August 25, 2025 • 14 mins
In this episode of The Vegan Food Truck Business Podcast, Heather Zeitzwolfe sits down with food industry veteran and small business expert Eric Stromquist to break down the most common — and costly — mistakes food truck operators make.
Whether you're just getting started or trying to improve your profit margins, Eric shares hard-earned wisdom on pricing strategy, menu design, speed of service, and treating your truck like a real business. If you've ever wondered how to serve more customers, minimize waste, or make your numbers actually work, this episode is a must-listen.
What You’ll Learn:
- The #1 mistake most food trucks make when pricing their menu
- Why less is more when it comes to your menu options
- How to use simple math to maximize profit and speed up service
- What your food cost should be (and how to calculate it)
- The truth about overhead, commissary kitchens, and real labor costs
- Why running a food truck requires both heart and spreadsheets
About Our Guest:
Eric Stromquist was one of the founders of Portland's long-standing, local restaurant chain Hot Lips Pizza. Eric has been a prominent figure in the Portland Food scene for decades, including instructing at three notable culinary schools. He is now an advisor with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in Astoria, Oregon. He’s passionate about helping food entrepreneurs turn their ideas into sustainable, profitable businesses.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
singer (00:02):
This is the vegan food truck business show.
Crank the sound on the key andgo.
Hosted by Miss Heather Z.
She's savvy and frugal.
You'll see vegan CPA andbusiness mentor here for you
(00:23):
front and center.
Heather Z (00:52):
Eric Stromquist, welcome to the Vegan Food Truck
Business podcast.
Thank
Eric Stromquist (00:57):
you, Heather.
I'm excited to be here.
Heather Z (00:59):
we are gonna talk about how we can run our vegan
food trucks more efficientlyhave.
Better menu choices, betterpricing, make sure there's a
fast turnaround time to servepeople, but also that we don't.
Financially get into troubledoing all of this because, it
can be a tricky situation tryingto figure out food costs
especially when it fluctuates.
(01:20):
Eric, In your world that you'veexperienced, what is one major
problem that you see whetherstarting a restaurant or any
kind of a food business, what isthat one major mistake when it
comes to picking out the menu,food, pricing?
any of that
Eric Stromquist (01:34):
Heather, I think the biggest problem is,
whether it's a restaurant or afood truck, is that oftentimes
it started by someone that has apassion for food.
And, in the food truck can bepretty specific.
You have one, item that you loveor.
you like one particular kind ofethnic food you want to mash up
some ethnic foods into a fusionor something.
usually there's, a lot ofbackground in cooking, but very
(01:55):
rarely, is there any businessbackground and people.
Don't tend to treat it as abusiness you really have to get
both parts right in order to besuccessful.
I think that's the fundamentalproblem is that, you have to
think of it like a, business,even a food truck.
It's a small business to besure, but it's a business.
you have to get your mind set.
'cause a lot of times it's, Ijust, I don't want to charge a
lot.
'cause people can't afford it.
(02:15):
They're struggling with money.
that's not how you should setyour pricing strategy.
at the end of the day, you'regonna be spending a lot hours in
that truck and you want it to beworthwhile for you.
And if you're making a ton ofmoney, you can give it away.
You can do stuff for thecommunity.
You need to run a profitablebusiness that works for you,
that's the biggest problem.
It gets into more specific onesLike, pricing strategy.
(02:36):
A lot of people don't base theirpricing on what it's costing
them to put an item out thewindow.
that's a huge mistake.
Heather Z (02:43):
okay, so let's start with the menu itself.
you walk up to a food truck,some of them have a bazillion
things to choose from, and thenanother one that has maybe like.
Six things and you're like, wow,they don't have very many things
to offer, but meanwhile they'rebusy and people are buying from
them.
why would somebody want to havevery little to choose from
(03:03):
versus having a whole bunch?
And where do you think is thehappy medium?
Eric Stromquist (03:08):
That's a great question.
a philosophy of life is you'rebetter off doing less than doing
it well than you are trying todo a lot of stuff.
my God in a food truck, tryingto be the Cheesecake Factory is
nuts.
the biggest problem with havingan extensive menu in a food
truck is not just limited space,but also time.
the more complicated your menuitems are, the longer it's gonna
take you to make them.
