We recently connected with Sarah Ahrens and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
Love & Dirt Roads was branded on good memories of my Grandpa and Grandma Dose’s Barn. It inspired me to create, design and manage another two small booth spaces at Best of Janesville Vintage Mall and Best of Beloit. These spaces are dedicated to them and all those good memories left on their dirt roads.
Some see just an old barn but I have so many good memories that came from my grandparents place in Minnesota. The winding dirt gravel roads that lead on for miles, the humongous sledding hill we would spend hours on when visiting for Christmas, exploring that barn like we would find treasure and helping out in the garden that others envied for the beautiful Church flowers that were put out on Sunday. This place is where my love of all things farmhouse came from. Where Chippy meets shiplap and where I learned some dirt never hurt a girl. It was where silos grew in the distance of cornfields that we would get lost in a crazy game of hide n seek. We did not get to go here often due to the distance but when we were at Grandma and Grandpa’s it felt like I was right at home. This barn here held more than hay, animals and it is not just some old rotting wood building like some see. This place shaped me and contains all those memories. What a beautiful picture of a place I love deeply!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Hello!!! My name is Sarah Ahrens and I reside in the Town of Beloit with my husband, Matt, and our two sassy & sweet redheads, Mason & Emma! I am a southern girl at heart and my roots shine through in my work ethic and personality!
I went into the industry of small business about five years ago when I help created our first small business, Love Actually Designs LLC. This business was created and birthed out of the love for our children and a need to help our son, Mason, receive Speech Therapy sessions that financially were costly. We started by creating wood rustic flags with thin lines to represent fire, police, nurses etc. As the years went on we expanded from flags, to Farmhouse shelving to outdoor chairs to barn doors and now decks! Amongst the growth of our business, I also switched careers and became manager of a local Vintage mall, Best of Janesville Vintage Mall. It is a place that houses small businesses and allows creative collaboration amongst vendors to help grow their businesses. Customers are able to come into a place unlike any other and have an experience supporting over 100 businesses. Last year I took on the role of not only overseeing Best of Janesville but also now Best of Beloit Vintage Mall as well! I absolutely love my career and the daily interactions with vendors and customers! Through the career I was able to also start a side gig staging homes and booth spaces, which was a dream of mine!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
This question makes me laugh because with in the management team I work with we use the word Pivotal often as you can imagine in Business you are always pivoting to see what will work! It has become an inside joke and also an important word of mine to help stay on track!
Back in 2020 when covid first arrived and businesses like the ones I oversaw were shut down, I realized we had to pivot how we did business or risk loosing vendors and the store. Curbside Vintage was born out of this and became a huge success that lead to record sales for 8 months in a row! My love of photography, music and cinematography/videos was able to be used! I set vendor spaces and items to music and posted them online creating a buzz in those items being asked about and eventually bought! It was way more work than just having the store open but saved us from a trying time for businesses!
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
My motto of, Do all things in Love, applies to my businesses and work ethic. In fact it is why the word “Love” exists in the two small businesses that I run! Life I have learned is far too short to not apply this motto day in and out. It has helped ground me and also been the reasoning behind all that I do for and with my business.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: loveanddirtroads
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.dose/