Today we’d like to introduce you to Valerie Ward.
Hi Valerie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always been interested in owning my own business. As a child, I loved a book called “Better than a Lemonade Stand,” which had dozens of ideas for small businesses that kids could start for themselves. I would dream of the possibilities- selling my artisanal friendship bracelets, providing personalized pet walking for my neighbors, painting murals to liven up underutilized outdoor spaces. But I still didn’t see myself as a “business person;” my view of the world of business was narrow, and I imagined it as an industry full of men in suits talking about interest rates. After getting my BA in American Studies at UT Austin, I worked for a number of iconic local businesses including Amy’s Ice Creams as their new flagship store manager, Shaesby Designs as a jeweler, and Uncommon Objects as a retail associate and visual display designer. Through these opportunities I came to love the community and relationships that can flourish when a small business creates a strong identity within its city. I also saw how hard it was to provide some of the tangible benefits that were more easily accessible to large corporations- things like robust health care plans, growth and development opportunities, and highly competitive salaries. When my business partner Amelia and I started Sweet Ritual vegan ice cream, we knew that making it a great place to work had to be built into the plan from the beginning. Even though we couldn’t provide every benefit right from the start, it had to be part of our vision and our planning. We knew that if we waited until it was easy, it would never happen. So from the day we opened, we’ve been working to honor the responsibility of being business owners. We knew it was no longer enough to talk about what we thought employers should do for their people, we really had to work to make that happen.
Through that interest in employee welfare, I had the opportunity to join a group of other small business owners and consult on the crafting of Austin’s Paid Sick Leave ordinance. We all believed that this was an essential piece of a healthy workplace and that it didn’t need to be burdensome to employers to implement. That legislation passed at the city level, and though it was later challenged and still remains in limbo, that experience made me realize the power of working with other like-minded entrepreneurs to create a more sustainable local ecosystem. We decided we wanted to keep working together to provide more resources, support, education, and advocacy for progressive business initiatives, and so we formed Good Work Austin as a non-profit organization. We now provide access to free and reduced-cost trainings for harassment-free workplaces and diverse, equitable, and inclusive hiring, training, and promotion practices. Our Community Kitchen program has paired local restaurants guaranteeing a living wage with communities facing food insecurity, providing hot and nutritionally- and culturally-appropriate meals to those in need while keeping the funding for those programs in the local economy and keeping hard-hit local restaurants open. We were able to increase that program in response to winter storm URI, delivering thousands of meals each day to emergency shelters in addition to serving pre-existing needs. And we’ve also been a haven of mutual support and advice for small local businesses in the wake of COVID 19, when guidance at the local, state, and national levels often felt confusing, insufficient, or outright contradictory. Early in the pandemic, we created a set of best practices for restaurants that went above and beyond official guidelines and provided resources specific to the needs of our members. We also continually share resources on things like hiring strategies, pay best practices, and equipment repair recommendations.
Through the growth of Sweet Ritual, I’ve had the opportunity to teach and mentor other aspiring entrepreneurs, both informally through our local community and more formally through Sweet Ritual’s Cool School, a week-long course on making vegan ice cream and running a small business. We’ve taught over 80 students from around the world, and 30 businesses have started or expanded their vegan offerings after studying with us. Through this, I further developed my love of advising businesses and learning from their experience. I came to understand what problems are universal as well as the particular issues that arise uniquely for each business. Through developing a broader perspective on business strategy, I was given the opportunity to become a mentor at Capital Factory, a start-up incubator program operating across Texas. This experience has further honed my business strategy instincts while giving me exposure to the inner workings of companies across many stages of growth and multiple industries. I’ve advised every type of business from a fledgling document transfer platform focused on the energy trading industry to a well-established virtual farmers market delivery app looking to scale nationwide. The more I engaged with these different businesses and explored their challenges and potential, the more I knew I wanted to be doing even more of that work, which led me to apply for the full-time MBA program at McCombs School of Business at UT Austin. I was so pleased to be accepted and will be starting this fall, leaving my full-time role at Sweet Ritual with plans to pivot into strategy consulting with a focus on social impact.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely has not been a smooth road; and I’m actually quite grateful for that. I firmly believe that we learn best through trial and error. Taking risks, experiencing failure, and learning and growing from that experience are vital to personal fulfillment and professional success. In owning a small business, I’ve faced enormous challenges, mostly as the company grew. Success can bring its own problems, and overcoming those obstacles can mean the difference between staying open and shuttering your doors.
