Could it help you pay off debt? Build your savings? Take better vacations? Replace your full-time income? Or simply give your family more breathing room?

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My name is Mark Slane. I am a retired firefighter/paramedic. My wife, Tina, and I created My Weekend Food Business to help anyone (even without experience or cooking ability) build a profitable food business without spending years learning everything the hard way.

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We wanted more income - but not another job 

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A few years after I retired, Tina and I realized that living on a fixed retirement income was not much fun. We wanted to make extra money, but we did not want another traditional job.

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We wanted the freedom to decide:

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- When we worked

- How many hours per week we worked

- How much money we could earn

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I had always thought about owning a food trailer and I was a pretty good cook after years of cooking at the firehouse, so we decided to give it a try. 

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We launched a coffee-and-beignets food trailer - and lost our hind ends!

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For three or four months, we worked hard without coming close to breaking even. We had invested in the wrong equipment, attended the wrong events and built a menu that simply was not working.

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That was when we decided to stop guessing and start learning.

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We Changed Everything

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We read every food business book we could find. We watched countless videos from experienced food truck owners and studied what successful six-figure businesses were doing differently.

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Then we completely rebuilt our business.

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We changed our menu, our event selection process, our setup and the way we served customers. That is how Bama Tina's Cheesy Mac was born.

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Suddenly, we had long lines at festivals while other vendors stood waiting for customers. We were bringing in $2,000 to $6,000 every time we went out.

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Why?

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Because we were not selling the same things as everyone else.

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At many events there might be six barbecue trucks, eight fried-food tents and more lemonade stands than anyone could count. Meanwhile, we were the only vendor offering:

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- Loaded macaroni & cheese bowls

- Jumbo baked potatoes

- Walking tacos

- Dirty sodas

- Dirty lemonades

- Dirty Monsters

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Our menu was different, lightning fast to prepare and built around foods people already loved. Most of our items shared the same ingredients, which reduced waste, simplified preparation and made the business manageable for just the two of us.

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We began producing weekend gross sales of $4,000, $5,000 and even $6,000. At one three and a half day festival, we brought in approximately $12,000 in gross sales.

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We had finally developed a system that worked.

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Then We Created A Lower-Cost Tent System

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After seeing our success my son, who lived in another state, decided he wanted to try the food business and eventually leave his regular job.

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He faced two major challenges: he did not have any money and he did not have anyone available to work with him. 

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That led us to develop our Tent Method.

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We created a lower-cost setup with a simplified menu that one person could operate. The menu still featured products that were different from what most other vendors were selling.

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At his first festival - an event I had actually told him might be too small - he produced approximately $2,600 in gross sales. That was enough to cover the cost of his tent, equipment, and initial setup.

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At his second, larger festival, he produced just over $4,000 in gross sales.

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That proved our system could be adapted for someone starting small, working alone or operating without the budget for a food trailer. My wife and I even adapted this model for when only one of us can attend a festival and have had great success.