AVL Biz Weekly — April 15–21: Tax Day Laughs, Record Store Gold & Earth Day

Welcome to AVL BIZ Weekly—your local cheat sheet for what’s happening in Asheville’s small business + creative scenes.

Each week: hand-picked events, marketing ideas that actually work, and a little local flavor to keep things fun.

My name's Jason and I'm writing this (connect with me here).

Hey friends,

Tax Day is today and I set a record by having my tax records ready by a whopping 48 hours. On the fun side of things there’s a Tax Day comedy show happening at the Orange Peel's basement bourbon speakeasy tonight, and yes, the bit is exactly what you'd hope. Comedians doing stand-up with slideshow pictures explaining their interpretation of occupations. Dark. Relevant. Very us.

Beyond surviving April 15, this week kicks off the Downtown After 5 season on Friday at Pack Square — free music, food, market vendors, thousands of people all remembering why this is the coolest town in the mountains. And Saturday brings Maker Faire, Record Store Day, a hobbit-themed Ren Fest, a Spring Arts Market at 12 Bones, AND an Earth Day clothing swap. Please don’t make me threaten you with more reasons to leave the house.

We have a delicious Local Spotlight this week. Warning: do not blame me for your sweet tooth cravings after reading it.

Let's get into it.

📋 On Deck

• 🤣 Comedy on Tax Day at PULP (Orange Peel basement), Wednesday night

• 🎶 Downtown After 5 returns Friday — free, Pack Square, don't miss it

• 🛠️ Maker Faire + Record Store Day hit Saturday at the same time (sorry you have to choose)

• 💡 Marketing Quickies this week: Stop losing leads with your current follow-up timing

🙋 Want your biz featured in front of a few really smart AVL business owners? Email me for details

🗓️ Business Events

• 🗓️ Joy is a Leadership Skill | Leadership on Tap — Wed, April 15 · 6:00–8:00 PM (Hatch CoWorking, South French Broad Ave)

  Speaker Amy Dickens on using joy as a leadership tool — better focus, sharper decisions, stronger teams. $10, drinks included.

• 🗓️ Tax Day Standup Comedy Picture Show: Business Edition — Wed, April 15 · 7:30 PM (PULP at The Orange Peel) 

  Technically not a business event, but maybe bring your coworkers. Comedians roast occupations with slideshow visuals. $18. Bourbon speakeasy. You'll feel better about your taxes.

• 🗓️ Instructional Design Meetup — Thurs, April 16 · 10:00–11:30 AM (7 Acres Coworking, 105 Fairview Rd)

  Guest speaker Kristen M. Stevenson on resilience in learning design — what's breaking in the field and what's actually working. Good for trainers, educators, and anyone building onboarding programs.

• 🗓️ WNC Career Expo — Thurs, April 16 · 11:00 AM–4:00 PM (WNC Ag Center Davis Event Center) 

  If you're hiring, this is your room — hundreds of regional job seekers in one spot. Free to attend

• 🗓️ SCORE: Marketing Your Business — Sat, April 18 · 9:00 AM–12:00 PM (A-B Tech SBC at Enka) 

  Three hours with SCORE mentors on building a real marketing plan. Free, in-person, actually useful.

• 🗓️ Coworking Day: Banker's Hours in Marshall — Tues, April 21 · 9:00 AM–5:00 PM (Banker's Hours Co-Working, 13 S Main St, Marshall)

  A full workday in a restored historic bank building in Marshall — capped at 15 people, rooftop patio access, and a possible brewery walk at 4pm. Good excuse to get out of your usual spot.

• 🗓️ Stress Resiliency for Entrepreneurs — Tues, April 21 · 11:00 AM–1:00 PM (A-B Tech Small Business Center at Enka, Candler) 

  A-B Tech's Small Business Center runs this one in-person — it's about building the mental toolkit to handle the highs and lows of running a business without burning out. Worth the drive to Enka.

