Down Home Eats | Application Preview
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General Information
Business Registration Number: 92-1474371
Location: Jackson, WY, United States
Length of Operation: 1-5
Number of Employees: 1-10 Employees
Annual Gross Income: Less than $100k
Annual Gross Expense: Less than $100k
Open to Loans: YES
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Funding Usage
Down Home Eats L.L.C is seeking $50,000 as start-up funding to launch its new food trailer. These funds will be used to purchase a trailer, design the mobile kitchen, and invest in a 12-month social media and community media campaign. In five years, Down Home Eats will become a household name and the preferred stop for breakfast on the way to the park, dinner on the way home, and a company to provide catering, which will be launched in year two. Down Home Eats L.L.C. is essentially a diner on wheels. We are located in Jackson, Wyoming. Down Home Eats is focused on providing the community with home-cooked food from recipes handed down for generations and making them reminisce about how Grandma used to make it. Down Home Eats provides home-cooked food with no grandeur, quality, and comfort. Currently, no restaurants serve basic mashed potatoes and gravy with meatloaf, turkey, or roast beef. Ham and macaroni and cheese with applesauce is not something you can find here. The need for a diner-type food service is great and will fill a need. It's where families will go when they are finished with a soccer game because they want home-cooked food and don't feel like cooking.
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Business Plan
he functional roles of staff for Down Home Eats would predominantly fall to Leah. While she will include her son to help staff the trailer this summer, hiring an individual to work with her will be needed after August 2023. In addition, Down Home Eats will look for an advisor to assist Leah in the administrative and financial areas of the business. Finally, Leah and her son Jalen will handle the day-to-day. A truck is necessary to get the trailer from place to place and will be covered under Down Home Eats insurance, as well as the trailer and all it entails. In addition, all kitchen components will be maintained with timely maintenance to ensure the appliance's life. The menu will include choices for breakfast and lunch but will be limited to one or two options to allow for appropriate prep and limited storage. For example, we plan to offer a hamburger. It will have the choice of cheese and bacon or not with a veggie set up, or a customer could have a sandwich, again one sandwich but perhaps a choice of bread. Dinner will be on a particular day so that it would be yay or nay. For example, Tuesdays might be Roast Beef with Mashed Potatoes and gravy. Down Home Eats will always have cinnamon rolls, hamburgers, and tater tots. The daily specials will remain consistent once those are set. If Down Home Eats decides to do something unique or different, it would be communicated an ample advance notice to avoid disappointing customers. Down Home Eats takes cash or card and supports Venmo and Square. The business will utilize a P.O.S. system like a square to keep track of inventory and sales in the trailer. Leah will handle the finances by seeking an outside mentor to assist or check in with at least the first year or two. Down Home Eats will reach a milestone in the business when a new truck can be purchased to pull the trailer and act as an advertisement with a selected wrap. Another milestone would be when Down Home Eats L.L.C. needs an operating agreement to hire employees and expand past family. The routes that Down Home Eats is potentially looking at would be starting at the Teton National Park Sign for breakfast to be there for travelers heading into the park. Lunch would depend on permits, but potentially down by Hoback circle or at another approved location like J.H. Indoor or a park. Dinner would be in a neighborhood like Melody Ranch or an approved site in town. The management team of Down Home Eats includes all members of the family. Adriana Dow-Sanchez is the Operations Manager handling the scheduling and social media campaigns. Leah Dow-Sanchez, the founder, heads the ordering of products and pricing of such, as well as cooking and creating recipes. Jalen Dow is a culinary student working alongside Leah and learning from her. The rest of the family does help in other ways. Down Home Eats is a food trailer that serves breakfast, lunch, and an early bird dinner. Down Home Eats has been a functioning business for two years, surviving by word of mouth. Leah has a culinary degree and two master's degrees in education administration and leadership. While the other two degrees are not food-related, they lend themselves to leadership and the ability to organize and prosper. Leah has worked in the food industry since 1997, more sparingly after becoming a teacher, but has continuously operated as a business during the holidays with her baking. Down Home Eats plans to offer home-cooked options for all three meals of the day. Breakfast items include french toast and breakfast burritos, lunch items, soup and sandwiches for lunch, and comfort foods for dinner like turkey and mashed potatoes or beef stroganoff, or macaroni and cheese. In addition, we plan to offer hamburgers and will work with local company Lockhart Ranch to provide our hamburger patties and 460 to provide bread products. We also plan to offer tater tots, not fries, as no food establishment in Jackson provides regular tater tots. We also plan to offer hot-and-ready and take-and-bake dinner options for athletic families on the go.
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Self Identified Competition
In Jackson, Down Home Eats competitors would be establishments such as The Virginian, The Bunnery, and Bubba's BBQ. These businesses are long-standing Jackson brick-and-mortar restaurants. Of these, only Bubba's BBQ is open past lunch, providing a limited menu that essentially ties to BBQ. Even though these businesses are long-standing in Jackson, they do not serve comfort foods for dinner and cannot cater to neighborhoods or sporting events as Down Home Eats would be able to. A handful of food truck/trailer businesses operate seasonally in Jackson, Wyoming. There are taco trucks, a popcorn truck, a fish truck that comes once a month, and some other coffee trucks. Other mobile businesses that come to town from outside Jackson come for events like the fair or festivals in the parks. Jackson contains families, young adults, an older working class, and retired individuals. Jackson is a second home to many influential people. The working class of Jackson often does not reside in town due to the increasing housing costs. The population of Jackson is just under 11,000 people, and 40% are women. Families make up the larger half of the population, and sports are integral to many families. A key component of Down Home Eats is marketing toward those families and being nearby with home-cooked food to help alleviate that need. The typical Jackson family is active and loves the outdoors year-round. Skiing, hiking, biking, hockey, running, the list goes on for the Jacksonite activities. Jackson is also the national hub for nonprofits, so there is event after event that Down Home Eats could be at both to support and to provide food options.
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