Business Proposal Draft

Executive Summary:
We are CO! Our business is an experience, a gas/electric hybrid mobile food truck with healthy, low cost food. Our truck will drive and park around downtown in order to spread our product efficiently. Our food will be Halal, Arabic food. Our initial $25,000 will cover the first quarter of production’s costs, after which we expect to break even. As a whole, we believe our food will satisfy the need of a consumer on a personal level, deeper than the wallet goes. Bringing authentic, cultural cuisine will please both those affiliated and not affiliated to the Middle East. There are limited options available for Halal food, as well as a need for low cost, healthy fast food. Our combined experience in the restaurant industry and with Arabic culture will provide a basis for a competitive business. After our first year of operation, we plan on hiring additional employees and a larger truck.
Business Description:
For our business, will be opening CO, a mobile food experience. Our venture will take place on an electric/gas food truck hybrid. Here, we will provide customers with an alternative approach to eating. We will provide an easily accessible establishment, being in walking distance of highly populated areas including State University’s campus, Key Bank tower and the warehouse district.
Our menu will provide customers with a low calorie dining experience, while still satisfying their hunger. By displaying nutritional facts, our cart will prove to our customers how health conscious we are and present the care we have in the wellbeing of our customer. Alongside nutritional facts, we will proudly display the source of our ingredients. Having an Arabic food option also provides customers with a unique dining option. In order to deliver a culturally enriched meal, our food will be Halal. Halal foods are those permissible by Islamic law. By doing this, we will appeal to the Islamic population. Those who are not Islamic are not affected by our choice. Our food cart will also offer kids portions, in an effort to attract young professionals with families.
Our small business is going to be general partnership. With this, we will all be joining together in operating the business as well as assuming liability for the business’s debts. For our future goals, we are working hard to get the customer needs in our food track, so we can almost get the most important thing in business, which is the customers’ trust.
The locations for our food track are going to be in different locations in downtown. Choosing locations is an important point to work on, so we decided to get the most famous locations in the city that have students and employees, such as universities and companies. Our locations going to be near Key Bank Tower area from 11 AM to 2 PM, State University from 3PM-6PM, and West 6th 12AM-3AM. The mentioned locations are the best locations we found to start our small business because there are not a lot of competitors that might have the same menu we have.
Industry/Market Analysis
Industry Description and Outlook: In the current state of the food truck industry, there is no one company dominating the market. This gives high hopes to entrepreneurs with a passion for mobilizing cuisine. According to IBISWorld, the industry boomed in 2008, with an annual growth rate of 8.4% between 2008-2013. In 2009 alone, the entire industry has seen $1 billion in revenue and employs 35,502 Americans. Over the next four years, the annual growth rate of food truck industry is projected to be just as strong. 2017 is predicted to make $2.7 billion. The rest of the food service industry, during this time, has seen downward trending numbers, as their consumers are spending less on their products. However, the food truck industry has grown, mainly because of the concept. Food trucks typically travel, with a “we bring our business to you” attitude, making consumers feel unburdened when making quick mealtime decisions. Another factor most food trucks share is the highly concentrated menu, characteristically ethnic or gourmet, straying from the street foods of the past. The rarity of food trucks in will play to our advantage, offering customers a unique yet familiar experience. Some of the uncontrollable variables include: weather, consumer’s change in taste, mechanical/technical errors and changes in laws.
Target Market Information: Our target market consists of young professionals and college students. These potential customers are looking for cost effective food close to them. In this case, cost effective means for a low price, it is tasty, healthy and filling. These people are also interested in Arabic food. Another portion of our target market is searching for Halal food. Our target market lives, works, attends school or spends weekend nights in downtown. We estimate about 30,000 people are in this that would be interested in cost effective Arabic food. This includes the 11,693 residents of downtown, according to Demgraphia, 12,038 State University students as reported by US News and the rest of the target market is made up of bar frequenters and young professionals. We intend to offer kids portions by request, half of the size and cost of typical portions, to attract young, working families. State has a Muslim Student Association we plan to reach out to in order to attract those of Muslim backgrounds.
Comparative Analysis:
Our Co. food truck business comparative analysis has indicated three main competitors in the area. Our primary competitor is “Chef Grey Wolf” food truck, which offers the same style of Arabic food, and having a kind of a similar menu. Our food truck has an advantage in offering healthier, lower cost, environmentally friendly electric food truck, which serves kosher “Halal” fast food. Our style of food would be convenient for many State University students, staff and faculty. Many company businessmen in the area will also be pleased with the style of ordering from a food truck. We also hope to attract many of the Muslim population who favor “halal” food, and the environmentalists who prefer to get their food from a truck that would not harm the environment. We would also have an advantage of providing an informative website page that includes our location at every time, with an updated schedule of our location through social media.
Our secondary competitor would be “Subway”. The well-known restaurant has been on campus for a very long time, has a worldwide presence, and offers cheap, fast, healthy food. But our truck will still have an advantage, and the main reason is because of the quality of the ingredients we will provide, and unique taste of our menu, which includes the “Halal” food that we’re going to provide from local stores in the area, whereas subway’s food has been questioned for their sources, and may not be locally originated according to their site.
Our third spotted competition we saw it to be is Panini’s, which from our comparative analysis, was categorized as the late night food competitor for West 6th street’s frequenters. Our advantage would include the healthier, kosher “Halal”, different and better taste than Panini’s, and lower prices. Which will serve and attract even more than the demographics of Panini’s customers.
Marketing Strategy:
Promotion, Distribution, Products: Our marketing will begin before our truck even opens. Through printing services, we will create and print 100 flyers to distribute around local establishments, including apartment buildings, CSU campus and business building lobbies. These flyers will be a colorful presentation of our business name, brief menu overview, website and telephone number. Along with critical information, if customers spot our flyer, they are to take a picture of it and present it to our truck on opening day. In doing this, they will receive a buy one get one free meal. This will encourage potential customers to try our truck. Our truck will be located by our target market- young professionals, CSU students and faculty and late night West 6th eaters.
With technology advances, we are confident in the marketing strategies we have prepared for our food truck. While open, we will utilize the free marketing provided by Twitter and Facebook pages. These sites will link us to our customer directly, updating them on our daily specials, current location, cooking tips and exclusive discounts. The Twitter page, by our estimation, will be the most exciting way for our customers to quickly locate our vehicle. We intend to update consistently, and take advantage of hashtags. According to the social media’s help page, a hashtag is “the # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.“ The use of a hashtag in a tweet unites many users into one conversation. The latter two are already popular tags, creating a free form of identification.
Our website will have an area to fill out contact information to enroll in our loyalty program. Employees (owners, for the time being) will be coached on how to direct and encourage customers to sign up. Each visit will count as a “point”; once a customer reaches fifteen points, they will receive a free meal. This loyalty program will be key in generating repeat clientele. Another way to encourage repeated visits is through utilizing our receipts. The bottom of the receipt will have a “bounce back” promotion; bringing in the proof of purchase before 5PM the next day will result in a free drink with their entrée.
By collecting customer email addresses, we will be able to send out email updates (summaries of social media activity), contest information and surveys. We believe surveying our customers is an important way to build our customers’ trust. CO wants the downtown area to know how much we truly care about our customer; we know that words do not mean as much as action. Twice a year, we will hold charity fundraisers. Before these days, we will actively advertise and inform potential customers of our plan. During these days, we will donate 10% of the day’s profit to charity. We estimate our total marketing strategy to cost $150/year because of the utilization of free social medias, cost of printing flyers and website maintenance.
Pricing: We have been able to track down quality and low cost wholesalers, including US Halal Food’s website. Because of this, we are able to cheaply produce our menu items. One of our cheapest item to produce, hummus, will have the highest mark up, in order to ensure a profit made. Our prices are set both competitively and in an attempt for us to break-even. The first year of our business is goaled to break even, ranging between at and below market prices. In an effort to maintain health concerns, our healthier sandwich option (salad) is priced cheaper than the pita sandwich. This is the same reason why our water bottles are being sold for half the price of pop.

