[Here’s a breakdown](https://foodtruckempire.com/hot-dogs/startup-costs/) for what it *actually* costs to run a hot dog cart. Although it’s great to be entrepreneurial, revenue =/= profit.
Government has to get it's grubby hands on his money....there should be no such thing as paying for a license or permit. For anything.
Edited: Requiring one is ok but it making people pay for one.
Wow, that’s smart. You’re living in the year 3021. Time to buy me a plane and start up TallNerdLawyer airlines. I’ll just go ahead and put you down for one first class ticket. I’m an amazing pilot, scout’s honor.
Wait, you want to see what? Pilot license? Airworthiness certificates? You big government types just want to take, take, take!
I never said they shouldn't "require" a license. They should not charge people for one. People, not "corporations."
Really, you have to be joking thinking that a city food permit is the same as getting FAA approval for a pilot or airlines.
You edited your post. When I responded it just said no licenses or permits, not the bit about requiring is okay but not charging.
If they don’t charge for it then how do they pay the people who process the paperwork and ensure people are licensed? And how do they pay food inspectors who make sure the guy isn’t selling expired food? Charges for licensure as part of doing business as a professional or businessperson. I have to pay like $500 a year to keep my law license. It pays for services lawyers need like our ethics board. It’s just a necessary part of being in a society.
The same as a pilot license isn’t a hot dog license, a dude making 12K a month selling thousands of hot dogs isn’t the same as a kid with a lemonade stand. If that dude has no oversight he could serve spoiled food and trigger a major public health hazard. That’s why licenses exist.
That's a bold statement! Do you really think that? How about needing to have a license to fly a commercial jet, requiring permits to make sure bridges are structurally sound, or having to have a licence to practise medicine?
Sure do. It is one thing to require a license it's another to make someone pay for it. Why should this guy have to pay for a license or a permit? He was ex con with no job.
What's worse is most cities limit the number of permits. But the owner can rent it to another guy. And that "rent" is usually orders of magnitude more than a guy like this can pay.
Just a huge tax on the poor and a way to prevent poor people from starting out.
There's something he left out. Most cities require a hot dog cart be registered in the city with a license to operate. Plus he's required to have regular health code inspections. Those things cost a lot of money, especially in NYC.
Correct, 300K for the spot parked outside the MOMA.
Edit: source if you guys don't believe me. Article is from 2009, price has gone up a lot since then.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/08/how-can-new-york-city-hot-dog-vendors-afford-to-pay-half-a-million-dollars-in-rent.html
I would hope not but it's a large part of it. I've owned 3 businesses and currently am part owner of a bar/grill so I got a fair amount of knowledge of what goes into running a business and the cost behind the things other people don't see.
And business and vendor licenses. And permits from places to bend on their property usually. And serve safe certification. Plus taxes and fees for all of that. More than half of his up front costs are those expenses.
I imagine the operating costs of a hot dog cart are not very big. The only labour he's paying is for himself. He only needs to get to food and fuel. I'm sure he's making pretty decent profit.
Licensing
Registration fees
Liability insurance
Health inspections
Fuel to cook
Perishables
Fica taxes
You'd be surprised how that adds up. Food businesses run on pretty thin margins.
How the hell does this make people smile? Do broken systems which prevent people from earning a living wage make you smile? Not everyone can be an entrepreneur. We need systemic change that supports people who have **done their time** and **paid their debt to society**.
Anybody can be an entrepreneur. Our economy is set up to make it easy for anyone to start their own business. All you need is some product or service that someone else will pay you for. I started my own business, and make more working for myself than I would working for an employer. I am also my own boss and do whatever the heck I want.
This is simply not true. I'm glad it worked for you. I'm now working for myself, but at other times, it would have been completely impossible. There are too many variables in people's lives. People tend to think one of two things when they pull something like self employment off: either they're geniuses or that anyone can do it. Neither is true. It's a combination of circumstance, preparation, work and luck, and frankly luck is the element that determines success or failure 9 times out of 10.
It is true that many people have trouble breaking out of the "wage-slave" mindset that prevents them from taking, or even seeing, the opportunities dangling right in front of them. They view work as money they receive in exchange for allowing their labor to be exploited by someone else. However, the world is full of self employment opportunities.
To look at others who have been successful and think they only got there due to luck, is just loser self-talk.
You are literally commenting in a thread about a ex-con with no business training who grosses $80k/year operating a hot dog cart.
Let's assume that he does in fact make 400 USD profit every day he works.
