Employee & Freelancer Expenses

$151

$252

Website Costs

$223

$7,015

Business Formation Fees

$600

$4,700

Vehicle Expenses

$0

$10,000

Retail Business Expenses

$1,250

$6,650

Advertising & Marketing Costs

$75

$3,986

Software Expenses

$162

$2,720

Office Space Expenses

$0

$100

Specific Industry Expenses

$0

$500

Total Startup Costs

$2,461

$35,923

4th Street Market

4thstreetmarket.com

2,528,544

Church Street Marketplace

churchstmarketplace.com

2,663,780

Seventh Avenue Merchants Association

m7streetfair.com

4,355,225

KERB Food

kerbfood.com

4,559,759

Hyannis Main Street Business Improvement District

hyannismainstreet.com

4,606,779

Southern California Mobile Food Vendors Association

socalmfva.com

5,477,206

Lokal Artisan Foods

lokalartisanfoods.com

8,923,297

Little startup costs required

The cost to start a street food vendor business costs significantly less money than most businesses, ranging anywhere from 62 to 35,923.

Rewarding work

Starting a street food vendor business can be really rewarding work. After all, you are solving an immediate issue for your customer and you're working on something you truly care about.

High customer retention rates

Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.

Pick & choose the clients you work with

Street Food Vendor Businesses have the ability to choose the clients they work with. You have the freedom to work with only a few loyal clients or with hundreds of clients!

Control of workload

With starting a street food vendor business, you have the unique ability to choose how little or how much you want to work. You also have the freedom to decide which projects you want to work on, and can turn down the ones that do not interest you.

Gain exposure and experience

This career allows you to gain experience working for multiple different businesses - which will benefit your resume and also keep things interesting for you!

Motivation of employees

If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.

Longer Sales Process

A street food vendor business can be a big time and money investment for your customer, so it's important you plan and predict a longer conversion funnel and stay in communication with potential customers.

Work can be inconsistent

As a street food vendor business, the amount of work assigned to you and schedule tends to be more inconsistent, which may make your income less stable. It's important to set boundaries and budget accordingly based on the amount of work you plan to have.

Lack of benefits

With a street food vendor business, you are typically self-employed and responsible for finding your own insurance, which can be quite costly and time-consuming.

Taxes

As a street food vendor business, you typically pay self-employment taxes which can be quite high. It's important to understand what you will be paying in taxes each year so you can determine if the work you're taking on is worth it.

No safety net

Typically, as a street food vendor business, you do not receive a consistent pay-check and instead earn money based on your transactions each month. During the slow periods, you typically take away less since the job is based on commission. It's important to budget accordingly for the slow times.