Taking it on the Road… Are you in danger of losing your restaurant or closing down for the winter? Starting a Food Truck may be your way to survive.

Many restaurants and food service providers have been using outdoor seating to continue their

business through the pandemic. They are also no doubt stressed about the upcoming winter and

not having enough space inside to keep things running whether they are in warm climates or cold.

If this sounds like what you’re facing, think about “taking it on the road” and making your

business a mobile one.  Here are a bunch of reasons why:

• Low startup costs. Opening a high end restaurant can have you looking at a startup costs of

          $500k or more. A food truck can cost as little as $50k.

• Facilities Costs. If you are keeping your existing restaurant’s kitchen open, then you have

          no worries regarding food prep, storage and cooking. However, if you need a kitchen, there

          are a growing number of cloud kitchens to choose from (insert link to cloud kitchen article)
          and also probably some restaurants in your area who would be happy to make a buck letting
          you use their kitchen at off-hours.

• No Dining related costs. There’s no dining room to heat, light and clean.  Instead, you only

          pay for parking permits, if needed. 

• Reduction in staff costs and headaches.  Managing people’s schedules, performance,

          training, and personal issues is time consuming. “Taking it on the road” means a much
          smaller staff, fewer headaches, less of your time, and lower costs.

• Build a catering business. Mobile food trucks will give you the opportunity to go to where

          the food is needed, and it also provides an opportunity to cater.

• Quality of life. Imagine getting out in the fresh air as part of your work. A food truck

          business gives you the flexibility of working in a variety of locations, and when you want.

During the summer of 2020 the city of Boston, MA started a food truck initiative to launch a

temporary site for food trucks to come and cater their food to the public. If cities can come

together and secure a site for food trucks to operate during the winter months then the idea

of going out to eat can be saved! 

Another example of this comes from Burlington, VT where every Friday food trucks gather

together at a site called “ArtsRiot”. An event is hosted called “Food Truck Friday” which

brings together many people around Burlington to try out food they have never had before.

This is unique because food trucks from all over Vermont come to one spot where people come

and enjoy new food while helping restaurant owners stay in business.

Food trucks can be fairly similar to a business named “CloudKitchens” which is a food service

business that prepares food in a kitchen that can be ordered and delivered to customers where

there is hardly any direct contact with workers. Food trucks can do something along those lines

as well! A food truck can offer a delivery service that makes and prepares food orders in the

truck then delivers the order to customers with their mobile food truck. This is different from

“CloudKitchens” because there is no need for a place to be rented out to use the kitchen, rather

they can do all the food preparation in the truck and on the move where they can get food out

to their customers safely and efficiently. 

If you’re looking to start a food truck now, click here to learn about the National Food Truck

Association (NFTA) COVID-19 assistance program. 

Finally, to make facilities management even easier in your mobile food truck, download

TableBoost’s free restaurant equipment repair and maintenance app that will help you

organize and maintain your equipment and systems. TableBoost will help ensure that

your business’ equipment works properly wherever you may be, so you can keep taking your

business on the road.

Click here to return to TableBoost.com

TableBoost Helps Foodservice Businesses Prevent 4 Crazy Mistakes

Last week, Foodservice Equipment & Supplies magazine published the top four mistakes that drive

service providers crazy. Here’s how using TableBoost can help you avoid making them.

Mistake # 1: Not Thinking Through Installation Early Enough

Installations, start ups and performance checks should all be planned ahead of time with your service providers.

TableBoost schedules these services, provides all equipment related details and creates a permanent record for each

piece of equipment. This saves service providers time, which saves you money, and ensures it is done correctly.

Mistake # 2: Thinking the Warranty Is a Fix-All

With TableBoost storing equipment details, warranty info and the service records for all equipment, it’s easy to

determine what’s covered under a warranty. Also, TableBoost’s recurring maintenance scheduler and record keeping

will avoid having your warranty voided. 

Mistake # 3: Equipment Misuse

One of the biggest misuses of equipment is lack of maintenance.  Pre-schedule all preventive maintenance with

TableBoost which will avoid expensive repairs and ensure that your equipment lasts longer. TableBoost customers

save up to $15K annually in equipment costs.

Mistake # 4: Poor Cleaning

Proper cleaning of commercial kitchen equipment will avoid fires (24,000 fires in US restaurants each year) and

prolong the life of the equipment.  Schedule all regular cleaning thru TableBoost and never fail an inspection again.

These are just a few ways that TableBoost’s FREE app can help you avoid making costly mistakes.  

Click here to read more about the “4 Mistakes that Drive Service Agents Crazy” from Foodservice Equipment & Supplies.

Click here to return to TableBoost.com

15 Minutes For $15K

Investing just 15 minutes could save you $15K (or more) every year. No hidden costs. No commitment. No catch. Just 15 minutes.

So why do so many restaurant owners and managers say "I don't have the time?”  Given the increase in costs

to do business right now, you’d think that saving $15K per year using a free app would be appealing!

Benjamin Franklin called it penny wise, pound foolish.  Others say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Some

just don't like change. Some are hesitant to use a new app.

It’s the same reason people say “I don’t have the time” to most salespeople; it’s a reflex response. They’re

anticipating that our app is going to cost them something or have some catch, or take too much of their attention

to master.

But TableBoost is new and different and simple to use. There are no catches.  Utilizing the latest web technology,

TableBoost is able to automate the equipment management process for repairs, maintenance and purchases for

food service businesses. Prevent equipment failure now so you won’t have to overpay or lose

revenue in the future.  AND businesses can continue to use their existing service providers via the TableBoost app;

or find new ones.

And it doesn't take any more than 15 minutes to learn how to use. In fact, here’s the tutorial video https://www.loom.com/share/83ccfb2bb02c4dd0b136f301e1d32cc3

Help yourself. Try TableBoost. Don’t you have 15 minutes to save $15K?

                                                                

Click here to return to TableBoost.com

”We’ve always done it that way.”

This way of thinking is dooming many restaurants to fail, especially during COVID!

"We've always done it that way" is the most damaging phrase in the language according to Grace Murray Hopper,  United States Navy Rear Admiral and pioneering American computer scientist. But did you really need her to tell you that? It implies that you haven't questioned that practice in a while. You haven't thought..."hmm, is there a better way to do this?"

While restaurants are embracing new technology for online ordering and marketing, they haven't changed the process for managing their equipment (requesting repairs, scheduling recurring maintenance, purchasing equipment) in forever.  So it is no wonder that most of them are spending way too much on equipment.  Most are still calling service providers and suppliers on the phone, playing voicemail tag, receiving invoices via the mail ... and have no idea how to reduce their costs.  

And because turnover is high at restaurants, it’s very common to have a manager on duty who has no knowledge of who to call to get a piece of equipment repaired or serviced, whether they have a service contract, how much they should be paying, is it under warranty?

Snap out of it! Welcome to the 21st century. There's an app for that called TableBoost.  And it’s FREE.

Sign up today and start saying "We've got a better way with TableBoost!”

Still resistant to change?  Check out change.org and watch change in action.

Click here to return to TableBoost.com