October 3, 2022 • 18 mins
Cindy Rumpf Novack founded Candles and Supplies.com. What started as a fun hobby with her daughters has now grown into a warehouse with over 50,000 square feet of supplies and $8 million in sales. Novack sells much more than just candles and soaps, she delivers an experience for the customer and is empowering people to pursue their own dreams.
“I like the Thomas Edison approach. It's not a mistake. You're just one step closer to perfecting it.”
Chapters:
- 00:42 - Introducing Cindy Rumpf Novack
- 01:48 - Family of Entrepreneurs
- 05:54 - From Hobby to Thriving Business
- 08:56 - Omni Channel Marketing
- 11:38 - Be Careful Who You Listen To
- 14:31 - Success in the Business
Key Takeaways
- So you're actually selling to resellers and empowering people to pursue their own dreams of business ownership.
- I love the fishing tackle business, but if it wasn't going to be my own, then you know, I wanted to have my own thing.
- But if you to listen to the wrong people, you might not have ever even started that business. People who just don't know. So we aspiring entrepreneurs have to be careful who we share ideas with and who we look for affirmation from. And sometimes we just got to go with our gut. So that's, uh, that's another great lesson from there.
- But then, then we started doing the classes and helping people develop businesses. So that's probably my greatest success is how many people we've helped along the way.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Greg Muzzillo (00:06):
Hello and welcome to Million Dollar Monday.
I'm your host, Greg Muzzillo,bringing you real successful
people with real useful advicefor people with big dreams.
I understand big dreams.
I turned an investment of$200and a lot of great advice from
some really successful peopleinto my big dream Proforma.
(00:31):
That today is a half billiondollar company.
Hello and welcome.
I'm joined today by afascinating woman who actually
started her career working forher father's business, which was
called Raymond C Rumpf and son.
(00:54):
And there's a story there, andwe're gonna talk about it, but
somehow through all of the yearsand all of the hobbies, and it's
a great story.
Uh, she started Candles andSupplies.com and has grown it
into a business with 50,000square feet of supplies in the
(01:16):
business.
$8 million in sales and stillgrowing.
Please join me in welcomingCindy Rumpf Novack, Cindy.
Thanks for joining us.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (01:27):
Oh, thanks for having me.
Greg Muzzillo (01:29):
All right.
Let's start at the beginning andjust tell us a little bit about
your growing up years and wheredid you learn to have a passion
for business?
And then let's talk about thestories that led to your
starting, uh, your businesstoday.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (01:45):
Okay.
Um, my, my dad was a serialentrepreneur.
Um, he always, again, out of theneed and just business is a
game.
It's fun.
Um, you know, he taught megrowing up at anything, anything
I would wanna do, he'd be like,can you make any money at that?
Can you make any money at that?
What can you do to make money?
So it was kind of a thing.
Um, and I believe like probablywhen I started first grade and
(02:07):
would pack my lunch, I wasselling my peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches in thecafeteria.
Uh and coming homestarving.
And then wondering why I'm sohungry when they've just packed
me a lunch.
So I'm pretty sure that's how itall started, but, um, you know,
I always had something going onworking, you know, different
jobs, figuring out differentthings and learning things.
And then I did go to work for mydad because I grew up in the
(02:31):
business and he needed help andyou know, I needed a job and
they brought me in the businessand they kind of just put me
wherever needed, but what thatdid for me, I learned every
single job.
So I did everything from likeclean the toilets and swept the
floor, all the dirty, disgustingjobs that nobody wanted to do.
But I learned everything about
Greg Muzzillo (02:49):
What did that business do?
What,
Cindy Rumpf Novack (02:52):
What was that business about?
Um, a wholesale fishing tacklebusiness.
So it was a life fishingbusiness.
So basically I was, you know,selling fishing tackle and stuff
like that.
So, and I always like people Ion working with people and the
employees and um, you know, thecustomers were awesome.
You know, all my accounts wereawesome and stuff like that.
So, but you know, I just reallydove into it and my dad was like
setting up his exit strategy andgetting ready to retire and
(03:14):
stuff like that.
I, I think he, he had high hopesthat my brother would take over.
Um, but my brother had otherinterests and everything and
he's, he's off doing his thingand doing awesome.
but never really wanted to takeover the family business.
So
Greg Muzzillo (03:26):
Is that the son in Raymond C Rumpf and son.
Okay.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (03:29):
Yep.
That's that's Raymond Jr.
Greg Muzzillo (03:31):
Okay.
So the son never really showedan interest in taking over the
business.
So
Cindy Rumpf Novack (03:36):
No.
Greg Muzzillo (03:37):
No.
So why didn't it become RaymondC Rumpf and daughter, talk to us
about that.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (03:42):
Yeah, so, you know, my dad was very old
school.
You know, not that he wasn't ajerk, he was the most amazing
one of the most amazing peoplein my whole entire life and one
of my best mentors ever.
Um, but you know, and not thathe believed that women should be
at home cooking and cleaning andstuff, but he just believed that
women shouldn't run businesses.
(04:03):
So there was that, I mean, atone point, you know, I wanted to
buy him out.
I had financing this, that, andhe's like, I'm sorry, I just
can't do it.
The second generation screwseverything up and you're a woman
and I just can't do it.
