Business models / Food Truck / Own a franchise

A food truck franchise, or your own?

Five franchise brands run a food truck. Here they are beside the independent version of the same business, with each brand’s fees as it publishes them and worked out in dollars. A brand can bring customers an independent has to earn one by one. The question is whether it brings in more than it costs.

Typical for a food truck: $150k to $500k in sales, and the owner keeps 21% to 30% after paying for its own marketing. Change either to your own numbers.

Work each brand out at

How the two sides are counted

  • Sales. A brand’s name brings customers an independent wins one at a time, so each brand is worked out at the sales it reports where we have them, and at yours where we don’t.
  • Marketing. On your own you pay for all of it, about 3% of sales here (the SBA’s usual range for ongoing marketing). The ad fund does part of that job, so it is counted once, not twice.
  • Survival. New franchised businesses were about 5 to 6 points more likely to make it through their first two years in Census data, and about half of all new businesses close within five years. It is not in the dollars; each brand’s details give the sources.

Your own food truck and each brand, side by side

The independent version

Your own food truck

Built and run under your own name

Cost to open
$43k to $93k
Annual sales
$270ktypical
Franchise fee
None
Royalty + ad fund
Noneall marketing is yours
$70,200
The owner keeps in a year, after about $8k of marketing
Taking new owners

Frios Gourmet Pops

Gourmet ice pops

Total investment
$72k to $91k
Avg. annual sales
Ask the brand
Franchise fee
$38k
Royalty + ad fund
In the details
The fee is not a simple share of sales, so it is not worked out in dollars. The details show it as the brand words it.
Taking new owners

Kona Ice

Shaved ice trucks

Total investment
$102k to $227k
Avg. annual sales
Undisclosed
Franchise fee
$15k
Royalty + ad fund
In the details
$65k to $67k
The owner keeps in a year at $270k in sales (your sales), after $3k to $5k to the brand
$3k to $5k less a year than on your own
Taking new owners

DonutNV

Mobile mini donuts

Total investment
$190k to $273k
Avg. annual sales
$124k to $160k
Franchise fee
$60k
Royalty + ad fund
In the details
The fee is not a simple share of sales, so it is not worked out in dollars. The details show it as the brand words it.
Taking new owners

Mister Softee

Ice cream trucks

Total investment
$264k to $314k
Avg. annual sales
Ask the brand
Franchise fee
$8k
Royalty + ad fund
In the details
The fee is not a simple share of sales, so it is not worked out in dollars. The details show it as the brand words it.
Taking new owners

Cousins Maine Lobster

Lobster roll food trucks

Total investment
$267k to $969k
Avg. annual sales
Ask the brand
Franchise fee
$40k
Royalty + ad fund
6% + 2% of sales
$54k
The owner keeps in a year at $270k in sales (your sales), after $22k to the brand
$16k less a year than on your own
Free account

See all 5 food truck brands side by side

  • Every brand’s investment and fees, and what the owner keeps against running your own
  • The yearly sales the first 3 report, and a plus to add brands to your comparison and benchmark them in your account
  • Members see the sales every franchisor reports, for every brand

Free, no card. A new account accepts the Terms and the Privacy Policy. smbnest is a self-assessment tool and never takes a cut of your deal or a fee from a franchisor.

Before you sign: what to read in the disclosure document

Every franchisor must give you its Franchise Disclosure Document at least 14 days before you sign or pay. These are the parts that answer the questions above.

  • Items 5 to 7, the fees and the investment. The franchise fee, every other fee (technology, training, transfer, renewal), and the full opening budget, including working capital.
  • Item 19, what owners earn. Whether the brand states owner sales or earnings at all, and for which units. Put its figures in the boxes above in place of the typical ones.
  • Item 20, units opened, closed and sold. How many owners left in each of the last three years, and a list of current and former owners you can call.
  • Item 12, the territory. Whether you get a protected area, and what the brand can open or sell inside it.
  • Item 21, the franchisor’s own finances. Whether the company behind the brand is in good health.

smbnest is a self-assessment tool, not individualized advice. Fees are as each brand publishes them on its franchising page and in its disclosure document, reviewed in the month shown, and change; the figures in dollars are worked out at the sales you enter and are not a forecast. We never take a cut of your deal or a fee from a franchisor. Before you sign, speak with a franchise attorney and a qualified financial adviser, and call owners from the disclosure document.