We recently connected with Michelle Rankin and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Michelle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

Coming from the background of building and bartending, the idea of Tipsy Trailer came together surprisingly easy. We learned very quickly that knowing how to build a trailer, how to mix a cocktail and how to work with people, were not going to be enough to grow and sustain a successful mobile bartending business. Now, those are all necessary skills to have in order to be successful, but the idea that building and running a mobile bar is easy and all fun is a complete misconception. Being successful in this business is not just showing up with cute trailer and pouring beer and wine, maybe mixing a margarita. Sure- you could run a business that way, but it won’t get you far. Standing out from your competition, social media, networking, knowledge of taxes, state laws, permitting, marketing, bookkeeping and continuing education are just the beginning of a list of items that are required and that we had to learn in the first year of business. Learning that only 40% of our job is actually bartending and that the other 60 % is spent doing everything else was a tough lesson to learn. The idea that we would just start a business and clients would magically appear is something I look back on and chuckle just a little to myself, I wish it was that easy. Getting clients takes working very hard behind the scenes, it takes hours of social media posts, learning google ads and setting up SEO tools- All things that I had no education or knowledge in prior to starting Tipsy Trailer. After realzing some of the previously mentioned lessons we had to learn, we also realized that in order to grow and produce a nice profit, we had to expand. That expansion for us was going from one mobile bar to six mobile bars, two satellite bars and several additional add on options for clients to choose from. We quickly learned that clients want “extra”, they want to stand out and have their guests or clients to experience an elevated and luxury bar service, so we gave them that.

Michelle, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Tipsy-Trailer started as a side hustle in order to have income to complete a college education in the legal field, that side hustle very quickly turned into an empire of mobile bars and a full time career. With over 20 years of experience in the serving industry and many more in the world of bartending and craft cocktails, the customer service portion of the business came naturally. Our specialty came into play with our custom built mobile bars paired with the experience of a professional bartender. Sean, coming from 30 years of working in the construction and building industry, could simply breathe new life into trailers that had been given up on. Each trailer in our fleet has months of work put into them, each containing custom woodwork, state of the art bar equipment and systems that allow for a very fast paced event to run smoothly. When couples, clients hire Tipsy-Trailer, they hire a family owned and built business that has taken incredible measures to ensure the very best product and service is being delivered. In just a few short years, this one time side hustle, has quickly grown into the largest mobile bar company in Washington State. Winning Seattle Brides 2023 Best Bar Award this year, as well as The Knots Best Of Award, I think has shown that our hard work is starting to be noticed and appreciated.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The Mobile Bar industry is rapidly growing and new ideas and talents are coming into the scene monthly it seems. As one of the “older” mobile bar businesses in the area, we are tryly had to embrace community over competition and realize that there is plenty of need for mobile bars and there is work for us all. We meet and speak often with local mobile bars, travel the country meeting other mobile bar owners and stay up to date on education and new equipment. It is truly a never ending endevour to stay in the game in this industry and it has been such an incredible journey. Meeting, teaching, learning from and growing with other bar owners and just utilizing one another had truly been one of the reasons we still are in the position we are and why we still have a business.

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

Reputation in this industry is what keeps us in business, it is the single most important detail that all new mobile bar owners should know. Getting to know your other vendors and maintaining good relationships with them is not only key but important to the flow of every event you are a part of. Knowing that each and every vendor in the event plays a huge roll in making that day go smoothly, is impartative, and when you have each others back the day and the event are that much better. Not only did everything I just mention matter, but most of all, you have to show up on point for these vendors and be there with your A game for the events. Other vendors not only make your day run smoothly, they also send you your future clients, their referrals are what keep us going and how you work with them and how well you do your job is what they share with others. When planners, florists, photographers, Dj’s, caterers, venues, bakers… etc etc etc, know and work well with you, THEY TELL PEOPLE. They mention your name to all their clients, then their clients mention you and so forth. This is how you get most of leads and how you continue to grow in your areas.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tipsy-trailer.com
• Instagram: @tipsytrailerllc
• Facebook: @rusticrank

Image Credits
City and Soul Photography Freckle & Flirt Photography Shantel Wall Photography Mady & Tyler Photography Samantha McFarlen