Ashlyn Froelic is a mom and homemaker. But for 20 hours a week, she’s also the founder of Ava Gowns, a Utah-based fashion retailer.

At this point, you may have already guessed how Froelic’s dreams came true: a viral TikTok video.

In March 2021, the morning before she posted her first TikTok, Froelic had 500 followers. When she woke up the following day, she had over 30,000.

In the months that followed, she posted more dress videos on @AvaGowns: unboxing dresses, trying them on herself, and behind-the-scenes designs. They started hitting view counts between 1-2 million. In each video, she linked her Instagram page—and her audience hit the follow button there, too.

“That’s what’s really amazed me about all of this,” she says. “How effortlessly the attention on TikTok converted to Instagram—I got 20,000 new followers on Instagram the same day.”

Since then, her accounts have only grown. Ava Gowns, now an LLC, has nearly 160,000 followers on TikTok and is closing in on 120,000 on Instagram.

But while Froelic might seem like another overnight success story, she started building the foundation six years ago in 2016. “I tried to launch a woman’s boutique right before I had my first kid,” she says. “But after my pregnancy, I was too exhausted.”

Her next project was another boutique, this time for children’s clothing. It, too, fell to the wayside.

“None of the ideas really fit me or what I wanted for my life,” Froelic says.

 Pivoting became second nature to Froelic as she faced the same feeling while building a social media following. She started on Instagram as a “mommy blogger,” but the more time she spent on the app, the more interested she became in the behind-the-scenes mechanics.

“I kind of got obsessed with researching algorithms and techniques,” she says.

In 2017, she transitioned her Instagram to more of a “tips and tricks” account, guiding other mommy bloggers through content creation. Her followers loved the photos and edits she posted on her account so much that she started branching out again, this time into photography—the gig that would eventually become Ava Gowns.

“The bulk of my business is photographing people in rented dresses,” she says. “And it became a hassle, organizing all of that, driving around the state.”

 Froelic had learned a lot about what not to do from her earlier boutique attempts. This time, she was ready to go all in.

“I wanted to have my own brand with my own designs,” she says.

At first, companies would trade gowns for photos on her feed. But when she started offering design feedback to the gown company, she was surprised by their receptiveness.

“They turned out to be a manufacturer that was open to custom-making my designs,” she says. “Kind of a miracle, honestly, how smoothly things fell into place.”

She still works with the same manufacturer, who handmakes all Froelic’s designs in China and ships them to the states. While that process makes for a high-quality product, it also slows production times—a major speedbump in the early days of Ava Gowns.

“When I first went viral, I didn’t have any product,” she says. “None at all. And my website was flooded with requests.”

Froelic struck a deal with the manufacturer to pre-order product in bulk, and that’s how she continues to manage inventory: large, bulk orders. Shipping delays don’t deter her customer base, though. At any time, nearly every gown on Ava Gowns is sold out.

Froelic’s managed all this growth on her own, working to keep the books in order, update her social media accounts, design new dresses, and track orders—all with no formal business education.

“I never finished college,” Froelic says. “I went to Utah State University for one semester, and it just didn’t work out. I got married, had a kid, and never went back.”

She hasn’t felt a need to return to college in the years since, either.

“I’ve always loved doing my own thing,” she says. “It’s hard for me to have to listen to what someone else wants, to have a boss. I’ve never had a corporate job.”

And with the success of Ava Gowns, she might never need one. Those followers aren’t just numbers on a screen—they’re helping her turn a profit.

“In the last year, I’ve grossed about six figures in sales,” she says. “I’m hoping to hit seven in 2023.”