And this is something that a lotof food truck operators don't
(03:29):
understand.
Heather and I, I end up talkingto them about this.
in the restaurant business, therevenue calculation is really
simple.
It's, your average check times,however many customers you're
gonna serve.
And, in a restaurant How manyseats do you have and how often
can you fill'em?
And a food truck is just howmany people can walk up to the
window and buy something.
if it takes you 30 seconds toserve a customer, if you serving
hot dogs, you can do 120transactions in an hour, right?
(03:52):
But if it takes you five minutesto put the food together, then
you can do 12.
And you do the math, sometimesit's startling when their eyes
just get really big and go, oh,I hadn't thought of that.
the trick is to come up with amenu that's attractive, but one
that you can execute efficientlyand quickly, And also the
tendency with a lot of items onyour menu is, you end up
carrying a lot of ingredientsthat maybe you use in one item
or two items.
(04:13):
and, that's no bueno.
ideally you want to construct amenu where, you're utilizing
ingredients in, two or three orall of your menu items.
Heather Z (04:21):
with food, we have spoilage, that doesn't
necessarily happen in othertypes of businesses where things
can stay on the shelf a littlebit longer.
if you prep something and thenit doesn't sell, then what do
you do?
Right.
Have a special the next day thatincludes that.
Eric Stromquist (04:35):
No, that's a great point.
Heather Z (04:36):
So, pricing, talking to my clients, I'm like, okay,
how did you decide how to pricethis?
Oftentimes their answer is,well, I look around and see what
other people are charging well,okay, that might be what the
market can bear, but does thateven cover your food costs, is
the question.
Talk to me about that mentalityor how you go about pricing.
When you're designing a menu,
Eric Stromquist (04:55):
I end up having this conversation a lot,
Heather, and the problem is, Iwould say the majority of people
that open a food serviceoperation based, their pricing
on what other people are doingand what they think the market
will bear.
I think with food trucks inparticular, there's an
expectation from customers thatthey're not gonna pay, prices
like at La Cirque they're gonnawant something reasonably
affordable.
But, I ended up working with alot of clients that aren't gonna
(05:18):
do clean monthly.
Income statements, p and Ls,they're not gonna do inventory,
they're not gonna do it on aregular basis, which means that,
even if you have incomestatements, your food cost
percentage is gonna be arollercoaster.
the trick is to, Know exactlywhat each item costs, and that's
something you can figure out.
And there's lots and lots ofsophisticated software out there
(05:38):
now, and I don't recommend oneor another.
Okay.
I you can google, recipe costingsoftware and you're gonna get,
hundreds of options.
my preference is, I have anExcel spreadsheet that works
just fine.
And I've also done it withclients who, one of whom was in
tears and shall remain nameless,'cause she couldn't operate the
software and even the Excelspreadsheet was too much.
And I just sat down with her andwe did it on paper with a
(05:59):
pencil.
you know, it's really a prettystraightforward process of, each
ingredient.
You break down into somecountable unit, usually ounces
each, add it all together.
And, and a common mistake ispeople omit.
Packaging and condiments.
And, you need to count and, thecontainers now can be very
expensive, especially if you areeco-conscious.
Mm-hmm.
And giving people, compostableutensils and on and on.
(06:22):
And I applaud that for sure.
but it's gonna add significantcost to your item and condiments
too.
You know?
I not, everyone's gonna put a.
squirt two tablespoons ofsriracha on their rice bowl, but
you should assume they are.
Mm-hmm.
price it accordingly.
but once you get to your actualitem cost and you're sure of it,
then since you're pricing, it'sthe old saw in the restaurant
business for the profitabilityformula is 30, 30, 30 10.
(06:44):
Right.
30%.
Product costs, 30% payroll, 30%overhead, and 10% profit.
that's kind of more or lessaccurate for a full service
restaurant.
But it depends entirely on theconcept.
And let's face it, in a foodtruck, your labor's probably
you, maybe you've got someonehelping you.
