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Food Truck Business Plan Example: A Taco Truck With Real Numbers
This food truck business plan example is a real taco-truck plan: startup costs, menu, cost cards, P&L, break-even and payback. The FoodTechGuru app generated it as a live Google Sheet from the truck's own costed recipes. Every number on this page comes from that sheet.
Rio Taco Truck is a demo business we built to film our tutorials. Its supplier list uses public wholesale prices, set for Austin, Texas.
The plan at a glance
The truck trades 6 days a week and sells about 163 portions a day at an average $5.73: $24,280 a month.
| Per month | $ | % of sales |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 24,280 | 100% |
| Ingredients (from the cost cards) | 6,915 | 28.5% |
| Packaging | 633 | 2.6% |
| Labour, crew of 3 | 9,383 | 38.6% |
| Fixed costs | 4,000 | 16.5% |
| Net profit | 3,349 | 13.8% |
Break-even is $19,420 a month, or 131 portions a day, a 20% margin of safety. The crew is the owner (45 hours a week at $18), a cook (40 at $17) and one server (30 at $16), plus 10% employer costs. Fixed costs: $2,000 pitch fees and permits, $1,000 utilities and fuel, $400 insurance, $300 marketing, $150 POS and $150 repairs.
Startup costs
The truck is $50,000. Cooking, refrigeration, fit-out, a generator, POS and smallwares add $17,650. A 10% contingency ($6,765) brings the total to $74,415.
Opening stock and working capital are zero here. Fill them in for yours; the cash flow shows why.
Menu, cost cards and food cost
Ten dishes, each with its own cost card. Carne asada tacos sell for $8 with $2.63 of ingredients (32.9%) and lead sales at 720 a month. The menu engineering tab grades every dish: five Stars, four Plowhorses and one Dog, the guacamole and chips.
The first 12 months of cash
Sales ramp from $13,354 in month 1 to full volume in month 7. The truck first turns a profit in month 6, but the cash balance bottoms out at −$87,342 in month 5. With no funding entered, that is the money you need before you open: more than the $74,415 investment.
Your truck, your numbers
Make your own plan in the app
Answer six questions in FoodTechGuru: format, crew, menu and prices, monthly costs, equipment, and the plan. The app pulls food costs from your own cost cards and builds the same seven-tab Google Sheet in about a minute, for a food truck, café, restaurant, bakery, ghost kitchen or catering.
- Free download; new accounts get 15 credits for cost cards
- A business plan uses 50 credits and comes with a paid Pro or Guru plan
- iPhone today, Android coming
Food truck business plan FAQ
Is this a real food truck business plan?
It is a real plan the FoodTechGuru app generated, for Rio Taco Truck, a demo taco truck we built to film our tutorials. Its supplier list uses public wholesale prices, set for Austin, Texas.
How much does it cost to start a food truck?
In this example, $74,415: $50,000 for the truck, $17,650 for equipment and fit-out, and a $6,765 contingency. You also need cash for the first months: here the balance bottoms out at −$87,342 in month 5.
How much does a taco truck make?
At full volume this plan shows $24,280 in sales and $3,349 net profit a month, a 13.8% margin. Your numbers depend on your prices, volume, crew and pitch fees.
Can I copy this business plan?
You can view every tab, read-only with the formulas hidden. For your own editable plan, generate it in the app.
Is the business plan generator free?
The app is a free download and new accounts get 15 credits for cost cards. A business plan uses 50 credits and comes with a paid Pro or Guru plan.
Plan your truck from your own recipes
Cost the menu, then let the app build the plan around it.
Download free on iOS