Starting a Mobile Food Stand as a Solution to Unemployment

As retirement looms many aging baby boomers worry about their future. Inadequate retirement savings, inadequate health insurance, and an active lifestyle are the most common reasons more than 49% of retirement age people either want, or need to keep working. At the same time many older workers are now being forced into early retirement when they are unable to replace their job lost to downsizing, out-sourcing, or the current recession. Unfortunately, as we age, remaining employed can become more difficult. Many employers believe older employees are less valuable due to age bias, higher medical costs, and an inability to stay current with rapidly evolving trends and technologies.

Luckily, many older workers and retirees have found a solution. They've joined the growing number of "nouveau-entrepreneurs" who are becoming professional food concessionaires-selling food from food stands or food booths at fairs, festivals, and special events.

The recent gain in popularity of the mobile food service business amongst frustrated job seekers has occurred for good reason. With the national average unemployment rate stalled at over nine percent many people are abandoning their job search and turning instead to self-employment. Now, energetic and imaginative entrepreneurs who are weary of prolonged joblessness are opening food stands, trucks, and concessions in record numbers- many with great success. Due, in part, to wide-spread media coverage and cable TV shows, such as "Food Truck Nation" the food concession business has gained status with entrepreneurs and their customers, and is no longer considered the misfit of small businesses as it once was.

Though a bona fide business, the food concession business is unlike most other forms of self-employment. Concessionaires work part time, travel, work in a fun and relaxed atmosphere, and most importantly, can customize their business to the level of earnings and involvement they desire. The unique possibility of making a relatively large amount of money in a short period of time, a moderate investment of time and capital, and the ambiguity of a cash business with minimal licensing requirements, are some of the unique benefits that make the concession business accessible and attractive to people who otherwise would not consider self employment.

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21 Ways to Collaborate with Other Artists & Bands

One of the best ways for emerging bands to gain new fans is to be exposed to another band's audience. Especially if you have similar target markets, fans are more likely to trust a recommendation coming from a band they already know and like. Here are some ideas on how you can collaborate with other artists and bands to grow your fan base:

Collaborate on Live Shows

Likely the easiest and most common way to collaborate with other bands is to play gigs together. Here are a few different ways to collaborate on gigs:

1. Gig Swap

This is of course a no-brainer. Find other like-minded bands whose musical style either compliments you, or even better, that would make for an interesting combination, giving fans of both bands a unique experience. You can open for each other at different shows, and this will work especially well if the other band is based in a different (but nearby) city. You can do gig swaps to help each other break into new markets.

2. Festival gigs

If you're playing a festival and there is an artist or members of a band that you want to collaborate with, why not create a special environment at your festival gig by collaborating on a song or two? I've seen artists collaborate on festival stages big and small, and it usually makes for a buzz-worthy performance that gets people talking.

Read more here!

What Should I Do With My Old Art?

Even if you're not a particularly prolific artist, when you paint long enough, sooner or later you'll find yourself with a bunch of old paintings. If you have unlimited space to store them or a large family willing to accept your gifts of art, you're all set.

But what if you don't have a lot of storage or a big family (or family members willing to receive your art)? What do you do with all those old paintings?

Here's a painting that's over ten years old. It was from a series I made for a specific show in 2003. Although it's lost a lot of its panache, it's still my favorite of the bunch.

But it's been over ten years now, and there it is, still hanging on my wall. So let's use it as an example of ways you might reuse or recycle your old paintings.

1. Repackage it with a new frame

Let's start with something simple. Maybe all it needs is a new frame. I had one large colored pencil painting that went through two framings before I found the right solution. Granted, it took a willingness on my part to pay someone with framing expertise to finally get things right, but it was worth the effort.

Here's a photo of the current frame I have on my painting. Pretty plain, right?

That could be the reason I still have the painting. The target market for this type of painting generally prefers more ornate and classical frames. Finding a frame that fits that description could very well result in a sale.

If your paintings or drawings are representative of your current work and are good enough for exhibits and shows, try a simple "frame lift" first. This doesn't have to be an expensive exercise. If you have a lot of paintings or drawings that are the same size, just swap frames and see what happens.

With works on paper, you might need to change only the mats or maybe just the frame to find a better solution. Another option is to try a remarque. A remarque is a small original sketch drawn on one of the mats and "framed" by a second or third mat. Pair it with a title plate (brass of course) and that might be all you need to do to spruce up that old drawing and make a sale.

3 Common Blogging Mistakes

You may have a website or a blog that was published when you first launched your business, but are you aware that it could literally be chasing away or turning off your customers instead of drawing them in?