So your labor isn't gonna be30%, your overhead isn't gonna
be 30%.
So you can get away with ahigher.
(07:05):
costs, but I would argue that itshouldn't absolutely.
Should not be more than 40%.
Heather Z (07:09):
and oftentimes with food carts or trucks, the truck
is small and they have acommissary kitchen, which is
another rent.
Some spaces for these foodtrucks is unbelievably high.
And when I look at how muchthey're paying in rent, it's
what we were talking aboutbefore, Efficiency and volume,
can you actually produce enoughto cover your rent each day?
(07:30):
And what does that foot trafficlook like?
when people are designing amenu, since food spoils, take in
consideration the volume of howmany people come through there
Eric Stromquist (07:40):
that's a great point.
in many instances they arepaying to rent commissary
kitchen space and do prep andusually storage is at a premium
even in those places.
Sometimes you get lucky and youfind a spot that's got a lot of
refrigerated or even frozenstorage, but.
the really critical issue peoplejust have a hard time.
Wrapping their heads aroundreally believing in is that, I
know you're capable of doing,more complicated, higher end
(08:04):
food, but how quickly can youprepare it and how quickly can
you serve it?
'cause I said earlier, therevenue calculation is simple
math and it doesn't lie.
you gotta be able to servecustomers quickly if you want to
make any money.
And nobody wants to standaround, especially if it's cold
and rainy for five or sevenminutes waiting for their food.
Heather Z (08:21):
you know, here in Portland we have a big food cart
culture it's interesting how theprices suddenly like, why am I
paying$18 for a Pad Thai?
that just seems wrong.
I understand that they're tryingto cover their costs and they're
Basing it on the market but howcan a food truck keep their
prices more in line with whatpeople expect So people don't
(08:41):
feel like they're getting pricegouged
Eric Stromquist (08:43):
Again, setting up the menu, Heather, you just,
you have to reel yourself inyou're not trying To get a
Michelin star, you're trying tomake money.
And then, for a lot of thesepeople, their long-term goal,
their dream is to morph into abrick and mortar.
And if you get to that point,great.
then think about adding some ofthese menu items.
But.
have to, discipline yourselfwhen you're operating a food
(09:04):
truck and focus on what you canserve and what you can serve
affordably.
you can't price yourself out ofthat market.
People aren't gonna stand out inthe cold for seven minutes
waiting for an$18 Pad$12 maybe.
you have to give the market whatit's asking for.
and a lot of people in therestaurant business make this
mistake.
I sure did when we opened HotLips Pizza back in the 1980s, we
(09:25):
were gonna sell gourmet pizzaand everybody was gonna love
that and all these exoticingredients and, hey, what do
you know?
Two thirds of our sales werecheese and pepperoni a better
strategy is, is to give thecustomers what they want, even
if it's, not your favorite thingin the world But, don't try and
do it all in your truck.
Heather Z (09:40):
What else can you do to speed up efficiency with a
food truck?
Eric Stromquist (09:44):
try to avoid menu items that require a la
carte cooking, If it can beprepared in advance and it's not
gonna degrade in quality thatquickly, you're on the right
track.
you wanna just be able toassemble items and serve them.
I understand that for a lot offoodies and.
cooks, chefs.
that's not a very interesting orexciting concept.
I get it.
But, if you want to run a foodtruck.
Profitably.
you need to consider that aboveall else.
(10:05):
but, time is money Your topline, your revenue is gonna be
entirely dependent on howquickly you can serve customers.
Heather Z (10:11):
any last thing that you wanna share that I didn't go
over?
Eric Stromquist (10:15):
in general, I tell my clients this all the
time is don't be afraid to fail.
there are, no losses, onlylessons If you try something and
it doesn't work, and then thatcan be a small thing of if you
put something on your menu thatdoesn't sell, get it off even
the business itself, it's notfor everyone.
And, absolutely don't be afraidto fail.
I've learned way more from myfailures in life than I did my
modest successes.
Heather Z (10:35):
Yeah.
and share your failures too.
if people are doing similarthings talk to them, see what
struggles that they've had.