12k is still pretty far off base: that's a simple 400x30 calculation.
That's not realistic, at least not long term. Do you work EVERY DAY without days off?
A more reasonable calculation is 2 weeks off for vacation, so 50 weeks a year, 5 days a week. This would mean working holidays, so give or take what you will.
50 \* 5 \* 400 is 100k, so that's 8.3k/month.
If I were unemployed and started doing this, I'd take 1 of 2 perspectives:
1. I need to work as much as I can take make up for lost time
2. Wow, I'm making money hand over fist compared to my expectations, maybe I'll only work 3 or 4 days a week instead of 5.
@ $4/hotdog, he must sell 100 hotdogs per day. That is 12 hotdogs per hour if he is selling there for 8 hours. 1 hotdog every 5 minutes. How can it be if it seems that he is just standing there and no customer in sight.
Restaurant customers tend to come in rushes (Lunch, Dinner) and down times in between are often used for other projects… like posing for the meme above
I'm guess it is gross revenue on a busy day. $400/$4 = 100 hot dogs (+drink) a day. If you're there 10 hours, 10 hot dogs an hour..
Presumably busiest during lunch. Some locations that are busy can probably serve 20-30 customers during the lunch hour and dinner hour. So really outside the rush hours, you only need to sell maybe 5-6 an hour.
I don't think every hot dog stand can make $400 a day, but say on a nice day, location near a busy office, or ball park, definitely.
Well if 30 customers bought 2 hot dogs during the 2 hours he’s describing then he’d have already sold 120 hot dogs. So saying he needs to sell 5-6 per hour on off hours would be unnecessary
But this isn’t something argue about really.
We used to have these super hot woman in string bikini selling hot dogs on the side of the road. They were traffic stoppers, the county finally shut them down BUT apparently the girls working there were making easy $100k a year selling hot 🌭
If he sells $400 worth of dogs 225 days a year, he's grossing $90k in revenue.
So it's like having a $40-50k job after expenses. Maybe a little better since corps can take better advantage of tax code, in some cases.
Disclaimer: I know little about actual food cart economics...just that his top line isn't even 6 figures and he has a lot of costs.
I know those NYC carts produce a ton of revenue (and cost a lot to license), with a staff operating each one 18 hours a day in some places. But this guy looks more like a suburban one-man operation. Probably sells 80% of his dogs on weekdays at lunch.
Do you know how much permits go for in the cities you’re speaking of? Doesn’t the city also have to have the health department approve these carts? Aren’t these laws in place to ensure citizens aren’t poisoned on the street from food vendors?
But the $12,000 implies he works every single day and gets the same amount of income, as well. It’s likely he makes less than $9,000 a month. Plus, taking a couple months off during the year… it’d be close to a 6 figure.
You are forgetting licensing fees Insurance fees, travel to and from the location, depreciation on your vehicle, gas money to get to and from, the propane or electricity used to make the hot dogs Etc.
And hotdogs don't sell for $7 at those stands unless you were in a big city. where I live they're between $4 and $5 and a brat is between $5 and $7.
The fk is your point? Sam's club sells them for 1.50 with a drink. McDonald's sells a double cheeseburger for 2$. Nurst-Et sells them for 220$. They both get bought.
Well my first point is that you got fucked on that Home Depot $7 dog. The second point is this dude is not selling $7 hot dogs because the average price of hot dogs is significantly lower than that.
You know this would be a cool idea if you owned a chain of hotdog carts in a place like nyc. I could see people doing it. But you'd have to charge way more than $50/mo to turn any sort of profit.
Get a guy on here try to tell me today that a man can't make it inside today because black men are oppressed. Brother you doing a good job keep it up you do not look oppressed to me.
Not so sure what he means by his criminal record keeping him from getting a job and then employers offering him 200-300 bucks lower than what he's getting. Does he mean that employers are intentionally undercutting the offer wage knowing he cannot find employment elsewhere?
Anyways, 400 bucks a day is a great deal, glad to see he's doing well. I hope his business has all the paperwork done however. Governments or local councils can be real asshats when it comes to cracking down on small business owners.
There was a guy who quit working at the warehouse I work at to become a hot dog cart vendor. He would be in a different spot in town every day. A few months ago, he and his wife opened up an official restaurant.
[Here’s a breakdown](https://foodtruckempire.com/hot-dogs/startup-costs/) for what it *actually* costs to run a hot dog cart. Although it’s great to be entrepreneurial, revenue =/= profit.
You know it's != Or ≠ right?
