Haven’t you heard, mobile businesses are the new thing! Food trucks, mobile groomers, and notary publics! Mobile businesses has been on the rise. A cost saving method to building wealth with business success without assuming the hit of brick and mortar fees. A store on wheels is one of the best options for those just getting started. I mean, really though; how much more free advertisement can you get?! Having a store on wheels makes your products readily available to many more. Here’s a few great mobile businesses to consider.
Table of contents
- Food trucks
- Barbership
- Mechanic on the go
- Mobile notary
- Go to dog co
- Hair and makeup services
- Pet grooming
- Tech help
- House cleaning or other specialty cleaning
- Traveling bar
- Cloth diaper services
- Tutoring or education services
- Honorable mentions
- Advantages
- Disadvantages
- Reason why you need to start
- To be considered
- And finally
Food Trucks
The most talked about mobile business around, food trucks have become a new hit! No longer is the goal to simply have a restaurant. Now, utilizing your skills with the stove can bring great wealth for you and your future generations. I personally happen to be a fan of a famous taco truck that rotates gas stations each weekend. Take it from me, my family loads up to drive into town and find that truck. We can order 20 tacos!
Each weekend the owner and father is over the stove. His daughter, a highschooler, works the register. His son, a middle schooler, manages the tickets. And…well quite frankly, I don’t know what mamma does. Either way they spend about 4 – 5 hours at each location with a line of people waiting for food. They pay a very minimal fee to the local lots! According to Salary.com the general range for a food truck in a not so major city is 15 -25K a month. Famous, big city trucks can bring in 1.5 – 2 million a year!
Pros
You can create your own menu
Many chefs dream of the ability to be able to create their own menu and serve food that they invented. A food truck is a great opportunity for you to show your culinary skills and create a small themed menu. It doesn’t matter if you have family recipes that have been passed down for generations to you, or a new creation that your friends talks about, you will have the freedom to create your own menu items.
You get to be your own boss
For most people, being their own boss is a dream coming true. There’s no one telling you to do this or that, how you will do it, and where to be or not to be. On the flip side, there’s no one writing your paycheck. You need to be motivated and willing to work long hours, even when you don’t make plenty money in the beginning. Being your own boss means you have the freedom to sell online.
It’s less risky
For all small business owners, minimizing risk is a the main priority. Since there are less startup costs that are required to start a food truck, it’s a less risky way to move into the restaurant industry. Many chefs start food trucks and grow to become successful restaurant owners.
On the flip side, some food truck owners will realize they don’t need to own a restaurant due to the risk involved, and instead invest their money and time to grow their food truck empire.
There’s ample opportunities
When you own a food truck, there’s a lot of ways you can market your business. For instance, you may park near busy office areas where employees take their lunch, cater for summer festivals, or park and other outdoor events. These are just a few instances, but there’s a lot of ways you may promote your food truck business and reach more new customers.
Cons
You’ll work in a small space
Food trucks are small, and once you are able to add kitchen equipment, a pos system (if you are accepting credit cards), and other important cooking items, the space will feel even smaller. Every city has requirements on food truck sizes, and many aren’t large.
For example, Madison Wisconsin mandates that all food trucks not to be larger than 120 square feet (10’X12’). You will be in the small space for hours at a time, so you need to be okay with working in cramped quarters. If you’re claustrophobic, starting a food truck business may not be the best business for you to do.
You must abide by local zoning laws
Although your restaurant is mobile, you won’t park anywhere you like. Cities do have local zoning restrictions, which include both commercial and non-commercial zones. Due to this, many food truck owners will plan their schedule months in advance so that they will be able to get permits to park in certain locations. Also, some cities won’t allow your food truck to park in the same spot for two days in a row, so it will take careful planning to stay compliant.
In addition, it’s crucial to remember that in moat cities, food truck owners will adhere to parking restrictions and pay for parking just like normal cars. Due to this, be sure to allot money in your budget to afford parking fees.