Menu Item | Cost to Produce Per One Serving (rounded to the nearest $0.01) | Menu Cost Per One Serving | Hummus | $0.23 | $2.50 | Tabbouleh | $1.07 | $2.00 | Chicken Shawarma Pita Sandwich | $2.47 | $5.00 | Chicken Shawarma Salad | $2.21 | $4.50 | Beef Shawarma Pita Sandwich | $3.00 | $6.00 | Beef Shawarma Salad | $2.75 | $5.50 | Falafel (comes with 3) | $0.10 | $1.50 | Seasoned French Fries | $0.58 | $1.25 |

Drink Item | Cost to Purchase Per One Unit | Menu Cost Per One Unit | Coke Products- 16 oz. bottles | $0.76 | $1.25 | Water- 16 oz. bottles | $0.23 | $0.75 |

Human Resource Requirement:
For the time being, our start up aims to be as cost efficient as possible. In order to do so, the seven owners will be the employees. There will be two working each shift, switching out each shift. On weekends, there will be three of us working each shift. Eventually, we plan on having employees of our target market- young professionals/college students. Required skills include basic arithmetic abilities and interpersonal skills. Education level would be high school diploma or GED. After the first six months, we plan on taking a salary of $10,000 per month, divided evenly between the seven of us. If we encounter slow months, we are ok with taking less. After the first year is over, we will most likely increase our salaries. We are dedicated to making this business succeed so if that means taking less of a salary at first, then we are ready for that sacrifice.
Operational Issues:
Our foods will be made on the truck. The truck we are purchasing is equipped with a fryer, refrigerator, freezer, grill and sink. This will allow for preparation and storage to be on board. The locations we chose are where our target market spends the most of their time: work, school, and evening fun. Our permits will last us for two years. We are already in possession of most of the hard/software used for marketing our product. Our point of sale system will be based on an iPad, to be able to take and print out orders from the vicinity of the truck.
Financial Projections:
By our calculations, we can serve a customer from start to finish in five minutes. With three-hour meal durations, three times a day, we project to be able to smoothly serve eighty-six customers per weekday. Our estimation is to sell on average $7.50 in product per customer, achieving $645 per weekday. Our weekend shifts will have one more worker per shift, serving 144 customers. Because of the increase of late night crowds, we anticipate earning $8.50, bringing in $1,224 on Friday and Saturday nights. Our weekly projection is $5,673 in revenue, totaling $272,304. We anticipate spending about $700 per week on meal supplies and $150 per week on gas. Our annual insurance cost comes out to $1,718. Two years of permits cost $249. Our first twelve months will cost us $36,000 in meal supplies, $200 for an iPad POS system, $2,000 for a small electric/gas truck, $7,800 in gas and maintenance, $1,718 for insurance and about $125 for permits. Our total annual cost will come out to $47,843. We anticipate breaking even rather quickly, midway through our third month, as our business is run in such a cost efficient manner.

Works Cited
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