Japadog definitely has a USP – Unique Selling Proposition.
In other words, they have given people a reason to buy from them instead of the all the other “same old” hot dog carts. The USP allows them to sell at a premium price point.

You can tell by the long lines that people will pay for a quality dog and and a unique customer experience.

Do a little experiment with me. You’re not a hotdogger. You’re a customer.
Think hard about how you would feel standing in line at Japadog for the first time. I bet you would feel…

Excitement. Anticipation. A sense of adventure. A feeling of novelty. Extreme curiosity. Exclusivity. Luxury. Perhaps even decadent in a culinary way…

How many people would you tell about your street food experience over the next several days? What would make you talk about it so much?

How would you feel being the guy or gal that turned all their friends on to this new kind of hot dog? Do you think your friends would thank you for discovering this for them?

Yeah. They would. A lot.

That’s the power of a USP.

OK – come back to earth. Put on your business hat. Check out Japadog’s menu (click for a big picture). Pay attention to the price points – we’re learning something very important today.

Q: Do you have an awesome-can’t-fail-kick-ass-great-super-cool-
wowee-neato-keen idea for a hot dog cart, but don’t know where to start?

A: I cover everything you need to know at www.HotDogBiz101.com. I’ll show you how to make your dream a reality. That’s what I do.

What is your USP? Tell me about it in the comments!

-Steve

HDCN reader Rick S. emailed to tell me about a cart he is purchasing. It’s a large cart with caster wheels, kind of a mall kiosk type unit. The cart is semi-stripped and Rick will be outfitting it with steam tables and other equipment.

Rick wants to know whether he should go with propane powered appliances or electric.

Here’s his email:

Steve, I have a question that might be a good one for ‘Hot Dog Cart News’.

I do not know if  I will always sell near access to electricty hookup, and if I should get all electric equipment, or buy propane fueled equipment. And If so, what kind of propane fueled equipment is there?

I saw somewhere online that a propane fueled coffee maker (standard 5 cup size) cost around $1,000 through a certain site. But are there other propane run items such as:

Crock pot- for heating cheese to sell nachos.
Ice maker- for serving shaved ice.
fan- for on those hot summer days
etc

Just curious what kind of equipment exist, that would not require electricity hookup.

Thanks,

Rick

What do you think hot doggers?  Should Rick go with all propane appliances? A combination of propane (steam tables and grills) and some electric (fan,  shaved ice machine)?

Those propane appliances are a bit spendy…

I’m a big fan of deep cycle marine batteries to power some electrical appliances (radios, fans) but appliances with heating elements (crock pots, coffee makers) suck a lot of current. They will run down your batteries pretty fast.

What about generators? If you use ‘em, how about some recommendations for a good quiet one?

What are your opinions of propane vs 12 volt battery vs 120 volt generator power? Let’s hear you in the comments…

-Steve

Just south of Kathleen, on Kathleen Road, between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., most any day of the week, you're likely to see an unusual hotdog stand. Retired power plant engineer Jim Belcher, at center, owns "Hellacious Hot Dogs". The motto on his business card reads "Eat & Rest In Peace". Jim uses a 1982 Cadillac hearse as his attention getting trademark.

By Kyle Kennedy
THE LEDGER

LAKELAND | Death is an unavoidable topic around Jim Belcher’s hot dog stand.

It’s not so much the plastic skeleton perched above the cart or the fact that Belcher grew up in a Boston-area funeral home.

No, it would have to be the 1982 black Cadillac hearse he parks off Kathleen Road when Hellacious Hot Dogs opens for the day’s business.

“People see this, and they want to know what’s going on over here. It’s unreal how it works, but it works,” said the 50-year-old Lakeland resident as he served lunch one recent afternoon. “I’m pretty popular. It’s not because of the hearse, it’s the food.”

Three years ago Belcher retired from a career as a power plant engineer in Holbrook, Mass., and moved to Lakeland to be near his older brother. He bought the Cadillac from his family’s funeral home with plans to go into the cadaver transport business, but it didn’t work out.

So Belcher started thinking about the days he used to work as a line cook in restaurants and what he could possibly do with that glossy black hearse.

In early 2008, Hellacious Hot Dogs set up shop near the intersection of Kathleen and Spivey roads. People noticed.

“It’s a head-turner,” Belcher says. “I use it for storage. It’s the best kind of car you can have. But that’s as far as I go. I don’t cut meat in there.”

His macabre marketing extends to the menu, where a plain, all-beef hot dog is called a “Stiff” and sets you back $1.25. Want cheese and bacon on that dog? Order the “The Undertaker.” A combo with chips and drink is “The Procession.”

The hot dogs are good, but people can’t help talking about the car.

