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What Kind Of Actual Hot Dog will you serve on your Hot Dog Cart ? 

This is a great discussion in itself and one you carefully evaluate depending upon the market area where you will set up.

Obviously everyone is focused on the premium Hot Dog Product as well as the well known brand names such as Armour Hot Dogs, Ballpark, Bar-S, Boar's Head Hot Dogs, Best's Kosher, Bryan's Hot Dogs, Butterball Hot Dogs, Cavalier Hot Dogs, Colonial Brand Hot Dogs, Deutsmacher Hot Dogs, Diamond Organic Hot Dogs, Empire Kosher Turkey Franks, Essem Hot Hot Dogs, Gwaltney's (Good Tasting Low Cost Value Dog), Hebrew National, Hippy Hot Dogs, Hormel, Hoffman Hot Dogs, Jordan's Hot Dogs, Keller's Canadian Hot Dogs, Kirschner Hot Dogs, Koegel Hot Dogs,  Louie's All American Kosher Hot Dogs, Lykes Hot Dogs, Morningstar Farms Hot Dogs, Miller's All Beef Hot Dogs, Nathan's, Oscar Mayer,  Sabrett, Sahlen's Hot Dogs, Schweigert Skin On Beef Hot Dogs, Tobin's First Prize Hot Dogs, Vienna Pure Beef, Westler's Hot Dogs, Wimmer's Hot Dogs, Zweigle's Hot Dogs as well as a wide variety of other well known popular or premium franks. What is the best one to sell for you on your own Hot Dog Cart? You will have to make this decision on your own and the answer could vary depending your market and what you think they will spend on a Hot Dog and what you want to earn on the Hot Dog Sale.

Premium Well Known Hot Dogs equal Premium Wholesale Prices for you raising your effective food cost translating into a higher retail price to recoup this investment. If you are lucky enough to have a location with higher income, or more selective or just a clientele of people who demand the very best and are not worried about the menu price of your product. 

You can count yourself as very lucky and the selection process is fairly easy if you are lucky enough to be able to charge $8.00 or Even $10.00 for a Hot Dog Chips and a Drink. 

Now some of us actually have to work for a living and many of us in this economy have become very value oriented consumers looking for a great product at great price!

Some areas or locations might require you to sell a Hot Dog at a the $1.00 To Retain Good Sales volumes and the attempt to raise the price by Only a Quarter may completely cripple the sales you enjoy with this location. If you look around and you sample variety bulk packs, many operators can actually maintain profitability with One Buck Hot Dogs if you plan it right. There are many Low Cost Hot Dogs that are quite tasty and be served most profitably. We will tell you experiment and have fun finding your own Hot Dog Deserving Of The Official Hot Dog Award!

A smart operator will think about keeping their Hot Dog Cart scalable where you can adjust both the price point of your Hot Dog and the product quality you serve to suit the economic climate of where you are setting up your Hot Dog Cart to maintain profitability. Some operators who shift locations or even have multiple Hot Dog Carts may serve the $1 Dollar Dog At One Location and a Three Dollar Hot Dog at another. Being responsive to your customer base and their needs will enhance what you take away on your cart at the end of the day when all is said and done.

You will need to experiment in different areas to find what will ultimately be a favorite Hot Dog for your customers in any given area. It will vary depending upon geographic location and socioeconomic levels etc. You will be wise just to get a Hot Going that travels with a great flavor through the air around your cart where people can smell them cooking and the rest should pretty well take off on its own. Get cookin and start servin up Delicious Hot Dogs!

What will be considered as Great Hot Dogs will vary but you will have to start somewhere. For a profitable Hot Dog Cart we have found to strike a balance between your food cost and flavor and when you hit it on the head, You will most likely know it too!

When your customers start enjoying your product, You are well on your way to building a rewarding business and they will look forward to seeing you arrive in the day knowing that you are the one who has that great Hot Dog lunch they will be thinking all morning about!

Learn About & Practice Safe Food Handling Practices On Your Cart!

Many areas will require you to take personal food safety training and pass an approved Food Manager's Certification and offer your cart up for inspection and certification as well. The requirements will vary greatly and the amount of required equipment on your cart may vary depending upon location as well. The very basic what are often called portable usually table top carts are often just a warmer to cook Hot Dogs with maybe storage for the rolls and nothing else.

