230. The Key to $100K/Month Food Cart

0:00Namoka:The government didn't find them. They seized every single hot dog cart. The business had been run aggressively. No permits, no patients, and eventually the city shut it down. Most people would have walked away. Namoka didn't. While working nights at a hospital and raising twin daughters, she decided to rebuild it the right way. $10 ,000, new cart, all legal, no shortcuts. today that same hot dog business does$40 ,000 a month with peak months hitting$100 ,000 that is like mind blowing to say out loud there same city same product but a completely different mindset I'm Ryan Atkinson and you're listening to the Outfit Podcast where we uncover the secrets of building and running successful businesses today we are joined by Namoka and Betty and I am so excited to welcome on here talk about starting a hot dog sandwich is so cool and the success y 'all have had.

0:49Namoka:So Namoka, Betty, thank you so, so much for being here. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having us. We really appreciate the opportunity. Yeah, you guys are great on the YouTube channel. So it is a pleasure to have you here on the podcast. But for someone that hadn't tuned into the YouTube channel, Namoka, tell us what exactly is your business and what do you guys do a month in revenue? So we run a mobile hot dog vending company. So we have about five carts that are actively working and we kind of have locations all over the city. We kind of go where events are happening. So if they're not happening one place, we take another place or we might do a wedding or it just depends what's going on.

1:25And our revenue can run anywhere. The low end, I would say 20 ,000, I would say 20, 20 to 40 ,000 a month, depending on the month and the season that it is.

1:35Namoka:So crazy. How long have you all been running this for? Just to give some additional context for a listener? I would say like our re-official opening of it, probably about 10 years. Originally, maybe 15 if we had another five years where we were kind of roguing around the city. I like it. Well, let's go back to that moment. So the moment the government sees the carts, kind of tell us like lead up to the story, like what exactly was happening? Like what was that moment like for you? Well, I think it was, I was in school. So my husband at the time was pretty much, it was his idea. He pretty much created the vision, created the plan.

2:10I was in school, so he was doing all the running of the carts. I would have liked to have done more work to get the carts up and running, but it was so much red tape. You couldn't do one unless you did three. And it was backwards like that. You couldn't do three unless you did six or six unless you did one. And I think the government figured it out now, but it was kind of that thing. And, you know, he didn't care. He was just like, it's hot dogs. I don't care. I'm just going to set up. I bought these carts with my money. I'm going to we're going to go everywhere. And he just kept showing up and they kept coming by and giving him tickets.

2:39They were ticketing at the time, which they no longer do. And saying, no, you can't be here. You can't be here. You can't be here. Restaurants would complain because he was within a vicinity of other food locations. So there were all kinds of things. And I wanted to, you know, get it legit. And I was like, OK, let's get it legit. But I was actually a lot of the money was taking me through school, you know. So he was the breadwinner at the time. So all of a sudden, I don't know, they came along with a plan. And I mean, I think it was like in one night they just started. They we had about two or three carts out and they came and they confiscated them.

3:10They literally had a truck, rolled them up on the back of the truck, our supplies, our generators, everything. And then so we had probably had one more left, I think, too. And on another day, we tried to do that, too. And they came and they took that one as well.

3:24Namoka:Wow. What were you guys doing like in revenue up to that point? Like how big of a business was it? And like, was that moment for you? like, holy smokes, like the world is collapsing under my feet doing this. Yeah, I wouldn't say it was very lucrative back then because it first of all, it didn't have it didn't have a loving touch. It was just like, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna get money out of it. There wasn't any love put in it. There wasn't any marketing ideas. We've never marketed, but there's no was no even no, no marketing pattern. There was not a lot. Even at the time, it was called a Creo Cafe, which is weird for a hot dog stand.

3:58but because the original plan was to do creole food right but you can't do fish and crawfish and all of that at a cart so and then i'm like so then we go to the hot dog because we were connoisseurs in the nightlife and was like okay let's do hot dogs and we still kept it creole cafe so there was no nothing attached to the name it was like and we catered to mostly drunk people in the bars we pulled up on on bars i would say we were making about i would say five thousand a

4:22Namoka:month five or six thousand a month i love the concept there and i think listeners should know that about like who your guys' target audience was about being like, you know, the drunk people that will buy anything. Cause I think about like my college days and like, we had like a grilled cheese place. We had like a Greek like food truck and like, it's so true. Like when it's 12 AM at night and you've had 10 drinks, bread or cheese, anything will make you absorb whatever, or make you think you're absorbing things, whatever. So how did you land on like hot dogs then though? Like you, I know you just kind of described it a little bit, but like, what specifically was it about hot dogs compared to like fish and everything?

