Ashley Dunbar | Juice Pharm
Owner of Juice Pharm
Ashley, the owner of Juice Pharm, shares her journey from a simple passion for health and wellness to running a successful organic café in Midtown, Nashville. She discusses the importance of resilience in entrepreneurship, the value of community support, and her strategies for growth.
What businesses do you run?
Ashley is the owner of Juice Pharm, an organic café located in Midtown, Nashville. At Juice Farm, she serves a variety of offerings, including juices and smoothies, all rooted in her passion for health and wellness.
How did you get started as an entrepreneur?
Ashley’s entrepreneurial journey began with a love for serving food to others. Initially, she explored the food space by creating juice samples for her family. This small, personal endeavor sparked a larger vision, ultimately leading her to open a brick-and-mortar café.
How do you think about growth in your current business? How do you plan for the future?
Ashley believes that many entrepreneurs face obstacles due to fear or financial challenges, which can prevent them from pursuing their dreams. However, she observes that success often comes to those who persist, regardless of setbacks. This resilience, along with a commitment to ethical practices, fuels her growth strategy. She acknowledges the importance of community support during tough times, as it helps her navigate challenges while maintaining focus on her business goals.
What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?
For those looking to embark on their own entrepreneurial journeys, Ashley emphasizes the importance of thorough research. She encourages aspiring business owners to leverage free resources available online—like YouTube videos—and to explore libraries for valuable information. Understanding what one truly wants to pursue often starts with diligent research, which can help avoid costly missteps.
Additionally, Ashley stresses the necessity of knowing one’s numbers. While she enjoys the creative aspects of her business, she recognizes that turning a hobby into a viable business requires a solid grasp of finances. By combining meticulous research with financial literacy, aspiring entrepreneurs can better position themselves for success.
“Successful entrepreneurs keep going, regardless of whether they fail, and are willing to do whatever job is necessary to fund their dreams.”
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Ashley Dunbar 0:00
Hello. My name is Ashley. I am the owner of juice farm. We are an Organic Café, and we sell cheeses, smoothies and also you bowls in Midtown. I would say, what inspired me is I've always loved health and wellness. I've always loved serving people with food. I just started knowing more about the food space, specifically chooses. And I started off with selling to my family, like giving them samples, and then now I have a brick and mortar. I think some entrepreneurs fail because they don't ever they have a dream, but they don't ever go forth with that dream because of fear or even because of finances. And I think some entrepreneurs, they are successful because, irregardless of if they fail, they keep going, and then irregardless of where that money is going to come from, they are just going to do whatever job is necessary within their morals to go ahead and fund their dream and their aspirations. There are times I remember being working like a bunch of different jobs and being so worn out. Hence the reason why it's really important to have a really good community around you, because you will get worn out, but just being able to push past that suck for just a season so you just keep on going. I think that's the difference between an entrepreneur who succeeds and when that fails. Advice that I would give to future entrepreneurs is going to be do a lot of research. The Internet is free, so go ahead and watch a bunch of YouTube videos. That's the way I started off. Go to any source as possible. Even go to the library, because you'd be surprised how much resource the library has, and start diving into what it is that you want to do. Sometimes you don't realize what you want to do until you actually start doing research about it. So you might as well do the research up front before you spend a lot of money doing something that you're kind of like, ah, it wasn't something I was really too fond of. So definitely, research developments can be really important. I think also like knowing your numbers. That's something that I'm not too fond of, because I just like to be super creative. But that's what makes a hobby into a business, and knowing your numbers is going to be really important right now, I don't use anything fancy. I just use Excel. It's a little bit monotonous, but it works for me until I go ahead and upgrade to like a QuickBooks do, knowing your numbers as well as doing a lot of research and development is definitely going to be what's necessary to continue on with your entrepreneurship goal.