And we can all learn from eachother because I think of, being
an entrepreneur is also beinglike a scientist.
you're always testing your ideastest it out and see if anybody
wants it.
Eric Stromquist (10:50):
great advice, Heather and I, just to, to
piggyback on what you weresaying, it's really true.
there are exceptions, but by andlarge, the small business
community, they treat each otheras brothers and sisters, not
competitors.
And they will share a lot ofinformation and, before you
start your food truck, it's agreat idea to just, go around
and talk to people and see whatthey think about it.
And they, more often than not,are gonna share a lot of
(11:10):
information.
Heather Z (11:11):
Yeah, exactly.
the grim reality of owning abusiness.
especially, a food truck, likeyou mentioned, they're probably
the ones in the truck all daylong, prepping and serving and
doing all of the things.
Then they gotta also managetheir money and inventory and
all that kind of stuff too.
a lot of pokers in the fire,
Eric Stromquist (11:27):
maybe we can tie this up with a bow here back
to what I said first Heather,and it's really true is there
are a lot of people in therestaurant business there.
They're, Amazingly talentedchefs.
But, unless you treat it as abusiness, chances are you're
gonna struggle and maybe fail.
Heather Z (11:41):
how can they treat it more like a business?
Eric Stromquist (11:43):
Well, you just, you have to think in terms of
dollars and cents a lot ofplaces aren't gonna do monthly p
and ls or income statements,but, your prime costs, product,
cost, and labor, you can.
Watch your labor cost.
You know what your sales are andyou know what your payroll is
for a certain period.
What's the percentage?
And you know what your itemscost.
You know what you're charging,you know what your food costs
(12:03):
ought to be.
Those are two concrete steps youcan take to manage your product
cost and your payroll.
if you do those two things, thenyou're running a business.
You're watching the numbers andyou know this, you live in
spreadsheets, they don't, butthat doesn't require you living
in spreadsheets very long.
Right?
Right.
And if you do those two thingsand do it regularly, then you're
running a business.
Heather Z (12:22):
Yeah, exactly.
one major mistake.
I see when they're firststarting out a business, they're
not thinking about, how they'regoing to compile all their
financials.
So they're like, oh, I'll justput this on my personal credit
card.
I'll just put this over here.
I'll just Venmo somebody thisand do this, and now suddenly
they have no idea what theircosts are.
that's where I see a lot ofbusinesses get into trouble you
ask them about their profitmargins they have no idea.
(12:45):
Then, maybe they're out ofsomething, then they go to just
a regular supermarket and, buythe ingredients.
And now it's, at different costsThere's a lot to think about.
So it's, it's a, there reallyis, and
Eric Stromquist (12:54):
but yeah, I mean, that's another really,
really common mistake, and it'sa bad one, is co-mingling your
personal and your, businessexpenses.
some of the people we wind uptalking to don't even have a
business account set upseparately and, then you end up
giving.
somebody a box at the end of theyear and they're gonna charge
you$3,000 to try and sort outyour mess.
Heather Z (13:12):
exactly.
tell us a little bit about yourbackground.
You mentioned that you startedHot Lips, which I had gone to
Hot Lips Pizza many times as aPortland State student, I would
go over to Hot Lips and get aslice.
cause you know, when you're acollege student, that's like
what you can afford.
Now you're, retired, but youworked at a culinary school.
now what are you doing in yourlife?
Eric Stromquist (13:32):
I, had worked for 10 years at another place,
which used to be WesternCulinary Institute and morphed
into La Cordon Bula and leftOregon Culinary in 2016, I
believe.
And, Portland just kind of woreus out and we had been in love
with Astoria and just decided,you know what, we're looking for
a slower pace, a smaller town,and we, we wanted to get out of
Portland and we moved to Astoriaand just, about six and a half
(13:54):
years ago and we just, we loveit I've been working the last
three and a half years with thesmall business development
center down here, which is tiedto CLA of community college.
we offer free advising to anyonethat wants it.
you know, we're, the SBDC is allover the country really are
funded mostly by the smallbusiness administration.
we're able to give free advice.
