The economics of halal carts

I'm no expert in this, it's all second-hand information from friend N who talked to one of them halal-card people in Center City the other day, and thinks the economics are quite mouth-watering and we should all pool money to buy one, have somebody work on it, and we'd still be making profit after paying for the initial setup, rent, staff expenses and other material expenses.

So apparently all things considered, it's about 30k, including the truck, the permits, and basic supplies. Plus you need a small gas-powered generator as you will likely not be able to connect to city power. And obviously some sort of LP/propane-powered or electric heating system is required since we'll be cooking.

The running expenses are limited: the expenses for the one employee who's gotta do the hours, and the food expenses.  There's minor expenses in fuel, maintenance and 'ice' but those are not...considerate. City rental for parking space comes around to a couple of hundred a month.

For seven bucks people get a serving of rice and chicken, a can of ice-cold soda and some optional fries. A can of soda and the fries will come to a buck, the meat and the bread plus the rice another buck or less in raw material. Which means there's four bucks of more-or-less profit per order. A hundred folks ordering it over twelve hours is not unreasonable, netting us four hundos. Hundred fifty for salaries, fifty a day for running expenses we're left with two hundred. Six thousand a month. Take a thousand out for other expenses, and we're getting back the original investment in six months.

The risks are obvious: the hundred-a-day sales is not guaranteed, you may not find a parking spot with high flow of customers to complete the demand. One employee may not be sufficient during busy parts of the day. There's got to be some loss related to risky customers. Business is likely to be seasonal, and what if the truck breaks down or something bad happens? For that one needs business insurance, which will add ten percent to the expenses. Which will push our timetable by a few months. Then there's the taxes on the profits, but that's only if we're not reinvesting our net income back into the business.

It's too much risk for one person, no matter how much you may believe in the projections or the modelling. It'd be a good idea to divide it among five or six people, everybody spending only a couple of thous. There needs to be a working partner who will perhaps not put in any money but do the coordination of employees etcetera, and get sweat equity.

It doesn't need to be just halal carts. Momo carts. Rice and veggie carts. So many options. This is a good time. The prices seem good. Too good. I wonder if there's a massive underestimation or misunderstanding of the business in my projections. There has to be.