know, your typical stuff that you would see. How did you come up here? We don't have it here. Seattle doesn't have great Mexican food. I mean, honestly. Okay. Honestly, it just doesn't. How did you come across that? Did you just... California? No, no, no. I mean, when I lived... Oh, yeah, definitely. So when I lived in California, I was stationed at Camp Pendleton in the Marine Corps. This was the go-to thing, the California burrito, man. Like, if you were a Mexican place, and there's a million Mexican places in California, but if you had the California burrito, you'd have a line out the door. I mean, like, you got inspiration from? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's what we used to do, man. We used to, you finish a long day's work and go get a California burrito. So I know I needed the California burrito. So our entire menu is built around that California burrito.
As of today, what's your yearly revenue and profit margins that you try to operate this business at? Okay, so last year, I believe we did like $417,000. Wow. That's a pretty good number. It's a lot of burritos. Are you happy with that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. We keep, we keep doing better and better. So are you, are you looking at the amount of burritos sold and, you know, get the dollars? It's the burritos. You got to get a million of them. It's depressing sometimes when you're like, oh man, I rolled a thousand burritos, and then you're like, oh, ten thousand, a hundred thousand. Now, now where are you at? You know, honestly, I know we run at a 33, 34% food cost. Okay. Um, that's kind of my end of the business. My wife handles all the other stuff. I just do my best to keep us under 35%, which is very high for a food truck, but we got to have quality, you know? So.
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What are the one or two pitfalls of starting a food truck business? You're not a restaurant. Okay. There are so many people that get it in their mind that they need to, you know, julienne a carrot or or something like that. Man, you are not a restaurant. Your job is to serve fast food. Fill somebody up is the other thing. Like, if you're going and you're buying something and it doesn't fill you up, you're not going to come back, you know what I mean? So give them a big portion. They walk out just like, "Oh my gosh, yeah, like, help me do my car." Kyle, please. I know we should provide a forklift sometime. But uh, a wheelchair for the... Yeah, no kidding. But yeah, I mean, the name of the game is the speed. You're not a restaurant. Fill them up and get them out of here. So they got, they got stuff to do.
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What are the three tips for people looking to start a truck food truck business that you would give them? Do it. Uh, do it. Number one. I mean, honestly, you got to take the step. I mean, it's it's scary, but your investment is not wild. Like, you can get into a cheap truck for $50,000 bucks. It's a car. So give us a step. Buy a truck. Go to your, go to your local health department. Talk to them. Okay? That's the number one thing. Saying all the paperwork, how do I, how do I start? Okay. It's a six-month process of running through all the hoops of the city, L&I, all that stuff. So you need to plan ahead. Know that you're gonna take six months of of work and not going to get anything for it. You won't even be running. You're just going to be going. So have the reserves to live for six, seven months. Yeah. Or, you know, keep your, keep your other job. Okay. So start getting used to working those 14, 15-hour days because they're coming. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, do that. Start with a trailer. There's another thing that's what we did. So, okay, as you can see, we did the trailer. It's significantly cheaper than than an actual truck. I could pull it with my truck. So I kind of, you know, I already had that. So I just pull it on, hook it up, and and go. That makes sense. That's safe. And you know, we do ultimately want to get in the truck because it is better. But start with something small. Do it as cheap as you can. And, and just start. Any sort of festivals, churches, I mean, any time that, you know, that there's people going to be there, just go. Yeah. Call them. And it takes time, right? I mean, yeah. I don't think it's real to expect you're going to blow up in a week. No, no. I mean, you got a solid, you're right, you got a solid year of losing money and just gaining your spot, gaining your reputation, and just getting your name out there. But it's all worth it. Every, every ounce of it. I would never, never, never not do it. It's it's it's a wild ride, but we love it.
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Let's talk about breaking even, right? There's a period in the business where you're probably not paying yourself for the time. So how long did it take you to break even, pay all your employees, and then start getting on? I would say we were probably pretty close that year. We took about a year. Yeah. We started with the nightmare. So lock up the food truck, go home, wake up the next morning, the power went out in our food truck, and I had nothing. So our very first day of like scrambling, I'm calling everybody I know, "Hey man, I need help prepping." Like, help. So we go to our commissary, just start throwing stuff together. Next thing we know, we're out and just start opening up. We're like, "Oh, this is this is crazy." Like a roller coaster. Yeah. And then our generator goes out. It's just like, "Why? Why is this happening?" So we ended up getting that. We pulled off our generator, hook up a friend's generator, and you know, finish the day. But it's like, man, this is going to be a long life if this is how it went. And it didn't. Thankfully, we we got a new generator, fixed it all up, and things evolved. It's like, man, this is a lot of work. We started getting a little bit more popular, and next thing we know, we hire my cousin, who was a high schooler then, and she just needed a few hours. And so we gave her a few hours, and we were able to, you know, say, "Listen, play, we can only pay you for the time we're open." Like, just come here, help us open, right when we close, all clean, I don't care anything. Basically, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. And that's not your cue to quit. It's your cue to dig deep. And this is your life, man. And if you're not committed, if this is not part of your family, if this is not fully something you're willing to be invested in, don't open the business because it's going to consume you. And it's worth every second of it.