• 🗓️ Kickstarting Your Business with Alternative Funding — Tues, April 21 · 6:00–7:30 PM (Online, A-B Tech SBC)

  Free webinar covering funding options beyond traditional bank loans — crowdfunding, grants, micro-loans. Good for startups and existing businesses exploring growth capital.

Hosting something cool?

📬 Hit reply and tell me what you think. Or share an event!

Local Spotlight

This week we're featuring a nonprofit doing work most people don't know about until they need it. If you run a local business or nonprofit and want to be featured, reply to this email. I'm building the list.

Old Europe Pastries — They Almost Closed in 2021. Now They Run Two Kitchens Until 10 PM.

Old Europe Pastries has been making downtown Asheville a little sweeter since 1994, when founder Melinda Vetro brought Hungarian baking techniques she'd learned in eighth grade to a city that had nothing quite like it. Thirty years and five locations later, the shop finally has a permanent home at 18 Broadway Street. Abigail Moore has been part of that story for eight of those years, first as a baker, now as GM, keeping the European-style cakes and tortes coming out the way Melinda always intended: lighter, less sweet, made the old way.

Getting there almost didn't happen. In 2021, in the middle of COVID, they got word they needed to find a new location or close for good. Abigail worked alongside Melinda through the property acquisition, the construction, and keeping the original location running at the same time. "If we didn't find a new location, there would be no more Old Europe," she says. That's the version of determination most people never see from the outside of a pastry case.

Now they're running two full kitchens with 10 bakers working 7:30 AM to 10 PM. Ninety-five percent of what's in the case is made in-house, and no cake sits there longer than three days from baked layers to display. The hazelnut Napoleon is the bestseller, but the tiramisu, eclairs, and macarons move fast too. Thirty years of doing it right tends to have that effect.

Day in the Life

1. Favorite coffee or breakfast spot? Jersey South for bagels, her favorite thing in the world, and Crust Never Sleeps, a two-person bakery that opens two days a week and sells out every time.

2. Fitness routine? Weight training at home five days a week at 6 AM, hiking with two big dogs, and recently picked up jump rope, still working on the spin.

3. A new local spot to try? Smokee's, a wood-fired pizza truck that's expanded into breakfast and brunch.

4. First-time visitor to Asheville? River Arts District to see how everything came back after the hurricane, Wagbar if you have dogs, Ukiah or Luminosa for food.

5. Favorite place to shop local? Minx Boutique for clothing, Antique Tobacco Barn, and Needful Things antique mall in Hendersonville.

Want to work with them? Find Old Europe Pastries at 18 Broadway Street in downtown Asheville.

💡 Marketing Quickies

This week we're talking timing — specifically, how fast you respond to a lead is doing more to win or lose the job than almost anything else you're doing in your business right now.

1. Google surfaces your profile before your website When someone searches "roofer near me," they see the top 3 Google Business Profiles first. No website. No ads. Just GBP. If yours is thin or stale, those calls go to whoever updated theirs last week. Spend 20 minutes: refresh your hours, confirm your service area, add a photo from a recent job.

2. Reviews are the ranking mechanism most businesses ignore More reviews = higher local ranking = more calls. Most businesses get a handful after launch and then stop asking. The Show Up and Follow Up System auto-requests reviews after every job — up to 4 times — so it keeps compounding without you thinking about it.

3. Pull up your site on your phone right now Can you find a phone number in 5 seconds? Can you submit a quote request in under a minute? Most of your leads are coming from mobile. If the experience is slow or confusing, they close the tab.

4. One GBP post a week beats a dormant profile every time Google rewards active profiles. A photo from a job site counts. A one-sentence update counts. Whatever you do, just keep posting.

🎉 Fun Stuff Around AVL

• 🗓️ Downtown After 5 — Fri, April 17 · 5–9 PM (Pack Square Park, Downtown Asheville) 
  Season opener for Asheville's free outdoor concert series — live music, food, drink, handmade goods market. Thousands of people, zero cover. Come remember why you live here.