In today's mobile foods business development article we will reveal the three most common mistakes mobile foods entrepreneurs make with their blog and three ways to check if yours is actually working against you:

Mistake #1 - Slow loading content. If you publish large image, audio or videos files that have not been optimized for the web it could take longer than customary to load your pages. It's critical to monitor this because in today's speed demon oriented society web surfers are extremely short on patience. If your content loads too slowly it's guaranteed that you'll lose a significant percentage of prospective visitors. *Remember, people can't buy what they can't find.

Mistake #2 - Confusing site navigation. When you fail to display clear navigational links site visitors will become frustrated. Most will opt not to continue exploring your site. If that happens you're missing a golden opportunity to connect with and hopefully establish a relationship with your ideal customer.

Mistake #3 - Making it difficult for visitors to contact with you. Do you bury your contact information in the back of your site? When you have new visitors coming to your blog site especially for the first time you need to make it easy for them to contact you when they are ready to do business with you. One way to fix this quickly is to publish your contact info in the upper right hand portion of your pages.

Bonus Tip: Consider adding your Twitter and/or Facebook feeds to your blog site. It's one of the quickest ways to keep visitors updated on your most current news and information.

Your Solution Is Here:

If you find that you're making any of the above most common mistakes don't lose heart, they are quite easy to correct. To help you get started in the next section you'll find three quick fixes to assure that your blog site becomes an inviting and user friendly destination.

Read more here!

Dealing with Fear and Uncertainty

When you own your business, you have freedom to set your schedule and choose your clients. You also have freedom from a regular paycheck, reduced healthcare costs, and shoving the blame for bad decisions somewhere else. Not all freedoms are equal.

Looking at my schedule, I see it's not as full as last month's. I immediately feel fear, financial stress, and worry. That's how I face most problems. Trouble is, those emotions don't solve problems. So I sit down to a meeting with my fear and stress. This is actually a great form of meditation. Instead of pushing all thoughts out of my head, as many ways of meditation instruct, I invite fear, uncertainty, and stress in. I sit with them, and ask them what they have to contribute.

"If you don't get work soon, you will lose the house," Fear said, getting right to the bottom line.

"But you only know training and writing and journaling, and that isn't being used in this economy," said Uncertainty, "and you don't know anything about wielding a shovel for all those shovel-ready projects," Uncertainty added.

"You are too old to get back to school, and that would take too long to retrain you, so you better stop eating or driving, because you are in bad trouble," Stress said.

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Why Backup Plans Fail

Do you want to become a professional musician, but don't know where and how to start? Do you really want a successful career in music, but your fear of failure is holding you back? Are you unsure about what to do if your plan doesn't work?

Most aspiring musicians receive a lot of advice from friends and family about the best approach to take with building their music career. Among the many things suggested, is the idea of having a backup plan. Many people give advice about "the need to have something to fall back on in case the music career doesn't work out" or "a Plan B". Typically, musicians are encouraged to go to school and get a degree in something they can easily find a job in, and do music on the side, in their "free time".

If/when you reach the point where your music career begins to develop, you are probably advised to work less in your day job and focus more on the music until you can leave the day job and make the music career work for you. This advice sounds good in theory, but in reality fails to work as intended in almost every case. Why? Usually the job that most musicians get to support themselves until their music career kicks off, has nothing to do with music in general, or their music career specifically. As a result, most end up in a very frustrating situation that makes it virtually impossible to achieve lasting success as a professional musician.

4 reasons why this kind of "backup plan" is usually doomed to fail

Reason #1: Not having an effective exit strategy.

The idea of slowly phasing out your day job while building your music career is good, but in order to work, it needs to be done in the right way. Most musicians have nothing planned or prepared that will allow them to gradually decrease the time spent at their day job and focus more on music. When choosing a "backup plan", musicians typically find a job that is the most "safe and secure" and the one that pays the most money. However, most people fail to plan the "exit strategy" and think ahead to the time when their music career situation will allow you to focus less of your time on the day job. When they finally reach that point, they realize that they are trapped in their day job and are unable to "gradually" phase it out. They are faced with the choice of either quitting the job entirely, or sticking to it until retirement (more on this shortly).

