Well, howdy, howdy, howdy. I keep getting emails from hot dog vendors saying, “Ben, man, I would've started, but my city doesn't allow me to start.”

Or they don't allow me to sell hot dogs, or they don't allow vending in the city limits, or blah, blah, blah.

And then I get stuff like this email right here.

These come a lot more often, where a health inspector says something out their rear end.

The Usual Suspects: City Restrictions

Hi Ben, I'm getting ready to order the Big Dog Cart, which is our most popular cart.

I live in Stanley County, and the health department there is telling me that I can only serve hot dogs and sausages from a cart.

Now, this can be true. There are codes.

But I'm gonna dig deeper into this.

All states allow hot dogs—all 50 states allow vendors to sell hot dogs without exception.

Some states allow other stuff, but here's the catch to it: it's precooked.

And you'll see that he found out, he goes, and they can only be in water.
Not true!

Not in any state’s codes in 50 states.
That does not exist.

But I'm gonna get to a point here.

The Health Inspector's Myths

This hot dog vendor was told that no grill or griddle is allowed and that he can't use his cart to cater with.

Now, I've read the regulations sent to me from them, and it says that pre-cooked, pre-wrapped food can be served from a cart, which is more than hot dogs and sausages.

So he read the code, and it tells him he can do more than that, right?

Pre-cooked stuff, but no mention at all that he can't have a griddle or a grill.

Of course, there's no mention of it because they came up with that out of thin air.

(Helpful Read: Top 5 Things The Health Inspector Looks For On Your Cart)

Addressing the Myths

Jerry emailed me…

“So, do you know the codes that prevent me from having a grill or griddle or for catering restrictions for a push cart? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jerry.“

So, I'm gonna address Jerry, but I'm also gonna address everyone that wants to know, including you.

You may be thinking, “Man, I would've loved to get started, but I called around and they told me I can't do it.”

Well, it turns out that typically if you see this part of their mouth moving, they’re lying.

(Helpful Read: Did Your Health Inspector Lie to You?)

Why They Might Be Misleading You

Now, there are three options there.
It's not always lying.

One, they're ignorant.

They don't know, so they heard it from Karen, an accountant that just retired, and they thought that was the rule.

The second one is they didn't look it up, have never been asked, didn't know, and don't want the extra work.

These people don't get paid more for how many restaurants they inspect—a health inspector doesn't get paid more.

Adding to their plate can cause a problem.

A lot of hot dog vendors get excited like I did, thinking, “I'm gonna have 400 carts by the end of the week and have a monopoly on the city.”

You'll scare the pants off them.
So don't tell them any of your plans.

(Helpful Read: Health Inspector: What Not To Tell)

Just go, “Yeah, I'm just gonna vend here and there and do some private stuff at car lots and maybe some birthday parties.”

And they'll go, “Oh, okay.”

Now you're not creating more workload for them.

Navigating the Bureaucracy

Guess what?

The same license applies whether you're gonna work one time a week or one time a year.

It doesn't matter.

You just don't want to become a nuisance at the beginning and scare them.

They're thinking, “Oh my God, now I've got this guy who's gonna have 3,500 carts, and I'm gonna have to inspect them all.”

So don't do that.
Keep it simple.

Do you remember “Keep it simple, stupid?”

That was from my papa.
He invented that.

Just kidding.

The Truth About Codes and Regulations

The other thing is, if their lips are moving, they might be lying.

The third reason is they just don't want you to do it, so they don't want the extra work.

They try to discourage you by creating red tape or just plain old BS.

This person's inspector in his county—this is North Carolina—is just full of crap. I know North Carolina codes well.

There's no code on catering.

First of all, catering has zero codes in North Carolina, so you can cater.

You won't find it in the health department regulations because anybody can be a caterer if they decide.

Here's how hard it is to be a caterer in North Carolina: I'm a caterer.

Then you get your normal stuff like your business license and maybe a tax number for sales tax.

(Helpful Read: Understanding EIN – FEIN – FED ID – SALES TAX ID)

But that's it.

(Helpful Read: Don't Fear the Health Inspector)

Get the Real Info

North Carolina also has a loophole where you can start doing donuts or funnel cakes or elephant ears on the side of the road with no code, no anything.

It's agriculture.

Agriculture controls catering and all that other stuff.

Hot dog vending is under the health department.

Street food vending is under the health department, but it depends on what you're vending.

You can do funnel cakes without a health department license until you add other products.

The Solution

He says they said no grill or griddle.

He didn't find that in the code anywhere because it's not in the code.

You can go to the search box in this website and type in any word, and I've covered it.
Guaranteed.

Just go to search, and before you hit enter, put a slash and type in “liar” like “liar, liar, pants on fire” because that's what this inspector just did to this fellow Jerry.

Stand Your Ground

Don't get worked up over it.

Don't fail to realize a dream that you have because you hit one little roadblock.

Some ignorant person said, “Oh no, we don't allow breathing in our town.”

And then there are cities that have restrictions.
It's illegal.

Some cities say you need to move every 15 minutes; you have to be mobile.
No, you don't.

These are illegal restrictions.

Fight Back with Facts

There's a group of lawyers that attack these problems in cities all across the U.S. called the Institute for Justice (IJ).

You can learn more about that HERE.

And if you want to take your vending business to the next level, go and get together with the best vendors on the planet inside the Vendors United community.

You can learn about it HERE (it is 100% free to try it out for 5 days!!)…

🧡🧡 Vendors United – 100% FREE 5 Days Trial – Try It Today! 🧡🧡

I hope that helps, especially Jerry, because I'm replying basically to his email.

But I get so many of these, I wanted to attack this problem again.

I love you, and I'll see you soon.
Bye.