Process Update #4 - Year 1 Recap

Hi everyone!

I've been meaning to reach out again and give you all an update! Everything is happening so fast right now! (AND writing makes me anxious haha .-.) But now that I've started scheduling for my next year (our first day is May 24th!), I keep thinking about the fundraiser and where this whole thing came from, and, again, how incredibly grateful I am for all of you.

.some thoughts (skippable) scroll down for recap

I was talking to a friend the other day and they asked "What inspired you to start a food truck?" I always answer this type of question the same way and I realized, we all want things for a very simple reason: Something about whatever it is we want to do, does something inside us. It makes us happy, excited, thrilled, confident, authentic, connected to others and ourselves, or it fully grasps our curiosity and purpose. My answer to the question was never "Because I liked the idea of having a food truck" it was instead always "The small pop ups I did during my senior year of high school, where I got to share my food with friends, was the one of most gratifying experiences of my life." And in this moment, I realized that this seemingly large dream of mine came precisely from just a simple thing which was: I wanted to do what fulfilled me, more. And so I followed my curiosity and what it lead me to was this kickstarter. So, the pursuit of something small translated into a bigger thing. After almost two years after the kickstarter, I still can't seem to wrap my head around all of you who supported this dream of mine. But maybe I can leave you with something...

Maybe, it's my age or where I am in life, but I see people have big dreams without their CORE want. They want the big job, or they want the x thing. And I've talked to a few friends about this and with the people say these types of answers, I never get the sense that what they say they want is what really hits them in their core. I never hear "It makes me so happy" or "It captures my attention like nothing else" or "It gives me meaning." It always has sort of something to do with what's expected. Something like... "It'll further my career", or "It's just the path I'm on." And when I think about my food truck, sure I had the "I want to do a food truck," but it was grounded by the immense "want" underneath that gave me my purpose. And maybe we're all conditioned not to really say what we want for fear of failure, but take this kickstarter right here... This kickstarter proved it wrong. Maybe when we were children and we wanted the cookie, and inevitably were told no, we learned it's not okay to want things. But the "No" was only given because the cookie isn't good for you! Forgive me for my cheeky metaphors, but the point is, is that if there's something you want, and it's honest and good, don't be afraid of failing. Because recently, I've learned that people want to see people go for something they want. People fall in love with people who risk their "safe job" in order to pursue what makes them feel something. This kickstarter is proof of that fact. As Romeo says, "I am proof against their enmity." (Sorry that was a terrible shakespeare reference)--(i am studying acting y'all haha).

And for myself, believe it or not, I constantly have a hard time putting my wants first. But whether you are my age or much older, if you're a person, like me, who has a hard time allowing yourself to want things, start small. Start with the pop up. Start with cooking for your best friend, or whatever it is that ignites your curiosity. Curiosity will lead you toward your passion. Knowing your passion will lead you to your sense of self, your purpose. And your passion doesn't have to manifest in your job or profession, it can be in anything in life. Just know that pursuing that will grant you your confidence and authenticity. Confidence LITERALLY means "having faith in your BEING" (latin cum fidelis, "with trust/faith"). Authenticity is "acting from ones own authority."

YEAR ONE RECAP

OK I'll stop now haha if you skipped all of that I don't blame you. NOW to the Year ONE recap. (For those that are interested in statistics)

SORRY BEFORE I start with statistics I want to give a couple shoutouts (and if you aren't one of these people, I still love you, this is just appreciation <3).

Shoutouts

To the people who worked with me in the truck and helped me figure out the process:

Thank you Nestor Gonzales for being my right hand man since Day 1.

Thank you, Tommy Castleberry. Your consistent positivity and warmth even at our most stressful moments was and is invaluable.

Thank you Henry Robbins I admire your ability make everyone feel like they belong.

Thank you Nick Botsaris, you made me remember who I used to be.

Thank you Ava Wisnom for being part time and consistently saving me when staffing was low.

Thank you Matilda Marinello, I admire your bravery entering a summer job run basically by teenage boys O_O.

This was our staff. Each of you were so crucial to the success of this truck I cannot overstate it enough.

Thank you Sara Dugan for thinking of me when Chad Houck needed trucks. Those first few events in the beginning of the summer were so consequential, if this hadn't happened... I don't know how far we would've went.

To my mom and my dad: Thank you so much for your patience, you grace, and loving support through all of this. Whether it's figuring out the assembly line with me, mostly through trial by fire :| or rushing to resupply the truck when we sold out... The fact that I could count on you without stress of disappointment or resentment was the reason I could push myself to grow. EVEN when you had prior responsibilities, you would figure out a way to drop it (responsibly I'm sure) and bail me out the minute I texted you. And ya know... I figured it out... eventually... 0_0

Thank you to my baseball family, thank you to the regulars, thank you.

Ok. Year One Recap For Real

We sold 4,745 burgers, 3,178 orders of fries, and 1,808 canned drinks. The most popular item was the Classic Burger (lettuce, tomato, and burger Sauce), raking in 53% of all burgers ordered. The Retro Burgerwas ordered 32% of the time and custom burgers were the remaining 15%.

This is a rough sketch of our profit and loss over the course of the summer.

As you can probably see, starting a business is not an easy endeavor. Hats off to all you entrepreneurs, truly. I can't imagine trying to do this while also having to raise a kid for example. Although, it gets better the farther you go. We didn't really make much until the last few weeks of the summer. You can imagine how in the start, we may have fallen in the red given that we had to pay for food, payroll, AND those fixed costs which averaged a little over $1,000 every week! (for those that don't know, fixed costs are business costs that don't change if you're open or not, like insurance or rent). But eventually those bad days balance out with good ones. And luckily for the next couple of years, we won't have as many fixed costs to pay for, AND we won't have as hard of a time marketing and refining our assembly line!

Conclusion

This is, sadly, probably the last time I will reach out to all of you through Kickstarter. I am indebted to all of you. You have given me something that changed my life. You have given me a pathway to pursue my passions. That isn't something many of us get the privilege to do. So once and for all. Thank you.

If you ever want to chat or catch up. I'd love to. Feel free to text or call me at [redacted]. I'll be here... flipping burgers ;)

-Matthew Beagan