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Maria smiled as she studied the figures and her market research. She
knew she had a viable product idea, and it was time to begin finding
The Soup Shack a home.
She knew if she could find the right location to make and serve her
soup, she should have a high enough gross margin to cover her fixed
costs. One of her major fixed costs would be to pay for the location.
She had three options:
1. Make payments on a food truck.
2. Cook soup at her home and make deliveries.
3. Rent a restaurant space.
Maria loved the idea of a colorful food truck blasting dance music as
she drove to different locations throughout the day to serve her soup.
She found a great second-hand truck and found
, that she would have to make payments of $500/month. Then she
learned that each location where she parked would charge a fee. She
would pay $150 to park at the bus stop, $200 a month to park at the
post office, and $400 just to park in an empty lot in the center of
town. She also realized she would have additional gas costs and
maintenance on her truck. There would be some benefits to having
the food truck, but it is not as straightforward as she hoped. This
option was easy to nix before she got too far into the analysis; by the
time she added on all the extras, it was going to be very expensive
with limited options to expand and grow.
The least expensive option seemed to be making soup in her kitchen
and delivering it with her van, but that too would be very difficult
since she lived several miles away from town. From her market
research, she learned that when her target market typically bought
soup, they wanted to go somewhere to sit down to eat while visiting
with a friend or colleague. They also want it to be inexpensive since
most people in her town were paid low to middle-income wages.
Maria moved to her last option–renting a space for a restaurant. She
found a few spaces around town that could possibly work:
Location 1: The Bus Stop
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