trying to start business

[jhawk75]

my boss and i are starting bbq business and are looking to buy a smoker trailer. we are looking into summer music/art festivals to vend pulled pork brisket and sausage. can we do this with a wood smoker and two backyard propane grills or would you suggest a large propane grill??? any other advice is very welcome

 

[alblancher]

I would think that depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Are you selling a slow smoked product or a grilled product. I do know of people that do the majority of their smoking off-site and then bring the nearly finished product to the event and finish it off there. I would think you would be limited by distance and maybe local health laws in that case. Just the smell of a good wood smoke brings me into a booth to give it a try. Remember a true slow smoked pork butt takes hours and that may be a problem if you are not williing to get there early.

 

[deltadude]

Contact bbally, he lives in Colorado has his own BBQ catering rig, plus works for a large catering company, and is a qualified chef. Plus he is a great guy, and very helpful to us here at SMF.

 

[mballi3011]

I don't know about you guys up in Colorado but in Florida we have to jump thou alot of hoops to try to have a catering business. It's pretty hard they want to see where you will be preparing the food off site and then your on site get up too. Then you have to work in and around the plastic bubble that they will want you to be in for the safety of your customer.

 

[got14u]

that statement right there worries me. If you don't know the answer to this then you might want to do some cooking for a while or find a job with a catering company for a bit to get experience.

Also look into all the local laws for this. I know you will need a temporary restaurant license to go to events and cater certain ones, along with other licenses. I use to do some catering in the Durango area once a year. fun and I did make money but it's not as easy as it sounds...Good luck on what ever you decide.

 

[rp ribking]

All I can say is make sure you want to have a business with a partner. Normally, trouble brews at some point, possibly causing a rift between the 2 owners. This is my advice: Get a pre-nup for the business.

RP

 

[rdknb]

I agree with rp, I had a partner in my martial arts business and then like most we disagreed. Luckly for me the articles of inc allowed for me to have the last word.

 

[Dutch]

This topic as been moved to "General Discussion" for better exposure.

Some great advice and info has been given here. One thing to really look at hard are the local health codes. I say this because each county or parish will have different hoops for you to jump through.

If I were to offer pulled pork and brisky sammiches say for the 4 County fairs in my geographic area, I would need a different Food Handler's permit from each County Health Department plus have the required vending permit not to mention be registered with the State and hold a valid business license.

 

[jhawk75]

thank you all for the input we have everything rolling through a bar and grill so all the health code stuff is taken care of i also could use some help finding good prices on pork butt and briskett smoking wood in bulk and any other advice i can grab anyone know a good meat locker in colorado to use

 

[ralphster]

I would approach whatever food service rep is currently supplying the bar and grill you'll be cooking out of first. Two biggest companies in my area are US Foods and Sysco. Aside from that you could try costco or sam's club.

 

[smoke_chef]

I know this is an old thread. But, I wanted to comment for two reasons.

One, my great Granddad who was a brilliant business man in his day had a saying. "If you think you are going to fail at something... Have a partner. That way you split the losses. But if you believe you can succeed at something... go it alone." Now... I realize sometimes each partner may have a unique specific skill set. So, it's not a hard and fast rule but I've always used as a rule of thumb.

Two, since it's been a while... I just thought I would see if we could get an update on how it's going from jhawk75.