Day 22: Price

Our main product is sliders. There are no other food trucks in our area that specialize in sliders. The closest competitor charges the following prices for its food items.

Hamburger-Single Patty-$8.50
Hamburger-Double Patty- $10.50
Cheeseburger-Single Patty-$9.00
Cheeseburger-Double Patty-$11.00
Onion Rings-$4.50
French Fries-$3.50
Drinks-$1.50

Most restaurants and mobile food trucks use target-food-cost percentages to determine the retail price of the item. For example a cheeseburger who's food costs are $1.50 should sell for ($1.50/.35 = $4.30). The percentage varies. We used 35% which is at the high end of the percentage scale since the sliders are quite labor intensive. Taco and hot dog trucks typically use 20% to 25% as their percentages

Inside Slider's Ingredients Price List

Item name	Meat Cost	Bun Cost	Other Ingredients	Total Cost
Beef Slider	$.60	$.75	$1.00	$2.35
Pulled Pork Slider	$.32	$.75	$1.00	$2.07
Jerk Chicken Slider	$.55	$.75	$1.00	$2.30

Other ingredients include salt, pepper, mayo, ketchup, mustard, tomatoes, cinnamon, all spice, vegetable oil, lemon juice, molasses, orange juice, soy sauce, garlic, scallions, garlic powder, cayenne powder, celery salt, mustard powder.

Toppings are also included here and they include, cheese, mushrooms, grilled onions.

Labor and Ingredients Cost

Item name	Target Food Cost %	Ingredients Cost	Retail Price
Beef Slider	35%	$.2.35	$6.71
Pulled Pork Slider	35%	$.2.07	$5.91
Jerk Chicken Slider	35%	$2.30	$6.57

Other Menu Items

Item Name	Cost	Target Food Cost %	Actual	Retail Price
Onion Rings	$1.50	35%	$4.28	$4.50
French Fries	$1.50	35%	$3.42	$3.50
Soft Drinks	$.75	35%	$2.00	$2.00
Coleslaw	$.75	35%	$2.00	$2.00
Baked Beans	$.75	35%	$2.00	$2.00

Profitability

Item name	Cost	Retail	% Profit
Beef Sliders	$2.35	$6.75	34.8%
Pork Sliders	$2.07	$5.95	34.7%
Chicken Sliders	$2.30	$6.65	34.5%
Onion Rings	$1.50	$4.50	33.3%
French Fries	$1.20	$3.50	34.2%
Soft Drinks	$.75	$2.00	37.5%
Coleslaw	$.75	$2.00	37.5%
Baked Beans	$.75	$2.00	37.5%

Sales Tax Rates Santa Barbara County

City	Tax Rate 2017
Goleta	7.75%
Gaviota	8.5%
Guadalupe	7.75%
Santa Maria	7.75%
Santa Barbara	7.50%
Carpinteria	7.50%
Buellton	7.50%
Casmalia	7.50%
Cuyama	7.50%
Isla Vista	7.50%
Lompoc	7.50%
Los Alamos	7.50%
Los Olivos	7.50%
Montecito	7.50%
Orcut	7.50%
Santa Ynez	7.50%
Sisquoc	7.50%
Solvang	7.50%
Summerland	7.50%
Vandenburg	7.50%

Since all of our locations currently are projected for Santa Barbara, the tax rate that needs to be collected is 7.50%

Catering Prices

Our truck caters parties(Birthdays, weddings, graduation, holiday parties, anniversaries) and cooks the food at the event.

The cost for the truck is $150.00 per hour
There is a $200 non-refundable deposit to secure the event.
The deposit will be applied to the truck rental time and or the items purchased.
Our food items and prices are the same as food truck location prices as listed above.

Day 23: Promotion

We will promote Inside Slider with the following methods.