You’ll need to be prepared to lay for future repairs
According to the Balance, food trucks may cost $30,000 to $100,000. Usually some food truck owners don’t have enough capital to purchase a new vehicle, so they will opt for an old truck they will remodel. This may be a costly and time-consuming process. Furthermore, each state has various construction standards for a legal mobile food unit, so it’s crucial to fully known and understand the requirements in your state before you buy a vehicle or even remodel it.
In addition, while purchasing a used truck may save money in the beginning, the repairs might be costly when the vehicle breaks down. Not to mention, this no way you will be able to serve your customers when the vehicle is getting repaired and thus you’ll lose out on revenue.
There’s considerable competition in this industry
Before opening a food truck, it’s important you are aware that it’s a competitive industry. While it’s encouraging that there’s a demand amongst consumers for quick, inexpensive meals, most entrepreneurs need to start their own food truck businesses.
Before opening your business, make sure that you have an idea that’s unique and in demand in your area.
Barbershop
“The Barbershop that Comes to You”; the slogan of the most top selected mobile barber shops on Google, Luxury Mobile Barbershop. Luxury carries a clientele based on high end consumers that values the convenience of a house call. Perfect for those that want to avoid the traffic and enjoy the culture of the typical barber shop experience. Twain Taylor, owner and master barber has made a name for himself serving many celebrities, athletes, doctors, lawyers and more.
Mechanic on the Go
Tires gone mobile! Ever experienced a flat tire but hate the process of having to: wait for roadside assistance, having the spare placed on, only to drive to a local tire shop to get the real deal. With today’s era of mobile businesses, a mobile mechanic or mobile tire shop has been such a hit! Instead of calling AAA, drivers can call a mobile mechanic that will come and actually give you minor repairs to your derailed car versus dealing with a double charge of a temporary fix to later be in need of permanent repair. How smart is that?!
To think, it doesn’t stop there. Mobile mechanics are known to make house calls as well as doing routine maintenance such as oil changes, brake repairs and carburetor work. Those who use this service have been known to rave on the fact that they get to work with one mechanic who knows them and their car versus a shop of multiple mechanics in which you don’t know. Requiring very little licensing, stock being supplied on the go or per appointment, this may be the route for the local car expert seeking to create a legacy for wealth!
Mobile Notary
Day in and day out individuals all over need a notary. If you have done anything in the financial sense, purchased a virtual mailbox or office, signed for a home you know that a notary is needed. Even to post bail for a loved one requires a notary to come and do what they do. Simply witness the signing of important documents, confirm that an individual is who they say they are with government regulated or institutional documentation such as a credit card. Qualifications to becoming a notary run state to state but definitely a low cost business to start with no need for a massive truck. Most notaries expand beyond just that offering legal document deliveries and process serving. You everyday car with a sign attached will be just fine!
Go to Dog Co
Have a furry friend or member of the family? Well you can relate to the need for this mobile business. Our newest member of the family, 4 legged, little puppy-boy, Smokey requires a great deal of attention and has to go out to do his thing quite often. Recently in preparing for travel we hired an amazing elderly couple, Cindi and Steve who live the retired life making additional income for their grandkids doing Mobile Pet Sitting and Dog Walking. Charging $20 a visit (each visit is only 15mins) they do pretty well giving you the convenience of keeping your furry friend at home and active when you’re busy or away. Now with great marketing sites as well like Care.com, a mobile dog walker or pet sitter can make a licking using any piece of transportation.
Hair and makeup services
The wedding market has been observed to be a big one and people are willing and ready to pay for great services that are extra convenient during the busy day. Among the services wedding parties often need are hair and makeup, which will provide an excellent mobile business idea. Unlike running the usual traditional salon, you will take your styling van or trailer directly to your clients residences. Mind you, weddings aren’t the only celebrations for which people will be needing glamour teams. There are many special occasions, and just regular ones, too but they might be a perfect initial identified market you can try to target.
Pet grooming
It might be tough for some pet owners to be able to corral their pets into the car and also get them to the groomer to be washed, dried, and fluffed. Meaning that people who’d otherwise be spending on their pets aren’t seeking out any services. As a mobile pet groomer, you will be providing an on-demand, on-location service to pet owners by creating a mobile salon in your van or trailer. Make sure you also cater to cats as well as dogs will expand your market base, because more than one quarter of United States households have pets.
