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Have you ever wanted to start your own business? If you’re self-motivated and have a love of food and people, opening your own food truck can be a great career option for you. Not everyone is cut out for this diverse industry, though. Are you? You can find out with the help of the following sections.

Monitoring your motivations

Owning your own food truck takes a special type of person. A successful food truck owner needs to have some business sense. Patience is an important asset in owning your own mobile food business, as are good people skills.

Before you invest any more time or money in the process of starting up your food truck empire (except for purchasing and reading this book), you need to find out the real reasons you’re motivated to do this. Be as honest with yourself as possible; fooling yourself is only going to hurt you and your pocketbook in the long run.

People have many reasons to want to own and operate a food truck; some of my favorites include the following:

❯❯ They like the business aspect of owning a food truck.

❯❯ They have a passion for food.

❯❯ They want to provide a service to their community.

❯❯ They’re self-motivated.

❯❯ They like being around other people.

The following list contains some reasons that shouldn’t be motivation for starting a food truck:

❯❯ Thinking it’ll be easy

❯❯ Thinking it’ll make you rich

❯❯ Wanting to be a celebrity chef

❯❯ Being tired of having a “real” job

If you happen to be motivated by any of these reasons, don’t fret. Just make sure they’re not your only (or primary) motivators to enter this industry.

Tracking key traits

A food truck’s success isn’t based on any magic formula, but most food truck owners who do well share many of the same personality traits. They’re a special breed of culinary entrepreneurs who are highly motivated, caring, and curious individuals. They effectively balance their personal and business goals, take advantage of others’ expertise, and continually seek to figure out the best practices exhibited by their competition. Some common traits shared by food truck owners include the following:

❯❯ Hard workers: Successful food truck owners work hard and play hard, too. They get up early; they rarely complain; they expect high performance from others, but they expect extraordinary performance from themselves.

❯❯ Self-reliant and not afraid to take responsibility: Successful food truck owners don’t worry about blame, and they don’t waste time complaining. They make decisions and move on.

❯❯ Focused on the future: Food truck owners who have thrived are good at both short and long-term planning. They’re as likely to have a well-thought-out plan for the day-to-day running of their business as a road map for how to run the business for years.

❯❯ Eager to learn: Strong food truck owners are always reading, educating themselves, and asking questions. They ask for advice, try things out, consult experts and amateurs, and always look for a better, faster, and cheaper solution.

❯❯ Action oriented: Successful food truck owners are proactive and always differentiate themselves from their competitors. They’re less worried than other small business owners about the state of the economy and are more likely to look at adversity as a sign to keep moving forward.

❯❯ Tech-savvy: Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that the best food truck owners invest both time and money on improving their website and are likely to rely a great deal on technology, such as social media and point-of-sale systems, to help make their business more efficient.