Travis-Reeks

In part 2 of our interview series with Travis Reeks of Mexi Dogs, you’ll have access to an honest review of the food truck POS software ShopKeep from someone that uses the program to operate his own business every day. In addition, you’ll learn why Reek’s determined that Sam’s Club was the best supplier for his own business and the many advantages of leveraging this wholesaler for a mobile food business.

If you’re kicking around the idea of using a new POS system for your business or trying to identify the best supplier for your business this interview will provide plenty of food for thought.

Quotes from The Show

It’s the first most important part of a food truck business if you plan on having more than one food truck or expanding. – Travis Reeks on the importance of understanding the financial details of a mobile food business and using POS software like ShopKeep.    

You want to be ordering your ingredients from one place if possible. Because the time you spend chasing down your food is time you’re going to lose. Travis Reeks on working with local suppliers.  

What You’ll Learn

The two things are the critically important to operating a scalable food truck business:

1.) Registering for restaurant review and listing websites

2.) Getting the financials of your truck straight. That means Writing a financial pro-forma, an inventory management system, the POS, and financial spreadsheets.  If you don’t have all this, your profitability is just an estimate. You also get Travis’s review of POS software ShopKeep.

Other Key Topics Covered in this interview:

  • Why Mexi Dogs invests in the highest quality product available by his supplier
  • The benefits of using the Sam’s Club Click-n-Pull System
  • Why you don’t want to be driving around town to pick up product.
  • Why you should focus on one style of food and perfect it. Get great at one specific type of food and lock in.
  • The magic red and yellow color scheme that dominant food brands like Wendy’s, Arby’s, Carl’s Jr., and more use to help drive consumption.
sanora hotdog

The Mexi Dog’s Sanora Style Hotdog

Mentioned on the Show

Mexi Dogs – The food truck of today’s featured guest Travis Reeks.

How Mexi Dogs Is Booked Solid – Click here to listen to part 1 of our interview with the owner of Mexi Dogs, Travis Reeks. In this program Reeks shares his formula for booking festivals, churches, small businesses, and other events for his food truck.

ShopKeep POS – This is the POS system that Travis uses on his food truck. Mexi Dogs is able to make an record accurate unit cost breakdowns using this system. Listen to the interview to learn how Reeks is leveraging this software to track costs and increase profits. The detailed analytics specifically is very exciting with this software. Reeks is able to use this to track what his most popular products are and determine profit changes when customers decide to opt out of pickles or condiments with their hotdogs. You can run this software using an iPad too. Pretty crazy stuff.

Some restaurant suppliers located in the Oklahoma area: 

Sam’s Club – Reeks is extremely bullish on using Sam’s Club as a supplier for your food truck. One reason is that they will deliver to home addresses, unlike many other suppliers that may only deliver to a business address. Second, Sam’s Club has an online click-n-pull system that allows you to order product online and the employees will have all the product you need waiting at the location. That means less time on your end sourcing product. Time is money in the food truck business and leveraging Sam’s Club can be a smart way to slash the time needed to replenish supplies.

U.S. Foods – A large food supplier that is serves most metro areas in the United States.

Costco – Another option for food trucks to obtain their product mentioned during the show.

Ben E. Keith Co. Another option for food truck owners to get their supplies. 

How to Build a Food Truck Yourself – My most “viral” blog post ever. I highlighted this in the podcast this week.

Have feedback for the show? Leave us a voicemail message at 206-309-4660 and you could be featured on the program. 

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.

If you liked this story, sign up for our newsletter that includes our food business startup kit and most popular interviews sent straight to your inbox.

Know someone interesting that should be interviewed on the website? Tell us about them here.Â