We also teach programs, I do alittle teaching, which I love.
(14:14):
and those usually cost a littlebit of money, it's all about
building small businesses in ourcommunity and Astoria in
particular, this North coastarea is just really a tight knit
community.
It's been a lot of fun andgratifying to work with people
here.
Heather Z (14:26):
That's awesome.
they have so much exposure toother people that are in the
business community that they aregreat people to network with.
if you're looking for something,they might be able to hook you
up with somebody that does that,Thank you so much, Eric, for
being on the show today.
Of course.
I
Eric Stromquist (14:41):
really enjoyed it.
This is the vegan food truck business show.
Crank the sound on the key andgo.
Hosted by Miss Heather Z.
She's savvy and frugal.
You'll see vegan CPA andbusiness mentor here for you
(00:23):
front and center.
Heather Z (00:52):
Eric Stromquist, welcome to the Vegan Food Truck
Business podcast.
Thank
Eric Stromquist (00:57):
you, Heather.
I'm excited to be here.
Heather Z (00:59):
we are gonna talk about how we can run our vegan
food trucks more efficientlyhave.
Better menu choices, betterpricing, make sure there's a
fast turnaround time to servepeople, but also that we don't.
Financially get into troubledoing all of this because, it
can be a tricky situation tryingto figure out food costs
especially when it fluctuates.
(01:20):
Eric, In your world that you'veexperienced, what is one major
problem that you see whetherstarting a restaurant or any
kind of a food business, what isthat one major mistake when it
comes to picking out the menu,food, pricing?
any of that
Eric Stromquist (01:34):
Heather, I think the biggest problem is,
whether it's a restaurant or afood truck, is that oftentimes
it started by someone that has apassion for food.
And, in the food truck can bepretty specific.
You have one, item that you loveor.
you like one particular kind ofethnic food you want to mash up
some ethnic foods into a fusionor something.
usually there's, a lot ofbackground in cooking, but very
(01:55):
rarely, is there any businessbackground and people.
Don't tend to treat it as abusiness you really have to get
both parts right in order to besuccessful.
I think that's the fundamentalproblem is that, you have to
think of it like a, business,even a food truck.
It's a small business to besure, but it's a business.
you have to get your mind set.
'cause a lot of times it's, Ijust, I don't want to charge a
lot.
'cause people can't afford it.
(02:15):
They're struggling with money.
that's not how you should setyour pricing strategy.
at the end of the day, you'regonna be spending a lot hours in
that truck and you want it to beworthwhile for you.
And if you're making a ton ofmoney, you can give it away.
You can do stuff for thecommunity.
You need to run a profitablebusiness that works for you,
that's the biggest problem.
It gets into more specific onesLike, pricing strategy.
(02:36):
A lot of people don't base theirpricing on what it's costing
them to put an item out thewindow.
that's a huge mistake.
Heather Z (02:43):
okay, so let's start with the menu itself.
you walk up to a food truck,some of them have a bazillion
things to choose from, and thenanother one that has maybe like.
Six things and you're like, wow,they don't have very many things
to offer, but meanwhile they'rebusy and people are buying from
them.
why would somebody want to havevery little to choose from
(03:03):
versus having a whole bunch?
And where do you think is thehappy medium?
Eric Stromquist (03:08):
That's a great question.
a philosophy of life is you'rebetter off doing less than doing
it well than you are trying todo a lot of stuff.
my God in a food truck, tryingto be the Cheesecake Factory is
nuts.
the biggest problem with havingan extensive menu in a food
truck is not just limited space,but also time.
the more complicated your menuitems are, the longer it's gonna
take you to make them.
And this is something that a lotof food truck operators don't
(03:29):
understand.
Heather and I, I end up talkingto them about this.
in the restaurant business, therevenue calculation is really
simple.
It's, your average check times,however many customers you're
gonna serve.
And, in a restaurant How manyseats do you have and how often
can you fill'em?
And a food truck is just howmany people can walk up to the
window and buy something.
if it takes you 30 seconds toserve a customer, if you serving
hot dogs, you can do 120transactions in an hour, right?