Tech help
There are a lot of brick and mortar tech repair shops, but often, people find it very difficult to make an appointment that’s convenient for them, after all, tech help is basically needed in times of emergency. A tech help vehicle will be a huge boon to both business owners and private individuals who will be needing specialized help data recovery, wireless troubleshooting, screen repair, and many more, where they are and as fast as they may. If you’re able to specialize in more heavier tech equipment, such as servers, you would also expand your market more.
House cleaning or other specialty cleaning
Much like repairs, cleaning services often need you to go to the places where the tasks are. You could start a house cleaning service to offer a top to bottom clean of a customer’s home. But you will want to think even more specifically, too: You could also focus on certain kinds of cleaning, like carpet cleaning or silver polishing. Which will require a little more specialized skill but might have limited competition among other cleaning services.
Traveling bar
A traveling bar might sound silly at first blush, but if your city’s bar scene is either lackluster or bursting at the seams. There will be room for you to venture into this mobile business idea. Consider opening up a bar with some salon seating that people will come into for a drink with their friends or colleagues. You might decide to park at local spots that you know people love to sit and enjoy themselves with friends. With good marketing, you will encourage customers to come follow you around wherever you move.
Cloth diaper services
As customers become increasingly eco-conscious, cloth diapers are becoming a sustainable alternative to disposable diapers. But cloth diapers might be no pun intended, a pain in the butt to clean and need to be laundered often. Consider creating a cloth diaper service that will pick up cloth diapers for cleaning, and also delivers batches of laundered diapers at the same time. You might even need to advertise yourself as a baby registry gift. So that expecting parents will have their friends and family buy vouchers for your services.
In-home care service
There won’t be a lack of need for health professionals with a caring side. If this sounds like you, you might need to set up a care service, which would be offering things like elder care, emergency care, and infant care. Depending on your certifications, you can be able to separate yourself from the competition by offering not just in-home care, but also medical attention, too.
Children’s play tank
Busy parents may often use a break from their children, whether that’s for them to get work done or simply decompress. If you are creative and love kids. You may need to get a van or trailer filled with fun, stimulating activities in which you will entertain children for an hour at a time. Projects like Mobile Mommies have discovered their niche by offering specialized childcare for parents who are busy with special events.
Personal assistant service
Many people need more time in the day. You won’t be able to provide them that, but you may create a personal assistant service that will take care of the tasks that are eating up their time. That may be something as simple as picking up their dry cleaning, or even more complex like shopping for gifts. It’s up to you to know what types of services you want to offer, and the clientele to whom you’ll market yourself. But consider getting a sense of what tasks your potential customers wish to outsource before making your menu.
Tutoring or education services
Creating an onsite tutoring or educational service will be extremely helpful for students who need extra help in some areas during the school year, but specifically around test time. One crucial thing to note about this kind of business is that it’s seasonal with the school year. So if you’re considering this kind of mobile business idea. Then you may need to also create a summer-specific service that will help round up your offerings.
Honorable Mentions
This isn’t the definitive list. Merely something to wet your whistle and open your mind to what is possible. Obviously, we left out quite a few since they could easily be sourced from your memory or experience.
Ice-cream trucks
Mobile electricians
plumbers.
hair stylists
Tax Preparers and the list goes on.
Advantages
Start up cost are definitely much less then having to open a general brick and mortar. There’s no rental fee, no property overhead expenses and hey, no common area maintenance or building insurance required! Plus, you can take this show on the road! Finding the area that works best for you, you can take you business to the people. Rotating various days, parking at events, shopping centers and more gives you a huge advantage over a standard brick and mortar. Keep in mind too, because your business is in a smaller setting there is less inventory to be maintained. Therefore less waste and you can tailor your product based on supply and demand.
Disadvantages
Local laws
One of the hindering factor against a mobile business is the law. The laws and regulations applying in one town or state may be very much different than those applying in another area, which means you will have to do much due diligence to ensure that you can. For instance, park in an area or sell a certain product where you are.
