# Food truck within a year of C-school graduation?



## stefskitchn (Apr 28, 2017)

Hi, I'm graduating ("walking") from culinary school next month. I'm a non-traditional student, so in addition to 10 years past experience as a military officer, I have lots of years of work experience, including several years of freelance media production. I also have a law degree.

I say I'm walking next month because I still have to complete my internship in the fall. I have two lined up actually, so I will be working for two major hospitality groups starting this summer through January 2018--consecutively not concurrently. That will give me about 7 months of 40+ hours a week of further formal and informal training and paid experience. I'm wondering if that along with my background will be enough to start *and run a successful* food truck. At my age I just don't see myself working my way up in a professional kitchen, so I really want to start my own venture. But I want to be smart about it. Other options include personal or private chef, caterer, bed and breakfast owner, and high school culinary arts instructor.

Thanks in advance for your input!


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## heidicookssuppe (Apr 16, 2017)

I see no one responded to your question so the retired librarian in me will give it a shot.  Here's what I'd do for starters:  google 'food truck ownership' and then read a bunch of the stuff that comes up.  Titles that look like they'd have good info include such things as 

50 Food Truck Owners Speak Out: “What I Wish I’d Known Before Starting My Food Truck”

Food Trucks 101: How to State a Mobile Food Business

etc.  (I'm not including links because that would kick this response over to the moderators for approval and I don't want to clog their in boxes)

The, I'd make sure to spend some time working in a food truck to see if you'd really like it.  

Best wishes to you.  Back when I was teaching in a graduate library/information science program, I taught lots of career switchers, including quite a few with military or law backgrounds.  The ones who were happiest were the ones who sussed out the realities of the work environments they were looking at and chose what would match them best -- ranging from becoming a public library children's librarian to becoming a library manager for a defense university.  You need to do what fits you and the only way to know that is to do the fact finding research and site visits needed.


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