From one hour to 10 weeks, the Small Business Center offers training to help you start and build your business.
To be notified when this course becomes available, please use
Wake Tech's Notify Me service.
learn the requirements for starting a food truck business. At the conclusion of the course students will have the knowledge of federal, state and local regulations, zoning, licenses, and permits needed. Students will also gain the knowledge of the major components needed to construct a business plan as well. Food truck owners are required to have a certification in Serv Safe, and at the end of this course all students are required to take and pass the Serv Safe exam.
Wake County Environmental Services-
Teacher Intro and Student Intro (Why did you sign up for this course?)
Speaking the Same Language ,
Role of Wake County Environmental Services
NC Rules and NC Food Code
Top Ten Most Common Mistakes
What is a Commissary and Commissary Requirements (Wake Co. Video)
Basic Construction
Water and Sewer Tanks
Why an LP Gas Inspection? (Philly Explosion 2 videos)
Where can I operate (Local and Statewide)
Wake County Food Truck Application Process
Tour a Food Truck and Q&A with owners
Tips for Menu Design
The Yellow Submarine (Individual Exercise/Class Discussion)
Required Food Truck Equipment
Equipment Installation (Wake Co. Video)
New Build Versus Used
Water Heaters and Generators
Supplemental Cook Rooms
Wake County Food Truck Application Process
Design a Food Truck and Menu (Groups Activity and Class Presentation)
Questions and Answers
Zoning & City Requirements
Introduction to City of Raleigh guidelines to operating a food truck, both on private property and the public right of way. Understanding who
you need to contact within the municipality. What permits, agreements or licenses may be required for the home base of the food truck business
and the municipalities the food truck will be operating in.
How to determine if a property is eligible to allow the operation of a food truck. Understanding how specific Zoning districts could impact
this .Understanding the difference between sole proprietorships, corporations, limited liability companies and general partnerships.
Understanding the purpose, need and process to secure a N.C. Sales and Use Certificate. Understanding Insurance requirements and
additional insured endorsements. Preparing a successful submittal package and sketch plan of the property you wish to operate on.
Business Plan, Loans, Marketing, etc.-
Ways to Start Your Business, Pros & Cons of Starting Your Own Business, Pros & Cons of Franchising, Developing a Business Plan,
Capitalizing/Financing types of Legal Entities. Which legal structures is best for you, Business Insurance, Business Licenses & Permits, Accounting
Basics & Business, Marketing & Advertising . Guest Speakers related to the Food Truck Industry
ServSafe Certification-
Providing Safe Food, Forms of Contamination, The Safe Food Handler, The Flow of Food An Introduction , Purchasing, Receiving, Storage,
The Flow of Food (Preparation), The Flow of Food (Holding, Serving), Food Safety Management, Safe Facilities and Pest Management, Cleaning
and Sanitizing. Final Exam is given on last day of class.
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ServSafe Certification
Students will be certified in proper food handling techniques as required by the Health Department
No
None
Books will be provided to the students for use only.
None
90% attendance
Class participation and successful completion of ServSafe Certification Exam by obtaining 75% or higher grade as per the National Restaurant Association.
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Food Truck Owners & Operators, Restaurants, Small Business, Chefs,
Food Truck Entrepreneur's and Cooks, Chefs etc.
Food Truck Industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the country right now . Wake County is considered the top 3 Foodie Town with the top food trucks in the country.
According to IBISWorld industry research, food trucks generate $857 million in annual revenue and employ nearly 15,000 people. The industry has grown by around 10 percent annually over the last five years and is expected to generate $2.7 billion by 2017.Overall employment of cooks is projected to grow 4 percent from 2014 to 2026.
| Details | Section | Date(s) | Location | Price | Seats | 312155 | 08/12/25 - 09/16/25 | Public Safety Education Campus | 320.00 | 7 | Register |
|---|
If you would like to be notified when additional sections become available, please use Wake Tech's Notify Me service.
IDEATE
Get started making your idea a reality and exploring the journey of becoming an entrepreneur.
POSITION
Position your idea in the market, understand your customers, and solidify your business model.
COMMIT
Commit to reaching your market, making a sale, and protecting your business.
REFINE
Perfect your strategy before launch and make sure your finances are in order.
LAUNCH
Plan for launching, leading, and growing your business.
Section 1: IDEATE
Assess your entrepreneurial traits and personal priorities to better understand how your business goals might be affected by your strengths or
weaknesses and your personal vision.
• What are the characteristics of a successful
entrepreneur?
