A hairdresser and a physical trainer walk into a bar…
Pause. In this joke, the only thing they walk out with is six figures.
BUT FIRST A RANT:
I do a daily tweet called, Contrarian take. I’m not sure I’m going to continue (@ me in the comments with your thoughts) because it gets so troll filled. BUT – my point is not to be right, but to make people think. To question narratives, even mine, and to have constructive dialogue. Which may be an oxymoron these days.
This week my doozy was this one:
Triggering single men and those who think I have an arranged marriage without love. What I find fascinating is, 40-50% of marriages end in divorce. I should know, I’ve been there and won the trophy. The idea of L-O-V-E is beautiful but you know what they say, expectations unset are the bringers of unhappiness. So my man and I, we get specific. We share where we want to go, what we want, and why it’s important to us. If he wants kids and I don’t. Probably not going to work out well. If I want to travel the world non-stop but he would prefer to homestead and never leave, well. If he’s really into throuples like Warren Buffet.. He’s dead. I mean, that’s a No for me.
I’d love to hear from you all below – how did you know your person was your person. And how to keep steering the ship.
NOW BACK TO WINE & CASH
Meet Julia & Melissa.
They got a set of Boston accents and knee high boots to match. They are after all from Worcestershire (pronounced Wooster, which pretty much sums up Bahhston).
But these ladies did a fun thing. And we love how relatable, girl next door, and scalable it is and think you will too.
The skinny… one of their gym businesses wasn’t booming (ya know Covid), the other one couldn’t get her hands on any locks in need of highlights (ahem pandemic). So they decided to go all in on their love of salad:
- Ok, fruit salad
- Ok, grapes
- Ok, f-ing wine
So they bought an old vintage trailer.
Then volun-told one husband to rehab and kitsch it out for a wino on wheels mobile.
Meet Winona, their 1970s wine camper. Winona², travels to homes and businesses, hosting wine-focused outdoor events at Decanted Wine Trucks.
It makes sense because between the pair of them they literally have 52 kids. IDK we lost count past 5, or was it 7? Thus, a wine truck makes sense. #becausekids
But jokes aside.
They have a heck of a story. So this week giving you the short and sloshy version of how to start a wine truck business and get to 6-7 figures in revenue.
Or maybe smarter just get these ladies to franchise their model out to you, or invest. I can picture soccer moms everywhere celebrating.
Fast stats:
- Americans spend $15 Billion+ on wine a year
- $1.1B spent on Mobile Food Trucks¹
That’s A LOT of cash, and it’s growing by double digits each year.
Okay, the BIG IDEA:
- Melissa & Julia like wine
- People wanted to go outside
- Parties were in the home, not in restaurants
Here’s what they do.
Their main customers come to them for event planning, micro weddings, festivals,and corporate events.
Customers book out packages, and Winona drives to them to host. The ladies take care of the whole set up, decor and all.
The guests can then enjoy a few hours of carefully curated wines, matching small snacks, music and social fun.
With Decanted’s packages ranging from $650-$2000 per event, them being able to do two per day, and demand increasing on the daily…they’re in a good spot.
Julia and Melissa have invested about $30,000 in start up capital. Based on their costs and prices, they’re in the green after 4 months and on their way to a 6 figure year.
The Contrarian Team sat down with this dynamic duo to get some insider info on the idea.
THE HOW: BREAKDOWN
STEPS #1 – 10 how to start, what do you do?
#1 – Create a budget and business plan
#2 – Research your area for permits needed, etc
#3 – Buy the truck and other needed equipment
#4 – Renovate it
#5 – Secure all of your needed licenses and permits
#6 – Source your food and wine
#7 – Set your packages and prices
#8 – Determine customer acquisition source
#9 – Soft launch, heavy on branding and experience
#10 – Plaster the experience over social media and snag some PR!
TAKEAWAYS: Hot Takes
1 – Mobility is good. They travel wherever they want…to events, corporate locations, festivals etc. They say when they drive downtown, people are shouting at ‘Winona’ like she’s a moving billboard. Talk about word of mouth… Takeaway: Flexibility is good… mobile food trucks for restaurants are like Zoom for meetings.
3 – The experience. They want you to EXPERIENCE a good time, more than just the wine. SO they have additions to help with that. Curated tasty wines to match, food tasting, and decor, which is switched up to match the demographics of their event. Takeaway: Make it an experience with sights, sounds, tastes… especially as an event business. This is where you’ll find a heavy differentiator.
