What lenders look for in a food truck plan
Lenders and SBA resource partners read a lot of plans. The ones that hold up have a few things in common:
- Quotes, not guesses. Startup costs come from written quotes, with copies in the appendix.
- Sales built from the ground up. Customers per service, average ticket and services per week, with slow months included.
- A cash reserve. Enough to cover fixed costs and the loan payment while sales build.
- Permits handled. Who issues each one, what it costs, and where you are in the process.
- Experience shown plainly. Your time on a line, in catering, or running a business.
The SBA's guide to writing a business plan covers the general format, and SCORE offers free mentoring and plan reviews.
How to forecast food truck sales
Start with one service. Estimate how many people you'll serve, multiply by your average ticket, then by services per week. Adjust each month for weather and the event calendar where you are. Then check it the other way: how many covers per service do you need to pay your costs, loan and your own wage? If that number looks hard to hit, change the plan before you buy the truck.
The startup cost calculator gives you the opening budget, and the menu pricing calculator gives you food cost per plate. Both feed straight into the financial plan.
Plans for coffee trucks and carts
A coffee concept changes the menu, equipment and sales sections: sales depend on drinks per hour, and the espresso machine sets the power and water budget. See the coffee truck business plan guide for what to adjust, with a drinks-per-hour sales calculator.
Write the executive summary last
It's the first page a reader sees, but you can't write it until the numbers are done. Keep it to one page: what you'll sell, where, to whom, what you need, and how the money gets paid back.