There were of course the normal challenges of growth- new projects taking longer and costing more than anticipated, and having to find creative solutions to those shortfalls. When Sweet Ritual moved out of our space inside a juice bar and into our own shop, we planned carefully. We projected that even with a robust 30% yearly growth in our new space, we would be able to maintain operations there for 2-3 years while we thought about a second location. We were way off- after six weeks, it was obvious that we had already outgrown our new space. Business was up 70% our first year there. In some ways, that was great, but it was also difficult- we had spent so much money and time to create this new space, and it wasn’t nearly big enough. We were crammed so tight in that space that a box of coconut milk in the hall pulled up to a metro shelf counted as a desk. Every time we got a delivery, we had to unpack and reorganize all of the shelves to try and find enough room for the new ingredients. Our production crew was on top of themselves, and the little AC couldn’t keep up with the heat being put out by all of our freezers and equipment. We knew we had to move.
We knew we didn’t want to make the same mistake in our next move- having to completely move or remodel every two years gets expensive quickly. So we invested in renting and building out a much larger production space, one that we knew would be more than large enough for us to grow into over 5-10 years. We also renovated our existing space, reasoning that if we could expand the seating and make it a really beautiful shop, we could increase our sales enough to cover the extra rent at our production space as we looked into growing. Unfortunately, even with more seating and a gorgeous interior, sales stayed relatively flat. We also lost sales while the shop was closed for renovations, and of course everything cost more and took longer than we thought. I really thought we were at the brink of failure, with expenses climbing every day. But we had already shown so much resilience in the face of challenges, I knew we could overcome this obstacle. I worked hard with every investor, lender, and finance source I could think of to get together enough money to cover our immediate obligations. We had to lay off some extra staff we hired in anticipation of the growth that never materialized. It was such a difficult and heartbreaking time, and on top of all the administrative challenges, the big changes in our company led to high turnover in addition to the layoffs. The winter of 2019 was one of the hardest points as a business owner. It felt like everything was hanging by a thread, but we had learned some important lessons and were ready to apply them and thrive in 2020.
Of course, 2020 had different plans for all of us. It has been a difficult year for sure, but this time it seemed easier because we were in the same boat as everyone around us. I became even more active with Good Work Austin and found resources, support and community with other small business owners. We had access to grants and loans that would have been completely out of reach any other time. With the lessons learned and the much-needed financial support we received, we’ve been able to plan for a more stable and sustainable future.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favorite pastime as a child was making things and being creative. Sewing clothes for my dolls, writing stories, drawing pictures and making up songs. I feel like entrepreneurship has given me an opportunity to use that creativity in an even more impactful way. I still have a lot of creative pursuits in my personal life as well- I sew a lot of my own clothes and enjoy knitting, crochet, and home improvement projects. I’ve also been heavily involved in improvised theatre for over 20 years and have toured the world with my troupe Parallelogramophonograph, teaching and performing improv. I love to travel and meet new people and create collaboratively with others.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sweetritual.com, www.goodworkaustin.org
The staff of Blackstar Coop serving up meals through Good Work Austin’s Community Kitchen program during Winter Storm Uri
A recent class of aspiring entrepreneurs who traveled from around the country to attend Cool School
Sweet Ritual partnered with Good Work Austin in a get-out-the-vote campaign in 2020
Image Credits
Headshot – Field Guide Films
