Define Food Truck Business Problems In Three Steps

To solve business problems in your food truck, you need to first determine its cause before you can resolve it. Too many times, food truckers I’ve spoken with jump in and try making corrections to business problems without truly understanding the cause. While that may sound silly, it does highlight the importance of defining business problems.

A well-defined problem often contains its own solution, and that solution is usually pretty straightforward. By defining business problems properly, you make them easier to solve, which means saving time, money and resources for your food truck business.

Every vendor needs to master the ability to define their business problems, but very few are trained in this indispensable skill. By learning how to define your food truck business problems, you will transformed in the way your business runs.

Defining business problems is a simple process. You just need to realize that if you run into any difficulty you need to be patient. This is a very important step in critical thinking.

Define food truck business problems with these three steps:

Step 1: Understand the current situation.

For most of us we, need to paint a picture of the problem. The first part of this is determining the impact it is having on your food truck, the consequences of not solving the problem, and the emotions the problem is creating for those involved.

Step 2: Explain the business problem.

Once you understand the problem, draft a simple problem statement by filling in the blank: The business problem that we are trying to solve is: ___________. This puts the problem to its simplest form.

Step 3: Ask yourself this question.

Why is that a food truck business problem? If the answer to this question turns into another problem you’ve found the original problem isn’t the source, but a result of to a deeper problem. Now ask yourself again, “Why is that a problem?”

Do this over and over until you determine what problem is the source of all of the problems you’ve identified. By doing this, you may find something unexpected; the “source problem.”

You may have to ask yourself this question a few times, or in some cases, you may have to ask it a dozen times. No matter what, ask as many times as needed until you find your source problem.

The Bottom Line

This three step process can help food truck vendors learn how to define the problems in your mobile food business and determine if you’re wasting time and resources on poorly defined problems. When it comes to determining whether you have defined business problems properly, ask yourself if the solution to the problem is obvious or straightforward. Also, ask if it is a problem worth solving.

I hope this simple process helps you in defining your food truck business problems. If you use a different methodology, please let me know, I’d love to share it with our readers. You can share them privately via email, or publicly through Facebook or Twitter.