• What are my entrepreneurial traits?
• What is my personal vision?
• Does my idea fit with my personal vision?
Section 2: POSITION
Any good idea will remain just that-an idea-unless it finds a place in the market and earns customers. In this section, you'll figure out just who your
customers (and competitors) are and where to find them. You'll identify critical attributes of the business landscape and your customer that will help you
transform your idea into a business. You will learn about legal structures that are best suited to your business, and you'll start to think about how you'll exit
your business when the time comes.
• Is there opportunity?
• Are there customers?
• Is there a path to reach them?
• Who are my competitors?
• How will I compete?
• How much money can I expect from my customers?
• What startup costs will there be?
• What legal entity should I use for my business?
• How do I want to exit my business?
• Based on what I learned, how do I move forward?
Section 3: COMMIT
A business isn't real unless it is reaching paying customers and generating revenue through bottom line. You'll use that information to identify your funding
needs. Finally, you'll learn how to protect your intellectual property, your business, and yourself from legal risks.
• What do I want my brand to communicate?
• How can I best communicate that brand message?
• Will my marketing reach my customers?
• How will I sell?
• How will I distribute my product?
• Which financial tools can I use to
summarize and monitor my predictions?
• How much money will I need?
• Do I have any intellectual property?
• How do I stay on the right side of the law?
Section 4: REFINE
Now that you've sold and distributed your product/service, you have valuable information about the assumptions you made about your customer and
your market. Now is the time to refine your business before you publicly launch. In this section, you'll take your lessons learned from early sales and early
customer feedback and apply them to the future of your business. You'll measure and analyze your financial results against your previous predictions.
You'll consider what people might need, and you'll think about how to protect the assets of your business. You'll learn what advisors and boards might do
to help you as you work to launch. You will think about how you might fund your business. Finally, you'll learn how to build and communicate the plan for
your business with potential funders and others.
• What are your early sales numbers, and what are
they telling you?
• How can you use early customer feedback to
improve your product/service?
• Who might you need to help you in the business?
• How will you identify, recruit, and retain those
people?
• How can you protect your intellectual property as
you involve others in your business?
• Who might you want to help you make decisions and
think about the business?
• Where will you get any money that you need?
Section 5: LAUNCH
You're ready to launch your business. In this section, you'll learn strategies for launching, leading, and developing processes that will allow your business
to grow. You'll learn how to draw attention to your new business. You'll think about your leadership style, your company's culture, and how to manage the
exciting challenges of growing a business. You'll learn about best practices in process management and identify the success metrics that make sense for
your business. You'll forecast the financial future for your company and think about how to set yourself up for success. Finally, you'll plan for worst-case
scenarios and envision the best-case scenario-when you exit!
• What does launching mean, and how can I let more
customers know I exist?
• How can I lead, inspire, and develop a healthy
culture for my new business?
• How should I think about and document the critical
processes that allow my business to run smoothly?
• How will I measure success?
• Can I plan for disasters and emergencies that would
disrupt my business?
• What financial metrics can I forecast?
• How might I exit this business?
• What actually happened with the finances of my
business, and why?
• What can I do to improve my business finances?
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None
None
No
Students must be enrolled in or has completed a curriculum in skilled trades or professions at Wake Tech.
Access to Kauffman FastTrac will be provided
None
90% attendance
N/A
This is designed for students that are currently or have recently studied any skilled trade or curriculum area and have an interest in learning more about opportunities in being an entrepreneur.
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N/A
Entrepreneurship
Owner
Founder
Principal
To be notified when this course becomes available, please use
Wake Tech's Notify Me service.