We will have a web site, Inside Slider promoting our business, offering customers the opportunity to order food ahead of time to pick up at our truck.
The site will feature a mechanism to allow customers to calculate the cost of our company catering the event for them.
The site will also provide links to our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sites.
We will contact party equipment rental companies and persuade them to make a link to our site.
We will also provide a link to their company on our site.
We will have our business listed in Yelp
We will create banner ads that we will sell to wedding planners and party planners.
We will feature direct e-mail ads to be sent to local businesses advertising our catering services for their company parties.
We will also direct our efforts to secure their location for our food truck for lunches for their employees.
We will set up a booth at all local wedding faires and home shows.
We will design and leave flyers at local water-front businesses and party-equipment, rental businesses promoting our services.
We will paint our truck with the company name, phone number and catering information.
Social media promotions will include FaceBook, Instagram and Twitter.

Day 24 Target Market

Our target market is complicated since we, in effect, have two businesses: the food truck regular sales and a catering business.
The regular food truck business target market is as follows.

Tourists,shoppers and employees of local businesses. All groups frequent the area where our food truck will be located. The waterfront/downtown is where tour busses and cruise ships leave off their passengers to shop, go on tours and visit shops and attractions in the waterfront or shopping mall located just north of the pier.
The tourist segment is quite affluent and have above average incomes.
Hotel rates are quite high and have weekend minimum stays.
The tourists are on vacation or have just exited one of the many cruise ships that frequent our port bi-monthly.
Education level is proababley not pertinent, although we will focus on customers with a high school education and maybe some college.
A segment of the shoppers should include students, since they frequent the shopping areas adjacent to the waterfront. Many high-school and college-age shoppers are regular consumers of fast food.
Many of our customers are quite computer literate and like to shop on-line. We should provide a way to order our sliders from their phones or tablets.
We should also be prominent on social media, since most teenagers and young adults are very active users.
Tourists also use the Internet fo find attractions and things of interest while visiting Santa Barbara.

Day 25 Market Segmentation

Our catering market segment is somewhat different from our regular food truck sales market. The catering division can be further segmented by looking at corporate catering events like company parties, grand openings, holiday parties, etc. Our consumer segment of the catering business will focus on birthday parties, weddings, graduations, etc.

Day 26 Initial investment

One of the most important parts of preparing a business plan is to determine what assets are needed.

According to research previously done the following information is available

An average food truck costs about $85,000
Initial product inventory about $1,500
Permits and licenses about $300
Website about $100
Cash Register/Point of sale about $500
Uniforms about $500
Paper products about $250
Miscellaneous assets about $500
Pots, Pans Utensils about $1,500
Fire Extinguisher about $150
Total start up costs $90,300

The owner will invest $10,000, which will account for the cash on hand and our common stock. The rest of the money will be obtained from a loan. We will need to borrow 90,300 from the bank which is our Note Payable

Inside Slider Food Truck and Catering Company
Balance Sheet
Current Date

ASSETS
Cash	10,000.00
Food Truck	85,000.00
Acc. Depreciation Food Truck	0.00
Uniforms	500.00
Furniture and Fixtures	1,650.00
Acc. Depreciation Furniture	0.00
Paper Supplies	250.00
Permits & Licenses	300.00
Office Equipment	500.00
Acc. Dep. Office Equipment	0.00
Prepaid Insurance	0.00
Merchandise Inventory	1,500.00
Other Assets	600.00
Total Assets	100,300.00
LIABILITIES
Notes Payable	90,300.00
Accounts Payable
Workers' Comp Payable
Federal Income Tax Payable
FICA Tax Payable
Medicare Tax Payable
Federal Unemployment Tax Payable
State Unemployment Tax Payable
Sales Tax Payable
SDI Tax Payable
State Income Tax Payable
State Employment Training Tax
Total Liabilities	90,300.00
STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY
Common Stock	10,000.00
Retained Earnings
Total Liabil & Stock. Equity	100,300.00

Our total assets should equal our total liabilities plus stockholders equity (100,300 = 90,300 + 10,000)

Tutorial:Starting your own business

Week 5

Day 23: Promotion

Day 24 Target Market