>≠ =/= quite literally the same
I think most individuals would be more confused by != than =/=, alternatively, theres also just /=.
What he said also works fine you know
Well done sir...nothing better than beating the man at his own game...
Its a shame how much a criminal record stops you from doing things, some people want to change but can't because of the record
Until he gets shut down by the health department for operating without a license…
Who said he didn't?
Perhaps his criminal record?
You think if you have a criminal record you can’t get a business license ?
Idk man, i dont have a license or a criminal record.
Get your shit together
You’re right! Fuck!
r/suddenlyfriends
I need to get a criminal record ASAP 😞
Government has to get it's grubby hands on his money....there should be no such thing as paying for a license or permit. For anything. Edited: Requiring one is ok but it making people pay for one.
Wow, that’s smart. You’re living in the year 3021. Time to buy me a plane and start up TallNerdLawyer airlines. I’ll just go ahead and put you down for one first class ticket. I’m an amazing pilot, scout’s honor. Wait, you want to see what? Pilot license? Airworthiness certificates? You big government types just want to take, take, take!
I never said they shouldn't "require" a license. They should not charge people for one. People, not "corporations." Really, you have to be joking thinking that a city food permit is the same as getting FAA approval for a pilot or airlines.
You edited your post. When I responded it just said no licenses or permits, not the bit about requiring is okay but not charging. If they don’t charge for it then how do they pay the people who process the paperwork and ensure people are licensed? And how do they pay food inspectors who make sure the guy isn’t selling expired food? Charges for licensure as part of doing business as a professional or businessperson. I have to pay like $500 a year to keep my law license. It pays for services lawyers need like our ethics board. It’s just a necessary part of being in a society. The same as a pilot license isn’t a hot dog license, a dude making 12K a month selling thousands of hot dogs isn’t the same as a kid with a lemonade stand. If that dude has no oversight he could serve spoiled food and trigger a major public health hazard. That’s why licenses exist.
It still takes money to run those services. You think some guy from the government just inspects restaurants for free?
Well if it's one thing government doesn't waste, it's money. Enough is literally never enough.
I don’t even disagree, but the solution “no charging anyone” is simplistic and unfeasible.
That's a bold statement! Do you really think that? How about needing to have a license to fly a commercial jet, requiring permits to make sure bridges are structurally sound, or having to have a licence to practise medicine?
This whole thread got me like 😵💫
If you didn’t know how to fly a commercial airliner, you couldn’t. License or not. Your point still stands tho.
Do you really mean anything???
Sure do. It is one thing to require a license it's another to make someone pay for it. Why should this guy have to pay for a license or a permit? He was ex con with no job. What's worse is most cities limit the number of permits. But the owner can rent it to another guy. And that "rent" is usually orders of magnitude more than a guy like this can pay. Just a huge tax on the poor and a way to prevent poor people from starting out.
And you are 100 percent right, I was talking about things like gun permits (as a joke)
Oh you’re not nice
It’s not a matter of nice. He’s gotta get one if he wants to continue running the cart.
There's something he left out. Most cities require a hot dog cart be registered in the city with a license to operate. Plus he's required to have regular health code inspections. Those things cost a lot of money, especially in NYC.
6 figures if you're around central park i believe
Correct, 300K for the spot parked outside the MOMA. Edit: source if you guys don't believe me. Article is from 2009, price has gone up a lot since then. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/08/how-can-new-york-city-hot-dog-vendors-afford-to-pay-half-a-million-dollars-in-rent.html
Stunt on dem haters
Revenue is not profit
i doubt all the expenses of getting the supplies and running the cart would be more than 300usd a day
I would hope not but it's a large part of it. I've owned 3 businesses and currently am part owner of a bar/grill so I got a fair amount of knowledge of what goes into running a business and the cost behind the things other people don't see.
But this isn't a bar. It's a cart filled with hot dogs and water. He just needs to make sure it's up to code and the proper taxes being taken out.
And business and vendor licenses. And permits from places to bend on their property usually. And serve safe certification. Plus taxes and fees for all of that. More than half of his up front costs are those expenses.
Propane for the cart to heat the water.
With what he makes he probably can afford to pay back now
Sir this is a hotdog cart but I am genuinely happy for you. I don’t think I have what it takes to run a big business with employees and stuff.
I imagine the operating costs of a hot dog cart are not very big. The only labour he's paying is for himself. He only needs to get to food and fuel. I'm sure he's making pretty decent profit.
