Success a la Cart

Denise Clark, 36, started off a decade ago selling hot dogs off a mobile vending cart to help pay for her college textbooks. She used her pre-law training to help change an old Compton city ordinance prohibiting street vendors, then looked for special events where she could set up for business. By concentrating on schools, corporate promotions and private parties, she now has six carts and eight employees. Clark was interviewed by freelance writer Karen E. Klein.

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I was a double major in business and law at El Camino College, and I had to buy books that cost $50 each. Those books cost more than the classes. I tried selling crystal and housewares and clothing to make some extra money, but pretty soon I felt like people were running the other way when they saw me coming because they didn’t know what I was going to try to sell them next!

One day on a television show I saw a hot dog cart in the background and I said: “That’s it. Even if people don’t buy anything else, they are going to eat.”

I hardly had money for books, but I found a cart and talked the owner into letting me pay for it on layaway. I talked him down from $2,800 to $2,500. I did some baby-sitting and worked for a local political campaign and as a waitress. I didn’t know it would take me a year to pay it off.

But a week after I got the cart I worked the Rose Parade, and I made $3,178 in a day and a half. I asked for cases of soda and money for my health permits for Christmas presents that year.

I did great at the parade, but after that I didn’t have a regular location to set up my cart. Every day it sat in storage I was losing money. I thought about putting my cart at the local office of the Department of Motor Vehicles, but when I went to ask about it, they told me street vendors were illegal.

I met with some people in Compton who believed in me, and then I made a presentation in front of the City Council, and they applauded. I was studying contract law at the time, and they let me help research and write a new law governing the operation of street vendors.

Four months later I had my cart at the DMV, and then I set another one up right in front of City Hall and hired an employee to operate it.

One day, one of my neighbors told me about a festival they were having at the elementary school where she worked. The school sold food tickets in advance, gave me a deposit for supplies and set me up with my cart at the festival and about 1,000 kids who wanted hot dogs.

I did some speaking at career days at some of the other local schools, and the principals started asking me if I could bring a cart to a Halloween party or a parent night. I donate 15% to 20% of the proceeds to the school, and they use it for things like buying uniforms or paying for trips for the Spanish club.

It’s a win-win situation, because the school is raising money and I have a block of time where I’m guaranteed to make money and I get funding for supplies upfront. I don’t have to set up at a location and then hope it’s not a slow day.

I took the same concept and expanded to special events such as fund-raisers for nonprofit organizations, corporate parties, college campus seminars and promotional weekends at car dealerships. At most of those events, they will pay you a fee just to have you show up, and then anything you sell is over and above that.

I am now working on manufacturing my own line of vending carts, and I have written a book teaching other people how to make a living by operating mobile vending carts. My six carts are leased out. I’m still in school, hoping to graduate next year and go on to law school.

AT A GLANCE

* Company: From Dogs ... to Riches

* Owner: Denise Clark

* Nature of business: Mobile vending carts

* Location: P.O. Box 54472, Los Angeles 90054

* Founded: 1988

* Employees: 8

* Annual revenue: $100,000