Running a small business · Present day
The Food Truck Winter
Sales are slow and cash is tight. Hold the price, cut it, or spend to grow?
- Ages
- 16 to 18
- Time
- About 20 minutes
- Shape
- 3 decisions and a defense
Part 3 of 3 in the series Grow or Hold
The situation
A sandwich sells for $9 and costs $3.50 to make, so each sale puts $5.50 toward the truck's fixed costs: permits, insurance, parking, the loan and wages, about $1,650 a week.
That means 300 sales a week to break even. This winter, sales have slipped to about 240.
Your teen runs the truck through the slow season, and learns why profit and cash are not the same thing. The numbers are illustrative.
The background is real. The decisions are an imagined game set in it, so your teen can practice the same kind of reasoning. What really happened is shown only after your teen writes a defense.
What it builds
Using real numbers to make a decision: margin, break-even and cash on hand.
Weighing trade-offs
Names what is gained and lost for each option and chooses on purpose.
Using evidence
Backs each claim with a specific fact from the simulation.
Judging risk
Names likely and severe risks and how to reduce them.
Making a clear argument
A clear claim, reasons, and an answer to the best counter-argument.
Subjects it touches: Business, Mathematics, Economics. It sits beside your core curriculum; it doesn't replace it.
Try the first decision
A short preview. It has no AI and saves nothing. Want two minutes with the background first? Try a mission free
Decision 1 of 3 · Preview, no AI, nothing saved
Sales are down to about 240 a week, 60 short of break-even. You can spend a limited amount this week on one choice. Each one changes how many customers you keep, what each sale earns, and how much cash you have left.
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