(03:52):
But if it takes you five minutesto put the food together, then
you can do 12.
And you do the math, sometimesit's startling when their eyes
just get really big and go, oh,I hadn't thought of that.
the trick is to come up with amenu that's attractive, but one
that you can execute efficientlyand quickly, And also the
tendency with a lot of items onyour menu is, you end up
carrying a lot of ingredientsthat maybe you use in one item
or two items.
(04:13):
and, that's no bueno.
ideally you want to construct amenu where, you're utilizing
ingredients in, two or three orall of your menu items.
Heather Z (04:21):
with food, we have spoilage, that doesn't
necessarily happen in othertypes of businesses where things
can stay on the shelf a littlebit longer.
if you prep something and thenit doesn't sell, then what do
you do?
Right.
Have a special the next day thatincludes that.
Eric Stromquist (04:35):
No, that's a great point.
Heather Z (04:36):
So, pricing, talking to my clients, I'm like, okay,
how did you decide how to pricethis?
Oftentimes their answer is,well, I look around and see what
other people are charging well,okay, that might be what the
market can bear, but does thateven cover your food costs, is
the question.
Talk to me about that mentalityor how you go about pricing.
When you're designing a menu,
Eric Stromquist (04:55):
I end up having this conversation a lot,
Heather, and the problem is, Iwould say the majority of people
that open a food serviceoperation based, their pricing
on what other people are doingand what they think the market
will bear.
I think with food trucks inparticular, there's an
expectation from customers thatthey're not gonna pay, prices
like at La Cirque they're gonnawant something reasonably
affordable.
But, I ended up working with alot of clients that aren't gonna
(05:18):
do clean monthly.
Income statements, p and Ls,they're not gonna do inventory,
they're not gonna do it on aregular basis, which means that,
even if you have incomestatements, your food cost
percentage is gonna be arollercoaster.
the trick is to, Know exactlywhat each item costs, and that's
something you can figure out.
And there's lots and lots ofsophisticated software out there
(05:38):
now, and I don't recommend oneor another.
Okay.
I you can google, recipe costingsoftware and you're gonna get,
hundreds of options.
my preference is, I have anExcel spreadsheet that works
just fine.
And I've also done it withclients who, one of whom was in
tears and shall remain nameless,'cause she couldn't operate the
software and even the Excelspreadsheet was too much.
And I just sat down with her andwe did it on paper with a
(05:59):
pencil.
you know, it's really a prettystraightforward process of, each
ingredient.
You break down into somecountable unit, usually ounces
each, add it all together.
And, and a common mistake ispeople omit.
Packaging and condiments.
And, you need to count and, thecontainers now can be very
expensive, especially if you areeco-conscious.
Mm-hmm.
And giving people, compostableutensils and on and on.
(06:22):
And I applaud that for sure.
but it's gonna add significantcost to your item and condiments
too.
You know?
I not, everyone's gonna put a.
squirt two tablespoons ofsriracha on their rice bowl, but
you should assume they are.
Mm-hmm.
price it accordingly.
but once you get to your actualitem cost and you're sure of it,
then since you're pricing, it'sthe old saw in the restaurant
business for the profitabilityformula is 30, 30, 30 10.
(06:44):
Right.
30%.
Product costs, 30% payroll, 30%overhead, and 10% profit.
that's kind of more or lessaccurate for a full service
restaurant.
But it depends entirely on theconcept.
And let's face it, in a foodtruck, your labor's probably
you, maybe you've got someonehelping you.
So your labor isn't gonna be30%, your overhead isn't gonna
be 30%.
So you can get away with ahigher.
(07:05):
costs, but I would argue that itshouldn't absolutely.
Should not be more than 40%.
Heather Z (07:09):
and oftentimes with food carts or trucks, the truck
is small and they have acommissary kitchen, which is
another rent.
Some spaces for these foodtrucks is unbelievably high.
And when I look at how muchthey're paying in rent, it's
what we were talking aboutbefore, Efficiency and volume,
can you actually produce enoughto cover your rent each day?