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What about doubling sales year after year? How are you doing that? I would love to say, you know, sticking with it, building a location. But that really does help. But you also need to move around. So we built a location, we stuck there, we did the nitty-gritty for a long time. You know, we took losses, we tried everything. We kept getting our name out, getting our name out, getting our name out. Are you testing out different locations? Yeah, I mean, we wouldn't say no to anything. Like, if they came, "Hey man, we got a venue for you to serve." "Yes, we'll be there. What time?" "Okay." And that was that was the name of the game. That was just the name of the game. Yes, yes, yes. It's just repetition. Come see the Vet Chef. Here's the Vet Chef. Vet Chef, Vet Chef. And next thing we know, people start calling us that are a little bit bigger, a little bit bigger. And now we're at Boeing. Now we're doing, you know, some some awesome numbers. So yeah, it's all about just getting that name out. It reminds me of the... Yes, ma'am. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Say yes to everything. Oh, I know. See how your life goes. Yeah. But there were times where, you know, you get in there and you lose money. But we just knew that Chef, Vet Chef, Vet Chef. And next thing we know, wow. Yeah.
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We talked about employees real quick. In 30 seconds, how much does having employees cut into your margin? Can food trucks afford typically employees? Yeah, I mean, the $15 an hour minimum wage definitely really hurts. That was kind of a kick to us for a while. But you have to have employees. I mean, you'll drive yourself into the ground. It's it's a hard job. So I would say definitely do what you can. Like I said, when I talked earlier, we would say, "Show up right here, first serve time." I came, I had everything ready. They showed up, they took orders, we cleaned without employees, and sent them home. So minimize what you need them for. Use your your free labor. Even though, you know, you're not free, but use that at least for the first year. Then when you can start surviving, right? You gotta have sales. Yeah. Locations. You can usually find a high schooler or, you know, relative that will work those weird three, four-hour shifts and be very happy. Okay.
If you would wind it down to one thing, what's the most successful key factor in launching a successful truck food business? Being dependable. If you're say you're going to be there, be there. I mean, I don't care if your tire pops on the side of the road, you better have AAA and make it to where you're going to be. And you better be on the horn saying, "Listen guys, I might be five minutes late, but I'm gonna serve food there." You know? And they start talking, you know what I mean? I mean, it's profoundly simple, I guess. We've interviewed many businesses, and the most key factors you hear is like, to be there on time, to be dependable. I mean, to me, it's like, hello, that's pretty simple, but most people fail. It's just, we popped, we popped five tires last year, and every single time we popped a tire, we were within like three miles from Les Schwab, able to fix it, got to the thing, still opened up on time. Wow. You know? Or other people just say, "Hey man, this is a stressful day." You know? Yeah. Be there because they talk. That's huge. Kyle. Yeah. It's almost like, don't worry as much about your Facebook and your Instagram and anything else. Just be there when you said you'll be there. Do what you said you're going to do. Do it on time. We have 1,400 Facebook followers. Considering the amount of food we're serving, the popularity we have, the award-winning we have, that's nothing. We don't spend a lot of time on Facebook. You don't have time to focus on marketing sometimes. It wasn't our most important thing. What was our most important thing? Is putting out the very best food, the top quality that we possibly could.
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When we opened up, we had primarily Mexican food type stuff. We did a pollo con crema. We did, jeez, it's been so long now. We did Argentinean tacos. We did like chimichurri steaks and all that stuff. And next thing we know, we're doing Philly burritos, burger burritos. I mean, it's... Yeah, the burger burrito. Yeah. Have you guys heard of a burger burrito? Especially eating a delicious burger in a burrito. I mean, yeah, that was all my employee too. A little army vet. He came up with it. I was like, man, I don't want to eat a burrito with ketchup. So it took me like two months to even try the burrito. And as soon as I took a bite, I was like, "All right, man, put it on the menu." And I want to ask you guys, Mike, I mean, did you guys like it? I know you was really good, right? Nick, Nick behind the camera, look, he's licking. He's drooling, thinking I need another one.