I'm often asked, should I start marketing before getting my hot dog cart?

Well, I want to talk to you real quick about when you're getting started and maybe things are preventing you or limiting you from starting immediately.

Let's say you've got three weeks to kill.

What do you do with that time?

Other than the due diligence stuff that I teach at learnhotdogs.com, what else do you do?

Well, you marketing it.

Recently in a little group we have someone asked, should I marketing it?

Go ahead and start marketing, even though you haven't started yet. Even though you're still waiting for your hot dog cart.

And some people said, absolutely do it. And others said, Oh no, because what if you fail?

And I went, well that's like saying, I'm not going to make my bed cause I'm going to be sleeping in it again tomorrow.

It doesn't make that good of sense to me.

Me, I go, what is the waste?

So I would always say, go out there and market, do the little things.

Maybe you don't have a hot dog cart or anything

But maybe you set up a couple of steam pans on your stove and you're showing people what you're going to be doing, create your little Facebook page or Instagram profile.

And you go, okay, I'm going to show you this mustard, macaroni hot dog that we're doing today.

Or check out the alligator sausage we're going to be carrying on the hot dog cart.

Look us up, like us.
You'll love us.

And we'll be open in March 1st or whatever it is, right?

You start getting some street cred before you've even begun.
And you'd be honest about it.

Tell them we ain't even started yet.

We're cooking in the kitchen, we're test kitchen and we're going to be serving this stuff.

Give us your ideas…

What's your favorite hot dog?
What's your favorite ketchup?
What's your favorite Coleslaw?
Do you like your sauerkraut hot or cold?

You start putting that stuff out there, people will follow it just because one, they like support local businesses and two, You're making it real.

You start sharing stuff like that, people get excited and you will come out ahead.

Now let's say the fire, floods and storms come and the house burns down, nothing left.

Did you lose anything? No.

You could start all over.

But you'd have all this work done.

And why not have it done so that when you start that first day, there's 17 people in line when you show up.

Because you've been talking to them, you've already made customers and friends out of these people.

It's a great way to be in business. Plus…

It will help you on the catering side

You could start, Hey, we're thinking about making this package for catering, or you do your own package.

In fact, let me show you a picture of the hot dog cart I just ordered.
I gotta go pick it up next Thursday.

But see these steam tables on this thing?

We're going to be able to do Mac and cheese.
We're going to be able to do seafood salad.
We're going to be able to do chili.

Not on the street though. This is like a private catering.

So if you have a party, an event or anything, we just want to show you we can do anything you want.

We're licensed, insured, blah blah, blah.

You are creating magic and people love that.

So don't waste your time going…

Well, I'll wait to start.

I'm going to start me a Facebook page once I get that hot dog cart, or maybe after a couple of years of work in, because then I'll know for sure.

Don't do that. Never do that!

Always go ahead and make your best effort from day one.
Make your best effort.

If the fires, floods and storms and hurricanes and earthquakes come, okay, nobody's going to fault you and you're just a better person for it.

The other benefit is that you get to be motivated

Because if you ever tried to quit smoking, or quit drinking, or quit eating donuts too much, or whatever it is, they tell you to tell people.

If you're trying to break a habit, tell everybody you're doing it.

Why did they tell you to do that?

Because people respond to that.

They go, Hey, Mike, you're doing a good job, you're looking good.

People give you encouragement.

Plus when you get in one of those low moments, and you feel like I'm giving up, nobody knows about it, so no skin off my back.

But if you've told people, they know about it, which oftentimes motivates us to keep going.

So we just keep going and keep going and keep going.

Bottom line… yes, start your marketing even before getting your hot dog cart.

It's always a win win for you!

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