Surviving Coronavirus as a street food vendor

Deal in facts only. Do not rely on social media or mainstream media for your information. Too much of what is reported as news/facts is simply opinion. Much of that opinion is agenda driven rather than fact driven. As much as “flash is cash” in our business, “shock keeps us out of hock” in the news business. Every headline must garner more attention than the last. (My opinion – Something is terribly wrong with the reaction to this virus; the computer models are not mathematically sound and are based on too many “if” variables. If you used the EXACT variables to project your sales as these “scientists” are using to project infection rates you would be a millionaire your first year in business and a billionaire the second.)

Use government websites to get official information with programs that could possibly help your business:

• https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/disaster-assistance
• https://www.sba.gov/disaster-assistance/coronavirus-covid-19
• https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus
• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
• https://www.sba.gov/page/guidance-businesses-employers-plan-respond-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19
• https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans
  

Avoid ALL non-government related websites and links that offer “assistance”. In times of uncertainty scam and artists pounce with a vengeance. Grants, loans, free money, tax credits all must come from some part of the government. Anyone offering guarantees to loans for a low-cost processing fee should be avoided. Any program requiring fees upfront is a scam. Fees deducted as a part of the loan AFTER approval and funding while unsavory are at least not scams.

Keep yourself stocked (not over stocked) and as much as possible seek alternative suppliers for panic related stock shortages. Paper towels and bleach are sold at Lowes and Home Depot for instance. Often, they will carry bottled water too. Balance your inventory as much as possible. The easy example is hot dogs to hot dog buns. The old meme about 8 buns in a pack to 10 hot dogs in a pack. The first multiple they have in common is 40. So, you would need 5 packs of buns to 4 packs of hot dogs. Buying 100 packs of meat to freeze it may seem prudent but how long will it take you to sell that much meat and what will you do if buns suddenly are hard to find. Visit stores and areas you don’t normally visit. Rural folks tend to stay better stocked at home than city dwellers, so the stores in their areas may have slightly better stock levels.

Stay on social media for your business. Emphasize what is important to your guests. Increase your posts, stay positive, lighten the mood. Post about:
A.  Sanitation – the entire population has turned into germaphobes. Point out your heath inspection scores, your commitment to sanitation, how small your operation is and how easy to sanitize your ENTIRE operation. Point out no shared items like salt/pepper shakers. Explain your opening and closing sanitation procedures. Point out no crowded dining rooms, no shared bathrooms, small healthy staff.
B.  Curbside pickup – bring their paid online order out to your guests so they can stay in the car or set up a neutral pick up area. Where once they notify you that they are there for an order pick up, you place the order on a table and walk away so they can retrieve the order maintaining social distance.
C.  Delivery – if you can. Delivery is a way to get some business that otherwise you would NEVER get. Delivery is scary BUT can effectively be done by a two-person team. Keep the delivery area small & manageable and publish delivery related information on your social media often during the hours you are open. Just be sure your food carries well.
D. Team up – team up with other food trucks/trailers/carts and offer meals for school kids. This is something many restaurants are attempting with various stipulations. Remember the goal is to reduce public crowds gathering. Some restaurants are requiring dine in only which defeats the whole school closing thing. (My opinion – this program is more of a feel-good advertisement than a survive the crisis program for your business. I also expect push back once the panic dies down and things return to normal. If these families truly rely on schools to feed their children what do they do during, Christmas break, spring break and for the months of summer break? And will these restaurants still provide meals then?)
E.  Encourage local and small business – Posts focus on supporting local small businesses. Explain the benefits to the local economy when folks buy from small business. Brag about using local produce, butchers, bakeries, etc. Remember while a McDonalds or other franchisee may be owned and operated by someone in your community, they are supported by sharing pools of marketing money from OUTSIDE your local community. Major franchised businesses have co-ops for marketing money based on ADI (Area of Dominate Influence) markets. Those franchisees get marketing money NOT based on their own sales but the sales of the entire market. A poor preforming local is propped up marketing paid by the other franchisees. (My opinion – I know many, many {well over 100} franchise owners of Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Shoney’s, Burger King, Schlotzski’s and Quiznos. While they operate locally, they do have access to money and/or support from the franchisor. Which vendors & mom and pops simply do not have. So, while an argument can be made that they are “local”, they do have access to assistance a true local small business does not have.)

Focus on catering and private events.  As with social media point out sanitation, crowd control, ease of ordering and delivery of safe food. Private events such as a business using your services to feed an entire office or production line. The benefit is reducing their staff’s exposure to the general public. Remember every cost a business incurs that can be directly related to the virus may end up being a tax deduction or tax credit. Effectively making the cost of paying you being a wash to the private business.

Sharpen the saw. Keep yourself motivated and be the light for your staff, family and community. No matter the outcome of this virus, whether half the worlds population dies or the virus is cured in April. Life goes on. Humanity survived the plague, Spanish Flu, Swine Flu, SARS, MERS and a bunch of other illnesses. Focus on what you can do. Educate yourself, practice cooking, practice wrapping your sandwiches faster, learn how to do your own accounting, learn how to do your own taxes, take a refresher course on food sanitation. Go on that diet, exercise more, listen to audiobooks, deep clean your equipment, do all that preventative maintenance that gets put off until something breaks. Look for new set up sites to use after this all blows over. Be prepared for changes to guest buying patterns, a flurry of new sanitation laws and new restrictions to how and where vendors operate. Get involved with or closely follow your local government so when new damaging restrictions are proposed you can provide real input and defend your business to the uneducated.

Understand we are all in the same boat. This panic is affecting the entire US. We all are facing the exact same issues. The difference is some people are better prepared than others. Follow other vendors in your area to see what they are doing. Support them and ask them to support you. Sales are going to be very unpredictable and extremely erratic. Prepare for the worst and expect the best.

Don’t give up. This situation will result in some vendors closing or just giving up. That means a possible glut of equipment up for sale as well as a number of newbies buying that equipment and going into business as your competition. These newbies may undercut prices or do other self-defeating procedures that will doom their business. Be ready for changes, whatever they may be.  
Simply put this is not the time to panic. The strong have and always will – survive. Or you can just curl up and suck your thumb hiding behind that fort of toilet paper you bought waiting to be saved by those that are STRONG.

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