Meet Savannah Bailey! Savannah and husband Brian are the owners of Consign & Design in Flowery Branch. The couple has lived in Hall County for about nine years and Savannah says her favorite thing about Hall County is “I feel like there’s a strong core of people who feel like they owe it to where they grew up, or their community in general, to give back and make sure it stays so great,” she said. 
We want to thank Savannah for recently sitting down with us and telling us more about her life and love of Hall County.
Interview by Abernathy Cochran intern Grace Slayton
Question: What inspired you or led you to your current career?
Answer: “A few years ago my husband, Brian, built a farm table. He ended up getting a little carried away, and we couldn’t fit it in our house. It was the size of the ones you’d see at Restoration Hardware and I had a hard time listing and selling it online because it was so big. We came by here one day, and we were going to consign it. My husband is a bit of a math person, so he said it would be better if we just got a little booth. That’s how we started Savannah Belles, and we still have that business. It sold in two days, and I had it for months at that point. At that point we didn’t have anything in our booth and we had signed the lease, so it just kind of started from that. We were getting more custom orders, and after a while I ended up having six booths and finally we brought it up with the owners, who said they were interested in selling. So we bought it.”
Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Hall County, and what do you love there?
A: “We eat at Recess a lot, and I love Bluefin. I don’t know if I have a favorite, but honestly I eat the most at Weezie’s. We live in North Hall, so I stop at Weezie’s Kitchen for breakfast there a lot.”
Q: How long have you lived or worked in Hall County?
A: “We’ve been here a little over nine years.”
Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in Hall County?
A: “Candy Brown, she is one of our managers here. It just seems like she knows everyone. She grew up here, and has raised three kids here. There is not a soul that comes through the door that she doesn’t know.”
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be? And why?
A: “I love the British Virgin Islands. That’s probably my favorite place on earth. I haven’t been there with Brian.”
Q: What is the first movie you remember seeing in a theatre?
A: “You know I look back on this sometimes and wonder why my mom let me see this, but the first movie I can remember watching in a theatre was ‘Jerry Maguire.'”
Q: What advice would you give a crowd of people?
A: “The best advice that I was ever given, and that I would tell to younger entrepreneurs and things is that if you’re the smartest person in the room, then you’re in the wrong room. I feel like we have been able to take this business and turn it into something way bigger than our wildest imaginations, because we surround ourselves constantly with people who are better than us at something. I think you should always try and put better people around you, and for most people that scares them. I’m so glad that I listened to that, and run our business like that, because it how I think we’ve grown so much.”
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
A: “To travel more. Brian and I both work constantly. We have four businesses, between the two of us, so we don’t get much time to travel. In the future, I would like to get to the point where we can take some more time off.”
Q: What is your favorite music?
A: “I loved when Jack’s Mannequin was together. I have always loved Andrew McMahon, I think his music is really pretty, and he speaks from the soul. I also really like Bleachers. I think Jack Antonoff is really talented.”
Q: What current/ former local business makes you the most nostalgic about Hall County?
A: “I miss Cozy Corner, and when that used to be out on Dawsonville Highway. The past owner’s daughter is now one of our dealers, so that’s really neat. She was always so sweet to me when we first moved to Hall County, and the store was always so pretty.”
Q: With whom would you love to have lunch? Why? Where in Hall County would you have lunch?
A:” Tina Fey. I think that would be so fun. She has a business sense around her, but she handles is in a comedic way. I think that would be a fun lunch. I would take her Senior Fiesta, for margaritas.”
Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about Hall County?
A: “I think that the sense of community. I’m from a small town in South Georgia, that most people haven’t heard of, Moultrie. We are know for football and farming. I would say that Hall County is great, because while it’s big, there is still a sense of that small hometown. Everyone feels responsible for their surroundings, and they want to see things do well. I think we’re fortunate, because other communities have a hard time raising awareness for different things. But in Hall County, if someone sees a need then their very proactive about making sure it has funding, or taking a step beyond and actually putting a shovel to the ground to make something work. I don’t feel like there’s stuff here that we aren’t at least trying to fix or make better. Which is awesome, because in a lot of places people will just move away from an area if something becomes problematic. In Hall County, though, I feel like there’s a strong core of people who feel like they owe it to where they grew up, or their community in general, to give back and make sure it stays so great.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in five or 10 years?
A: “Maybe with a kid? We don’t have any kids. I would like to grow the part where we actively build. We’ve had to take a step back from that while we were transitioning ownership of this store. Now that it’s getting settled, we want to get focused back on building, because that’s our true passion and what we’re good at.”
Q: What is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?
A: “That Brian and I own four businesses. I feel like until this got big, most people didn’t know much about us. It was kind of out of nowhere. We also own a car business, a land acquisition business, and a furniture building business. We are probably some of the busiest people you will ever meet.”
Q: What three words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?
A: “Cozy, warm, and I don’t know how to put it into one word, but that smell that you sense when you walk into your parent’s house and just know you’re back home.”
The Faces of Hall County is a project to showcase the amazing people that live or work in our community. If you would like to nominate an interesting person to be featured please email babernathy@gonorton.com.