(07:30):
And what does that foot trafficlook like?
when people are designing amenu, since food spoils, take in
consideration the volume of howmany people come through there
Eric Stromquist (07:40):
that's a great point.
in many instances they arepaying to rent commissary
kitchen space and do prep andusually storage is at a premium
even in those places.
Sometimes you get lucky and youfind a spot that's got a lot of
refrigerated or even frozenstorage, but.
the really critical issue peoplejust have a hard time.
Wrapping their heads aroundreally believing in is that, I
know you're capable of doing,more complicated, higher end
(08:04):
food, but how quickly can youprepare it and how quickly can
you serve it?
'cause I said earlier, therevenue calculation is simple
math and it doesn't lie.
you gotta be able to servecustomers quickly if you want to
make any money.
And nobody wants to standaround, especially if it's cold
and rainy for five or sevenminutes waiting for their food.
Heather Z (08:21):
you know, here in Portland we have a big food cart
culture it's interesting how theprices suddenly like, why am I
paying$18 for a Pad Thai?
that just seems wrong.
I understand that they're tryingto cover their costs and they're
Basing it on the market but howcan a food truck keep their
prices more in line with whatpeople expect So people don't
(08:41):
feel like they're getting pricegouged
Eric Stromquist (08:43):
Again, setting up the menu, Heather, you just,
you have to reel yourself inyou're not trying To get a
Michelin star, you're trying tomake money.
And then, for a lot of thesepeople, their long-term goal,
their dream is to morph into abrick and mortar.
And if you get to that point,great.
then think about adding some ofthese menu items.
But.
have to, discipline yourselfwhen you're operating a food
(09:04):
truck and focus on what you canserve and what you can serve
affordably.
you can't price yourself out ofthat market.
People aren't gonna stand out inthe cold for seven minutes
waiting for an$18 Pad$12 maybe.
you have to give the market whatit's asking for.
and a lot of people in therestaurant business make this
mistake.
I sure did when we opened HotLips Pizza back in the 1980s, we
(09:25):
were gonna sell gourmet pizzaand everybody was gonna love
that and all these exoticingredients and, hey, what do
you know?
Two thirds of our sales werecheese and pepperoni a better
strategy is, is to give thecustomers what they want, even
if it's, not your favorite thingin the world But, don't try and
do it all in your truck.
Heather Z (09:40):
What else can you do to speed up efficiency with a
food truck?
Eric Stromquist (09:44):
try to avoid menu items that require a la
carte cooking, If it can beprepared in advance and it's not
gonna degrade in quality thatquickly, you're on the right
track.
you wanna just be able toassemble items and serve them.
I understand that for a lot offoodies and.
cooks, chefs.
that's not a very interesting orexciting concept.
I get it.
But, if you want to run a foodtruck.
Profitably.
you need to consider that aboveall else.
(10:05):
but, time is money Your topline, your revenue is gonna be
entirely dependent on howquickly you can serve customers.
Heather Z (10:11):
any last thing that you wanna share that I didn't go
over?
Eric Stromquist (10:15):
in general, I tell my clients this all the
time is don't be afraid to fail.
there are, no losses, onlylessons If you try something and
it doesn't work, and then thatcan be a small thing of if you
put something on your menu thatdoesn't sell, get it off even
the business itself, it's notfor everyone.
And, absolutely don't be afraidto fail.
I've learned way more from myfailures in life than I did my
modest successes.
Heather Z (10:35):
Yeah.
and share your failures too.
if people are doing similarthings talk to them, see what
struggles that they've had.
And we can all learn from eachother because I think of, being
an entrepreneur is also beinglike a scientist.
you're always testing your ideastest it out and see if anybody
wants it.
Eric Stromquist (10:50):
great advice, Heather and I, just to, to
piggyback on what you weresaying, it's really true.
there are exceptions, but by andlarge, the small business
community, they treat each otheras brothers and sisters, not
competitors.
And they will share a lot ofinformation and, before you
start your food truck, it's agreat idea to just, go around
and talk to people and see whatthey think about it.
And they, more often than not,are gonna share a lot of
(11:10):
information.
