Are you confused about how to choose a food truck niche?
I know it can all be overwhelming and confusing. There are so many options and paths.
You want to choose a successful and profitable niche that would make you feel happy and comfortable. A niche that would help you prevent losing money and investment, but also something that you are proud of.
There’s a lot of advice out there, but I thought I’d show you how I would choose a niche for my (hypothetical) food truck.
Here’s my simple – but thorough – strategy behind food truck niche selection.
My process:
(Naptime! Seriously, take a break.)
Ready to get started? Let’s do this!
First, I need to decide where I want to establish my food truck. For me, this is good ole San Jose, or as locals nickname it, “The Capital of Silicon Valley.” I chose San Jose because it is a local big city and I know it pretty well.
Simple!
You don’t need to have a big, complicated WHY.
You can start a food truck anywhere you like…and you should probably go with your gut (and a market you’re relatively familiar with).
Next, I’ll need to learn a little bit about my city’s cultural makeup, so that I can make some educated guesses about cuisines and tastes.
So…it’s market research time! I want to get more details on who my people (or ideal customers) are and what they might want.
Here’s how:
I googled “San Jose demographics 2019” and I clicked on the US Census Bureau.
This is where you’ll find all the big picture info about your city.
For example, I found some basic information about San Jose’s size (it’s the 3rd largest city in CA and has over one million people), but I was more interested in the demographic stats. I knew it was diverse, but this breakdown gave me a better idea about the size of its different ethnic groups.
Here are the numbers:
Then I found out something crucial! Because of the layered diversity, not everyone speaks the same language. So I googled “How many languages are in San Jose, Ca?”
And this is where I found the golden demographic site that is easy to navigate called Data USA. What’s better is they gather the data from the Census Bureau and make it easy to understand with many diagrams and quick facts. (Also, it’s SO much easier on the eyes!)
Here, I learned a vast amount of information. Some key takeaways were:
Now, why is this information relevant?
If you’re starting a food truck (or any food business), you’ve got to understand local tastes. It’s much better to build something serving an existing want instead of trying to convert people to a totally new “thing”.
With that said, the thing that stood out to me is the huge – huge – college-age population. Now that I’ve got an idea of who I want to serve, I’ve got to figure out what to serve them.
From there I want to check out my competition – my friendly neighbors :).
I went to Roaming Hunger, a great site to find food trucks in your local area. Here I found an overwhelming list of cuisine vendors in San Jose, CA. And it is LONG.
Ay-Yi-Yi! How do I choose?
Well since I have a baking background in cupcakes, I thought I’d scope out “desserts”.
Under “desserts” in general, I found various niches: waffles, pies & tarts, crepes, cannolis, Italian desserts, candy, and sticky rice.
Those are all *sort of* interesting, but also sort of “meh”. I’m not personally into any of those.
Then I saw “cupcakes” pop up as another dessert niche.
Guess what?
I love cupcakes. I know my way around cupcakes. I could sell the heck out of a cupcake!
Equally important – I found that there was only one cupcake vendor selling cupcakes!
The only cupcake food truck in San Jose
They have roughly 70 flavors on rotation, including the standards like Dirt n’ Worms, Carrot Cake, Vanilla, and Elvis and some seasonal specials like Pumpkin Spice.
Also….they’re running a healthy business! They’ve been in business for seven years, which means there is definitely a market!
I’m also interested in how they operate – they offer a secondary service (catering) and seem to targeting weddings and fancy occasions. Hmmm….that’s not what I’m planning to do, but it’s worth taking note.
Just to recap, right now I have a broad target audience (college kids) and a clear food niche (cupcakes).
With all this information I’ve gathered on my people and my potential competitors, it’s time to review everything.
How do these elements fit together? What’s the X factor, the missing piece of the puzzle that’ll make my concept super attractive?
Remember, data always tells a story.
Finding that magic might feel mysterious….but it’s actually pretty straightforward.
All you need to do is give yourself some structure and context.
I like to do this by asking five important questions.
I don’t know about you, but here’s where I’d go take a nap!
Breathe and do not think about food trucks.
I’m not even kidding – there’s science behind why you should take breaks when you’re doing creative work, solving complex problems, or trying to strategize.
Some of the best ideas happen when people take showers and naps. In fact, it’s a method that Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison used. It’s called divergent thinking, or as Barbara Oakley calls it diffusion mode. (Here’s her TedTalk).
One hour later. Yawn. Stretch. Wow, that was such a great nap. Wait! I have an idea!
Okay… I’ll admit it won’t be like that, but trust me – take some time off and let everything marinate in your subconscious. This’ll allow you to think of an out-of-the-box solution and a fantastic food truck concept!
So what really happened is after taking my dog Bruce on a lovely sunshine walk today, I felt refreshed enough to review my information and answer the questions.
| Question | Answer |
| Who are my people (ideal customers)? | College students in San Jose. |
| What do they want? | A mix of healthy, fun, and affordable desserts that taste delicious. They might be homesick and maybe this’ll give them a taste of home. |
| What can I offer? | I can offer a variety of desserts in addition to standard cupcakes. Maybe donuts, cookies, or mini-cupcakes? I mean who doesn’t love mini-cupcakes – they’re adorable! |
| Will I enjoy doing this? | I enjoy baking and making cupcakes and cookies. The fresh smell of cookies always reminds me of home and my grandma. |
| How can I stand out? | What if I niche down and serve college students with mom-and-pop-styled cupcakes and cookies? I could call it CC desserts (a play on words like “community college” and “cupcakes + cookies”). |
That gives me a pretty good idea about what I want to focus on!
The food truck I’d start would be a cupcake + cookie truck focused on college students.
I could even get started by getting in touch with student organizations and college administrations in the area and find out what I’d need to do to sell on campuses. Maybe organize a bake sale with a student group to test some menu concepts and products!
(See how specific I’m able to get here? Once you go through this process, you should have a really clear idea of who you want to serve, what you want to serve, and where/how you can get started with some next steps!)
Now it’s time for you to find your niche! Here is a template that you can fill out following my method.
| Question | Answer |
| Who are my people (ideal customers)? | |
| What do they want? | |
| What can I offer? | |
| Will I enjoy doing this? | |
| How can I stand out? |
After you’ve decided on your niche, read up on FTL’s step-by-step business plan guide so you can get the ball rolling: “How to Write a Food Truck Business Plan,”
I wish you the best on your food truck journey. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments, or just want to say hi at Food Truck Lineup.