4:55Namoka:Was it just because it was simpler or like what specifically about the hot dogs enticed you? I think the first part is that we hung out a lot in the bar scene ourselves. We were club goers a while back. So I think we would always get these hot dogs and they were very popular. So the mission was kind of to do hot dogs, but then originally, and then it kind of changed. Well, let's try some other food because there are other hot dog vendors a little bit here and there in the nightlife. So then we were thinking to just try something else, which was very temporary. I mean, I think after the first big cooking, it cost us like 300 to make because they have a lot of fish and stuff in it.

5:30So it's very expensive. And it just didn't sell well. People drinking, they don't want to really walk around with bowls and it just wasn't a seller. So I think pretty fast within the first couple of tries, we realized, go back to our original idea, worry about hot dogs. And then that's when we saw that it was very lucrative right away.

5:49Namoka:I want to talk about like, what made you like really think like, I'm going to rebuild this then? Was it just like, you know, you got shut down, you got a bunch of carts taken, like what made you want to rebuild it then? I think it was first the need for money, for income. I was in school taking care of my mother who was sick, kids. And I saw that it was doing good. And we didn't even put as much energy. Like I said, just bar nightlife stuff, like couple days a week was bringing in 5 ,000 a month. So I was like, okay, I'm going to make a cart. And that's when I made a cart. I was like, if they take it, it doesn't matter.

6:18I didn't pay much for it. So I just made it. And then slowly I just started seeing things taken off and money being made. So once the money was made, I'm like, okay, I'm going to buy. Now I'm going to buy a cart. I want to buy a cart. And then I had Betty and I was like, okay, Betty, you got this cute, sweet face. You look very young. Cause some, at this time, the city was requiring you to pitch wherever you were going to be in front of. It didn't matter where, how close, what the distance was you had to ask them to use their bathroom and permission to be in front. So we had to pay people like a thousand bucks, 500.

6:48They tried to extort us like pretty much in a way we want this much because they knew we needed them to be in front of their stores and stuff. So I said, Betty, why don't you go around and talk to people? You have the sweet face, the demeanor, because if another one of us go talk there, they were like thinking we were up to something. Like, what are they trying to do? When Betty went in, it just looked like this young college girl. She just, she just wants to start this little cupcake business. You know, they're not thinking like that. And so I found that people were way more receptive to her face, her energy, her sound.

7:19And then the husband was doing things at the time too, then he got, he didn't get good reactions at all. Cause I wasn't as interested to be honest. It wasn't my thing. I was going to school. I was in nursing. This was my second degree. So I wasn't as interested, but once Betty got out there and I seen the cart doing good, Betty was working. And then when she wasn't working the carts, she really bumped up the sales and I saw it. And people loved her. People would say, where's the girl you had? She's so amazing. And I'm like, wow. Okay. And I've seen the numbers go up. The money was up even more than the 5 ,000.

7:49It went up to like 10 ,000. And then Betty was able to help me with the process. So now I had a partner, was my best friend. I met in college. I'm a little older than her, but we met in college. I went back to school. She was just going to school when we met. And now I have this person who was down to do whatever with me. And I was like, you do one, one, two, three, I'm going to do four, five, six. And that partnership, I still wasn't all in, but the growth of it and to see, she's like, Hey, I got a location. I got us two locations today. And I'm like, you did. Oh my God. And then, you know, doing paperwork.

8:20She was good at it. She was good at dealing with the city. Everybody was wanting to help her. It was just crazy.

