I've been running concession booths for nearly 20 years. I started with one concept, a borrowed trailer, and no idea what I was doing. Today I run 8 food concepts across 5 state fairs and generate over $1M in revenue every season.
I've made every mistake in the book — and I've watched hundreds of other operators make them too. The generic "how to start a food business" guides will tell you to write a business plan and get a food handler's card. That's not wrong. But it's also not enough.
This guide covers the stuff they leave out. Real steps, real costs, real talk from someone who actually works a booth every single season. Here's what I wish someone had told me in year one.
Choosing Your Concept
Most people start here wrong. They think about what they love to eat, or what they think is unique. That's backwards.
Start with what sells at events. The concession business is not a restaurant. You are not building a loyal customer base who comes back every week. You are selling to foot traffic — people who are hot, hungry, and deciding in about four seconds whether to stop at your booth.
The best concession concepts share a few traits:
- High perceived value, low food cost. Fresh-squeezed lemonade costs about 30 cents to make and sells for $8–12. Loaded fries cost under $2 and sell for $10–14. These margins are why certain items dominate fairs decade after decade.
- Fast to make. If it takes more than 90 seconds to plate and hand off, you have a throughput problem. At a busy state fair, you might have 40 people in line. Speed is money — and it's also the difference between a great reputation and a customer who walks away frustrated.
- Easy to scale. You want to double or triple your volume without doubling your staff or your complexity. Lemonade and loaded fries scale beautifully. Multi-step entrees with 12 toppings don't.
- Stands out visually. Tall lemonade cups, dramatic loaded fries, freshly squeezed anything — visual products sell themselves. If someone three booths away can see what you're making and it looks good, you're already marketing.
Categories that consistently work: fresh-squeezed lemonade and limeade, BBQ, corn dogs and hot dogs, loaded fries and nachos, funnel cakes, shaved ice, and ethnic foods that are uncommon in your region.
Before you invest in equipment, test your concept at a small local event. Farmers market, car show, neighborhood festival — anywhere you can set up cheap and get real feedback. If you can't sell it to 200 people on a Saturday afternoon, you need to rethink before spending $20,000 on a trailer.
Licensing and Permits
Every state is different. Every county is different. I cannot give you an exact checklist — but I can tell you what to look for and what actually matters.
Business Entity
Form an LLC before you do anything else. It costs $50–$200 depending on your state and it separates your personal assets from your business. If something goes wrong at an event — a customer gets sick, there's an accident, anything — you want that protection. Go to your state's Secretary of State website and file online. This takes 30 minutes.
Food Handler's Certification
This is usually a short online course and costs $15–$50 per person. In most states, at least one person working the booth needs to be certified. ServSafe is the most widely accepted certification nationally, but check your state's requirements.
Mobile Food Unit Permit
This is your state-level permission to operate a mobile food business. It usually involves an inspection of your trailer or setup and costs $100–$400 per year. Apply through your state's Department of Agriculture or Department of Health. Give yourself 4–6 weeks for this process.
Health Department Permits
At most events, the local health department will either inspect you on-site or require you to have your state permit on file. Some counties require a separate temporary food establishment permit for each event. Budget $50–$200 per event for this — and always contact the county health department in advance, not the event organizer, to confirm what's required.
Sales Tax Registration
Most states tax prepared food. Register for a sales tax permit at your state's Department of Revenue before your first event. It's usually free and takes less than a week.
One rule that trips up a lot of new operators: many states require a commissary kitchen agreement. That's a licensed commercial kitchen where you prep food and clean equipment. Even if you prep and clean entirely on-site in your trailer, some states still require you to have a commissary agreement in place. Check with your state's health department before your first event — not after.
Equipment — What You Actually Need
Here's where most new operators overspend. They see a shiny custom trailer on YouTube and think that's what they need to start. It's not.
Match Equipment to Your Concept
Different concepts need different equipment. Lemonade needs juicers and a cold dispensing system. BBQ needs a smoker or a commercial flat-top. Funnel cakes need a fryer. Don't buy a fully-equipped six-piece-of-equipment trailer if your concept only needs two. Every piece of equipment is something else that can break.
Buy Used Whenever Possible
Commercial kitchen equipment is built to last decades. A used 40-lb fryer that cost $2,500 new might sell for $400 on Facebook Marketplace. A used concession trailer in solid working condition might run $5,000–$12,000. That is the same trailer that would cost $35,000+ new.
Where to find used equipment: Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, restaurant liquidation sales, and operators who are getting out of the business. The last source is often the best — they know what the equipment can do and they're motivated to sell.