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Why Galleries Reject Artists

Most artists harbor the fantasy that if they could only find one art dealer who loved and believed in their work, their career would be set. They secretly believe that there exists a special person who can catapult them to fame. Many artists spend most of their careers searching for "the perfect gallery." And, like all quests towards perfection, it is never-ending. If they already have a gallery, it's not good enough; if they are looking for their first gallery, they dream about the moment when someone sets eyes on their work and offers them a solo show immediately. The harsh reality is that having a gallery love your work is only one very small part of what goes into the decision to represent an artist. From a gallery's point of view, adding an artist to their stable is much like adding a stock to one's portfolio. There are many complicated factors to take into consideration, and liking the "stock" usually has very little to do with the decision. There is no doubt that while liking the artist's work is certainly the first criterion, there are several other hurdles that must be overcome before a gallery will commit to an artist. Understanding those hurdles will help you to present your work effectively to galleries and detach yourself from the inevitable sense of personal failure that follows when a gallery rejects your artwork.

Too similar
A gallery looks at the group of artists they represent much like an artist looks at a painting. It is not so much the individual artist who is considered, but, rather, how the art fits into the existing group. Often galleries are reluctant to take artists who are too similar to an artist they already represent.

Too different
All galleries try to create a niche for themselves by representing artists who are stylistically similar and would appeal to their core group of collectors. If your work is outside the arbitrary parameters they have established, you are out of luck.

Too far away
Unless you have already established a reputation elsewhere, galleries are reluctant to work with artists outside their regional area. Issues surrounding shipping costs and the inconvenience of getting and returning work in an expedient manner often make it not worth it.

How to Attract Local Art Buyers to Your Art Website or Blog

Today, I want to talk about an important SEO (search engine optimization) technique that may not immediately be apparent to online artists.

As you probably already know, SEO is all about using words correctly on your art blog or website, getting links from other websites, and slowly moving up in the search engine rankings for key terms that you WANT people to find you for.

Well, in many cases, the terms you may really want to rank for are just too competitive. Trying to rank on the first page in Google for "oil painter" (for example) will be a tough, tough thing to do, especially if you're just starting out. There are just too many other oil painters around the world trying to do the same thing.

So my advice, especially for artists new to the internet, is to focus on being "local" instead of global. Yes, the internet can reach around the world.. but it may work better, initially, to use the internet to first reach your community, then your city, state, and so on.

How do you do this? By using local keywords and phrases throughout your site, in addition to your key terms (like "oil painter" or "wood sculptures").

Here are some ways to do that..

Read more!

Creating Local Buzz

Sometimes the hometown crowd is the toughest. It's easy for fans to get burnt out, especially if you play frequently in your city. If you've been seeing your local show attendance and interest drop, how can you re-invigorate your home base and pull off a stellar show?

We've got five easy tips to make your next hometown show a home run!

1 - Stop Playing

Yes, you read that right. Have you ever spent a week eating nothing but pizza? The next week, if anyone even mentions pizza, you groan in disgust, and probably mutter something along the lines of, "I never want to eat pizza again!"

If you play too often in your home city, your local fans could be experiencing that same feeling. If you play 3 times a week in the same 50 mile radius, your fans are going to get burnt out. Try taking a break from shows for a couple weeks to write or record some new material. Try focusing some of that booking energy on getting a few gigs in the next city over, and building a fan base there.

We're not saying you should never play your hometown. But by decreasing the frequency of your hometown shows, you will help to create demand for your shows. Then your fans can get excited about when you do play in your city.

2 - Create An Event

I'm not talking about a Facebook event, although you should probably create one of those too. I'm talking about making your concert special. Some obvious events are a CD release show, or a hometown show celebrating the end of a tour, but there are almost endless possibilities for creating events.

Depending on your band and brand, you could come up with some pretty crazy events to get people excited about your shows. Try a "Christmas in July" show, and grab a couple other bands to play some holiday tunes in the middle of summer (this is also a great time to start rehearsing and recording your new Christmas album!). You could do a birthday show for a band member, or a birthday show for your drummer's 15 year old pug! The possibilities are endless.

Read more here!

Tips for Promoting Your Art on Instagram

Carolyn Edlund

Have you joined Instagram? It's the fastest growing social media platform, and offers plenty of opportunities for artists. Use these tips to get started and build your audience!

Plan your strategy. Want to sell your art? Gain followers? Drive traffic to your website? Sign up subscribers? Decide on a strategy and let it guide your regular activities. If you are serious about using Instagram for business, keep it business-related. Create another account for personal reasons if you like.

Share your best images. What stands out on an Instagram feed? Wonderful photos that catch the eye. Do yourself a favor and use images that show your art beautifully - no glare, overexposed or blurry photos (ouch!)

Post shots of yourself working in the studio or en plein air, paintings on the easel, or your most recent show.

