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

Hi Ashlyn, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The idea for Fashivly wasn’t a singular “aha” moment- it was a combination of creating space, pulling from past experience, and a spark from a friend.

I’d known for a while that I wanted to pursue starting my own business, but I didn’t know what exactly it was that I wanted to do. I’d always worked in fast paced, high intensity jobs and always gave 110% to whatever my role was. I was never someone that could split focus well- I never did any sort of freelance and knew I could never be someone who was building something else on the side. So, I decided that I’d quit a job that I really loved in order to pursue something that I’d always wanted to explore. I planned, downsized, and saved up. Then Covid happened.

I made it a month past my original “jump off the cliff” date, and when I finally got the courage to tell my boss about my plans, she and most everyone else rightly questioned if I was OK. It did seem crazy, and especially crazy during the spring of 2020, to quit something that I enjoyed and give up a full time paycheck in exchange for…nothing. But I stuck to my guns, knowing that I needed to allow myself some space in order to think and figure out what exactly it was that would be my idea.

6 months passed, and while those months were filled with endless research, brainstorming, and approximately 3 fully fleshed out business plans, nothing felt like it was quite right. In September, a friend reached out and asked if I would do a personal styling session for her. We’d all been in sweats for far too long at this point, and it made sense given my background in the fashion industry and styling itself. I’d never really done the traditional personal styling thing (I was on the brand/commercial side) and I also still wasn’t quite comfortable being up close and personal with someone and doing the hours of in-store shopping that’s typically associated with that type of service.

So I went back to what I knew. At a previous company, my team and I had put together digitally styled out looks (sometimes with flat lay images from websites and sometimes with hanging up clothes and accessories on a rack and snapping iPhone photos of them ourselves) in order to present to buyers, execs, and brands for approval before sending them off to be photographed for ads. These preview images also helped the teams on set know exactly what went with each look and how it should be put together. It was a perfect visual guide, complete with item descriptions and shot names.

I decided to use a version of this to create a digital lookbook of sorts for my friend. I pulled all the pieces online, created the “looks” with the website ecom images and photoshop, and sent her a google doc with all the links so she could purchase anything she loved. The unintended by-product of doing a styling session this way was that unlike an in-person meet up, it was extremely shareable on social media. She posted her style guide on instagram, and I immediately got requests from 6 others (some friends, and some I didn’t know) for a guide of their own.

I’d like to say that after that first initial success, I immediately knew that this was the idea. I think a part of me did (I started charging for the service and created a spreadsheet), but a large part was still viewing it as one of the many potential other ideas I’d come up with and subsequently moved on from during that summer.

By November that year I was getting daily DM requests and asking complete strangers to Venmo me in order to secure their spot on my calendar. After one early client sent an email about how I’d helped her find something she now loves and feels great in (that she previously thought she couldn’t wear because of her body type) I felt like I was ready to take the next step and make this thing an actual business.It was a long journey ahead to figure out a name, get a website up and running, and all the standard things that come with starting a business; especially with clients and work already coming in weekly that needed to get done. But every subsequent email I got from someone saying things like “wow, I feel like myself again,” or “I’ve learned to love my body this year and this service has really helped with that,” further pushed me to keep going through all the ups and downs.
Fast forward to today and we like to say that we aren’t just solving the problem of “what do I wear?” but we’re actually helping people find their confidence through personal style.

Ashlyn, 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?

Coming from a small town in Appalachia, I always knew I loved fashion but I didn’t know until college that a career in it was something that was attainable for me. After applying to hundreds of internships and post-graduate programs in bigger cities at the prompting of a guidance counselor, I finally received an opportunity for a short internship with NYFW and an acceptance letter to study Luxury Fashion Management and Marketing at SCAD in Atlanta. After a few more internships I landed at Belk, Inc. in Charlotte, NC with my husband Sage where we’ve lived for the last 10 years. I gained experience in everything from branding, creative production, and styling of course- eventually leading and managing a styling team.

Fashivly is an online personal styling experience that solves the problem of getting dressed everyday. Our team of industry experienced stylists find and put together head-to-toe accessorized looks based on body type, lifestyle, budget and desired style goals and send digital looks and shoppable links straight to your inbox. We work with clients from every walk of life- executives at tech and media companies in LA and NYC, stay at home moms outside D.C, and self-proclaimed fashion girls from all over who just want to hone in on their own style vs following every trend! In addition to our personalized services, we love sharing tips, how-to’s, and what to wear content almost every day of the week with our social followings.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

While this can’t work for every type of business, I’m an example of and a firm believer that you should build as you go especially if you’re self-funded. When I first started out, I used a free version of everything and I didn’t actually put any money into it until I was already making money from the business service I was testing. I think there’s almost too much emphasis and busy work associated with the typical things you think of when you start something and more times than not they just become excuses. Not having the money to hire a graphic designer to make you a logo isn’t keeping you from starting a business. You don’t actually need to launch a website before you can have paying customers in a lot of industries. Figure out a free way to test your idea first before you sink capital into building something that may not be right for what your first customers end up telling you. I used instagram DM’s for communication, Venmo and Paypal for accepting payments, and didn’t even have a business name until 6 months after I’d already started. While again this may not work for everything, doing things this way can be a great litmus test for if your idea is something that people want. If customers are agreeing to a Venmo request and getting an unorganized google doc of links in return then you probably have a solid business idea that you can build on and that you SHOULD invest in, whether it’s your money or someone else’s. The first money that I actually spent on the business was $3,000 (from my own savings) to hire a few friends (at a steep discount) to shoot some branding images, pay for a website and semi-stylized template, and hire another friend (again at a steep discount) to help build out the site. Use the things you have at your disposal whether that’s free tools you can cobble together to test your idea, or the help of people in your circle to get you to the next level.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media, and Tiktok specifically has been the biggest growth source for our business! As a self-funded company organic social is one of the only tools we have to market cheaply and as much as we want. We started out on Tiktok in early 2021 and have steadily grown our audience to almost 50K. For that platform specifically, it’s all about connection and storytelling. Our audience took off initially when I shared a personal insight about sizing and continued to grow when I started sharing educational content around fashion, style and trends that was easily digestible and presented in a straightforward approach of simply talking to a client like a friend. We try to respond to almost every comment, and have kept creating helpful content like what type of shoes to wear with what type of pant, seasonal trend updates, sale PSA’s, and of course personal style.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fashivly.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fashivly/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashlyn-greer-22407464/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@fashivly?lang=en

Image Credits
All photography: Paul C Rivera