KELSEY ALPAIO: Every time I'm waiting in line at a food
truck, I'm standing on my tippy toes,
trying to get a glimpse of what exactly goes on back there.
So it is very intense in there.
For this episode I got in touch with an actual food truck owner
to find out what it takes to own your very
own restaurant on wheels.
It's more than just cooking food or having great recipes.
It's a lot of dealing with confusing regulations
and rules, being prepared to fix a flat tire or broken
generator.
It costs a lot more money than I thought it did.
Stick around if you want to find out
what it actually takes to start your very own food truck.
JONATHAN MOY: Owning a food truck,
I think, is a very romantic idea to a lot of people.
And owning any type of businesses is a romantic idea.
It's like, hey, you're your own boss.
I think it was pretty quick for me to realize that I literally
work for everyone else as the owner of the business.
KELSEY ALPAIO: That's Jon Moy.
He's the founder and owner of the Moyzillla food truck
based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Jon actually started his career in finance back in 2008.
But he found himself dissatisfied with the job,
and despite his best intentions, was thinking a lot
about joining the food world.
JONATHAN MOY: At that point the economy
was kind of in shambles, and I just kind of
felt fortunate to have a job.
And my family had always been in the restaurant business,
and I actually grew up hating the restaurant business,
just because I never saw my parents for holidays.
The restaurant industry is hard.
The hours are really long.
So I never thought that I would be drawn to it again.
But I think I had it in my blood, so to speak,
and I just kind of was looking for a way
to get back into something tangible.
KELSEY ALPAIO: Why did you decide
to go the truck route instead of the brick and mortar
restaurant?
JONATHAN MOY: Yeah, so restaurants
are super expensive.
We just had--
I personally just didn't have the financial ability
to just jump in and lock into a lease.
I had no idea.
My family has restaurants and I've worked at them before,
but I've never owned a business.
So I think just jumping into a 10 year lease or something
like that was super daunting.
I think food trucks are, and I think
they still are, a really good way for people
to test the waters a bit.
KELSEY ALPAIO: I didn't expect it to be as roomy as it was.
You could actually fit a decent amount of people in there.
Jon said that it is one of their biggest trucks,
so that makes sense.
It's actually an old UPS truck, which is wild.
So I need to know, how much does a food truck actually cost?
I'm thinking it's like $30,000, $40,000.
JONATHAN MOY: $82,000.
That was including everything, though, the generator, the
build out.
The truck itself was $17,000.
And then the rest of it is really building it out,
putting electrical in, the plumbing in,
and that type of thing.
Our first truck cost $80,000.
And then with other startup revenue,
startup costs associated with that, the product,
and most food trucks would run to commissary, definitely
over $100,000 to get a food truck business started.
KELSEY ALPAIO: To save money, Jon
actually moved home after graduation
and started his career in finance.
At this time, the food truck idea was far off.
But it definitely helped him raise money when the time came.
JONATHAN MOY: I actually lived with my parents
right after I graduated school and while I was working
for a bit, which I'm like, best decision in my life, I think,
just because I was able to save a bit of money
after school, working in the office.
So let's talk money.
How much does John make as a food truck owner and operator?
JONATHAN MOY: When we started the food truck
in the second year, we made $15,000
between my wife, my dad, and I. So that was just like--
I was 26 at the time during our second season.
I'm like, that's OK.
We can eat the extra dumplings we don't sell, and we'll be OK.
And then right now, actually, we had our best day in 2019,
where we did over $1 million in revenue.
And our margin, our bottom line is about 20% of that.
And then we actually started paying ourselves.
So my wife and I pay ourselves $75,000 a year
right now just from the business.
And so our total take home income was probably
around $300,000 in 2019.
KELSEY ALPAIO: And then COVID came and ruined it all,
I'm sure.
JONATHAN MOY: Oh, yeah, and then we were back in the negative
again.
It Yeah, this felt-- and that's in a lot of ways
how it felt like year one again.
We weren't sure which of our employees
were going to come back.
None of our spots were there.
They had all expired.
And I think this past year has really been like year one,
really just trying to learn things over again
and how we can kind of be successful
going into the future.
Everything is going to break.
And I think you can't have nervous breakdowns about that
because it's just going to happen.
All the trucks are powered by generators,
which essentially, they're on the food truck,
but they supply power to our refrigeration, our hand
sinks, and things like that.
And those things, they just break all the time
for whatever reason.
And I think without a generator, you can't take the truck out.
So there's a lot.
KELSEY ALPAIO: Oh my gosh, how do you
deal with like the anxiety or just being nervous about that
all the time?
Do you deal with it?
Or is it just ever present?
JONATHAN MOY: I think I've almost gone numb to it
at this point.
If someone calls me and is like, hey, John, this isn't working,
I'm like, let's think about it more rationally,
and if we can fix it we'll try to fix it.
But starting the food truck, I was
the least mechanically inclined person starting the food truck.
I had no idea how to check the radiator fluid of a truck.
But I think like my personality was just like, whoa,
we're not going to be able to cook food
if we don't figure this out.
So I've spent more hours probably
than I thought going into it just
learning how to fix generators or checking trucks out.
And I still can't do a ton.
But I think that eases my anxiety a bit,
knowing I know the first steps to take
if something goes wrong.
KELSEY ALPAIO: I'm eating the dumplings.
JONATHAN MOY: Our dumpling is kind of
like a hybrid between a Chinese dumpling,
kind of a thicker skin, more hearty dumpling,
and a Japanese gyoza, so it's pan fried on both sides
and then kind of steamed to finish the cooking process.
KELSEY ALPAIO: I learned that they
prep a lot of the food ahead of time.
They bring it here.
They cook it up fresh for people.
And they bring more than they could possibly ever need just
to make sure that they don't run out or anything like that.
Jon really started his business as a chef first,
with this vision of having a ton of different options
on the menu.
But he quickly realized that that just wasn't sustainable.
JONATHAN MOY: Through the first season
we had chicken yakitori, beef yakitori,
four different kinds of dumplings on the truck,
rice, noodles, and then a bunch of other things.
And it was super fun.
And we had a huge menu.
But I think we would be able to only serve
100 people during a lunch shift with that big of a menu.
We knew something had to give.
But I really wasn't ready to let that go
just because I got into it because I loved to cook.
So I was like, we can't just offer like three or four
things.
That's no fun.
But I realized the business side of things
is that we really had to slim things down.
So we cut our menu down quite a bit after the first season.
And we just saw huge improvements.
KELSEY ALPAIO: What are the skills
that I should prioritize learning if I'm
going to be successful at this?
JONATHAN MOY: Work ethic is the biggest thing.
If you're not prepared to work seven days a week
and 70 hours, just right off the bat,
I don't think it would work.
I think it was pretty quick for me to realize that I literally
work for everyone else as the owner of the business.
I feel like I work for my employees
because I have a responsibility to them.
Ultimately, I have to keep them happy.
It doesn't work if my team is not happy.
In terms of specific to the food truck,
being used to working in really warm conditions
and also really cold conditions, that's
an important characteristic, and I
think just the ability to just kind of problem
solve on the fly.
KELSEY ALPAIO: Do I want to start my own food truck?
Honestly, I don't have the money, cooking ability,
or stress tolerance for any of this.
I think I'm just going to stick to peeking through the window,
enjoying my food, and crushing on the people that are inside.
Thanks for watching.
Do you have a career crush?
Tell us about them in the comments,
and we'll see if we can talk to them for you.
Subscribe to our channel to see more interviews with people
actually living the dream.
Bye.