Meet Germanie James & Markeela Hampton | Owners

We had the good fortune of connecting with Germanie James & Markeela Hampton and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Germanie James & Markeela Hampton, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
We are a family who loves to cook and have fun in the kitchen. Two of our favorite childhood meals were hotdogs and sloppy joe. One day we decided to make our own recipe for sloppy joe and it was a hit! My sister and I looked at each other and instantly said, “This would be great on a hotdog!” That is how the concept “Sloppy Dogg” came about. It’s not a hot dog, its not a sloppy joe, its a Sloppy Dogg.” 🙂

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Transitioning into this role as a business owner was a big leap for me. I was a school teacher for 7 years so the food truck industry was foreign to me. From the outside looking in, I really didn’t think running a food truck could be that difficult. Little did I know that there are so may layers to it all. My sister has been in the kitchen for many years so she was more comfortable with the strenuous working conditions however, it has still been a great learning experience for her as well.

What sets us a part from others is our end goal. We aren’t doing this as a “job” or to just get by. We are building an empire. We want to take Sloppy Dogg to higher heights, so that we can become a household name.

There have been many challenges along the way that could have easily caused us to throw in the towel but each day we continue to fight for Sloppy Dogg.

We are most excited about the unlimited potential of Sloppy Dogg. We have a vision and we will continue to work hard and not stop until we achieve it.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Of course we have to show love to the food truck industry!

Hot Chicken- Chicken Headz
Cajun- Houanas Bestbites
Funnel Cakes- The Funnel Bar
Shaved Ice- Tie-Dye Snoballs & Husky Sno
Korean Fried Chicken-Seoulside Wings

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We jumped head first into our business. We had no idea what we were doing and to this day, we are still learning as we go. We would like to give a huge shoutout to our business mentors Matt and Nick for helping us along the way! Matt is a volunteer mentor at score.org and he helped us navigate the startup procedures such as creating a business plan and organizing our finances. Nick is our sale representative at US Foods and he has been in our corner since day one! He has taught us so many things about the food industry and how to effectively analyze our food costs.

Of course we could not have accomplished any of our goals if it wasn’t for our family. They have stepped in and helped us in so many ways!!! We could not have done it without them!

Website: sloppydogg.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sloppy_dogg/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sloppydogg

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sloppy-dogg-humble-2?osq=sloppy+dogg