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,
Katie Button (Cúrate, and basically the reason half of you know what a croqueta is) is throwing a launch party Monday night for the new cookbook, Spanish Accent. Book signing, cocktails, cash bar. Let’s show up for our local chefs with national renown.
Also on the calendar: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are playing acoustic Grateful Dead songs at Thomas Wolfe two nights in a row. Plus, Mountain BizWorks' Mountain Raise is back at Highland in early November. Five WNC food and beverage founders get five minutes each to pitch for capital and customers.
Let's get into it.
📋 On Deck
Business: A Pulitzer-winning journalist at the free Justice Forum, plus an employee-ownership lunch at Hatch.
Fun: The Surreal Sirkus closes Pack Square Saturday night, and you can watch Hocus Pocus at the ballpark.
Music: Benjamin Tod & Lost Dog Street Band for two nights at the Peel, and PUP to kick off the week.
🙋 Want your biz featured in front of a few really smart AVL business owners?
❓ Question of the Week
What's the scariest thing about your inbox right? Mine is that it’s a task is eternal, and feels like I will never truly catch up on my inbox — modern day Sissyphus?
🗓️ Business Events
🗓️ Employee Ownership & Business Continuity: Overview & WNC Stories — Thu, Oct 22 · 12–3 PM (Hatch Coworking, Asheville) — Free lunch and an overview of selling to your employees, then local employee-owned companies tell you how it actually went.
🗓️ 15th Annual Justice Forum with Brian Goldstone — Thu, Oct 22 · 5:30 PM reception, 7 PM forum (Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, Asheville) — Pisgah Legal's free annual forum with a Pulitzer-winning journalist who writes about working families with nowhere to live. Register to go in person, at a WNC watch party, or online.
🗓️ Quietude 100th Anniversary Celebration & Ribbon Cutting — Sat, Oct 24 · 1–4 PM, ribbon at 1:15 (1130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain) — A retreat center that opened in 1926, came back from Helene, and is open again for workshops and events.
Hosting something cool?
📬 Hit reply and tell me what you think. Or share an event!
💡 Marketing Quickies
Brought to you by Pixelated Stories
Websites + Follow-Up Systems for Home & Professional Service Businesses | PixelatedStories.net
This week is about Google reviews. Contractors and professional service businesses both have happy customers who would gladly leave five stars, but most of them never get asked at the right moment.
Ask while they're still happy. The best time to ask is right after the job is done, not three weeks later when the invoice shows up. A contractor can send the text at the final walkthrough, and an accountant or attorney can send it the day the return is filed or the case wraps up. Include the direct review link (it's in your Google Business Profile under "Ask for reviews") so they're one tap from leaving one.
Check in privately first. Before you send the Google link, text something like "Quick one: how'd we do, 1 to 10?" If they say 9 or 10, send the review link. If it's anything lower, call them yourself and fix the problem before it shows up online. This one habit prevents most bad reviews.
Answer every review and name the job. When someone leaves a review, reply and mention the service and the neighborhood, for example: "Glad the roof replacement in West Asheville went smoothly." Google reads those replies, so every one helps you show up in "near me" searches. Our Show Up and Follow Up System sends the ask for you and follows up as many as four times, so you don't have to remember to.
Want missed-call text-back, SMS confirmations, website chat, a unified inbox, and a follow-up system that keeps working after you close the laptop?
Reply to this email and we'll help you build it.
🎉 Fun Stuff Around AVL
🎃 BOO Ridge Halloween Movie Night — Fri, Oct 23 · Gates 6 PM, movie 6:30 (HomeTrust Park) — Hocus Pocus on the ballpark screen, plus candy until 7. Free.
👻 Haunted History Tour of Downtown Black Mountain — Fri, Oct 23 · 7–8 PM (Downtown Black Mountain) — An hour of Cherry Street ghost stories.
🎪 16th Surreal Sirkus Arts Festival — Sat, Oct 24 · 12–10 PM (Pack Square Park) — Three stages, local art vendors, and the Sirkus mainstage show at 8. Free.
🎨 Beaverdam Studio Tour — Sat–Sun, Oct 24–25 · 10 AM–4 PM (Beaverdam Valley, North Asheville) — A self-guided tour of 24 artists' studios. Do your holiday shopping early and feel smug about it.
🌱 Asheville VeganFest — Fall Edition — Sun, Oct 25 · 12–5 PM (Pack Square Park) — Plant-based food trucks, a market, and a DJ. Free, with a suggested $10 donation.
📖 Katie Button's Spanish Accent Cookbook Celebration — Mon, Oct 26 · 6–9 PM (Cúrate Bar de Tapas, downtown) — A cocktail reception and book signing. Book through OpenTable.
🎧 Bands on the Horizon
Wed, Oct 21
PUP (Orange Peel)
Telehealth (Static Age Records)
Thu, Oct 22
Phillip Phillips (Orange Peel)
Nick Shoulders (Grey Eagle)
Sean Tobin (Grey Eagle Patio Stage)
Karina Rykman w/ Julia Barfield (Asheville Music Hall)
The Steppers (Pisgah Brewing)
Andrina Turenne (White Horse Black Mountain)
Fri, Oct 23
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings: Grateful Dead Acoustic Reckoning (Thomas Wolfe Auditorium)
Benjamin Tod & Lost Dog Street Band (Orange Peel)
AJ Lee & Blue Summit w/ The Cody Sisters (Grey Eagle)
Admiral Radio (Black Mountain Center for the Arts)
Sat, Oct 24
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings: Grateful Dead Acoustic Reckoning (Thomas Wolfe Auditorium)
Benjamin Tod & Lost Dog Street Band (Orange Peel)
The Get Right Fam Jam Band (Pisgah Brewing)
Flamenco Appalachia (White Horse Black Mountain)
Sun, Oct 25
Grieves w/ Mouse Powell (Asheville Music Hall)
TopHouse (Third Room)
25th Annual NewSong Music Competition (Grey Eagle)
Mon, Oct 26
Brian Felix Organ Trio (Little Jumbo)
Tue, Oct 27
Osees ft. Brigid Dawson (Orange Peel, sold out)
Want your biz in front of a few really smart AVL business owners? Reply with what you're up to and we'll see if it's a fit.
Until next week,
Jason De Los Santos
Pixelated Stories Digital Marketing
(828) 585-4293
