Starting a Coffee Cart Business With No Experience

It all began with an idea. I (Jesse) saw a post online, I think, or something online that got me thinking. I had been looking for a business to start that wouldn’t require a fortune to start, wouldn’t require me to take on debts or lots of liabilities, and wouldn’t require me to quit my job right off the bat. I wanted something fun and creative, something that engaged me with other people, and something that made money. “Hmmmmm, would a coffee cart satisfy all those criteria?” I thought.

After months of running numbers and waiting, my wife and I decided to build the cart and start the business. I had borrowed a janky Breville espresso machine from my mother that she found at a yard sale, but other than that, I had zero experience with making coffee drinks. My wife supported me on the venture as I built the cart (I never did anything like that before), bought the equipment (we didn’t have much money, but we spent $5,500 of the little we had), and put a date on the calendar to soft-launch our business at my parents’ house with some friends.

The date came, and we set up the cart on their side porch under the pergola. It was the evening and we had little light to work with. Instead of using paper cups, we had a collection of mugs that my mom had collected. There was no uniformity, no standard amount of pumps we used in the drinks, and barely any understanding of how to steam milk properly. It was rough. It was so fun, though. After that event, I was hooked.

We got a few more events lined up for that fall. There was an event our church was throwing that we got added to and paid a little. There was a Makers Market at our alma mater we got to join, and a wedding planner reached out to us for an event she was throwing at her house. Before we knew it, we had a few events a month with no paid ads, just word of mouth and being on Google Maps.

January - April 2025 was really slow. No events and barely any leads coming in. I started utilizing Facebook to get more of an audience. I’d join groups, make a post, and then share that post to as many local groups with my target audience (think wedding groups). We actually got lots of warm leads from doing this outreach.

All this to say, we had no coffee experience, no solid business plan, and not much money, but we tried, and we have built a successful and growing coffee cart business.

If you too want to start a coffee cart, maybe you just need to start.

- Jesse