Best practices are often used by food truck owners as quickly as they hear about them. If another food truck has already determined the best way to do something, why not just do what they did?

Well… before you run off to collect best of the food truck industry’s best practices from the leaders in the national, regional or local industry, ask your self these three questions.

3 Questions To Ask Before Adopting Best Practices

  • What are the downsides? Implementing best practices that worked in another area of the country isn’t always a slam dunk. Think through the potential disadvantages and figure out how to mitigate them.
  • Is success truly attributable to the benchmark practice? There are many reasons a food truck business succeeds. It is unlikely that emulating one practice of an industry leader will give your mobile food business the same success.
  • Are the conditions similar at your food truck organization? For best practices to be transferable, two businesses need to have key similarities: strategy, business model and size of the food truck’s staff.

Just remember that the best practices of 2008 won’t necessarily cut it in 2018 or beyond.  The world and the industry changes.  It is more important that employees have access to modern tools, and the freedom to use them.  Good management today is not about telling people how to do their job, but rather letting them figure out how to do it best.  Implement that practice and productivity and innovation will show themselves, and you’re very likely to find more growth in your food truck.

PRO TIP: There are always things to learn from others successes and failures. One of the big mistakes you can make is strictly adopting best practices instead of adapting them to your food truck.

RELATED: The Questions Every Food Truck Owner Should Ask Themselves

The Bottom Line

The best use of best practices is as generator of new practices, new ideas, new possibilities for you and your food truck business, that you might be able to take in, digest, and adopt to your situation.

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