Heather Z (11:11):
Yeah, exactly.
the grim reality of owning abusiness.
especially, a food truck, likeyou mentioned, they're probably
the ones in the truck all daylong, prepping and serving and
doing all of the things.
Then they gotta also managetheir money and inventory and
all that kind of stuff too.
a lot of pokers in the fire,
Eric Stromquist (11:27):
maybe we can tie this up with a bow here back
to what I said first Heather,and it's really true is there
are a lot of people in therestaurant business there.
They're, Amazingly talentedchefs.
But, unless you treat it as abusiness, chances are you're
gonna struggle and maybe fail.
Heather Z (11:41):
how can they treat it more like a business?
Eric Stromquist (11:43):
Well, you just, you have to think in terms of
dollars and cents a lot ofplaces aren't gonna do monthly p
and ls or income statements,but, your prime costs, product,
cost, and labor, you can.
Watch your labor cost.
You know what your sales are andyou know what your payroll is
for a certain period.
What's the percentage?
And you know what your itemscost.
You know what you're charging,you know what your food costs
(12:03):
ought to be.
Those are two concrete steps youcan take to manage your product
cost and your payroll.
if you do those two things, thenyou're running a business.
You're watching the numbers andyou know this, you live in
spreadsheets, they don't, butthat doesn't require you living
in spreadsheets very long.
Right?
Right.
And if you do those two thingsand do it regularly, then you're
running a business.
Heather Z (12:22):
Yeah, exactly.
one major mistake.
I see when they're firststarting out a business, they're
not thinking about, how they'regoing to compile all their
financials.
So they're like, oh, I'll justput this on my personal credit
card.
I'll just put this over here.
I'll just Venmo somebody thisand do this, and now suddenly
they have no idea what theircosts are.
that's where I see a lot ofbusinesses get into trouble you
ask them about their profitmargins they have no idea.
(12:45):
Then, maybe they're out ofsomething, then they go to just
a regular supermarket and, buythe ingredients.
And now it's, at different costsThere's a lot to think about.
So it's, it's a, there reallyis, and
Eric Stromquist (12:54):
but yeah, I mean, that's another really,
really common mistake, and it'sa bad one, is co-mingling your
personal and your, businessexpenses.
some of the people we wind uptalking to don't even have a
business account set upseparately and, then you end up
giving.
somebody a box at the end of theyear and they're gonna charge
you$3,000 to try and sort outyour mess.
Heather Z (13:12):
exactly.
tell us a little bit about yourbackground.
You mentioned that you startedHot Lips, which I had gone to
Hot Lips Pizza many times as aPortland State student, I would
go over to Hot Lips and get aslice.
cause you know, when you're acollege student, that's like
what you can afford.
Now you're, retired, but youworked at a culinary school.
now what are you doing in yourlife?
Eric Stromquist (13:32):
I, had worked for 10 years at another place,
which used to be WesternCulinary Institute and morphed
into La Cordon Bula and leftOregon Culinary in 2016, I
believe.
And, Portland just kind of woreus out and we had been in love
with Astoria and just decided,you know what, we're looking for
a slower pace, a smaller town,and we, we wanted to get out of
Portland and we moved to Astoriaand just, about six and a half
(13:54):
years ago and we just, we loveit I've been working the last
three and a half years with thesmall business development
center down here, which is tiedto CLA of community college.
we offer free advising to anyonethat wants it.
you know, we're, the SBDC is allover the country really are
funded mostly by the smallbusiness administration.
we're able to give free advice.
We also teach programs, I do alittle teaching, which I love.
(14:14):
and those usually cost a littlebit of money, it's all about
building small businesses in ourcommunity and Astoria in
particular, this North coastarea is just really a tight knit
community.
It's been a lot of fun andgratifying to work with people
here.
Heather Z (14:26):
That's awesome.
they have so much exposure toother people that are in the
business community that they aregreat people to network with.
if you're looking for something,they might be able to hook you
up with somebody that does that,Thank you so much, Eric, for
being on the show today.
Of course.
I
Eric Stromquist (14:41):
really enjoyed it.
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