We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Princillia Rhodes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Princillia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?

Some of the most unexpected problems I’ve faced in this business is funding. I did lots of research on food truck funding before starting my business, just to make sure I knew what to expect. All the banks that I spoke with said they didn’t provide business loans if you’ve been in business for less than 2 years. I felt so defeated as everywhere I turned; the answer was “I’m sorry but we can’t help you”.

Banks consider the food truck business as very risky. Needless to say, just trying to get help putting together a business plan to get a loan was a task added to this problem. This too was because all my mentors felt the same way the banks did. One in particular told me that there was no way any bank would loan me the kind of money I needed to get my business started with no food truck or restaurant experience. So I walked away again with no help putting together a business plan.

Little did they know that I had opened a small cooking business in 2018 before pursuing the food truck industry sometime later. However, I couldn’t share this information with the banks because it wasn’t necessarily legal. But I had to start somewhere to get my name and brand out there.
So after much frustration and tears, it came down to me using my own personal funds to get started as well as writing up my own business plan.

Princillia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born in a little country town called Maysville, North Carolina. My mom taught me how to cook since the age of 8. As I watched her cook different foods and how good they tasted, I’d be like “wow mom”, I’ll never be able to cook food this good. She assured me that if I preserved and kept practicing, I would one day be just as good at cooking as she was.

All the foods I learned to cook were southern dishes at the time. The more I watched her cook and learned to cook the dishes myself, the more it drove my passion to one day have my own cooking business.

I wanted my brand of cooking to be home cooked, made from scratch meals. I wanted my food truck to stand out from other food truck businesses, and this was the way to do it.

The products that I sell are fried chicken, fried shrimp, flounder, collard greens, cabbage, hush puppies, mac and cheese, hot dogs, hamburgers, coleslaw, potato salad, homemade strawberry lemonade and more.

It’s very important to me that customers/people know that my food truck has history and that history is all about my mother. I named it after my mom, Larine as I learned how to cook in Larine’s Kitchen, so that’s why it’s named after her. She loved flowers, so I decorated the entire truck with flowers from her flower garden, hydrangea’s and azalea’s (which were her 2 favorite flowers), her original signature “Larine” is written on different parts of the truck, emerald green was her favorite color so all lettering on the truck is written in emerald green, and last but not least, her favorite Bible verse was Psalm 121:2, which is on the truck as well.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Before my mom passed away we talked about me starting my own business. About 30 days before God called her home, she said Priscilla, cooking is your passion. She said you are a great cook, you love to cook and I know you’ll do well. Mom said she was tired and ready to go home with the Lord. Her words to me where “I’m leaving a way for you to get started on your business, I want to know that you’ll continue to make your dreams come true”.

There were many steps I had to take to get a permit to be self-sufficient for my food truck with the state of NC. Meaning I could prepare everything in my food truck and not have to pay for a commissary. My food truck was built in another state, which left me a nervous wreck wondering if it was being built correctly to pass inspection in the state of NC. Being I couldn’t just run next door to see what was going on. Knowing that if something went wrong in the building process, I may have to start over and spend more money than originally planned as well. Simply because the Johnston County health department for the state of NC had to approve everything on my truck and it being built in the state of VA made things a little trickier. For that reason, I drove or flew to VA every 2 weeks to ask questions and see what was going on with my truck. It was a very tiring drive, and it took 4.5 hours to drive by myself one way, only to turn around after a 1 hour stay and come right back. Having a self-sufficient food truck also involved me proving I had a place to dispose of my grey water (dish water) and used cooking oil. Getting someone to allow me to dispose of my used cooking oil in their receptacles was no easy task. Many times, I was up at 5am in the mornings to meet a manager at a fast-food restaurant (waffle house), only to make trip after trip, wait in the parking lot for an hour or so, to finally be told “no, sorry we can’t let you do that”.

As well as there was a special electrical cord the state required, I have to help meet the needs of running my food truck self-sufficiently. That was the last step that was mandatory before the state would issue my permit.

So, after going back and forth with this for months, I finally got the approval required to operate my food truck legally.

How did you build your audience on social media?

When I first started out trying to build by business (before the food truck was purchased), it was not on social media. I started out in the community going door to door passing out flyers. Also, kept flyers in my car at all times, so when I’d stop at gas stations, I’d introduce myself and talk about plans for my business, as well as advertising to schools and churches with those same flyers.

My goal at that time was to get a contract with many of the military bases near my community as well. I didn’t know where to start with the military as far as who to contact and no access to the military bases. Had to make many phone calls, but Glory be to God that worked out as well. I’m now connected to 5 military bases and selling my products.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @LarinesKitchen
• Facebook: @LarinesKitchen
• Twitter: @LarinesKitchen