We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashlyn Zwemmer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashlyn below.
Hi Ashlyn, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
When it comes to work ethic, I truly believe that I learned this from multiple areas of my life. Growing up I was raised in a house that you had to work for what you wanted. My parents both worked good jobs and taught us from a young age that things are not just handed to you. If we wanted a spot in the starting lineup for whatever sport we played they would never complain to the coach. Instead, they would tell us to practice improving our skills to make the cut. If we wanted the newest trendy thing on the market they would not just go out and buy it for us, they expected us to work and pay for those extra luxuries that were not at all a need. Then you grow up, leave home and either carry out what they taught you or start your own path. I definitely carried what they instilled in me but also met a man that took work ethic to another level. My husband Paul is probably the hardest worker I have ever met. He is the prime example of you do not stop until it is done. He is a farmer, which is a very demanding job and does not ever stop. If he has to stay up 24 hours to complete a job and make sure animals and people are taken care of he will. He has helped me realize that if you want to make things happen you have to put the blood sweat and tears into it, they are not just going to take care of themselves. Paul has been a huge part of my Simply A to Z Boutique story. Without his belief in me and encouragement, I am not sure I would have ever taken the jump to start this business. Fast forward to now and he is my best brainstorming buddy and is always the voice of rational and reason I need to hear.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Simply A to Z Boutique was started as a space to promote kindness, fashion, and a safe space for everyone. The idea of this business was formed when I was in high school. I was dating my then junior high school sweetheart Paul Zwemmer. I had always had this idea of owning my own clothing store, but then in Chemistry class the name came to me. If Paul and I continued to date and get married my last name would go from Albrecht to Zwemmer, A to Z. My initials would also be AZ. Then the cherry on top is that A to Z would also stand for something for every different style, age, and size all the way from A to Z. I think every young girl thinks they will marry their first true love, but in my case I was actually lucky enough to do it! I went to college for Apparel Merchandising, double minoring in retail and marketing. During school I worked many jobs or internships in retail learning so much about the business. Then fresh out of school I landed a management job at Kohl’s Department Store. This taught me so much about large scale retail, both sales floor and ecommerce sectors of the business. I left that job when Paul and I got married, worked an HR job for a couple years in between until it was time to finally open my dream business!
We began marketing for Simply A to Z Boutique in May of 2021. I wanted people to be talking about it, asking their friends if they have heard of the new business coming to town. I really wanted to build up as much hype as I could before we opened to get people excited. We opened on November 27, 2021. This day blew away all my expectations. Our store was absolutely packed all day! I live in a very rural area with many small towns, so I was not expecting that kind of turn out. From that moment I knew we had created something special. The amount of people that entered our doors from all different walks of life made me almost tear up. We had created a space that everyone felt comfortable no matter who you are or what you look like. From that moment our business just kept growing at an almost unbelievable rate. We were growing so fast I had to quit my full time HR job to work more on the store. I also then helped out in the office at my husband’s farm a few days a week since that allowed me more flexibility to come and go. This was great for almost 2 years until we grew again, and then we took the scary jump to buy a new building that was four times the size of our first space, and in a much busier location. We spent 7 months renovating the building and opened it on March 9, 2024. I will never forget that date because I could not believe my eyes. The amount of people that showed up to our grand opening was unreal, and our store inventory was almost empty after that day, such a surreal moment to know the risk was worth taking. We have now been in our new space almost a year and business is thriving. In 2024 we nearly tripled our new customer base with our new store.
Our business focuses on quality of products, kindness to customers, community involvement, and just treating everyone who walks in our door as equals and friends. We know shopping can be a very intimidating thing for some people, which is why we want A to Z to feel like you are just shopping while chatting with a friend about life.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Determination. Authenticity. Optimism.
These three things truly made a difference for me. For advice I would tell people if you focus on these three among other things, you really can go far.
Determination has to be a main focus because you have to work so hard and not give up after one fail. You are going to try so many things that will be an absolute bust, but you can’t let them knock you down. You have to be determined to make it no matter what. Through all the 500 ideas that don’t work you will strike gold on 1 and that idea might change your business forever. If you give up at your 499th idea fail, you won’t ever get to enjoy the hard-earned success idea 500 would have brought you.
Authenticity is so important when building a great customer base. People can tell what fake looks like. If you are trying to be someone you are not people will feel that. The second I got away from feeling like I had to be like every other boutique I saw online was the moment I found my niche. We are unorganized, wild, and chaotic, but we are 100% real in all we do. I know we might not look “Instagram Perfect” online but I truly think that’s why our customers feel more comfortable with us.
Lastly you have to have optimism, or you just won’t be able to make it in any business world. You are going to have bad days, months, or years. If you can’t step back and see the bigger picture and that everything will be ok, it will really affect your ability to keep going. It is so normal to feel disappointment when things don’t go as planned, but the difference with optimism in your life is you can move past it and not dwell on it for so long that it ends up holding you back. Something I learned is nobody is going to feel bad for you, so why take the time you could be working to improve to feel bad for yourself?
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
My husband Paul. Like I said earlier we have been together since we were 14 years old, we have truly seen each other through every stage of life. He has watched me grow into who I am today and somedays knows me better than I know myself. Even though we have been together more than half our lives, we could not be more different! My brain naturally looks at things through a sunshine and rainbows lense, and Paul is so good with logical business minded thought. Where I lack, he is strong and vice versa for him. We truly complement each other so well in the areas we are weak. I never thought of myself as being a businesswoman because that stuff is just “too complicated” for my sunshine and rainbows mind to comprehend. Paul has showed me how to formulate a business plan, follow it, adjust it, and how to just be a boss! He has never believed in gender roles, or the thinking that I can’t run this business because I am a woman. Instead, he pokes holes in every excuse or reason I make on why I can’t do something. Teaches me that if you do not know something, work and practice until you do, everyone has to start somewhere. I now feel confident to walk into any business meeting, ask questions I feel compelled to ask, and never shrink myself in a corner if I may not understand right away. I am truly thankful for him and all of his guidance when he didn’t even know he was doing it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://simplyatozboutique.com
- Instagram: simplyatoz_boutique
- Facebook: Simply A to Z Boutique
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