Embellish images with words and your logo - Want your image to carry your name, logo or URL with it? Download the WordSwag app on your smartphone to add words, quotes, a logo and more to dress up your images and brand them. Adding words directly on to an image adds another dimension to your posts, and draws attention.

Use the image caption to tell a story about your art. Here's where you give insight into your life as an artist. Write about what inspires you, a fascinating technique that you use, or a piece of art as it develops. Share your successes, mistakes and your dreams. Use this space to be authentic, and to gain emotional resonance with your audience.

8 Tips for Setting Boundaries

Alyson B. Stanfield

Are you blaming someone else or something else for getting in the way of your success? Maybe the problem is that you haven't set boundaries. I know because I've had to do it recently. In order to accomplish my BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), I have had to limit my work with individual clients and schedule them only two days of the week. This means saying "no" to a lot of people. It's hard. It's work. It's money out of my pocket. But it's absolutely necessary if I want to move forward.

Here are my tips for setting boundaries and saying "no":

1. Know what your goals are and how you're going to reach them. Post them and talk about them often. You have to keep them in the fore if you are serious about making them a priority.

SWOT Analysis for Event Planning

Himanshu Sharma

Products/Services Research

If you are organizing a corporate event then it is necessary for you as an event manager to do research of the products/ services promoted and sold by your corporate client.

• Find out how the company promotes its products
• How the company wants to build/enhance the image associated with its product (also known as the brand image)?
• What is the market value and market share of the company and its products?
• Who are the customers of the product?
• What are the features of the product?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of the product in comparison to competitors' products?

All this research will later help you in making an effecting promotional campaign for your corporate event.

SWOT Analysis

In SWOT Analysis:

'S' stands for Strengths
'W' stands for Weaknesses
'O' stands for Opportunities
'T' stands for Threats

Read more here!

9 Reasons Why Every Artist Should Have Their Own Art Blog

Dan Duhrkoop

Blogs have really come a long way since they first began as online journals or diaries. Now they're often used as a means of self-publishing, and are a very practical way of getting information online to reach a large number of people.

Many artists have been successfully blogging for years, whether by writing articles like I do or publishing images of their own artwork on a daily or weekly basis. In fact, I've found so many benefits to blogging that if you're an artist and you don't have a blog, I believe you're missing out.

So take a moment and consider these 9 reasons why every artist should have their own art blog. They just might convince you to start an art blog of your own.

1. Having an art blog can increase online art sales

Want to know the main reason why many artists end up blogging? Because internet search engines don't understand pictures-they only understands words.

That means that if you want to sell your art online and just put up a portfolio site with mostly images of your work, no one will ever find your art through the search engines. But, if you start a blog and spend a few hours each week blogging about your art, people will eventually begin to find you through Google and other search engines.

Then just sign up for an online gallery and you can easily direct visitors to the correct place to buy your art.

2. Art blogging will help you grow as an artist.

If you dive into blogging, you'll soon find yourself interacting and learning from other art bloggers in the ever growing community of art blogs online. By reading other blogs and getting to know other artists bloggers, you'll constantly be exposed to art and opinions that you'd never have come across otherwise.

Personally I've met hundreds of other artists through EmptyEasel, which is absolutely incredible. And even though I started EE to help others, I know I've gained a lot from doing it as well.

A Successful Food Stand Business Starts with Soul Searching

Barb Fitzgerald

The personal benefits of running a concession business including spare time, cash income, and independence are well known. However, the most important, and the least recognized advantage of the business is the ability to design the enterprise to suit the individual's desired level of earnings and involvement. When planning a concession business one must understand how each step in the start-up process largely determines one's ultimate earnings and level of involvement. Therefore a food concessionaire's business and personal goals should be considered when deciding what menu to serve, the type and design of the booth, and the types of events and venues to schedule.

The first step in planning your concession start-up should be serious and in-depth "soul searching". Start by asking yourself these questions:

1. What is your purpose for starting a concession business? Do you need extra money to help ends meet? Is your job at risk? Is your nest egg inadequate for your rapidly approaching retirement? Are you semi retired and want to stay active while supplementing your fixed income? Maybe your teenage kids need to raise money for college. Do you want a business in which the whole family can work together? Maybe you are hard to employ, or are a free spirit who wants to be responsible for your own employment.

2. What do you ultimately expect to achieve from you concession? In other words, how much money is enough? Will an extra ten thousand dollars provide you a more satisfying retirement, or is fifty or one hundred thousand dollars required to replace your current job?

Read more here!

Could You Teach Guitar?

Imagine going through week after week earning more than enough money to maintain a fun lifestyle, but not even noticing that you have done any work. That's what being a guitar teacher means to me. I enjoy the work so much and find it so rewarding, that I don't really experience it as work at all!