Marketing
Since you won’t be having a permanent location, there is no way you can your business space on Google Maps or similar tools that will make it easy for your customers to find you. This means that you will have to do a little more marketing to ensure that the right people will find you at the right time. This would be a headache, but with social media, it is getting much more easier to market your company locally to the right customers. You will have to do this diligently to see good results though, so hiring a social media manager is not a bad idea. You will need people to know when you are around if you really need them to pay a visit and spend some money with you.
Reasons why you need to start
Less upfront investment
The start up costs for a brick and mortar shop might vary based on a number of variables. Inventory for a 500 square foot mid range retail shop, for instance, comes in at around $20,000, according to PFS Financial Services based in Chicago. And it doesn’t include the costs to rent such a space, buying displays and equipment, hiring staff, etc.
According to an account in Forbes, as an aspiring retailer, you are expected to invest around $100,000 for renovations on your desired space and the cost for your first round of inventory to stock your shop. While you might not even require that much to start or even expand your current business, who has even half that kind of amount sitting unused in a bank account?
That might be well beyond what a retailer are just looking to enter the scene will afford. You will need the initial investment necessary to open your own stationery shopfront.
Overhead costs, this includes inventory, insurance and maintenance, are also much less expensive than those of a storefront. Take into consideration the money you will save on advertising alone. Traveling retailers are often difficult to miss, and your storefront is what introduces you to your customers first.
The ability to test and iterate
Mobile retailers have the luxury to work with a smaller amount of real estate and a smaller inventory. As a result, you might be agile in your approach by knowing the competition of a market before you commit to something more permanent either in location or with inventory.
You will also have a better grasp of what merchandise leads to buying and offer products that are more customized to the neighborhood or city you’re selling in.
Connect with your customers anywhere, on your own time
When a flexible schedule isn’t attractive enough, mobile business owners might be where their customers are when they’re likely to be there. In a survey from PwC, 58% of respondents rank convenience as the main reason for shopping on the internet. What’s then more convenient than rolling right up to your customers? Think of the presence your brand might have stopped near a park where young professionals eat their lunch, or at an outdoor event in your target neighborhood.
Appeal of the experience
The growing ecommerce market has forced many retailers to rethink the ways they can be able to capture the attention of your shoppers. As competition between online and brick and mortar continues, retailers have now shifted their focus to something online merchants may have trouble replicating. A fully immersive retail experience that will appeal to all of your customers’ senses.
Despite what some are claiming, the retail experience is not dead! 72% of shoppers still consider the in store experience as the most crucial channel when buying. Mobile retailers are in a good position to offer a unique and fun retail experience that will stand out from fixed storefronts.
Set the stage for impulse buying
Behavioral psychologists has come out to say that there’s a sense of urgency that often causes people to suspend rationality in lieu of acting quickly. FOMO (fear of missing out) is real when it comes to experiences and our buying behavior.
Whereas many shoppers have become wise to the traditional “now or never” methods of sales associates, a mobile retailer may help sway even the biggest skeptic. This will play a major role in the buying decisions of your customers.
To Be Considered
With all things full of glitz and glam, there is still a bit of house rules to be acknowledged.
City regulations are still important so check the local laws to ensure where you can park and for just how long. Fines can be a beast and not worth the hassle.
Shoppers won’t know where you are unless you tell them! Having a social media presence can make or break you. It is imperative that as you gain customers. They’ve got to become followers to become repeat customers. Market yourself by attending local events and festivals. Your truck or vehicle means everything to your business! Be sure to keep money aside for repairs.
And Finally
Starting a mobile business doesn’t take much, depending on which form of service or product you choose to sell. Know your target audience, where to find them and how to make them want you.
Take the time to research and create a plan that will work best for you. Do you have children growing up? Keep them involved. One of the best ways to build a legacy for generational wealth is to include the generations in the building stage so that they too may carry it out as time goes along.
You had me at Tacos haha this article was very informative.
You can’t go wrong with tacos…or a plan for creating wealth!
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