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9:03Namoka:How did she approach you on this idea? And what was your first initial reaction to like, hey, help me out with this hot dog stand? Well, to be honest, I literally filled in for my nephew one night and I made like$300 or$400. And obviously the money was super enticing. So I was like, if I can do that in one night. What can happen in a week? Right. And so it kind of just fell in my lap, to be honest. Like I didn't ask to be a part of it. I just was like, I was kind of just running through like dead end jobs. I was working at Starbucks. I was doing like a program for medical assisting. I liked the people aspect, but I wasn't really getting like the type of feedback that I get on the streets, like working in the city.

9:47And it was just like something that came like upon me. And so I just, I don't really know how it like how it started. It just came. And I was like, you know, like, let me let me get out there and see what I can do. I was really once like a shyer person, but like getting out there and like really like hitting the pavement and just like really seeing what I can do with like the business. It really has has helped me in so many ways, like more than a textbook has ever helped me. And so I've seen my growth through just communicating with different officials and just getting the reciprocation that I get from the city.

10:24I was like, well, if I can do this, then the sky's the limit at this point. So I just started doing it.

10:30Namoka:There you go. You started doing it. Now it's grown to what it is today, doing up to$100 ,000 on some of the peak months here. One thing that your team has said is that customer service is your guys' number one differentiator. give someone a quick masterclass on how to provide like great customer service that I didn't realize how important customer service is honestly it's something that's just super genuine like I don't even try it's just who I am as a person but I would say be as genuine as possible like don't try and sugarcoat or fabricate something that you're not and just really just just really be out there and really just honestly put your best foot forward.

11:15Like not everybody's going to be a people person and I've run into people that aren't, but you kind of have to just learn body language, just kind of like noticing the obvious, you know what I mean? Like, you know, I've had customers come up to me and be like, oh, like kind of just like don't want to talk. So I'll be like, okay, like have a great day or whatever the case may be. And the next time they come around, they're like, oh, this girl's kind of the same person that I met last week, right? She hasn't changed. And so it's just very like being like true to yourself and honestly, just like having etiquette.

11:46You know what I mean? Like it's just basic things that unfortunately aren't really like basic anymore, I guess. But just honestly, just being true to yourself, honestly. And I would say from the outside, looking in at her and from what I'm receiving from customers, because it might be harder to see her, what she is as much as people looking in at her can see. But I would just say, for one, if you pull up to our cart, she's able to help that customer and be like, hey, Jimmy, how are you doing? How's your wife doing? While making the food and preparing the food. And she's got another person that just pulled up in line.

12:21Hey, I'll be right with you in a minute. Just take a look at our menu and I'll get to you. But service hasn't stopped. If you're in a time limit, the time limit is still being met. The quality is still being met and having someone work in the front line that genuinely enjoys people. She knows everybody's name. She greets everyone when they show up. No one's waiting, wondering if they've been seen because we can have a line of 50, 60 people. If you're at the top front of that line, she's addressed you already. She will even call up to the end of the line. Guy, we're going to be moving it fast here.

12:50Hi, everybody. I'm so glad you're here. That kind of energy to people always, always and recognizing people. If she doesn't quite remember their name, she'll usually be like Jimmy and he'll be like, no, it's John or, you know, or Gabe, you know what I'm saying? And he might say it's another G name or she might remember something about your life that your wife was sick. How's her cold doing this week? I see people coming up, cancer's in remission. She's talking to them and I'm heartfelt by it. Like she's got tears in her eyes. She's hugging them. I'm glad, you know, it's like, well, yeah, I had to have this thing put on my stomach, but I'm alive and she's hugging them.

13:22She'll stop in the middle, but she also lets her other customer. Hi, guys. I haven't seen him in a while. He just healed from this. And people are like emotional to see her interactions. Even the dogs know her.

13:34Namoka:Even the dogs. Everybody's important that don't be a cannibal today. I think one of the takeaways for listeners is like provide great customer service. And like, there's a lot of ways to do that by recognizing, calling people by their name, like just being a warm, like caring person. A super important part of this business is locations. And locations seem to really be a large majority of like, maybe not large majority. It plays a factor into your success. Tell us about the story of Betty securing the Climate Pledge Arena permit. Because obviously that's a big driver. So tell us about that story.

