Set Up Your Suppliers
You will need to find quality, well priced, local suppliers for all the different consumable items you will be using in operating your hot dog cart. These items include the meat, condiments, drinks and side order foods you will sell, as well as cleaning supplies, paper goods, propane gas, etc.
Find a supplier for your hot dog buns. You may want to have a couple of sizes such as standard and jumbo, and maybe even a deluxe bun like a cheese bun, poppy seed bun, or an onion bun. Often times a small local bakery is a excellent source for fresh quality buns. Otherwise, you may wish to purchase from one of the large discount grocery chain stores or one of the national bakery supply companies.
Find a local supplier for your hot dog meat. You may wish to offer standard size, jumbo, garlic, polish, spicy, bacon wrapped, or whatever style is the local regional favorite. Sometimes a local meat processor or butcher shop is the ideal source. Others use one of the national brands.
You may find it beneficial to get set up with a local commissary. A commissary is a licensed food establishment (such as a deli) that will prepare and store certain perishable food items for you. Because they are already set up to properly receive, prepare and store foods, it will help you to avoid dealing with many of the stringent health department regulations regarding preparing and storing perishable foods such as meat and cheese. In addition, you don't have the cost of the refrigeration equipment. Having a commissary will also provide a location for your food stuffs to be delivered all day long at times when you wouldn't otherwise be available.
So basically, for a fee, the commissary provides refrigeration equipment and a storage area, receives and prepares some of the perishable foods for you, and conforms to all the health department regulations for these services. This simplifies your business and reduces your workload. They will store your hot dog meat for you and prepare your daily supply of chopped onions or grated cheese. So having a good rapport with a quality commissary is a real asset to your business.
You will need to comparison shop for suppliers of other items. These include condiments, potato chips, sodas, other beverages, plastic cutlery, napkins, hot dog bags, take-out bags, cleaning supplies, sanitizing solution, and propane gas. These items can be sourced from specialized restaurant supply companies, big box stores, discount supermarkets, commercial cleaning supply companies, and so on. While many of these can be stored in your home office, take care that even non-perishable items are stored in a manner that conforms to any local health code regulations. These are detailed in the Operations Manual.