Madison is a town where small businesses don’t just exist near each other. They show up for each other.

That’s not an accident, and it’s not just a nice sentiment we put on a graphic. It’s something we see play out over and over inside this community, moms who started out needing support finding it in each other, and then turning around and building something bigger than either of them could have built alone. Two recent partnerships between Madison Mompreneur members say it better than we ever could.

Sourdough and Second Chances: Lemon & Lavender × The Sour Crumb

Walk into Lemon & Lavender on Main Street and you’ll find North Alabama’s first refillery, a shop built around the idea that small business isn’t just about one person, it’s about the community that grows up around it. Owner Brandy Booth has made that philosophy tangible, turning her storefront into a hub for workshops on everything from candle-making to sourdough.

That’s where Courtenay Fults comes in.

Courtenay is the baker behind The Sour Crumb, a home-based microbakery she started the way a lot of good things start: she just wanted better bread for her family. What began as one loaf turned into a passion for slow, naturally fermented sourdough, and eventually into a business built on porch pickups, market pop-ups, and a growing group of neighbors who couldn’t get enough of her bread.

The problem with running a bakery out of your kitchen is simple: you don’t have a storefront to teach people in. Lemon & Lavender had the space. Courtenay had the craft. Together, they turned that gap into Sourdough 101, a hands-on class held right on Main Street where beginners learn feeding schedules, shaping technique, and how to actually read their dough instead of the clock. For bakers ready to go further, there’s an advanced workshop covering bulk fermentation and troubleshooting the finer points. And what a great thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?!

It’s a genuinely good partnership on paper. In person, it’s better than that. It’s the moment someone shapes their first loaf of sourdough in a room full of people cheering them on, in a shop that exists specifically because its owner believes small business is a team sport. We love Brandy’s intention behind this collaboration.

A Brand Shoot That Finally Matched the Store: Gari-Ann Kia × Favorite Things Boutique

A few blocks away at 204 Main Street, Deanna created Favorite Things Boutique into exactly the kind of shop downtown Madison deserves, a curated mix of women’s clothing, giftware, artisan pantry goods, jewelry, and locally inspired pieces that feels equal parts cozy and polished. Deanna is an expert gift-giver and she curates the most interesting items.

There was just one gap: her photos didn’t look like her store felt. With a feature in a Huntsville lifestyle magazine on the horizon, Deanna knew iPhone snapshots weren’t going to cut it anymore. She needed images that matched what she’d actually built.

That’s where fellow MM member Gari-Ann Kia stepped in. As the brand and product photographer behind Kia & Co., Gari-Ann specializes in exactly this kind of gap, helping established small business owners close the distance between how good their business actually is and how it looks from the outside. True to her style, the session was built on preparation as much as it was on the camera: understanding the store, the brand, the story, before a single photo was taken.

The result is a gallery that doesn’t feel staged. Deanna arranging a display. The barn door anchored behind a rack of local apparel. The jewelry counter catching the light. Deanna herself, warm and clearly proud, caught mid-motion in the shop she poured herself into. Not posed. Just true.

The Real Story Here

Neither of these partnerships needed Madison Mompreneur to happen. Brandy and Courtenay could have found each other on their own. So could Gari-Ann and Deanna. But this is exactly the kind of connection MM exists to make room for, putting mom-owned businesses in the same room, the same coworking session, the same event, and then getting out of the way while they build something together.

That’s the whole point. We’re not the story. The moms doing this work, showing up for each other instead of competing with each other, that’s the story. We just get the privilege of creating the space and opportunities for that to start.

Support Both, and Find Your Own Collaborator

If you’re local, stop by Lemon & Lavender for a workshop, order a loaf from The Sour Crumb, browse Favorite Things Boutique on Main Street, or follow Gari-Ann’s work at Kia & Co. Better yet, come find your own version of this story. Join us for coworking, come to an event, and see who you meet.

You never know what you’ll build together.