This simple device may be useful in some areas but not many today. Many push as well as almost all towable carts will have a hand washing sink with some hot water on hand that is heated in a pipe over the burners for the hot dog pans usually to give some hot water for cleanup. Many areas will require transparent food, sneeze guards or even mini 3 compartment sinks like you find in a restaurant for safety requirements. California is now requiring not only 3 compartment sinks but also a separate hand washing sink all to be located on your hot dog cart. We have these outboard sinks available to bring older carts into food safety compliance if needed available here on our site!

One issue you may want to think about is how will you prepare your Hot Dogs for sale. States such as California strictly prohibit the preparation of food in a private home for resale to the public. No one may know where you prep but depending upon inspection requirements you will may have to think about these concerns and more in the future as you develop your business model and the methodology in which you will operate.

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HotDogAward.com

Welcome to The 

Official National Hotdog Award Site Hot Dog Business Basics Section of our site.

There are so many factors to thoughtfully consider when you choose to set up a Hot Dog cart as a business for your primary livelihood. What you have to deal with varies by geographic location to a considerable level. It is the feeling of this site that Hot Dog Carts are probably one of the the most intensely and often over regulated small businesses in many areas of the Country and this section of our site attempts to put this into it's proper perspective and offer a valuable insight on how you can get your business up and running and take it into a satisfying, rewarding and self sustaining business model while offering a most attractive return on your investment in this business.

As with many business ventures, it comes back to that all important foundation of so many successful business models.

Location, Location, Location!

We simply cannot, but cannot emphasize this enough in our writing of this site.

Population and traffic densities of any given area can greatly affect the likelihood of your success when you set up your Hot Dog Cart for business at any site of your choosing. there are many people or companies who will welcome you to set up your Hot Dog Cart on their locations with one primary goal to get their hands into your cash box sales. Are they really offering genuine high value location or will their pricing serve as merely a ruse to take your profits leaving you little to nothing after you have paid them for the location ? Something you will have to ask yourself before accepting any rent or sales percentage based agreement for usage of a location regardless if this is a verbal or paper signed agreement.

How Much Do You Really Want To Pay For A Location To Set Up Your Hot Dog Cart ? 

Our Ideal Answer Is Absolutely Nothing At All and this is Often Possible In Many Areas! 

We will share in major cities where there are already many food service operators or Real Estate is really either really scarce or priced at a premium. This can be much harder but not entirely impossible. 

One distinct advantage you have have with your Hot Dog Cart regardless if you have selected a traditional push cart or a towable trailer style cart. Your business is most portable and even if you have found a fantastic location, Don't get too attached to this location and you should always keep your eyes out where to go next if your location either starts to soften on effective Hot Dog sales demand levels or if you begin to feel pressure either from the property owner, local municipalities or even a competing restaurant location crying fowl because they feel you are unfairly cutting into their business sales because they might be paying high rent or a mortgage payment while you are paying very low or even no rent for a valuable Hot Dog Cart Location. This can often create a tough environment for you with sometimes serious politcal or even economic consequences for stepping on the wrong toes with your highly profitable and mobile food service business which they will say you have an unfair economic advantage attempting to drive you out. They will often yell that they pay a small fortune for the location while you are either paying little or even nothing and crating a substantial financial hardship for them.

You can also almost bet that if you find a profitable place to set up regardless of cost or even if it is free. You may be joined either by other mobile food operators or at least have someone attempting to cut into your business activity either by cutting into your sales activity or attempting to hinder you through regulatory channels to increase your cost or even drive you off of this location for their own economic needs or ambitions. This has been the experience of many in almost any business environment since business as a whole began and it probably will not end today or tomorrow so get yourself ready for this daily reality of business life. 

 Some locations may require you to sell a premium major name brand product for their own marketing and brand awareness purposes and they will be able to offer a location or clientele that will pay premium for your product at the retail sale level as well. It all comes back to the location. Keep an open mind on product you serve and maintain some flexibility here and the rewards can really increase your overall levels when you understand this important economic fact of business.

If you are just getting started or commit needed dollars to rent on a supposedly good location perhaps you might want to experiment with your cart at what can may be completely FREE if not traded or super low cost locations.

