Sizzle & Syrup

BUSINESS OWNERS:  Trevor Wheelock and Jose Santos Campos Gonzalez
BUSINESS NAME:  Sizzle & Syrup
MAIN PRODUCTS/SERVICES:  Quality breakfast food at an affordable cost
LOCATION:  Farmer's Market, Sioux City, IA
WEBSITE:   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558322813768

Short description of your business: 

Sizzle & Syrup LLC is an up-and-coming breakfast food pop-up in Sioux City, Iowa. We are focusing on making quality food items such as burritos, pancakes, and daily specials at an affordable price to the public.   

What drives you each day? 

This all started because we noticed an increase demand for affordable breakfast spots in the Siouxland area. There are not a lot of options to go to without spending half your paycheck.

What’s unique about your business? 

We focus more on the quality of our food and the price than the quantity of items sold. Santos and I have been in the service industry for a combined total of 20 years. We are adamant about not selling an item that we, ourselves would not eat. We also focus on making sure that quality food is still affordable. Santos is a single father of four, so going out is hard on the wallet sometimes. We know that is an issue with many other families in the Siouxland area, and we aim to relieve that stress.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome as you’ve grown your business? 

The biggest challenge that we faced was just the startup costs of everything and the time management needed. We both work two jobs on top of doing Sizzle & Syrup, so managing the time needed to start a business was very difficult for us at the beginning.

What has been your greatest reward? 

Our greatest reward is most definitely the support that we have had from friends and family. It means the world to both of us that the people we love and care for are the people pushing us to do more and get out of our comfort zones. The community of Siouxland is an amazing one. The support that we have received is unreal. We have people coming every single Saturday when we are at the Farmer’s Market, people asking to help all the time, and people just checking in on us every chance they can get. It means everything to us.

How have you benefited from the startup community in Sioux City and the region? What resources did you use? 

We have not used the resources available to us to the fullest yet. We took our startup very slowly, as we weren’t for sure who or what to do. Now after going through and winning the Siouxland GO’s Innovation Market, we have been able to connect with all the resources that we may need. 

Are there any experiences that were particularly influential in that regard? 

Winning Siouxland GO's Innovation Market definitely helped us more than anything else. It gave us more exposure to the public, gave us access to local resources that we didn’t know we had before, and of course the prize money. 

Why is it important for the community to support startups and small businesses? What more can be done to help them?

We think the only thing that truly matters when trying to start a small business is the support of the community that it receives. A business could have the best ideas/food in the world but if they have nobody to come support them, then they will always fail. 

What is one thing you know now that you wish you knew when starting your business?

The fact that there were these local resources meant to help people like us. Santos and I knew of a couple to help us get off the ground, but not all of them. Now that we have these new connections, we aim to take full advantage of as many as we can.

What advice would you give to someone looking to start a business? 

Ask questions! Santos and I had so many when starting, and it would have been incredibly easier to start everything if we just reached out and found these local resources sooner. It would have made our transition from startup to a business much faster. 

How can the community continue to help your business? 

Keep doing what all of y’all are doing! We can’t describe how important and meaningful each and every one of y’all have been to us. Like I mentioned earlier, the fact that some people want to volunteer as workers to just help us is incredible. When we started this idea of ours, we never could have imagined the amount of support our community has given us.

What are some future goals for your company? 

With four months left, we aim to finish strong at this year’s Farmer’s Market. On top of that, we are in the works to have a few brunch pop-ups around Siouxland. Next season we are looking to expand our reach in the community by buying a food truck/trailer. This way we could do more pop-ups around the surrounding area, not only just central Sioux City.