Instead of £1,500/Month Rent, They Bought a Van: 18 Profitable Businesses on Wheels

Rent on premises is the biggest fixed cost you can strike off the list before you start. A business on wheels swaps it for a vehicle — a one-off investment you can sell on if things don't work out. This guide gives you three things: what each format costs, from a push cart up to a converted van; 18 concrete ideas with links to the database; and the paperwork you'll need before you can trade.

What it costs to get on the road: four formats

Your start-up cost isn't driven by what you sell — it's driven by what you sell it from. Based on current market prices, the ladder looks like this:

• Hand or push cart — the cheapest ticket onto the street. An ice cream or coffee cart fits in a garage, and you don't even need a driving licence for it. The individual ideas in the database carry the detailed budgets.
• Piaggio Ape — a ready-built food truck on the classic Italian three-wheeler starts at around £10,000. It's the most photogenic format of the lot — which is exactly why coffee and prosecco bars run on it.
• Catering trailer — a basic 3m x 2m shell starts at around £6,000, fully fitted out with electrics, water and refrigeration from roughly £12,000. A bespoke build will set you back £25,000 to £50,000.
• Converted van — a used van with a basic fit-out comes in at £15,000 to £25,000; a professional conversion starts from about £30,000 and climbs from there.

The practical difference between a trailer and a van: a light trailer tows behind an ordinary car (check your driving licence category for towing limits), and at the event you unhitch it and drive off. A van, on the other hand, is workshop and storage in one — and far easier to park than a car-and-trailer rig.

Food and drink on wheels: 7 ideas

The classic of the trade. You're preparing or pouring, so for everything below expect food business registration with your local council.

• Mobile prosecco van for weddings: a vintage Piaggio Ape as a photogenic bar — entry cost: a Piaggio Ape. Season: May to September. Customer: engaged couples and event agencies. First money in: the deposit on your first booking — weddings are booked months ahead. And the format does earn: typical hire rates run around £450 for a few hours on site, £650 for a full day and £900-plus for an overnight package.
• Mobile coffee van for tourist spots and Christmas markets — entry cost: an Ape or a trailer. Season: all year round — summer by the water, winter at the markets. Customer: tourists and market-goers. First money in: day one on a good pitch. You can serve the same market with no vehicle at all as a mobile barista for weddings and corporate events.
• Gelato from a mobile Italian cart — entry cost: a push cart, the lowest in this whole article. Season: April to September. Customer: pedestrianised streets, lidos, events. First money in: the first sunny weekend.
• Thai rolled ice cream — entry cost: a cart or stall with a freezer plate. Season: festival summer. Customer: event-goers who pay for the show as much as the scoop. First money in: your first festival.
• Mobile buffet catering trailer — entry cost: a trailer. Season: April to October. Customer: outdoor event organisers, local councils, companies. First money in: the first booked catering job — you sell in advance, not off the street.
• Pierogi stall: the Slavic street food the UK market has barely touched — entry cost: a stall or trailer. Season: year-round — the markets keep going through winter. Customer: farmers' markets and Christmas markets. First money in: your first market day.
• Mobile food van supplying villages without a shop — entry cost: a van or refrigerated trailer. Season: year-round. Paperwork: lighter than the rest — you're mostly retailing packaged food, though food business registration still applies. Customer: villages that have lost their shop — some will even pay you to put them on the route. First money in: only once the route beds in, but from then on it repeats every single week.

Services from a van: 7 ideas

The second branch of mobile business: here the van isn't a shop but a workshop that comes to the customer. There's less competition than in street food, and for most of these you can forget about food hygiene entirely.

• Mobile car detailing — entry cost: a used van plus the kit. Season: year-round, quieter in winter. Paperwork: straightforward business registration. Customer: owners of pricier cars and company fleets. First money in: a few days after your first ads go out.
• Mobile bike repair that comes to the customer — entry cost: a van fitted as a workshop. Season: March to October, peaking in spring. Paperwork: straightforward business registration. Customer: cyclists who can't be bothered to haul a bike across town. First money in: the first spring weekend.
• Mobile knife sharpening — entry cost: a cart or a small van. Season: year-round. Paperwork: straightforward business registration. Customer: households at markets, restaurants as a regular account. First money in: your first pitch beside a farmers' market.
• Mobile mattress cleaning — entry cost: an ordinary car and an extractor — the lowest entry of any service here, and the idea is unlocked free in the database. Season: year-round. Paperwork: straightforward business registration. Customer: families with children and allergy sufferers. First money in: within a week of the ads going live.
• Mobile hairdressing for older clients — entry cost: an ordinary car and a case of kit. Season: year-round. Paperwork: business registration — proper training behind you is what sells it. Customer: older people at home and in care homes. First money in: the first care home you sign up — and then it comes back every month. The same model powers mobile nail care for seniors.
• Mobile windscreen and headlight repair — entry cost: a van and a repair kit. Season: year-round. Paperwork: business registration. Customer: drivers and insurers. First money in: your first call-out to a car park.
• Mobile car air-con service — entry cost: a van and a refrigerant recharge station. Season: peaks May to August. Paperwork: business registration plus certification for handling refrigerants. Customer: drivers whose air-con gives up in summer. First money in: the first properly hot week of the year.

Experiences and hire: 4 ideas

The third route: the vehicle or trailer is itself the product — you hire it out, or drive an experience around in it.

• Mobile pop-up cinema — entry cost: projection kit in a van. Season: June to September. Paperwork: business registration plus a licence for public film screenings. Customer: bars, councils and hotels — you sell B2B, not to the audience. First money in: your first sold screening; the negotiations take weeks.
• Mobile escape room — entry cost: a trailer with a fitted interior. Season: year-round. Paperwork: business registration. Customer: corporate events, festivals, schools. First money in: the first booked event.
• Mobile sauna hire — entry cost: a sauna trailer. Season: peaks October to March — the only format in this article that earns mostly in winter. Paperwork: business registration. Customer: holiday-home owners and corporate away-days. First money in: the first hired-out weekend.
• Mobile EV charger hire — entry cost: a trailer with battery storage, the biggest investment in this round-up. Season: festival summer. Customer: organisers of events beyond the reach of the grid. Paperwork: business registration. First money in: the first contracted festival.

The paperwork you'll actually need

In the order you'll realistically sort it:

• Business registration. Selling goods and hiring out kit needs little more than registering the business — sort it and you're off. Trades like hairdressing and vehicle repair are ones where you'll want recognised training behind you, because that's what customers ask about.
• Food registration. The moment you prepare or pour food and drink, register the mobile unit as a food business with your local council before you start trading.
• Alcohol. A bar on wheels needs a responsible person behind it at all times, and selling alcohol means an alcohol licence — get it moving well before the first booking.
• The pitch. Private land means a deal with the owner; public space means permission from the council; a festival means a contract with the organiser — usually a fixed fee, or a percentage of takings.

Where next

The eighteen formats above are a selection, not the full list. Every idea in the database breaks down the budget, margins, risks and first steps — numbers that differ from one format to the next, which is why they don't belong in an overview article. Pick the format that fits your driving licence, your season and your budget, and open the detail in the database of 700+ ideas.