14:03Namoka:Then we're gonna dive into like more location stuff as well. Okay. So I think originally it was my previous husband's idea to get climate. He said, you know what? The Sonics are gonna come back. This is before it ever opened. He's like, I'm thinking next year, the hockey team's gonna be here. Let's book it before anybody gets in there. So we tried that, but they didn't want anybody on the sidewalk in front of the climate pledge. So there was a daycare across the street with a big sidewalk, like directly across adjacent from just like one walk across the street. And so we set up over there, but people really, I don't know, it was something about people and walking across the street to get food.

14:39We did okay, but we weren't really doing well there. So I tell Betty, like just, you know, I think the lady was starting to complain too. So I tell Betty, you know, her daycare was there and the smell of food because we were opening like three or four going into the nightlife. And so I said, just set up across the street and just let's see what happens, what the flow is. I didn't know what was going to happen. I mean, I tried to get a permit. We paid for it. So I'm thinking maybe if we just move, we broke a little rule. So we had to bend a couple of rules to start. And so then once she got over there, she actually met the owner of the Climate Pledge Arena.

15:11He stopped by.

15:12Namoka:Oh, wow. And our cart. And there was no food out there. And I don't know if you've ever been in the Climate Pledge Arena or are familiar with it. But it's very little food inside. And the food that is inside is kind of like kiosk food. You wave your card, you grab your pizza. That's it. There's no interaction. There's no melting anything. So he told Betty, I love you being here. This is fine for me. Now he welcomed me. He welcomed her to the block. So when the city reached back, city came by to do their they do their rounds around the city, see who's where they shouldn't be. And they'll scold you.

15:43You can talk to them about it. And then we had to let them know about the complaint across the street and that also that the owner had welcomed her. So they all reached out, did a team meeting with the Climate Pledge Arena, with the city officials, not with Betty there. We weren't there. They just sent us the response. And it was like a long page of you're amazing. You keep your permits in the city. You communicate with us. You keep your area clean. You're a good neighbor. And we've decided we would love to have you there. And she opened up permits not only for her. Now, one of our I don't want to say our competitors.

16:17Yeah. Okay. One of our competitors, he has a cart on the other corner, which there's plenty of money. I mean, like we never got it all, but yeah. So once she opened that up, she kind of opened up the permit process where anybody can probably get. Oh, that's so cool.

16:31Namoka:So the mobile is like intriguing because like, obviously you can like kind of pick it up and go wherever. What are like, if someone's just wanting to get started with like a hot dog business, like what are some of the hot spots that they should be checking out location wise? I would say the first thing that you're going to want to check, because this is what I ran into people. And I'll just give you a quick spiel and then go into that. Because people in different cities, right? So different cities have different rules. I don't believe Portland, Oregon, you can be on the street. They have these parking lots.

17:00So I wouldn't waste your time looking for a location until you know where you can be. Yeah, your logistics of your city. Yeah. Find out what your permitting thing is first. Secondly, when you're looking for a location, though, if you can't get on the street in your city, find a parking lot. Parking lots have nothing to do with the city or anybody. You can pay somebody even like where they park cars at. Third, always look for the more traffic, the better. The more foot traffic, the more better. But it also matters of who. People of a certain age, I'm going to say, and I hate to say this because it may not be written in stone.

17:39So the hot dog crowd, I'm going to say, predominantly is under 50 years old for the hot dog crowd. And depends the type of person. Because we get concerts that are sold out and we might sell 50 hot dogs. We have to be honest about that. We could have a concert that got 5 ,000, 6 ,000, 7 ,000 people. Yeah. And we sell 50 hot dogs. Yeah.

18:02Namoka:You're going to the Paramount tonight. Who is performing if you do know, but like, how are you guys expecting this turnout to be? And like, what are you guys kind of expecting? I'm totally banking on not even the Paramount goers. I'm banking on just the location itself and the neighbors that I serve to. She's already established because we're about like several hotels. So that's kind of like our main location. So we can get both. But the guy tonight is like, he's kind of different. He's like a - Influencer. A foodie influencer type. Yeah. He like makes different meals on stage and asks like chemistry questions to his audience.

18:42And it's correlates with like food as well as like math and just a little different. And I don't know what his crowd will be like, honestly. He has quite a bit of tickets left as far as like to be sold to go to his show. But I mean, if he's at the Paramount, he must be someone. Yeah.