Ingredients: Faith, Sweat, Community, and Family
It's been a little over two years since I embarked on a food truck journey with my father (Jackie Hays) and my best friend (Aaron 'Peanut' Hanning), and it's been a wild one! Not a day has gone by at BeauxJax that we haven't faced a new challenge, but equally impressive we have not had a day pass without making a new friend. Of course the name of the game has always been making money, but we find as time passes, we learn more, and tweek a little here and a little there, the recipe that works at BeauxJax begins with making a life that we enjoy everyday. This is the first blog post ever posted from BeauxJax and it's apparent to us that the very first thing we have to say to world is THANK YOU! We have truly been blessed as a small locally owned business with a community that selflessly pours love and support into our dreams. After two years the nervousness of "are we going to make it" has been replaced with "dude, what's the next crazy thing we can do". As a business there is a certain level of competitiveness that is always there, which is why we normally try to keep our recipes to ourselves, but the recipe for the blessings that we have stumbled upon, we want to share with anyone looking to start a business from scratch.
Ingredient One: FAITH
Leaving the security of your job to chase your passion is only possible with a ton of faith. For us, stepping into a business world of unkown might possibly be the most unsettling feeling we have experienced and that fear will always be inside of us because everyday presents something new. When the market changes, competition arises, or what you planned falls through you are gonna need something to fall back on. Ours was our faith. There have been days that we have prayed for the phone to ring, for someone who knew how to fix a broken AC to cut us a deal, or for the rain to stop so we could get back to food trucking. Every one was answered with a big catering calling in right on time, a guy who would fix our AC if we fed him and his wife, or a setup with a covered place to serve. The examples of intervention run rampant in our little business and we could never deny that the only way for us to grow is through faith.
Ingredient Two: SWEAT
Faith will take you a long way but no one can do the work for you. Whatever you choose to chase, there will be what sometimes feels like an insurmountable pile of tasks in front of you. Knuckle down, take on the most important one and move to the next one. There is no time to feel sorry for yourself and what you have on your plate because the customer who is going to make you successful has their own pile in front of them. If your body is perspiring sweat and not tears you are on the right track. Surround yourself with people that can work hard as well. Look to be around people who encourage. Remember that complacency is contagious - and who wants that.
Ingredient Three: COMMUNITY
Who are we without those around us. If you've ever met us you know that we are always trying to have a good time and through doing so we have met some amazing people. In fact our staffing in the beginning was primarily people who just wanted to help. They were people that we met out and about on the truck. These folks donated their time and skills to help us for nothing (Correction: we always made sure they had a cold beer if they wanted one). The debt we owe to this community for reaching out a helpful hand can never really be paid. We try to remember that as we roll around the Shreveport-Bossier area and to be as giving of ourselves as those who gave us our start. If you are looking to go out and start something on your own, don't fool yourself into thinking you can do it alone. Your new business is your baby and it takes a village to raise one.
Ingredient Four: FAMILY
Perhaps one of the most important parts of our business has been our family. In different ways for all of us involved with BeauxJax, family has been our fuel to succeed and our grounding rod. It takes a strong family to stand by you chasing an idea and if you can remember that it is them that you are waking up for early in the morning and going to bed late at night for, you will drive through the obstacles that come. It really gets fun when the several biological families involved all become one family centered around that initial idea. That's the thing that will be worth more than money.
We have a long ways to go towards where we are trying to get, but every victory we have had, small or large, has been cooked up with this recipe.
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