“I just know I could never drive one of those. I think it’s neat though,” said Carrie Bacon, 51, as she stopped for a bite.

A nearby survey crew spots the hearse and ambles over for a meal break.

“Different … very different,” one of the workers remarks before ordering a Stiff.

Sometimes Belcher dons a black hat; gloves; and an apron for maximum effect.

He says it’s easy not to take things too seriously when you’ve grown up in a funeral home, which is now owned and operated by his younger brother.

“I lived around death all my life. I respect it, too, because it’s a hard thing to accept, especially when you see families crying,” he said. “I’m not making fun of anything that has to do with death. It’s my trademark.”

Yet when he got older, Belcher wanted nothing to do with the funeral business. The grim work of moving and preparing bodies for visitation was too much, he said; he preferred to handle the flowers and wash the hearse instead.

Neighborhood kids would often decline to come over and play.

“They thought it was morbid,” he said.

He went on to pull stints as a cook, plumber, welder and other jobs before ultimately spending 25 years as an engineer. He’s been married three times but has no kids and laments that his once-blond crew cut is going gray.

Belcher says he enjoys the independence of having his own business, even if it’s just a hot dog stand and a hearse. He chats up customers in a distinct Boston accent, his creased face pink from the sun.

And he seems to love the attention, even the puzzled looks. He likes how a roadside oddity and cheap, tasty food can improve someone’s day.

“That’s why I say live it up and have a hot dog, because life goes fast, like a candle.”

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BTW,  if you’ve been thinking about starting a hot dog cart business, I’m running a sale on “Carts of Cash” until midnight on the 31st. Enter the word Success in the coupon code box and save $10.

Happy Halloween everyone!

-Steve

I’ve seen the Frank’s N Brats stand outside Busch Stadium when I go see the Cards play, but I’ve never stopped. Something I need to do, especially now that they are the best in town!

I ran across the following story in the Riverfront Times, a St. Louis news blog. There’s a great marketing hook in there that could make you huge money, so pay attention…

Busch Stadium sells more nachos — 120,000 pounds of chips and 32,000 gallons of cheese sauce a year — than any other ballpark in baseball. This gut-busting statistic can probably be attributed to the fact that the hot dogs available inside the stadium are overpriced and underwhelming.

Luckily for the city’s hungry baseball fans, Frank Merrins has his hot-dog stand on the corner of Clark Street and South Broadway. (When it’s not baseball season, he can be found on the riverfront near the Arch.)

Frank, the silver-haired mustachioed guy behind the grill, sells all his items to go in brown paper bags that are allowed inside the stadium. Try the frank, the owner’s namesake, an eight-inch wiener grilled to perfection and laid on a bed of grilled onions.

It’s a darn good dog, and at a mere $2 (or $3 if you want a brat) it’s a darn sight cheaper than what you’ll find on the other side of Busch’s gates.

RFT

Frankly speaking, business is booming at sidewalk vendor’s hot dog cart.

Mike Sullivan had just been laid off from his job as a DHL deliveryman after some 15 years.  The process-serving company he’d set up after his layoff was not making ends meet. The 55-year-old wasn’t sure what would, until he sat down to watch a movie.

In the background of one scene he saw a man selling hot dogs. The gears started turning in his head.  “I decided I would try this, give it a shot,” said Sullivan of Braintree, as he prepped a sausage with peppers and onions at his roadside cart on Quincy Avenue this week. “It’s just a little steam table, that’s all it is. With a grill on it.”

Mike’s Hot Dog Cart may be a simple operation, but it’s been good enough to garner Sullivan a following.  “I don’t want to see you once. I want to see you over and over again,” Sullivan said of customers.

Since he set up his New York-esque stand at the Quincy/Braintree line, Sullivan has developed several repeat customers. All of them know the story of how he went from delivering parcels across the state to grilling dogs in the parking lot of Viking Hall in Braintree.

Original article at the Patriot Ledger

If you have already purchased Carts of Cash and think it’s a good course, I would LOVE it if you helped spread the word about this contest. Please post about it in RoadFood.com or any other blogs or forums that might be relevant. Point them to www.HotDogProfits.com/blog

Here are the Really Official Sounding Contest Rules:

Hot Dog Cart Training Giveaway

In order to give everyone a fair chance, the comments have been temporarily deactivated.

The contest will go live on Thursday the 6th at 7 pm central. That’s when the comments section will be reactivated. Be here or be square. (I know – it doesn’t rhyme. And I also know I misspelled Giveaway in the video title but I’m too lazy to change it. Hey, I’m on vacation…)

The 50th comment wins. You may post multiple comments, but only because I haven’t thought of a good way to stop you.