4 – Licensing. This is the most difficult part. They live in Massachusetts, but you’ll have to pull up legalities for your area. There’s a lot of red tape to jump through, especially if you include alcohol and food. There are also certifications for their crew, TIP Cert, Allergy, etc. Takeaway: Do your research, due diligence and make sure all the legalities are in place. Or pro tip: Use the SBA license guidelines process and here. We’d probably just call them and ask them to walk us through it, then get an attorney to finish the gig.
You probably need (in addition to links provided by the SBA) or your city:
- Alcohol Permit
- Food Permit
- Alarm Permit
- Business License and Tax Permit
- Health Permit
- Signage Permit
- Zoning Permit
5 – The goods. Winona, the camper, is 1970s super retro, adorable, and easily decorated. As these types of campers are very competitive to purchase, she was bought entirely off-market. They got her for $1500, but plenty of money and time went into the renovation **specifics, include lil graph**. They could be found for $50k+ if they’re well renovated. Takeaway: shop around, message sellers you see to get on top of their next trailer for sale before hitting the market. Check niche buy/sell/trade sites, Facebook, Craigslist… Look for those moderately renovated… if you don’t have a handy hubby, of course.
You can track it simple like this asset statement from S’wich It Up.
6 – Business model/pricing. Decanted offers certain packages at different cost points that include a certain amount of tasting, as well as other accessories like the decor. They source their wine directly from the distributor (though you can white label your own) and have curated a list of exceptional wines for every budget. Each package includes variable and fixed costs and range from $650-$2k and everywhere in between.
Takeaway: At first, be flexible with your offerings until it’s more lucrative to focus on 2-4 core packages. Charge more for a premium offering, showcase your brand as very valuable.
7 – Costs.
Licensing was $2000 and lots of time. (Cut this time by hiring an attorney, but be prepared to pay more).
The truck was $1500, add time and money for renovation.
Accessories like tables and linens, flowers, essentially the decorative element used in packages, variable but maybe $3000.
Sourcing the wine from a distributor has great margins, around 50%, let’s say $6000/month.
They source the food wholesale, only a 20% margin let’s say $5000/month
Budget also for additional storing and housing when your food, wine, and track aren’t being used.
In total, they have about $30k invested as start up capital.
(link to spreadsheet – https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eVbiCKOyRTUTvJ9crmY9HN7jUNluCNZ0TERMimTeRhA/edit?usp=sharing)
They’ll make back their money in four months and move to 5 digits in revenue with 50% profits in month 4-5. This is only with 1 truck, we’d add another 2- 3. They’re completely booked solid for the summer, multiple events per day, and are looking into licensing for another location. This will be where external capital comes into play because they need more equipment.
8 – Marketing. Glad you asked 🙂 Taking cute pictures of your setup and all of the events will encourage great word of mouth. Make people want to revel in the experience. Ask your GUESTS to take pictures and tag you. There’s nothing better than UGC.
Something like this will rake in great PR…it did for Decanted.
Get in the media, do a press release.
Pitch to local news segments.
Drop notes at local big businesses… they’re always looking for events for employees.
Drop your card and info with all the local wedding planners.
List on Airbnb even as they have a new option for curated experiences.
Side note, branding is huge. These ladies crush it because they’re authentic…working moms with seven kids between them? Target the mom crowd? Ya..I’d say so!
9. Tech it up – Add some perks and automation. Like maybe even get an app for rewards! You can use a templated app solution like Touch Bistro for rewards and frequent guest perks.
You can find more about them here and on Facebook and IG @decantedwinetruck. Frankly, I’m into it.
EXTRA RESOURCES:
Sample Food Truck Cost Spreadsheet
On another more Java-like note, what other ideas follow this model that don’t require alcohol permits?
A completely custom built tiny home on wheels where 3/4ths is livable space, and the other 1/4th? A travelling coffee shop.
The owners wanted a way to travel AND make money. Hence the Red Byrd was born. However they quickly found that if they kept going out of state to events, they needed to plan MONTHS in advance to have all of the state specific licensing in order before arriving.
Hence, they’ve since become a small town local TN coffee shop, traveling only to some in-state events and festivals.
A happy combo of mobile food businesses like Decanted and fun use cases of Tiny Homes like Rob’s.
Either way…it’s espress-awesome.
Go forth and crush it… grapes, I mean.
Codie and the CT team
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