How to Start a Food Tour Business: $300k Starting as a Side Hustle

How can a food tour side hustle turn into a $300k a year business?

Chris Andrews from Bienville Bites Food Tour started his side hustle back in 2017, where he gave food tours on the weekends in Mobile, Alabama.

Fast forward a few years, and now he’s running a $300k business! He quit his job at the steel mill and now runs these food tours full time.

Tune in to Episode 632 of the Side Hustle Show to learn how:

Chris built his food tours from the ground up
He’s removed himself from some of the day-to-day operations
You might start something similar in your town

Table of Contents show

Passion + Opportunity

Back in 2017, Chris was working at a steel mill but had a passion for local history. When a friend raved about a food tour she’d taken in Savannah, Georgia, he thought, “Why not me? Why don’t I go ahead and do this?”

Mobile, with its 300+ years of history and fantastic food scene, was the perfect ingredient for a similar venture.

“Nobody in Mobile was doing it,” Chris said. “It kept me up at night thinking about it. I was like, man, somebody’s going to do this eventually, and I’m not going to be able to live with myself if that person’s not me.”

Chris knew Mobile wasn’t New Orleans or New York in terms of tourism, but it had a charm all its own. And just like that, Bienville Bites was born.

Getting Customers

So how did Chris get this thing off the ground? He broke it down for me:

Build a good website that has an easy booking system
Set up a booking platform (Chris uses FareHarbor)
Make relationships with restaurants

“Restaurant owners do not like change,” Chris warned. “So if you’re going to tell a restaurant that we’re going to bring 12 or 14 people into your restaurant, they’re going to freak out. So that’s where that communication is very crucial.”

Chris’s approach was he’d go to restaurants during off-peak hours, have a meal, and then ask to speak to the owner. He’d explain his idea, emphasizing how it could benefit the restaurant.

His first customers were friends and family, of course, before he hit social media hard, particularly Facebook.

“We really hit Facebook hard,” Chris shared. “This is something bigger than our tour there. This is for the city. We’re doing this to promote our city, to grow the food scene in our town.”

Themed Tours: Bringing Out the Locals

So what made Chris’s food tours so popular? Besides the great food, it was the themes that really brought people in.

Mobile’s history runs deep, and Chris turned that into a selling point and he introduced themed tours:

Haunted tours in October
Christmas tours
Mardi Gras tours
Even a Jimmy Buffett-themed tour

While people love a good food tour, it’s the themed ones that have made Chris’s business a local staple.

70% of Chris’s clientele are locals — people who come back for a different experience every time. And that’s where he struck gold. By offering something fresh with every tour, he built a loyal customer base that was always eager for the next event.

“That’s been the biggest thing that has distinguished us from a lot of other food tours,” Chris said.

How to Scale to $300k

Competitive Pricing

Chris made it easy for people to book a tour through FareHarbor, a platform that handles ticketing and payments.

His food tours run around $99 on Airbnb Experiences, with 40% of that going toward food and drinks. Chris keeps the other 60%, which covers overhead and his team of guides.

Leaving Reviews

Chris didn’t build this business on advertising alone. He built it on reviews. If you look him up on TripAdvisor, you’ll see nearly 300 reviews.

At press time, his closest competition had around 32.

He always makes a point to ask guests to leave a review after a tour, and it works. It does not matter if it is just 2 people or 14. People walk away raving about the experience.

Expansion

Chris didn’t stop in Mobile. He’s already expanded to a neighboring town, Fairhope, Alabama, where his food tours are just as popular.

Corporate Bookings

Corporate bookings make up about 25% of Chris’s revenue.

Companies are always looking for team-building activities, and a food tour is the perfect way to get out of the office and into something fun. Chris also taps into local businesses like Airbus, who use his tours to impress out-of-town clients.

Podcast

Plus, Chris runs the Port City Plate Podcast, where he interviews restaurant owners and tells the stories behind Mobile’s food scene.

The podcast is not only a great marketing tool, but it also helps Chris build relationships with local restaurants—and even supplies fresh content for his tours.

A Day in the Life

These days, Chris has a team of six guides running six or seven tours every weekend. Chris isn’t giving those tours anymore, but he’s still busy.

His guides come from all walks of life — a retired teacher, a former duck boat tour guide, even a customer who loved the tour so much she moved to Mobile and now gives tours herself!

Now he spends his time working on themed tours, managing corporate bookings, and ensuring his guides have everything they need.

Surprises Along the Way

When asked about surprises or unexpected outcomes, Chris’s said. “I never imagined it being a full-time thing,” he said. “I’ve even written a book, A Culinary History of Mobile! Never saw that coming when I started this side hustle.”

What’s Next for Chris?

Chris has expanded to Fairhope, Alabama, but his big goal is helping others start their own food tours through his new venture, Food Tour Founders.

So while Chris might not be planning world domination, he’s definitely planting seeds for other food tour enthusiasts to follow in his footsteps.

“I want to give people who are interested in this niche an opportunity to take my course,” Chris explained. “And learn the lessons and perfect the entire strategy of your business and for people to do this in their food tour.”

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