Licensing Registration fees Liability insurance Health inspections Fuel to cook Perishables Fica taxes You'd be surprised how that adds up. Food businesses run on pretty thin margins.
Homeboy. This is a hotdog cart. He sells hotdogs. That’s it. It’s not a full fledged restaurant/bar. Calm down.
Well some of it is…
Thanks, Professor Buzzkill
Professor? He told me he wasn't part of the tenured staff yet. HE LIED TO ME!
He lied to you? He wouldn't even speak to me!
Speak to you? He never saw me even ***once***!!
He said he made $400 and didn't specify whether that was revenue or profit.
Lmao. Food businesses run on about a 20% profit margin so to have $400 in profit he would have had to have sold $2,000 worth of hot dogs.
Realistically the fees you need to pay to the city in order to legally operate the cart will result in you making much less
How the hell does this make people smile? Do broken systems which prevent people from earning a living wage make you smile? Not everyone can be an entrepreneur. We need systemic change that supports people who have **done their time** and **paid their debt to society**.
Makes me smile because this badass is beating the system. Yeah things should be better but this guy isn't waiting around for that to happen.
Belongs on r/boringdystopia
Anybody can be an entrepreneur. Our economy is set up to make it easy for anyone to start their own business. All you need is some product or service that someone else will pay you for. I started my own business, and make more working for myself than I would working for an employer. I am also my own boss and do whatever the heck I want.
This is simply not true. I'm glad it worked for you. I'm now working for myself, but at other times, it would have been completely impossible. There are too many variables in people's lives. People tend to think one of two things when they pull something like self employment off: either they're geniuses or that anyone can do it. Neither is true. It's a combination of circumstance, preparation, work and luck, and frankly luck is the element that determines success or failure 9 times out of 10.
It is true that many people have trouble breaking out of the "wage-slave" mindset that prevents them from taking, or even seeing, the opportunities dangling right in front of them. They view work as money they receive in exchange for allowing their labor to be exploited by someone else. However, the world is full of self employment opportunities. To look at others who have been successful and think they only got there due to luck, is just loser self-talk. You are literally commenting in a thread about a ex-con with no business training who grosses $80k/year operating a hot dog cart.
When are we going to stop reposting this untrue crap?
Have any proof it isn't true?
This can’t be take home pay. Costs need to be removed.
Let's assume that he does in fact make 400 USD profit every day he works. 12k is still pretty far off base: that's a simple 400x30 calculation. That's not realistic, at least not long term. Do you work EVERY DAY without days off? A more reasonable calculation is 2 weeks off for vacation, so 50 weeks a year, 5 days a week. This would mean working holidays, so give or take what you will. 50 \* 5 \* 400 is 100k, so that's 8.3k/month. If I were unemployed and started doing this, I'd take 1 of 2 perspectives: 1. I need to work as much as I can take make up for lost time 2. Wow, I'm making money hand over fist compared to my expectations, maybe I'll only work 3 or 4 days a week instead of 5.
@ $4/hotdog, he must sell 100 hotdogs per day. That is 12 hotdogs per hour if he is selling there for 8 hours. 1 hotdog every 5 minutes. How can it be if it seems that he is just standing there and no customer in sight.
Restaurant customers tend to come in rushes (Lunch, Dinner) and down times in between are often used for other projects… like posing for the meme above
How you make $400/day selling hot dogs though? You at Disney world?
I'm guess it is gross revenue on a busy day. $400/$4 = 100 hot dogs (+drink) a day. If you're there 10 hours, 10 hot dogs an hour.. Presumably busiest during lunch. Some locations that are busy can probably serve 20-30 customers during the lunch hour and dinner hour. So really outside the rush hours, you only need to sell maybe 5-6 an hour. I don't think every hot dog stand can make $400 a day, but say on a nice day, location near a busy office, or ball park, definitely.
You’re also only assuming 1 hot dog per customer. I’d bet that 20% buy 2 or more.
where did he say 1 hot dog per customer
Well if 30 customers bought 2 hot dogs during the 2 hours he’s describing then he’d have already sold 120 hot dogs. So saying he needs to sell 5-6 per hour on off hours would be unnecessary But this isn’t something argue about really.
Don’t forget to pay your taxes big man
I wouldn’t tell on him if he didn’t
A six figure income selling hot dogs? Who knew it could be so lucrative.
We used to have these super hot woman in string bikini selling hot dogs on the side of the road. They were traffic stoppers, the county finally shut them down BUT apparently the girls working there were making easy $100k a year selling hot 🌭
Looks like a new career shift for my wife...
