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food truck Archives | Paul Terry & Associates
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Street Food: A Fresh Start

street food

Off the Grid

Last week the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed Supervisor Scott Weiner’s food truck reform legislation. After two years of negotiation Weiner was able to achieve a compromise on which both restaurants and food trucks could agree—trucks will now be able to operate on college and hospital campuses and park closer to middle and high schools, but they will have to comply with a 75-foot buffer around brick-and-mortar restaurants.

In his statements last week, Matt Cohen, founder of Off the Grid said, “Every single piece of this legislation was a compromise from both sides. We’re glad about having the process be cleaner, but it’s a wait-and-see approach about how it plays out in practice. I think all stakeholders have that approach at this point.”

Between this new San Francisco food truck ordinance and the California Homemade Food Act, there are a lot of legislative changes affecting local food entrepreneurs right now. The first San Francisco Cottage Food permit was just issued in April to a Dogpatch resident, just a few blocks from my office. It is a different landscape for food entrepreneurs than just a few years ago. Some of my curent clients and students will be impacted by these new laws so I will continue to follow the issues closely.

San Francisco Food Fights

At a recent Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association meeting, San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener came to talk with us about his proposed mobile food truck legislation, which he introduced at a Board of Supervisors meeting last November. His goal with the new legislation is to make it easier for mobile food businesses to operate in the city, while also protecting the interests of brick-and-mortar restaurants who are negatively affected when food trucks (that don’t pay rent) park nearby.

People enjoying the Liba Falafel food truck in San Francisco

People enjoying the Liba Falafel food truck in San Francisco

The current food truck regulations haven’t been working well for either side. If Supervisor Weiner’s new legislation is passed, it would prohibit food trucks from doing business within 50 feet of a restaurant but would also allow food trucks to operate in parts of the city where they’ve been previously banned.

At the PDMA meeting, Supervisor Weiner explained to us that that current rules have made whole areas of the city, including a large portion of the Mission, off-limits to food trucks. He wants to encourage more trucks to congregate in areas like SOMA and the Financial District. The bill would legalize food trucks on all hospital and college campuses and allow trucks to park closer to schools, decreasing the buffer from 1,500 feet down to 500 feet for middle schools and between 750 and 1,000 feet for high schools.

PTA has worked with and taught restaurant owners and food truck owners and we understand the challenges on both sides—the costs, the competition, finding the right location, scalability and market demand. Running a small food business—whether it is attached to one spot or mobile—is very hard work and it is important that our local legislators are listening to business owners’ concerns and supporting small business issues. I appreciate Supervisor Weiner’s efforts to move the conversation forward.

Eating Well from Street to Street

On Saturday I joined the crowds in San Francisco’s Mission District to experience La Cocina’s fourth annual Street Food Festival.

The sunny streets were full of happy people enjoying tasty delights from 85 vendors—including from some of my former students: Gail Lillian of LIBA Falafel, Claire Keane of Clairesquares, Antoinette Sanchez of Endless Summer Sweets, and Neal Gottlieb of Three Twins Ice Cream.  What a treat!

food festival

Neal and Paul at SF Street Food Festival

As a small, start-up food business it is a challenge to break into the industry and be successful. Food entrepreneurs can have great ideas and delicious recipes but they also need to afford legal kitchen space and the start-up costs to open their businesses, find a niche, compete for shelf space and break into a crowded marketplace. Motivated entrepreneurs like Gail, Claire, Antoinette and Neal are making it work by renting kitchen space and/or selling out of a food truck. (Neil started very small over 6 years ago and now sells ice cream in almost every state.)

Luckily, food businesses don’t have to jump into business ownership without some support. La Cocina’s non-profit kitchen incubator and programs for low-income, immigrant and women-owned food businesses and Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center’s programs and small business incubator provide valuable training and support. There are other non-profits and businesses sprouting up around the city to help food entrepreneurs and strengthen the local food movement—from the Underground Market and Forage Kitchen, to the new Good Food Merchants Guild and Good Eggs.

City government is also helping to make the climate easier for food start-ups, such as easing regulations for street food vendors and even passing an ordinance to allow community gardeners and city farmers to sell their produce directly to the public on site. And we’re all waiting to see what transpires with the California Homemade Food Act.

It was great to see the success of small street merchants and so many supporters of the Bay Area’s local food movement this weekend. Let’s keep up the support for sustainable food businesses!

Food for Thought

Food as a small business and the business of food.  Taste and preferences have radically changed and there are so many new businesses that are popping up in the Bay Area.  In fact, “pop-up” defines many new neighborhood food businesses.  You do not have to “go to them”…they will come to your neighborhood – farmer’s markets, food carts, food trucks, or food events at an abandoned cafe once a month.  You go online and hear about it all from a tweet, a whistle or a hoot.  So many opportunities for cooks to get their ideas out there and be tasted.

food for thought

Do you support your local food vendors, confirm they are local and legal and see that they are there next week and the week after?  They are passionate about their wraps, their salsa, their falafel and their cupcakes.  And they are a business…they need to be supported and sustained.  You buy from them and stay loyal.  They are confident to stay in business, track costs and hire people to help them out.

Tiny micro businesses are popping up and sticking to the wall.  They are launched with the passion of the cook and helped by the curiosity of the crowd  – having fun, being out and eating the organic, sustainable goodies.  This is everyone’s business.  Help your favorites run like businesses, give feedback, check for quality and service and be supportive with positive word of mouth.  Perhaps most will stay in business if they have fun, love what they are doing and become profitable.  Wow… making a profit doing what you love…over and over again.  Now that is a thought that we can all relish and support.

 

A Boom for Micro Businesses: Can You Deliver?

Business is booming for some micro businesses.  Recent marketing studies and most small business articles say that it is small businesses that are sustaining and creating jobs.  It is the little engine that can.  But can it?

micro businesses

There are reports about local food-related and clothing-centric businesses that seem to suggest there are key trends to watch for – not only new and innovative products but how they are being distributed.  Gail Lillian, owner of Liba Falafel has leveraged her food truck serving falafels into a stand-alone restaurant business with her recent expansion plans for Oakland.  “The truck helped determine the market and build the right business skills – with key access points around the SF Bay Area.”

Micro entrepreneurs are reaching out to the markets – the specific, targeted niche markets that seem to respond to what is being offered and to clients and customers who are willing to pay for the quality or uniqueness of the service.  There are pop-up shops and consignment retailers; there are food trucks; food stalls and food kiosks at the corner of your street and in the farmer’s markets.  There are neighborhood street fairs for clothing lines and third world imports.

There are many, many “distribution channels”…and there are more and more businesses that are succeeding online with well-designed websites too.  Laurie Kanes runs 12 Small Things, an on-line business providing access for artisans from many developing countries.  Her focus and purpose is to “showcase and sell fashionable, fair trade products from artisans facing some of the most challenging conditions in the world”.  This socially relevant business is targeting a niche and to do it well, must also execute and provide impeccable service. Laurie notes, “My competitive edge is to develop key partnerships to access the right markets and support the right artisans”.

Are these trends helpful to you and your micro businesses?  We DO need to know who will buy our products and services; we DO have to be accessible, we DO have to tell our stories so people will be interested in what we have not just once, but over and over again.

However, the basic truth is we have to deliver – meet a promise and provide a benefit – and then build trust.  Do what you say you are going to do and take the action to make it work well…again and again.  Every new business requires an initial ignition but then after that first spark, we provide the consistent follow-through over and over again!

The business action plan that we use individually and with small groups is an excellent tool to make this happen for any small business.

Let’s see how well we can grow when we “deliver the goods”.


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