Don't be afraid to offer trade or FREE Lunch to the management of a location and their key people if it can get you onto a location that create a decent level of sales. There are many possibilities for barter on locations.

How much construction and development is in your area ? New construction sites can often have little to no convenience for the worker and depending upon where they are located. You could be providing a very real service to set up your Hot Dog Cart and feed these people a tasty Hot Dog Lunch so they do not have to leave the Job site and you can often get these locations for free! If you do need to get permission to set up mentioning the benefit of workers remaining at job site versus leaving and increased attendance and reduced late returns from work for overall increased productivity should go in your favor. Of course if it will clinch a deal on a free or very low cost location you might consider offering to feed an owner or selective management personnel for FREE (as long as it is not too many) if you can use this to entice them to let you offer your product to their workers. Feeding even a Dozen people a day can often be much cheaper than paying rent to utilize a location and builds good will by those who enjoy your product so they can spread the word and help you sell more. Your Hot Dogs you gave away to these people do show as bodies lining up for your product as far as building interest in your Hot Dog Cart as you are establishing yourself at a location. Perhaps give your freebie customers a coupon or something so your paying customers do not see you giving away free product as this can create problems in some cases with people seeing this. You can often set up in front of many construction sites for no charge at all or having to do anything for anyone other than coming to sell your product as a convenience service to the workers. Some Job Sites may want to take a hefty chunk for you to set up. You set up to serve Lunch and this can often be your entire day's earnings made in only a couple of hours or so!

Everything In Life Is Negotiable Except For Death & Taxes!

Industrial Facility, Warehouse, Processing and Assembly Plant Parking Lots. Vacant Lots on busy street corners. Vacant lots Near school, University and educational facilities. Vacant lots or locations near sporting and public sports and spectator events. Since you will be there short term, you may find many great instances to utilize vacant or adjacent lots to popular attractions in many areas. Remember you are Mobile and this presents a World of possibilities rather than counting on on location that may become stale. Of course how successful you will be will depend upon Local and State municipalities. We will tell you to use your creativity and imagination and you will probably come up with all sorts of great places that won't cost you a dime to park, set up your cart and make great money!

Of course many are willing to break open the checkbook and pay rent for a location, Here are examples of popular spots if you are willing to pay some rent. We will caution you to avoid locations that will take to much. 

When You Pay Too Much For Cart Location Rent, You Have To Ask Yourself Are You Working For Yourself Or For Them In The Form Of Paying Them Rent Money ?

Offer Hot Dog Lunch Time Delivery! Looking for a low cost starter option to get your Hot Dog Business going? You can start making money with Hot Dogs by just making up several, wrapping them up in foil place them in an empty cooler cooked hot for insulation and offer direct delivery to a busy office with many workers at lunch time. Bring a tasty Hot Dog wrapped and heated with a few condiments on the side, offer it for a value price and you can almost rest assured you can empty your cooler fairly quickly and make some quick cash to get your Hot Dog business started fast or even use this technique as a nice bonus for a separate satellite delivery operation if you have more than one person even if you have a cart on an established location. Every available person can bring in many more Dollars using this great tried and tested easy Hot Dog sale idea. The sky is the limit on earnings possibilities with easy delivered Hot Dogs! This option will work for the most under capitalized or desperate Hot Dog operator looking to get going with almost no investment which is a welcome concept in this economy when so many wallets are either empty or dangerously close. We want to help you fill your wallet again and we are showing many ways on our site to do it quite easily!

Everybody Likes The Hot Dog Guy Or Lady, What Kind Of Operator Do You Want To Be ?

What type of clientele are you attempting to generate? The upscale will have its own headaches often a lower product sales price location can prove to be most rewarding. Some people who have limited incomes will treat you like a King or Queen if you can fill their stomachs and do it with a tasty lunch at what they perceive as a value price. 

Everyone Seems Very Concerned About If You Need Personality To sell Hot Dogs ?

A Friendly, Pleasant, Outgoing & Professional Personality with a True Commitment To Top Quality Customer Service Will Succeed And Do Well In The Hot Dog Business! Many people are here on this site because they are looking to get rich Quick, This is not a Get Rich Quick Scheme. We are talking about a personal commitment you are making to serve your own customers in your new business. If you run it as a professional and treat people with respect and dignity while filling their stomach with a pleasant tasting meal. They will look forward to a return visit to you. They will get to know you and you will have their business!