~Apply the key elements of successful entrepreneurship
~Complete a business plan
Requirements to Complete:
~Oral presentation of business plan executive summary
Week Date Topic Session includes:
1 January 2025 The Entrepreneurial Lifestyle Get acquainted Participant concepts & expectations
Facilitated activities & discussion
1 From Idea to Business Concept Hands-on activities and coaching
2 Market Research Entrepreneur's exchange
Marketing pitch
Guest speaker, Q&A
2 Market Research Debrief/questions
Hands-on activities and coaching Plus/Delta
3 February Business Model Design Entrepreneur's exchange
Marketing pitch
Guest speaker, Q&A
Facilitated activities & discussion
3 Pricing Strategy Debrief/questions
Hands-on activities and coaching Plus/Delta
4 Legal Strategy Entrepreneur's exchange
Marketing pitch
Guest speaker, Q&A
Facilitated activities & discussion
4 Business Exits Debrief/questions
Hands-on activities and coaching
Plus/Delta
5 Reaching the Market Entrepreneur's exchange
Marketing pitch
Guest speaker, Q&A
Facilitated activities & discussion
5 Distribution and Sales Debrief/questions
Hands-on activities and coaching Plus/Delta
6 March Financial Management Cycle
Sales Projections
Cost Projections Entrepreneur's exchange
Marketing pitch
Guest speaker, Q&A
Facilitated activities & discussion
6 Intellectual Property
Complying with Laws, Regulations, and Contracts
Debrief/questions
Financial template practice
Hands-on activities and coaching Plus/Delta
7 Building the Organization and Team Entrepreneur's exchange
Marketing pitch
Guest speaker, Q&A
Facilitated activities & discussion
7 Your Cash Needs/Earn a Profit Debrief/questions
Hands-on activities and coaching Plus/Delta
8 Refining Financial Assumption/Seeking Funding Entrepreneur's exchange
Guest speaker, Q&A
Facilitated activities & discussion
8 Putting Together a Business Plan Debrief/questions
Hands-on activities and coaching Plus/Delta
9 Launch
Leading the Organization
Culture
Process Optimization
Entrepreneur's exchange
Guest speaker, Q&A
Facilitated activities & discussion
9 Measuring and Analyzing Financial Results
Process Optimization & Debrief/questions
Hands-on activities and coaching Guidelines for presentation
Plus/Delta
10 April Present Plan Presentation of exec summary
10 Present Plan Presentations (if necessary)
30
No
None
None
No
NONE
FASTRAC ONLINE ACCESS
None
90% attendance
N/A
Intended for sections that include both Launch Cohorts and Cooperating Raleigh Colleges Cohorts.
N/A
N/A
Entrepreneur/Business Owner
Founder
To be notified when this course becomes available, please use
Wake Tech's Notify Me service.
have the fundamental skills required to develop their own business
1.- Developing the business idea
2.- Conducting research on the market and competitors
3.- Developing a business plan
4.- Learning about programs and resources available to the small business owner
5.- Learning how to self promote (media exposure, social media, and other resources)
6.- Understanding the seven essential skills of a successful small business owner
7.- Class Exercise: Presenting your business
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1
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None
No
None
N/A
N/A
90% attendance
Successful completion of this course requires 90% attendance and satisfactory class participation (i.e., be able to demonstrate proficiency in all concepts taught). If a student has extenuating circumstances causing absences of greater than 10% of the class time, the student must make arrangements with the instructor to provide evidence of keeping up with the class material and making up the work, exercises, and projects missed; or demonstrate competency in the course objectives.
N/A
Small and new entrepreneurs
N/A
N/A
New Business Owners
MLS-3230B2
MLS-3230A3
MLS-3230A1
Community & Career Education Staff
919-532-5700
[email protected]
| Details | Section | Date(s) | Location | Price | Seats | 316506 | 09/02/25 - 10/21/25 | Western Wake Campus | 77.00 | 20 | Register |
|---|
If you would like to be notified when additional sections become available, please use Wake Tech's Notify Me service.
Learn how to transform your passion and talent into a viable small business.
Study financing, marketing techniques, employee management, policy writing, and time management - everything you need to know to start your very own small business.
Lesson 1 - Starting Your Dream
Lesson 2 - Find Your Perfect Business Opportunity
Lesson 3 - Creating a Truly Unique Business
Lesson 4 - Developing Your Business Plan
Lesson 5 - How to Legally Set Up Your Company
Lesson 6 - Power Marketing for Business Owners
Lesson 7 - Advertising and Publicity to Skyrocket Your Business
Lesson 8 - The Report Card for Your Business
Lesson 9 - Finding Money for Your Business
Lesson 10 - Hiring, Motivating, and Parting With Employees
Lesson 11 - Business Policies
Lesson 12 - Managing You
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None
No
There are no prerequisites to take this course.
Hardware Requirements:
This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.
Software Requirements:
PC: Windows 8 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.
Other:
Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.
Instructional Material Requirements:
The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.
None
90% attendance
• Students must successfully pass 10 quizzes with a minimum grade of 70% by the second quiz attempt.
• If all quizzes are not passed with 70 or better by the second attempt, the final exam score must be 70% or higher on the first attempt for successful completion.
• The Final Exam must be taken by the Wake Tech course end date.
N/A
If you are interested in tips and steps to take when starting your very own small business, this course is for you!
N/A
N/A
To be notified when this course becomes available, please use
Wake Tech's Notify Me service.