We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dana Ahrenberg a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Dana, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?
Family businesses in my opinion are most unique! I like believe it’s a more supportive environment. We’re ever changing & evolving as we grow as people & as a business. There is more creativity presented & respected. Coworkers have to trust & rely on each other in order to be successful – which makes it, at times, a personal environment. Making great effort day after day, (often long days) overcoming the unexpected changes efficiently & setting healthy boundaries with your friends/family that are also co workers makes our work experiences specials & at times unforgettable.
Having my children (the W’s) be apart of the business & getting a feel for the hard work (heart, sweat & tears) that goes into it to make it thrive is important to me personally so they can understand the sacrifices that are made to have a comfortable life. They enjoy being active in the family business & I hope they instills a hope and future for their work ethic & the path they decide to take in their adulthood.
At times having a family owned business can seem defeating & often seems never ending, but loving what you do can also seem effortless & makes all the long days worth it! It’s my priority as a owner to never give up & keep thriving to provide stability & success for the team as an entirety. Bad moments always come to an end & only together we can make it a positive fun loving work environment. I work harder to see happiness in my staff & customers!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Dana Ahrenberg. I’m a 32 year old single mother business owner. I own multi food truck & bar service company called D&W’s Street Eatery & Events. I have been in the industry independently now for 7+ years. Although I have worked in the restaurant industry since the young age of 14. I started my food truck serving my favorite personal recipes. Starting this from the ground up on my own with a never give up attitude! Our dynamic is “Latin-American BBQ Tex mex Vegan fusion” I got lucky that others enjoyed my food as much as I have & have been able to serve the streets & cater special events all over Mid-Michigan through all 4 of it’s beautiful seasons with our unique wide variety menu items. I’ve worked hard with great self discipline, determination & hard work ethic to grow this business to where is has evolved to today!
My DW team is truly wonderful & we love sharing the experience (EATertainment) & most importantly the flavorbursting food! We offer our services at many different types of events making work ever changing & existing! From weddings, Graduation parties, business caterings to markets and rally’s! Not only offering the food truck onsite but also “off the truck” catering such as gorgeous custom charcuterie/grazing tables, hors d’oeuvres, craft cocktails & so much more. We have provided an “all in one stop shop” for our mostly any event planning.
Check out our website or follow us on Facebook to see when we’re trucked up in your area next or give us a shout for a free consultation for your next catering needs! You won’t regret it!
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
Our business has evolved greatly in the past 4 years especially. Starting from moments of uncertainly dealing with mechanical aspects of our vehicles in the beginning. But we are so diehard & loyal to our customers we show up no matter what! For instance, we had our trucks motor catch fire (yikes!) & we had broken down with a full kitchen ready to cater! Without thought, we contacted a tow company to transport us directly to the job site! Now, we have replaced the engine to prevent further complications but our silly saying is “from flat tires to motor fires we show up no matter what!” Haha
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Marketing can be tricky at times – but being persistent & communicative with important details has been successful for my business. My biggest success has been social media applications such as Facebook (especially) Instagram & most recently tik tok to connect with our customers & their interests. If you need a jumpstart paying to promote ads in your area has been beneficial to get the word out. With the food truck company it can be complicated to let our clients know where we will be when we’re running 3 trucks 7 days a week in 2-4 locations a day all over michigan to for our business it’s important to share weekly calendars & create events with details to help give the opportunity to visit with us! #followyourfood
Contact Info:
- Website: dwstreeteatery.com
- Instagram: @dwstreeteatery
- Facebook: www.Facebook.com/dwstreeteatery
- TikTok: @dwstreeteatery