Treat them well and give them a reason to come back by the overall quality of your product and service for the price you charge and you will have built an ongoing customer relationship which will prove to be most beneficial to your bank account! If you are serious about building your business with a steady location, Personally introduce yourself when you serve them and learn their names on their return visits and respectfully use their names when you see them. Treating people as individuals and as someone special creates a personalization bond and they will begin to look forward to seeing you as long as you don't get over pushy with this concept. Don't push the issue if they don't seem to want to talk, but just buy your product and leave. Knowing when to shut-up is a valuable skill as well and you will learn to spot the different personality types with experience. This is truly a great opportunity to have a whole lot of Fun with People & Make Great Money As You Do This Too!

Many people will say almost anything on the street to those they talk to, Your Own Business Cost Are Yours And Yours Alone, As A Self Employed Business Person At The End Of The Month You Have To Be Honest With Yourself Because Your Bank Certainly Will In The Form Of Your Bank Statement! This is what we mean about your commitment to quality. Give of yourself in your craft in which in which you serve and excellence is generally rewarded in the form of repeat business! How Many Hot Dogs, Chips & Soft Drinks Do You Want To Sell Today?

Look Like A Business & Act Like A Business!

Many people are often skeptical of mobile food service operators because they see them as shady, fly-by-night, slovenly or unkempt and they may have often well founded fears or concerns about food safety which may be the case if cart operators do not take the time to learn the basics to insure that they do not make you sick with their product!

Take pride in both your personal appearance and the appearance of your Cart! Come to work clean, shaven, neat and professional in your appearance. Look Like You Are Excited About Earning Their Business! Major Fast Food restaurants spend millions of dollars to build often very nice facilities and create snappy uniforms for their staff. No matter how much they spend because they often pay very low wages and even use coercive or poor management practices, These people can often look like less than professional because they do not really feel motivated about working in a fast food job. the one way you can really shine against these people is to remember you are working for yourself and building something for yourself. Treat every customer like royalty and remember that without them, You will soon be penniless and make them happy on each visit to you and you have a money making winning formula for success! 

You Are Spending A Miniscule Fraction Of What The Major Food Chains Spend On Their Restaurants So You Should Really Invest In Three Very Important Things That The Public Will See To Bring Them Back Again and Again! 

What are these important areas to consider ?

1. Make Your Cart Look The Best You Can With What You Have To Work With!
2. Look Like A Professional & Carry Yourself As One As Well, You Are Your Most Valuable Asset So Take Care Of Yourself & Look The Part For The Role In Which You Serve!
3. Serve A Quality, Great Tasting Product Properly, Cleanly & Safely Prepared For The Customer!

Attention to detail in these areas will bring them back again and again while helping you establish yourself as not a fly by night operator, but as a trusted business professional in your community where you serve and operate!

Create A Theme & Excitement To Both Yourself & Your Hot Dog Cart!

Depending upon the location, utilizing some type of uniform or shirt can not only help you establish credibility as an operator, but in some cases actually help you sell more product! Retro or nostalgic costuming and theme Hot Dog Carts can create a warm appearance of a bygone era often setting you apart from much of the fast food help look that they will find in their quick fast food restaurants. Hot Dogs are almost synonymous with Baseball and sometimes a Sports Theme Cart with a customized Baseball Sports Jersey can create a neat atmosphere as well! If you are selling in a specialty theme location, You may want to stay somewhat generic in this area  when consider how you can Tie your Hot Dogs to the theme of the location! Beware of trademark infringement and sometimes even colors can be perceived as such in some locations! Consult an attorney before you tread to deep into these waters of on sports themes as mistakes in this area can be most legally costly! Keeping it generic can be a wise move again in this area. If you are near baseball or football, using team XXX logos  or colors may get you in trouble. Generic baseball themes will not etc. Again consult a lawyer in this area if you are going in this direction.

Always Remember They May Have Many Choices To Eat Lunch, What Will You Do To Insure That Enough People Will Choose Your Own Hot Dog Cart? For a talented operator this is often quite fun in itself and obviously quite rewarding. We hope you have found this section of our site informative and we wish you the best of success in setting up your own Mobile Hot Dog Vending Business. Do your home work and go make lots of money and serve a product worthy of The Hot Dog Award!