Community Highlights: Meet Mandy Simpson of NASH Boards

 

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mandy Simpson

Hi Mandy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
The journey was started in my hometown, New Orleans. My husband, an avid woodworker was asked to make a cutting board for a wedding present which I helped design. It came out beautiful and subsequently friends and family started requesting their own. We decided to start selling some as a side hustle at weekend markets and they became an instant hit! When I started recieving calls for orders while at my job, I had to make a big decision. Turn this into a business or stay where I was at. A few months later, Rachael Ray got her hands on one of our boards and chose it as her most wanted gift for the holidays! That was in 2015 and the rest as they say, is history…
NOLA Boards was born. Since then we have expanded into a full culinary gift shop along with creating custom butcher block countertops. We expanded our brand to Nashville as NASH Boards in late 2023 and are excited to bring culinary lovers together here.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Owning your own business certainly comes with extreme highs and lows. Some notable struggles along the way include:
Growth Phases-as we opened more location, it adds extra challenges like finding new employees and managing more inventory.
Covid-having to pivot from a brick and mortar to exclusively online all while shutting down our woodworking production for a couple months was very difficult.
Hurricanes-we have made it through several storms but nt without unique challenges including losing electricity for 2 weeks.
Economy-our current challenge is the struggling economy and seeing in real time people’s spending habits changing drastically.

We’ve been impressed with NASH Boards, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
NASH Boards is a culinary gift business at its core. We specialize in locally handcrafted cutting boards and butcher block countertops. Beyond that we offer an array of kitchen and bar products; home bar mixers and accessories, handmade spoons, cheese boards and spreaders, tea towels, stylish aprons, local Nashville pantry products, and even children’s cooking toys to name a few! We can custom engrave any of our boards which make unique presents as well.

Our focus has always been on supporting local businesses and curating the most unique, quality items from vendors in Nashville and Tennessee.

How do you define success?
Success to me is when I see the smile on people’s faces when they walk into any of our stores as well as hearing the positive feedback from customers. We have been in business for 10 years and navigating the difficult parts of running a business and doing it with integrity and perseverance defines our success as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nashvilleboards.com
• Instagram: @nashvilleboards
• Facebook: NASH Boards
• Other: [email protected]