We recently connected with Ashley Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ashley thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

I believe alot in slow, focused and, consistent growth. Scaling too fast or failure to scale due to demand can be devastating. The Savory Spread started as a side hustle for me back in March of 2019 and in almost 4 years we have learned the skills to build a business, retain clients, slowly add new product offerings to the market, and pivot when necessary,. We started very small, and maybe had 5 orders a week through the first year in 2019. While some may look at that as a “failure to launch” we saw it as a time to experiment with products, pricing, and really get focused on who our ideal clients were. In 2020, we started to scale the business by finding commercial kitchen space, narrowing our product offering to 4 types of charcuterie with three different size offerings, and really saw growth amidst the pandemic. I believe we were able to take an other wise devastating time in history, and use it as a way to grow our client base. As a result of our slow and focused growth, we kept seeing repeat customers, and great reviews on social media. To this day our average client has ordered 8 times from The Savory Spread!
In 2021 we started to scale again! We secured real estate in a neighboring town, converted a hair salon, to a beautiful store front with a larger full commercial kitchen. We also added a game changing offering to the Savory Spread ,an in store event called boarding school! Now that we have our own space, we host build your own charcuterie board events, both private and open to the public. We also scaled by adding a phenomenal wine program, and sommelier. These events have brought in so many new clients to our business and the word of mouth referrals have far exceeded any of my expectations!
There is still alot our business wants to accomplish and I will approach those goals the same way. In 2023, we are hoping to expand into more brand collaborations with some of our favorite cheese mongers and wine makers, as well as begin to dip our toes into the food truck scene!

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?

My name is Ashley Smith. I am the founder of The Savory Spread, we curate the most elevated and delicious charcuterie offerings in greater Boston. I created the Savory Spread in 2019 and over the course of four years have been able to bring thousands of people together around a shared appreciation of charcuterie and what it represents. I started off creating small to medium sized charcuterie boards and have since expanded to opulent grazing tables, charcuterie cones, and even dessert focused offerings.

I help clients enhance their gatherings by bringing people together around delicious and beautiful charcuterie spreads! While I do have an intentionally small offering, custom orders are my favorite! Just by hearing about the event, and how they want their guests to feel I am able to create a board or grazing table that always wows people. This is always the best part because I love that we get to be apart of such specials occasions in our clients lives, and that is something I do not take lightly..

In addition to The Savory Spread. I also lead a client service organization at the Bank of New York Mellon. While the private markets and charcuterie do not seem like the most natural career progression, I am certain that my work over the past 12 years in asset management and technology has made me a great business owner. I see so many ways in which owning The Savory Spread has made me an even better leader by leading by example and with humility in the organizations I have been fortunate enough to be apart of.

Of course life outside of work is just as fulfilling! I have two fabulous daughters Ella (11) and Emerson (7). They are the driving force in everything I do. I work very hard to lead by example and show them that anything is possible with a good work ethic, standing by your word, and alignment with self! My husband is also undoubtedly the linchpin that holds all of this together. The support and love he shows me is really what allows me keep dreaming bigger and we have been able to create one amazing life together!

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

A failed attempt at scaling in my early days offered a number of lessons we had to learn the hard way. In 2021, The Savory Spread was exploding and we were overwhelmed by demand for hand-delivered charcuterie boards, specifically right at the holidays — our busiest season. I found a delivery company that we thought aligned with our brand and seemed promising. We had used them a handful of times previous to the holidays with no issues. The day before Thanksgiving, we had close to 90 orders, and contracted the company for several routes. Hours later I received numerous calls that boxes were not delivered on time (which creates major food temperature safety issues) nor were they delivered with care. That evening I re-made close to 25% of the orders and my husband and I hand delivered them early Thanksgiving morning. It was a Thanksgiving we’ll certainly never forget! We learned the hard way that in order to scale you need to test procedures more often before you do it at mass — knowing this company was able to seamlessly deliver 5-10 boxes is very different than delivering almost 100. This failure could have crippled our business, especially if unhappy customers took to social media to complain. We understood we needed to move fast to make things right as the value of our brand and our reputation means everything. Our work is edible art, and we want every customer of The Savory Spread to love every morsel of our charcuterie boards.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Fostering brand loyalty can’t be bought and I realized early on with The Savory Spread to put my community first. Since opening our own retail and event space, it has been amazing to spend time getting to know our clients. We established The Boarding School events which allow groups to come in and learn how to build their own boards – this has brought in so many new faces in addition to our main client base! In 2022 one of my goals was to be more consistent on social media posting more than just Savory Spread content. I wanted my clients and followers to get to know me better. Putting not only your brand, but yourself, out there was one of the scariest but most rewarding things we did this year. We also created a subscription offering, for those that want to give the gift of The Savory Spread all year long. This has become incredibly attractive both commercially and personally. Struggling with what to get that hard-to-buy-for relative this holiday season… who doesn’t love cheese and wine? It has been so well received for everything from cozy date nights at home to book club meetings and as client gifts for real estate professionals and lawyers looking to say thanks.

Finally, we also feature our top clients on our social media pages every quarter to highlight why they choose to use us for their charcuterie needs, and how we have helped them bring people together with food and wine!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://the-savory-spread.myshopify.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesavoryspread1/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesavoryspread1
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adilorenzo1