The barbeque business is flourishing in these hard economic times! The barbeque restaurants that we’ve seen most of our lives are still going strong and bringing in new customers daily. The reason is simple. Barbeque has always been reasonably priced, as well as a popular item on the menu.
This is about something more important than the standard mom and pop barbeque cafe’. This is about folks who use their imagination to earn money in troubled times like we’re living in now. Those who have lost their job due to the economy are falling back on their hobbies to make enough money to support their families.
A few months ago, while driving down the road to the west of my house, I smelled a familiar aroma even before I identified the source. Curiosity was getting the best of me as I approached a convenience store and saw a large barbeque grill billowing smoke as it sat by in a parking space by the side of the store.
I pulled into the store’s parking lot and walked over to the smoking grill. It was a black 55 gallon barrel, sawn in half vertically with hinges holding the two sides together, making a lid that covered a steel grate. Another grate in the bottom half of the barrel held charcoal.
The top was opened and on a warming rack laid a row of ready-to-eat barbequed pork ribs. Barbeque chicken was cooking on a grate about 12 to 15 inches from the charcoal.
While I was standing there waiting for my order, two more cars drove up to the homemade barbeque grill and bought two whole chickens and a rack of barbequed ribs. I purchased a rack of ribs and waited until business was slack for a moment and asked the man some questions about he got started. He was glad to tell me how he had made an idea into something profitable.
5 important tips on how he managed to do this:
The key to survival in the pig-eat-pig barbeque business is that you have to a big ego! You have to believe that you are an expert in the field of pulled pork. Most people who have achieved this level of belief are already experts in this field; at least in their own back yards. You don’t have to have a lot of experience. You just have to cook barbeque better than your neighbor if you want to sell it!
A grill is a must, preferably something big enough to cook a lot of meat. Most of the street corner barbeque stands I’ve seen use large black barrels cut in half, although I have seen a couple of portable ones that are made of steel. Obviously these are the folks who have invested in their business by upgrading their equipment. Do the baby back ribs taste better cooked on one of these grills on wheels? Not necessarily.
Location! Location! Location! This is the key, not only in real estate, but in the barbeque business also. Barbeque in the south is such a favored food, people do follow the scent of hickory smoke, so, as James Earl Jones once prophetically announced, “If you build it they will come!”
Make sure you are following all local commercial laws. As sad as it is, in the city there are business license issues that have to be dealt with. It’s a depressing sight to see a man with a picture of a pig on his apron, staring through a haze of smoke at a city official that is writing him a ticket for not having a license. The government has no heart when it comes to freedom of barbeque. They’re against it unless they can tax it!
Give it your all while you’re working. Most of the fellows who have turned to barbeque for their income only fire up the grill on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You’ll only have the weekend to get the public addicted to great tasting food, guaranteeing a return purchase from them next week. Sell yourself as well as the meat you’re cooking.
In various parts of my town I have counted as many as 8 barbeque grills in the parking lots of established businesses. These barbeque maestros usually pay the establishment a fee for the use of the space he is using, but sometimes they don’t charge at all. Give them a pound of barbeque and the rent is paid.
When jobs are scarce, it’s good to know that something as humble as southern barbeque can make a difference in someone’s economic life.
