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

Hi Hannah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

In my experience, opening a small business is built off support from your family and friends. I had been told this before opening my business a few times, but it wasn’t until I was in the thick of year 1 that I realized they were NOT lying. When it came to needing help at an event or the kitchen for a few hours with very little capital to pay employees – my friends and family stepped in and show up for me in ways that I will never forget.

A huge success story I have behind this topic was the first three years my mom played a really big role with not only helping IN the business (for FREE!) but also being a shoulder to cry on when the inevitable obstacles of opening a new business would hit me like a brick. Two years later in March of 2022 – I was able to offer her ownership in the company and afford to not only support myself, a few employees, but also her! As of this year we are supporting 4 full time employees, a dozen part timers, and ourselves. Tots on the Street wouldn’t be where it is today – my dream come true – without the help of my mom.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

“OUR STORY”

In 2019 in Milwaukee, WI our mother and daughter – owned business began with a passion for potatoes and one tattered old food truck. With family at the heart of growth, we continue to expand our fleet, our team, and our products so that our passion can be shared for years to come. Each of our gourmet tater tots are stuffed by hand, packed with flavor, and loaded with love from our family to yours!

“MY STORY”

My name is Hannah Kopplin and I grew up in Milwaukee, WI with a passion for this city and its food culture. Growing up with the ~coolest~ mom in town, she showed introduced me to some of the greatest restaurants and festivals that made Milwaukee what it is today. After high school I knew I wanted to work in the service industry. I worked as a bartender for years and fell more in love with connecting with customers and the opportunity to make their day. Food Trucks were relatively new to the Milwaukee scene, but when I got to experience one, I was immediately obsessed. I knew from that first experience that I wanted to own one – I just had to think of a concept. My mom, Tami, and I used to make “Tater Tot Casseroles” growing up and those dishes kept coming to my mind. One day I was leaving work and called her and said, “Mom, I’m going to open a Food Truck. It’ll be called TOTS – just like we used to make!!!” Her response was the coolest part of this story – she goes, “Okay, let’s do it!” not at all questioning my sanity as a 21-year-old having never worked on a truck before. The rest of the story includes us building three food trucks with our own hands (well, and a little help from my dad – thanks dad!), a catering program, and launching our wholesale program providing frozen gourmet tots to retailers all around the Midwest. Of course, the work was not even a little bit easy. There was a lot of “20’s”
I missed out on, friends I’d lose to lack of free time, and sleep I will only gain back when I’m 80 but man, I’d have it no other way!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Our social media had the most dramatic face lift on all face lifts in the start of 2023. Being a millennial, you’d think I have social media down to a science, but maybe I missed that class in high school because that is not my strong suite. When I opened TOTS in 2019 it seemed like social media ran the world, so I knew just how important it was to stay active and relevant. I did what I could with my lack of talent in that department and very little funds to hire out until early 2023.

After some serious number crunching, I was able to hire a content creator for our social media and it CHANGED THE GAME! When I started working with her, she asked me how I want my brand to be SEEN. I felt really overwhelmed by this question and what kept coming to my head was my mom/business partners favorite phrase, “There’s no crying in Tater Tots.”

This statement, in the silliest way possible, opened the flood gates of the “silly brand” I always wanted TOTS to be. With the help of our wickedly talent designer, she took a potato and made it into a MASCOT. She finds ways to showcase our team’s humor, heart, and goofiness with entertaining content that is professionally done. Immediately I saw our following grow and just shift how people responded to what we posted saying comments like “Tots posts’ make my LIFE”. It made customers excited for the memorable experience they’d have while visiting the food truck that serves Tater Tots and occasionally the really bad dad-joke.

My main advice is: answer that question. How do you want your brand to be seen? What audience are you trying to target? Make sure it’s authentic and comes from who YOU, as the owner, are. I don’t want to have a career that isn’t fun. So fun is what I really focused on and I will never look back!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think our product itself was very helpful to get our name out there. Who doesn’t like stuffed potatoes!?

That being said, starting off I feel like we got people’s attention because of our product, but what kept them coming back is the experience we’d create for our customers on the truck. When I started hiring people I’d ask them if they knew about Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle – if they hadn’t, I’d show them youtube videos of how the staff interacts with the customers and how in under 30 seconds they would absolutely make someone’s day. My staff is a HUGE reason we have stayed known and loved, because they make sure to bring the best experience.

A different reason – Milwaukee has been blessed with a TON of women owned businesses that I have had the privilege to meet and learn from. It’s been one of the coolest experiences of my life seeing how supportive this group of women are for each other and how they include everyone is the great events, festivals, and right people to shake hands with. Knowing and connecting with these fellow women-owned businesses has no doubt been a huge part of our success and growth!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.totsonthestreet.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/totsonthestreet/
• Facebook: https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=d859f2f8e6fa14613863273019625d42523578726791f437dc5f3af1af9b0c9eJmltdHM9MTczMjU3OTIwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=20469dbe-792e-6277-2a4d-896878a863bf&psq=instagram+tots+on+the+street&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZmFjZWJvb2suY29tL3RvdHNvbnRoZXN0cmVldC8&ntb=1
• Yelp: @totsonthestreet

Image Credits

Kelsey Haase – photographer @rebelsquid