• 🗓️ Maker Faire Asheville — Sat, April 18 · 10 AM–3 PM (AB Tech Conference Center)

  Engineers, artists, tinkerers, and people who build wild things in their garage — all in one room. All ages, free, genuinely fun.

• 🗓️ Record Store Day at Baby Rabiez — Sat, April 18 · 9 AM–5 PM (Baby Rabiez Records, Asheville) 
  The one day a year vinyl collectors show up at 9am like it's Christmas. Exclusive pressings, limited releases, the whole thing.

• 🗓️ Hobbit Affairs: Ren Fest — Sat–Sun, April 18–19 · 12–8 PM (Sweeten Creek Brewing) 
  Hobbit-themed Renaissance festival with live music, blacksmithing, tarot readings, face painting, and costumes encouraged. This city, man.

• 🗓️ Spring Arts Market at 12 Bones Brewing — Sat, April 18 · 12–3 PM (12 Bones Brewing) 

  Local art, craft goods, and 12 Bones — the Asheville Saturday afternoon formula that never disappoints.

• 🗓️ Earth Day Clothing Swap — Sat, April 18 · 3–5 PM (The Whale :: Outpost)
  Bring what you're done wearing, leave with what someone else was. Sustainable, social, basically free.

• 🗓️ Rim Hike: Montreat East Ridge — Sat, April 18 · 8 AM–3:30 PM (Swannanoa Valley Museum, Black Mountain) 

  Six miles along the Blue Ridge Continental Divide — peaks, ridge lines, remnants of the old Mt. Mitchell Railroad. Hard hike. Worth it.

• 🗓️ Asheville Tourists Opening Week — Tues, April 21 · 6:35 PM (McCormick Field) 

  Opening week, freshly renovated McCormick Field, $12+, hot dog, home team. No notes.

🎧 Bands on the Horizon

• Now Now — Wed, Apr 15 @ Asheville Music Hall

• CubeRow — Wed, Apr 15 · 6 PM @ One World Brewing West

• Datrian Johnson w/ Duane Simpson, Tony Black & Mike Rhodes — Wed, Apr 15 @ Little Jumbo

• WNC Songwriter Sessions (Elizabeth McCorvey, Songs of the Folk, Annie Wenz) — Wed, Apr 15 · 7 PM @ Brandy Bar, Hendersonville

• Color Me Asheville Fashion Show — Fri, Apr 17 · 6 PM @ The Orange Peel

• Downtown After 5 Live Music — Fri, Apr 17 · 5 PM @ Pack Square Park (free)

• All Night Boogie Band — Fri, Apr 17 · 5:30 PM @ Grey Eagle Patio (free)

• Asheville Drum Circle — Fri, Apr 17 · 6 PM @ Pritchard Park (free)

• Greensky Bluegrass — Fri, Apr 17 · 6 PM @ Asheville Yards

• Asheville Symphony Masterworks 6: Requiem — Fri, Apr 17 · 8 PM @ First Baptist Church

• St. Paul & The Broken Bones — Sat, Apr 18 · 7 PM @ The Orange Peel

• Spafford w/ Captain Midnight Band — Sat, Apr 18 · 7 PM @ Pisgah Brewing, Black Mountain

• Reed Turchi Album Release Show — Sun, Apr 19 · 3 PM @ Grey Eagle (FREE)

• The Black Twig Pickers w/ Elsa Howell — Sun, Apr 19 @ Grey Eagle

• Watchhouse — Sun, Apr 19 @ The Orange Peel

• Bob Dylan — Sun, Apr 19 · 8 PM @ Thomas Wolfe Auditorium

• Hello, Dolly! — Fri–Sun + Tues @ Asheville Community Theatre (through May 3)

Want your biz in front of smart AVL owners & creators? Reply with what you’re up to and let’s see if it’s a fit.

Until next week,

Jason De Los Santos
Pixelated Stories Digital Marketing
(828) 585-4293