Profane comments are ineligible and will be deleted. No trespassing. Do not operate heavy machinery while reading this blog. Hair loss and/or weight gain may occur. In case of a sudden drop in cabin pressure, masks will drop from the overhead compartment. Prosecutors will be violated.

Let’s have fun with this!!!

Good luck!

-Steve

Chicago centenarian and long-time business owner Harry Heftman talks about surviving the Great Depression, and the secret to his longevity. Hint: It’s not his world-famous hot dogs, though he eats them regularly.

Thanks Cindy for letting me know about this!

-Steve

Hi Steve!

I enjoy getting your e mails.  I have been reading your site and updates since a few months before I got my HDC and started business.

I have been in business for about 5 weeks, and have been blessed with great success so far! I have gone from 3 hour lunch weekdays making $50 to now grossing over $150 every day (open 11-2).  I am the only street vendor in a thriving downtown section of a sophisticated southern city of over 100,000.  My son and I come out on Friday and Saturday nights, and when the bars close, and there is no restaurant open, we sell out, grossing between $250 to $300.

My net is 85% of the gross.  I pay no rent for the best location possible.
There is a world of wonderful difference, being on a merchant’s private
property, and being on one of the 11 city permit locations.  I still display my
city permit, but need not renew it if I stay put.  The merchant says I add
“ambience to the facade”!!

If you have a chance, check out todays issue of the weekly Independent
(theind.com), Lafayette, Louisiana.  They did a nice piece about my hot dog cart
operation.  There’s even a video.

They even did another piece on my award winning BBQ sauce, which I sell from the cart, and offer as one of the many condiments!

Oh, and I placed an ad in the “Quik Quarter” weekly.  Cost me $25 for two
weeks.  I was at the cart when the lady called 2 days ago, asked did I want to
run the ad again, I said no, but later that day, 2 people who saw it booked me
and my HDC for their events, and they are happy to pay me my
private/civic/charity rate of $50 an hour, 3 hour minimum.   The commercial
rate is $100/hr.  Altogether 3 upcoming events away from my usual spot
downtown, one being a supermarket grand opening.  None more than 3 miles away!!

Oh, and from home to my downtown site is less than 3/4 of a mile!!

It’s all good!!

Usually, life is a never ending succession of opportunities not taken, or
realizing what one should have done, too late.

But maybe for once I am in the right place, etc.  I have never so enjoyed what
I do.  Yesterday, the Independent hit the news racks across south Louisiana,
and we were fairly swamped, non-stop.  Big crowds of nice folks conglomerating around my hot dog cart.  The shop owner loves it too.  And he, his family and staff all buy my food.  Starting today, we are starting an half hour earlier, 10:30.  I am tired of hungry, non breakfast eaters clamoring for Dawgs while my rig is warming up!!  When I tell them come back at 11, they usually wait and talk, or come back.  But sometimes, they split.

P.S. – speaking of Dale Carnegie, I am exercising my ancient mind, and actually
learning everyone’s name, and calling them by their names.  As DC said, the
sweetest sound we can hear is our names spoken with kindness. The other day, I rounded down on the price for a regular, she asked why, and I said it’s cuz she’s my best customer (I have many “best”!)  Do you think she walked away, delighted with her dawg, smiling ear to ear?!

A month ago, I saw “Harvey” for the ninetyninth time, and was reminded how
Elwood P. Doud (Jimmy Stewart) is sincerely interested in everyone, and treats
everyone with compassion and respect.  Learns their name, and invites them for dinner   Just like on the HDC!!

Steve, y’all have a blessed day!!

Russ Hiltz

Thanks for the great story Russ, and congratulations on your new business. Looks like you are very happy!

You can see Russ’s news paper coverage at The Independent Weekly

Here’s some video of me and the E-Z Built Hot Dog Cart working my annual block party last Saturday. If you don’t know my story, I started, grew, and sold a successful hot dog cart business using carts that I built myself. When I sold “King Weenie Hot Dogs” I signed a non-compete agreement which prohibited me from selling hot dogs for one year. I used that year to start HotDogProfits.com.

I had a blast getting back in the saddle and slingin’ some tubesteak. Hope you enjoy the show and please comment below!

-Steve

Dear Steve:
Came across this neat little thing on ebay yesterday. It is a 1974 Cushman Truckster. It is street useable. I would modify the set up but it is neat. I have been looking for a truckster to use. This one went for over three thousand and was own by a dealer who never sold a hot dog in his life. He has a dealership called BigBoystoys in Texas I think. It’s another good idea for a hot dog cart.

Take care,

Jim

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Checkout this link on Ebay – 1932 Hotrod Hotdog cart! It’s a beauty… Mark