We were lucky to catch up with Mallory Adams recently and have shared our conversation below.
Mallory, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s talk about innovation. What’s the most innovative thing you’ve done in your career?
I started this business ownership journey with every intention of diving deep into the wedding industry. I’ve wanted to plan events since I was in the ninth grade so I just put my head down and went after opportunities that would get me closer to my goal. I achieved my ultimate goal of owning a wedding venue at the age of 23. What a I thought was going to be a life long goal didn’t actually take so long. However, the story doesn’t stop there. In the early stages of growing the venues reputation, I used to sit at the bar and look out our large windows that face the street. I noticed that at certain periods of the day, young adults by the bus load would walk past the venue peering into the windows wondering what was going on inside. These young adults all attend the local art school that surrounds my property. I asked myself, what could I do to tap into that market. I had to think of something that wouldn’t get in the way of our evening events. Something that blended seamlessly with my already existing operation. So I started a coffee shop that uses our built in bar to serve the students their daily fix of caffeine, smoothies, and smoothie bowls. We set up our large event tables and chairs and they use our space as a study hall. We are not your average quaint corner coffee shop. We have space to spread out and plenty of room for everyone to have a chair. This has been an awesome second stream of revenue. Not only that but it has provided us a well rounded work opportunity for students and has helped fill our needs for extra hands during events. I never dreamed of owning a coffee shop, but it just made sense!
Mallory, 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?
My name is Mallory Adams. I am a 27 year old Savannah, Georgia native who owns and operates The Clyde Venue and Clyde Market. It was always my dream to own my own wedding venue. I love to plan events and I love to make people happy, so there’s no better day to be apart of than someone’s wedding! I started planning weddings on my own after a summer internship in Charleston, SC as an event coordinator in 2015. When I graduated Georgia College & Sate University with a degree in Business Management, I was able to land a management position at a venue in Charlotte, North Carolina. I gained a ton of experience and had a wonderful mentor who taught me some valuable lessons that I still use today. Christi, my mentor, always compared wedding planners to ducks on water. We glide smoothly and effortlessly across the surface, but beneath it, our feet are peddling on overtime to get us across. She used to say never let the bride see your feet! I took this lesson with me when I started my own wedding venue in my hometown of Savannah. In the start up phases of the venue I was baptized by fire. I learned very quickly that the world is as hard on you as they say it is. Developing a new business in a historic city had its fair share of hurdles and challenges to overcome. It takes a large amount of determination but even a larger amount of capital to get up and running. You have to have the stamina and the resources to outlast all the complications that get thrown your way. I think most people underestimate this part. However, once you make it there, it’s totally worth it!
In March of 2019 I hosted my first event and it was one of the best days of my life. I definitely felt on top of the world. Since that day, The Clyde has hosted over 300 events and has been apart of so many couples’ wedding days. I have grown from a one woman operation where I solely wore the hats of wedding planner, sales team, marketing team, accountant, janitor, bartender, carpenter, plumber, (the list goes on), to employing over 15 people that help me get it all done.
A couple years after opening the venue, I added a corner coffee shop into the venue as well called The Clyde Market. We are the largest off campus study hall to SCAD and one of the most loved coffee shops in Savannah. We host community events seasonally and are famous for our free Midnight Breakfast event during finals week that we co-sponsor with my local church. The Clyde Venue & Market are a symbol of family to me. They are named after my grandpa and dad who share the same name and it is home to some of the greatest employees and friends that I could’ve ever hoped for. I still have a lot of life to live but no matter where life takes me I will always be most proud of the community and the establishment I have built here at The Clyde.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
There are obviously several differences between being an employee and being the boss. Being a business owner is always everyone’s dream, but once you make it there it takes a large amount of self motivation and a “can do” attitude even on the days you don’t feel like it. When covid hit, it was a very scary and isolating time. I was the only employee of a company that’s sole revenue was hosting large gatherings. The odds of me succeeding weren’t great. I felt the weight of the situation and that it was entirely up to me to make it or fail. A good friend of mine, who was also out of work, helped keep me sane. You really have to rely on friends and family as a business owner, because there are no motivational pep talks from upper management coming to light a fire under you. We were able to get creative and offer quick and small elopements for couples that were determined to get married until the regulations allowed for larger events. Also in the down time, we were productive and got a lot of maintenance taken care of, worked on good marketing material, and prepared to put my best step forward when the world allowed us to do business again.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
I find that the most effective way of growing clientele is by great customer service. It’s easy, it’s cheap, and it works because customers want to be valued. When you treat some one right it goes along way. Then, they tell their friends and family about their good experience and then they tell their friends and family and soon enough the whole town knows you and wants to work with you because they feel like they’re going to be taken care of. We really try to personalize each encounter we have at both venue and coffee shop. For example we challenge our coffee shop employees to remember customers’ names, and we’ve seen in return that our customers learn our names as well. So we say hey to each other each day and it’s built this community of friends instead of remaining strangers. For our wedding venue, each of our couples receives personalized wine glasses from us as a token of gratitude for allowing us to be apart of their special day. Our couples love them!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theclydevenue.com
- Instagram: @theclydevenue
- Facebook: @theclydevenue
- Other: @clyde_market www.theclydemarket.com
Image Credits
Rachel Linder McKenzie Burnsed