The Generator Is Not Where You Cut Corners
I have watched operators lose entire event days because they bought a cheap 3,500-watt generator that couldn't handle their load. If you are running a fryer, a refrigerator, and lighting at the same time, you need at least 6,500 watts — I recommend 8,000+. Budget $1,000–$3,500 for a quality commercial-grade generator. It is the most critical piece of equipment you own, and a failure costs you far more than the upgrade would have.
The Realistic Equipment List
- Cooking equipment (concept-specific): $400–$2,500 used
- Generator (6,500W minimum): $1,000–$3,500
- Refrigeration (chest freezer or worktop fridge): $150–$1,200
- Trailer or tent canopy: $300–$12,000 depending on setup
- Tables and prep surfaces: $100–$300
- Signage and banners: $200–$600
- POS system (Square reader is free): $0 hardware cost
- Serving supplies — cups, containers, napkins, gloves: $200–$400
You do not need a fully-wrapped custom trailer in year one. You need clean, professional-looking, and functional. A well-organized tent setup consistently outsells a sloppy trailer. Presentation matters. Setup quality matters. The trailer itself? It's a means to an end.
Finding Your First Events
This is where the game is really played. I'll go deeper on event selection in a separate guide, but here's what matters when you're just starting.
Start local and start small. Farmers markets, community festivals, car shows, flea markets, church events. These are lower-risk environments with lower booth fees where you can learn your setup time, your line speed, and your actual numbers before a $2,000 state fair booth fee is on the line.
How to find events when you're starting out:
- Search "[your city] vendor application" or "[your county fair] food vendor"
- Call your county fairgrounds directly — most have a vendor coordinator
- Facebook groups for local events and street food vendors in your area
- City or county parks and recreation department event calendars
- Chamber of commerce and downtown association events
- Talk to other operators at events — ask what events they work and what they'd recommend
Apply to 3–4 events in your first season. You need to learn your real setup and breakdown time, how fast your line moves, how much product you actually use, and what your sales numbers look like before you book a full 20-event season.
Apply early. The best events fill up months in advance — sometimes 6–12 months out. If you're just getting started, you may miss some events this season. Use that time to test your setup and apply early for next year's anchor events.
Startup Costs — Real Numbers
There are three legitimate ways to enter this business, and they have very different price tags:
Lean Tent-Based Start: $3,000–$8,000
Tent setup, used equipment, permits, insurance, first inventory. Works for farmers markets, small festivals, community events. Not viable for most state fairs, which require enclosed trailers — but it's the smartest way to prove your concept before you go bigger. I know operators who now run multiple trailers who started exactly this way.
Used Trailer Setup: $10,000–$25,000
A used concession trailer, the equipment you need for your concept, permits, insurance, and your first season of inventory. This opens you up to larger events and state fairs. Most serious operators I work with fall in this range when they start.
New Custom Build-Out: $35,000–$80,000+
New custom trailer, professional wrap, full new equipment package. This is where you end up after you've proven the concept and know exactly what you need. It's not where you start — unless you have substantial capital and are comfortable with the risk of an unproven concept.
One principle I give everyone who asks: do not borrow more than you can pay back in one season. Run your numbers conservatively. If your first season realistic revenue is $40,000 and your food cost and event fees run 50%, your gross profit is $20,000 before labor. Don't start $60,000 in debt on those margins.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
I've made most of these. Learn from that instead of repeating them.
- Overbuilding before proving the concept. Test first, invest second. The business will tell you what it needs once you're running it.
- Menu creep. Every item you add means more inventory, more prep, more things that can go wrong, and slower service. Start with 3–5 items maximum. You can always add later.
- Underpricing. New operators chronically underprice because they're scared. At a state fair, people expect to pay $10–14 for a food item. If you're at $7, you're leaving money on the table and — counterintuitively — signaling lower quality. Price with confidence.
- Working bad events. This is the single biggest profit killer. I've seen operators work 12-hour days at events with 300 people in attendance and come home with $180 after booth fees. Event selection is everything — I have a full guide on this.
- No cash reserve. Equipment breaks. Events get rained out. Have 2–3 months of operating costs in accessible reserves before your first season. The operators who get wiped out by a broken generator are the ones who had zero buffer.
- Treating this like a solo sport. This industry runs on community. Other operators share event leads, warn you about bad events, troubleshoot equipment problems with you, and refer customers when they're full. Find your community early.
The Bottom Line
Starting a concession business is not complicated, but it requires good decisions made in the right order. The operators who build something lasting aren't smarter — they test before they invest, control their costs, work the right events, and don't go it alone.
If you want to skip the steepest part of the learning curve, join The Concession Collective. It's free. You'll get Module 1 of The Mobile Food Roadmap — which covers concept selection, startup costs, and your first-season plan — plus recordings from active guest operators and access to a community where people share real numbers and real experience.
This business can fund a great life. But only if you build it on the right foundation from the start.