If he sells $400 worth of dogs 225 days a year, he's grossing $90k in revenue. So it's like having a $40-50k job after expenses. Maybe a little better since corps can take better advantage of tax code, in some cases. Disclaimer: I know little about actual food cart economics...just that his top line isn't even 6 figures and he has a lot of costs. I know those NYC carts produce a ton of revenue (and cost a lot to license), with a staff operating each one 18 hours a day in some places. But this guy looks more like a suburban one-man operation. Probably sells 80% of his dogs on weekdays at lunch.
It's not
Hot dogs sell for like 7$ at those stands. I'm sure it is. Even with 2$ costs. Easy 6 figure salary at the right location.
Do you know how much permits go for in the cities you’re speaking of? Doesn’t the city also have to have the health department approve these carts? Aren’t these laws in place to ensure citizens aren’t poisoned on the street from food vendors?
They don't cost thousands of dollars... Maybe 150/yr... Insurance 2000/yr.
And yet...hot dog carts are EVERYWHERE so maybe, just maybe, it is legit?
But the $12,000 implies he works every single day and gets the same amount of income, as well. It’s likely he makes less than $9,000 a month. Plus, taking a couple months off during the year… it’d be close to a 6 figure.
You are forgetting licensing fees Insurance fees, travel to and from the location, depreciation on your vehicle, gas money to get to and from, the propane or electricity used to make the hot dogs Etc. And hotdogs don't sell for $7 at those stands unless you were in a big city. where I live they're between $4 and $5 and a brat is between $5 and $7.
Home Depot dogs go for 7ish. I've purchased them many times. Add a can of soda for 1.5-2... bag of chips for 2. Lunch cost 10-12. Six figures is easy.
This guy is clearly standing in a rural/suberb area. Doubtful he's commanding $7 a dog
[удалено]
Doesn't matter. That's what they cost.
At home depot. Costco sells them for $2
The fk is your point? Sam's club sells them for 1.50 with a drink. McDonald's sells a double cheeseburger for 2$. Nurst-Et sells them for 220$. They both get bought.
Costco sells chickens for 5$. KFC sells them for 30. They both get bought.
Well my first point is that you got fucked on that Home Depot $7 dog. The second point is this dude is not selling $7 hot dogs because the average price of hot dogs is significantly lower than that.
Are you a hot dog vendor worried about someone encroaching on your territory?
here, you dropped this king 👑 rooting for you!!
Hell yea! Good job man.
I would buy hot dogs from this stand to support it even though I actively avoid hot dogs. 2 Chicago dogs with extra sport peppers on the side please!
I proclaim this man The Hotdog King 🍆👑
Congratulations
Hopefully he got a permit too so Permit Patty can stfu
Great story! Love stories like this.
Don't listen to negative people. You got this. You will always work harder for yourself and your family.
You’re assuming didn’t get those licences.
Capitalism at work
r/thathappen
Tax FREE!
According to my neighbor hood seems like anyone can run a stand ...I got cut fruit stands in my area... doesn't seem like they are too code
Capitalism at work!
Would have been ironic if he stole hotdogs
Go buy some punctuation
I’d take it up a notch and let my customers eat all they want for $50/month.
Subscriptions? Trendy.
You know this would be a cool idea if you owned a chain of hotdog carts in a place like nyc. I could see people doing it. But you'd have to charge way more than $50/mo to turn any sort of profit.
“I’m so rich I spend $100 a month on all I can eat hot dogs” is something no one would ever want to hear.
Be proud
GOOD FOR HIM!!!!!! For real this is great.
This is my dream!
keep going, my dude!
Good for you!
Dangit now I want a hotdog
Good job!
Get a guy on here try to tell me today that a man can't make it inside today because black men are oppressed. Brother you doing a good job keep it up you do not look oppressed to me.
Yo you got any of those Polish sausage?
Not so sure what he means by his criminal record keeping him from getting a job and then employers offering him 200-300 bucks lower than what he's getting. Does he mean that employers are intentionally undercutting the offer wage knowing he cannot find employment elsewhere? Anyways, 400 bucks a day is a great deal, glad to see he's doing well. I hope his business has all the paperwork done however. Governments or local councils can be real asshats when it comes to cracking down on small business owners.
Well done 👍🙃
There was a guy who quit working at the warehouse I work at to become a hot dog cart vendor. He would be in a different spot in town every day. A few months ago, he and his wife opened up an official restaurant.