We were lucky to catch up with Ashley Ruffer recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, thanks for joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

From a very young age heat seeker Ashley Ruffer would explore different sauces at a local restaurant in her hometown of Ann Arbor, Mi. Fast forward 20 years later and the pandemic hit. Ashley and her husband Errin wanted to give back to small businesses across the country and decided after ordering several sauces that it was time for them to open up their own retail store. After researching several brick and mortal locations, Errin came up with the idea to rent space inside of established co-op gallery shops. This solution would allow us to rent space while keeping both of our full-time jobs. We decided on a name, logo and sales license and within two months had our grand opening at our first location selling 70+ sauces that day.

Ashley, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The Hot Sauce Realm was established to provide a retail experience for our community, where we feature small business, small batch hot sauces from around the nation. Ashley’s passion is outreach and communication and celebrating the hard-working sauce makers. Errin’s background is in purchasing and retail management which has played a pivotal part in our ability to bring in such a variety of brands. Some of the companies that we carry have never sold outside of a farmers’ market and we are proud to help grow their business. The core of our business model is to show our two young sons (ages 10 and 7) how hard work and dedication can bring success to not only yourself but to others.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

From the time we moved to Fort Collins 12 years ago we have had our eye on a very small retail space in the heart of downtown Fort Collins. Years came and went, and we never had a business model that came to fruition (although many ideas were tossed around) Upon coming up with The Hot Sauce Realm we thought of the tiny dream space immediately. Low and behold it was about to become available for rent and we thought fate was on our side. We toured the space, got excited and then came the realty check upon researching the financial risk. As much as we wanted our space and our dream to come true, we made a decision to pivot to a much less risky business model where our commitment to the business wouldn’t be compromised. We are now in four locations and working to expand.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

We met on a plane, New Year’s Eve 2004. Once in the air, we hit it off immediately and realized there was something special. We had a layover in Chicago and over the next 2 hours talked, laughed and had so much in common. Ashley was flying to Ausin to visit a friend and Errin was flying back to California and said their goodbyes at her gate. After many phone calls and 3 visits Ashley moved to California 6 months after that life changing encounter. Almost 13 years later we are not only partners in life, we are now partners in business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thehotsaucerealm.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehotsaucerealm/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehotsaucerealm/