The key word: VALUE When you apply values and provide VALUE to your food and/or service, you immediately stand out above the rest. When I was two months young in my food truck, I met another food trucker owner who had four running trucks, drove an insanely sup'd up Escalade, and seemed really proud of his food. I bought tacos from his truck and it was the worst I'd ever had. The carne asada tasted old and dried up like jerky. Tacos were cold and garnishes were wilted and dried out. It was evident that I was served an old batch of food. I politely and casually brought up to him about providing fresh food. He said it didn't matter. Per food code, we could serve food up to seven days old. I didn't agree with it and stated I cooked everything fresh so yes, in turn, my customers do wait a little longer. He responded with, "Why? the longer you take, the less money you make." It has since stuck with me like glue. A constant reminder to never mimic his business models. He wanted fast cash at the expense of potentially not having returning customers. Not for me. Value is so important in the food industry because people can actually taste it. It's palatable. It's obvious. There's no cutting corners. And if you don't have value in what you offer, you don't have appropriate leverage power to raise your prices.

Thanks for being here! This is a place for creative minds to gather, unload some real-life struggles, celebrate the wins, and be here through engagement and I'm here to share my knowledge with you as best I can with my own experience! Let us know: Where are you from? What's your favorite thing to cook? What culinary entrepreneurial goals do you have? Food truck, bistro, cafe, upscale restaurant, etc What do you want to learn about most? Talk soon!