The truck cost fifty-two thousand. Getting it legal cost another nineteen I hadn't planned

Marcus Thibodeaux· Opening a Cajun food truck in Baton Rouge after 12 years in restaurant kitchens· Registered, Food & Beverage·3w

Posting the numbers because nobody posted theirs for me.

Used truck, twelve years old, decent box, tired kitchen: fifty-two thousand. That was the number in my head for two years and the number I told my wife.

Then:

fire suppression serviced and recertified plus a hood cleaning, because the previous owner's paperwork was expired
a three-compartment sink and a separate handwash sink for the health inspection
a quieter generator, after I ran the old one once and understood why nobody parks next to a diesel at lunchtime
wrap, menu boards, smallwares, propane, the first real food order and the insurance deposit

Nineteen thousand and change, and I'm still finding things. I paid for it with savings and a loan from my father-in-law, which is a conversation I'd like to have exactly once. The bank wanted two years of returns for a business that didn't exist yet, which I understand and still found funny.

If I'd filled in something like the cost estimator honestly rather than optimistically I'd have seen most of this coming.

What was the line item that blindsided you? I'd rather the next person here reads it in advance.

3 replies

Sofia Ramirez· Idea stage·3w

This is the most useful post I've read here, and also the reason I'm still standing behind a folding table on Saturdays.

The one I'd add from the very small end is packaging. I budgeted for flour and butter and completely forgot that everything I sell leaves in something. Boxes, bags, liners, the stickers I insisted on. It isn't nineteen thousand, but on a three hundred dollar day it's a bigger slice than I'd have guessed, and it's the cost that scales exactly with success.

Did the fire suppression recertification come up in the inspection, or did you catch it first?

Dev Patel· Idea stage·2w

Retail version, and I haven't signed anything yet so this is all secondhand from people who have. Every shop owner I've talked to told me a version of your story where the build-out doubled, and the thing they all named was the stuff behind the walls. Electrical for the equipment, a grease trap, a bathroom that meets code.

Two of them said the landlord promised an allowance and then the allowance was reimbursed after completion, so they carried the whole cost first anyway. That one has changed how I read a lease.

Marcus Thibodeaux· Registered·2w

Sofia, I found the fire suppression myself, three days before I'd have failed for it. The previous owner handed me a folder of paperwork and I assumed the folder meant current. Check the dates on everything in the folder.

Two more since I posted: a second propane tank so I'm not swapping mid-service, and the health department's plan review fee, which I'd budgeted at zero because I didn't know plan review was a thing. Packaging is on my list now too, so thank you for that. I'm keeping a running sheet and I'll post the total when I've actually served a customer.

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