The popularity of the guitar continues to increase, so the demand for good guitar teachers remains strong. The question is, are you the right sort of person for the job?

Part of my activity over the last several years has involved the recruitment and training of a great many music tutors. I can say with certainty that the four items uppermost on peoples' minds when they apply for a job as a music tutor are:

Read more here!

What Every Vendor Should Know About Events

Chris of stitchesndishes.com

Mobile food festivals, food truck round-ups, food truck fairs, food truck throw downs.. they go by many different names, but at the end of the day, they're all the same. It's a fact that when multiple food trucks, carts and stands congregate in a single location,

They draw masses of hungry customers, curious and excited about the food options before them. Are they really all the same, though?

All too often do we hear that event goers leave events feeling cheated, and mobile food operators drive away in the red. What makes one event successful and another a virtual food truck graveyard?

There is a very simple golden rule in operating a mobile food business that most operators tend to overlook. Hope is for the weary; confidence in knowledge is the key to success.

Before you say 'yes' to that next tempting food truck extravaganza, arm yourself with knowledge to make an informed decision. This is your business, after all, and the event organizer holds your livelihood in his hands.

1. Does the organizer come with a track record? Too many inconsistencies means the organizer doesn't possess the knowledge and experience to produce successful events. Ask the organizer to account for low turn-out events, previous complaints, etc. If the organizer has little or no track record, be skeptical at best.

2. Is the event a 'pop up' or regularly scheduled event? Regularly scheduled events which occur at the same location on a regular frequency are much easier to judge. They typically come with a reputation. Pop up style events rely entirely on the experience and reputation of the event organizer.

3. How many people and vendors are expected to attend the event? If the organizer can't give you a solid estimate, how can you plan your inventory for the day? Ask the organizer for the estimated attendance, then ask how he derived these numbers. If the organizer has a solid track record, you can more than likely feel confident in his answer.

Pay very close attention to how the organizer is promoting the event, and remember the golden rule of advertising - only 1%-2% of the people reached will buy a product. Targeted advertising increases the odds of higher attendance.

Read more here!

How to Sell Items at Festivals in 7 Steps

Jackie DeVore

Ready to take your arts and crafts to the next level? In this article, we'll go over how to set up your products at a craftshow in a profitable way.

Step 1. Create Your Product

Before you get started on finding a festival, you'll want to determine which of your products you can make easily and quickly, and can set up at a craft show. It's a good idea to choose items that are unique to your style and that you can mass produce when needed. Keep in mind you'll be traveling with this product, displaying it, and will be creating a lot of the product at any given time. You'll want enough items to fill a large (10' x 10') display without running out of items. If a customer is forced to wait for the product until after a craft show, they'll likely lose interest.

Step 2. Find Your Festival

A good way to decide what kind of festival is best for you is simply to go to festivals. Take a look at the vendors that are currently booked at certain shows in your area, and what the attendees are looking for. Keep in mind that you don't want too much competition for your own product, but you do still want to stay relevant to the theme of the festival. Talk to the vendors at the show to see what their experience is. Be sure to do your homework.

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When Does a Band Need a Manager?

Lately, I've been caught up in an online music industry group regarding when the best time is for an act to join forces with a manager to further their career opportunities. There were a multitude of opinions about this topic from a variety of industry managers and marketing people. It's a great topic, worthy of discussion.

Something to think about when you read further, is the level and type of management. Management companies have exploded onto the scene in the last 10 years, but not all are the same. Just like music artists, there are both indie and major league managers. Some manage everything, others focus on specific career objectives.

The music industry continues to change rapidly. These changes are beginning to usher in a new dynamic involving manager/artist relationships and the services they offer.

So, let's get started. The two primary schools of thought on the right time for a manager.

Read more here!

How to Promote a Local Event

Elmer Thomas

This post takes a look a both the strategy and the tactics for promoting local events: First I discuss some general conventions regarding promoting events, then I elaborate on specific tactics and tools. The goal of this post is to serve as a checklist for anyone that needs to promote a local event.

Strategy

Who, What, When, Why?

Visualize what the final result of the event should look like, clarify the purpose of the event, then determine the actual tasks need to realize that vision. Remember that the actual tasks are secondary to the desired result. With that frame of mind you can maintain flexibility while keeping focused.

Research

Use Google and the "websites where you can post your event" (listed below) to investigate events similar to yours. Google the titles of those events to determine what online marketing channels they used. Search through old emails to examine marketing copy used for other similar successful events.

Read more here!