It’s been a few weeks since I last spoke with Anthony Salvagno of S’wich It Up and a lot has happened since that time, including signing a contract with a builder and writing a $20,000 check as downpayment. Fortunately, Salvagno has assured me he’s not feeling buyer’s remorse (yet)!

anthony salvagnoIn case you’re for joining us for the first time this is part of a series of interviews I’m doing with Salvagno as we follow along as he builds a food truck business in real time, start to finish. Click here to learn how you can learn about starting a food truck from Anthony Salvagno. 

In this interview Salvagno shares the process he used to find the manufacturer for his food truck and why he ultimately selected JJ Custom Built Food Trucks out of El Paso, Texas. (For the record FoodTruckEmpire.com has no affiliation with this company.) Salvagno also shares the names of some of the other manufacturer’s he considered as part of the evaluation process.

If you’re thinking about working with a builder, but have never done so before this is an interview you won’t want to miss. Additionally, we get in-depth on the type of food truck Salvagno has ordered, including the cooking equipment, size, and type of truck he will receive.

We cover each of the following topics in more detail in the podcast:

  • The information you need to provide to a builder, prior to getting a quote.
  • The variance in fee’s between different builders and why you should get a quote from more than one place.
  • Why you should Google the name of your builder prior to making a purchase. You can find out a lot about the history of their customer service and quality of work by reading reviews from past customers.
  • How Salvagno found his manufacturer online
  • Some of the common types of trucks that are converted such as DHL, delivery trucks, UPS, and FedEx trucks.
  • Why you should bring someone that is knowledgable about mechanics to evaluate any used food truck you’re considering an investment in.
  • Salvagno ended up paying $35,000 for his food truck. This price included a custom wrap and cooking equipment. This came in well under his target budget of $45,000.
  • Why you might want to consider contacting FedEx or UPS to see if they have available trucks for sale. These organizations typically take good care of equipment.
  • Some of the manufacturers that Salvagno considered were Texas Cart Builder, CFB Manufacturing, and California Cart Builder. An explanation on why these builders were not selected is included in audio. Note: This does not mean any of the manufacturer’s do a bad job, sometimes a certain vendor is not the right fit based only on budget.

365 days on a food truckGot Questions?

If you’ve got questions about Salvagno’s experience starting a food truck so far, feel free to reach out to by email them to support AT foodtruckempire.com. Your message could be broadcast to thousands of monthly podcast listeners and answered on an upcoming episode where we will conduct a QA.

In the meantime don’t forget to leave an iTunes review. I hope to see you again next week.

Want to start your own food business?

Hey! 👋I’m Brett Lindenberg, the founder of Food Truck Empire.

We interview successful founders and share the stories behind their food trucks, restaurants, food and beverage brands. By sharing these stories, I want to help others get started.

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