Teenager job, Hot Dog Cart?

patz · 06-05-2016, 07:19 AM

My twins want to work w/o a boss. Anyone ever do a Hot Dog push cart? Ups, downs?

id10t · 06-05-2016, 07:37 AM

I know someone who did gourmet popsicles and her biggest issue was dealing with the permits, licensing ,etc.

Gogar · 06-05-2016, 07:41 AM

In Kalifornia, at least, it would teach them about the onerous rules and regulations of government on the smallest of businesses!

Racerbvd · Racerbvd's Garage

https://youtu.be/ZeRwkUJH6V0

Arizona_928 · 06-05-2016, 01:27 PM

Life lesson. Taxed into submission.

KNS · 06-05-2016, 01:56 PM

Many years ago I worked at an office in Chandler, AZ and a guy out in front of the building ran a hot dog cart. He made a killing (busy building). I don't how or if the regs have changed since then.

id10t · 06-05-2016, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KNS

Many years ago I worked at an office in Chandler, AZ and a guy out in front of the building ran a hot dog cart. He made a killing (busy building). I don't how or if the regs have changed since then.

At the very least basic business stuff - business permit for city/county/state, tax number, sales tax number. Then the health and food requirements.

John Rogers · 06-05-2016, 03:06 PM

My youngest daughter's best friend's parents lived in the Eastern section of Tijuana back in the late 90's and early 2000's and there were no fast food places within miles. Her brother opened a hot dog/hamburger cart and also sold sodas. He would open from 6:00PM to 12:00PM Wednesday through Sunday and made enough $$$$$ to buy a new VW Golf (paid in cash), got his own house and eventually had three carts. His biggest issue was with the government also so I guess it is the same on both sides of the border?!

rusnak · 06-05-2016, 03:08 PM

Yeah, after they check into the OC Dept of Health requirements, city license, and then insurance, they'd probably realize that you need a pretty heafty volume to break even. There used to be a book series out called The Portable MBA. The one on entrepreneurship was pretty good.

SoCal911T · 06-05-2016, 04:30 PM

I had a friend who had a cart with his brother but they gave it up in the mid 2000s. As I remember, they had to have a permit from the County of San Diego Health Department and a business license with the City of San Diego. I think the deal breaker was when the Health Department changed the regulations to where the hot dogs couldn't be in an ice chest, they had to be refrigerated. I do know that when they were in their heyday, it came down to location, location, location as to whether they made any money or not.
The stickers on the upper right hand side are business license and health dept inspection IIRC.

Here they are at a BMW event I was co-hosting back around 2005-ish.

vash · vash's Garage

what's wrong with learning to work with a boss? just wondering.

lawn service? dog walking?

patz · 06-05-2016, 05:25 PM

Bosses suck.

vash · vash's Garage

they do...but it is a valuable lesson.

could even teach a person to be a better boss.

look 171 · 06-05-2016, 09:21 PM

I say go for it. Start small and learn from there. They are young enough to start over again if they fail. My father always say to me, " if you fall, pick up the pieces and go and get a job and save enough money then do it again". I think the biggest issue is sharing a percentage with the owner of the building or property owner. My friend's brother-in-law has one of those gourmet coffee cart down town LA servicing the CEOs. $800+ bucks change hands by 1-2pm, daily. This includes tips. The biggest issue again, is profit sharing with the building manager or owner.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by look 171

I say go for it. Start small and learn from there. They are young enough to start over again if they fail. My father always say to me, " if you fall, pick up the pieces and go and get a job and save enough money then do it again". I think the biggest issue is sharing a percentage with the owner of the building or property owner. My friend's brother-in-law has one of those gourmet coffee cart down town LA servicing the CEOs. $800+ bucks change hands by 1-2pm, daily. This includes tips. The biggest issue again, is profit sharing with the building manager or owner.

Yep. Anyone who has never failed has never tried anything.

I remember meeting a south Asian guy in NYC when I lived there 20 years ago who started out w one hot dog cart. It was a classic immigrant story; in time he was making $500 a week and it was the most $$ he'd ever seen in his life, (he was from India I think). Then he fine tuned the business and he was making $1k a week. He wanted more, so he saved and bought another cart, now he was making $2k a week. Then another, then another, etc.

I did some work for him on a building, (don't remember what but I think it was finishes), he owned a house and had a large family, the whole enchilada. It was a classic American Dream story and it really stuck with me. We biotch and moan about taxes and regulations here but at least you can make a buck. Guys like this come from a place where there is no demand side of the equation, (everyone is broke), and think it's the promised land. It was an interesting perspective.

Bill Douglas · 06-05-2016, 09:38 PM

And it will be fun.

Bragging rights for life. "My first job was a ..." Much better than first job was in a grocery store.

Heel n Toe · 11:45 PM

It might be a good idea to have a "Credit or Debit Card Only" payment policy (with a coupla highly visible signs on the cart).

For obvious reasons.

YMMV, but a Subway not far from us did that because they kept getting held up. They had an entrance from the sidewalk out front and one from the parking lot in the rear.

drcoastline · 06-06-2016, 01:47 AM

I had three hot dog carts in NJ when I was in high school. I made great money that's how I bought my 911. A lot has changed since then. I am not sure of the requirements now a days or in California but as other have said it will teach them some basic business skills and how to deal with the system. Another business that high school kids here in NJ do and seem to make good money is fruit trucks and ice cream or water ice bikes.

herr_oberst · 06-06-2016, 04:12 AM

The money is in the banana stand.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Back in the '80s when I lived in the beach in Santa Monica, my buddy's kid would walk the beach w a cooler selling cold soft drinks and bottles of water. Made an absolute fortune, I'm surprised there were not more people doing this. He just worked a short stretch near home and had to run to the car and reload constantly.