December 2021
3
SIT DOWN WITH SUCCESS
Ashley Ryals of Homegrown, LLC Without Twists in Life and Career, You Can’t Get Where You Want to Be “Sitdown with Success” spotlights local entrepreneurs who describe their successes and failures, with tips for upcoming business owners. For the full-length interview, visit huntsvillebusinessjournal.com. Ashley Ryals started Huntsville’s Homegrown, LLC as her own brainstorm, based on ideas she had since returning to Huntsville from the NYC Public Relations firm where she spent two years. With unique and extremely popular community food and beverage events like Dine & Dash and the Crush Wine & Food Festival held in Big Spring Park every September, Ryals discusses what it was like coming home and starting her own business. You said you do not like to be called an event planner in the traditional sense because you create your
own events, is that right? No one has ever done exactly what I am doing with Homegrown, so I think all small businesses can relate to struggling with exactly what they do. But I do everything related to an event from concept to production, to everything in between. We have creative brainstorming meetings where we pull together initial event ideas and then we plan how to implement them. How did you get started? I had the idea for Dine & Dash for a while, since I worked as a special events planner at EarlyWorks. It was basically a restaurant tour where locals visit three restaurants in one night, have an appetizer and drink tasting at each place, and the City Trolley takes them from venue to venue. I always knew a wine festival was in the making, so three years in, I start-
ed the Crush Wine & Food Festival with the intent of having something for young professionals, but when we launched, it gravitated towards a 40 to 60-year-old audience. We instantly said, ‘Wow! There’s a real big need for this’ – we have a very active wine and food community here, and they are ready to explore more about it. Huntsville is ready to grow in this industry. What are your biggest challenges with Homegrown? Being your own boss is a pro and a con. You make all the decisions, and in some situations, it is awesome; but sometimes you just wish you had someone to tell you what to do in other situations. You feel like asking, ‘Please, someone help!’ I think there are different challenges at different stages of the business.
By Kimberly Ballard
The first few years were more exciting than challenging, but as the years pass, you have to grow. You can’t just do the same thing over and over, so you must pivot. That is where we were three years in when we started Crush. It was more of a risk, a lot more on the line. We had to push through that. u