And um, so that's, I'm like,well, you know, that's, you
know, back in 98, 99, 95 is whenI really, um, started to think
(04:25):
about like, you know, I, I kindof wanna do this on my own.
I love the fishing tacklebusiness, but if it wasn't gonna
be my own, then you know, Iwanted to have my own thing.
So the internet was comingaround, people were putting
websites out, selling on them.
I'm like, wow, this, this isprobably gonna be pretty big
because like, who wouldn't wannabuy on the internet?
I, I think it's gonna be a bigthing.
So I think I want my ownwebsite.
Um, so then, you know, mydaughter wanted to make candles
(04:46):
and we made candles and uh, youknow, paid for, we had a heater
blow up, we needed to makemoney.
So we made money and bought anew heater, that type of thing.
And it just turned into a realthing.
So, um, how
Greg Muzzillo (04:58):
Old, how old were your daughters when you started
making candles and I'm assumingit started as a hobby or just
for fun?
And how did that hobby or fun,how old were the girls when you
started making candles?
Just for fun.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (05:13):
Yeah.
Uh, I think they were six andeight.
Five and eight.
Okay.
You were around there, so,
Greg Muzzillo (05:17):
Yeah, that's really cool.
And it's so cool that you as afamily were able to make enough
money to, you know, pay for somethings that were needed around
the house that had to give thema sense of pride, that they were
really contributing in ameaningful way.
They weren't just bringing homemovie money.
They were bringing home realmoney.
So then how does this go from ahobby or a hobby where some
(05:42):
there's some money being made toa real business that, that
becomes a real business, gets awebsite and starts doing it
seriously and full time.
Talk about that transition inthe details of it.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (05:54):
Mm-hmm um, it actually
went pretty fast.
I started working on my websitein August of 1999, the website
actually went live September22nd is our anniversary.
So, and it was a year afterGoogle went live.
So we share the same anniversaryas Google, which kind of makes
me feel like an underachiever,but, you know, whatever,
(06:18):
it, wasn't my life path.
That's
Greg Muzzillo (06:19):
All right.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (06:20):
Yeah.
So the website went liveSeptember 27th and then back
then, you know, it's still thesame, you know, when you put a
website up, it's like having abusiness on a back street,
nobody finds you.
So I sold, I ran some auctionson eBay, so I, and then I used
the auctions to actually drivetraffic to my site.
So if somebody would win anauction for Wix or something,
(06:41):
I'd be like, Hey,congratulations, you won, here's
your Wix, you know, if you needanything else, ship with this
here, click on our website, goto our website, see if there's
anything else you need.
So that ended up, uh, yeah, keptit, drove enough traffic to
sustain the business.
And then by January, I think Iquit eBay.
So it was very fast there.
And after my website went live,I think by like November, I had
(07:04):
actually given notice to my dadthat I'm, I, you know, I started
this thing and it's consumingall my time.
I'm not sleeping at night, soI'm gonna have to quit.
How
Greg Muzzillo (07:12):
Do you feel about that?
Cindy Rumpf Novack (07:15):
Uh, it was tense.
Yeah.
it was very, it.
Yeah, it was very intense, but,um, you know, he watched me grow
something from nothing.
Um, and he knows that he taughtme that, so, yeah.
Greg Muzzillo (07:29):
Well, that's
Cindy Rumpf Novack (07:30):
Amazing after the initial, you know,
well, what am I gonna do with mybusiness?
And, you know, uh, he ended upselling his business cuz he, you
know, I ran the business, hewould come back a couple days a
week.
He was an avid fishermanobviously.
So he'd come, come back like,you know, a couple days a month
and check the PNLs and yell atme about this, that whatever, go
back to fishing.
And then, you know, said that,well, I kind of wanna do this,
(07:53):
you know, well I definitelywanna do this and this is my new
path.
And it was a little intensebecause he didn't know how to
run his business at that point.
So, but like I said, he got thatall figured out, you know,
everything's good.
And then he, uh, he was actuallyvery prideful, you know, after
he retired and the tension wentaway after a year or two, he
would be like, Hey, do you needany errands?
(08:13):
He'd run up to uline for us andget stuff.
Oh, nice fly.
You know, whatever, we'd go ontrips together.
You know, couple times I had tolike travel outta state to like,
you know, Sue a customer thatdidn't pay or whatever.
And he would go with me andstuff.
And so yeah, it was awesome.
It was
Greg Muzzillo (08:28):
Awesome.
That's amazing.
I'm glad.
I'm glad that that's how itprogressed.
I'm sure I'm, I'm sure,including a lot of pride in what
it was that you were building.
All right.
So I love the eBay idea.
Um, that's a very clever way toalmost get free advertising, but
once you quit the eBay thing,how did you continue to drive
(08:49):
customers eyeballs to yourwebsite?
What percentage of your businessis done at the website versus
people coming to your location?
Cindy Rumpf Novack (08:57):
Uh, right now we're about 60% web and
about 40% traveling.
So it gets, it gets a littlemuddy cuz people were on I these
days it's called omnichannel,right?
So you have, you know, a webpresence you can pick up in
store, that type of thing.
The website becomes a tool foryour store.
So people can pre-order and theydon't have to wait in line when
(09:18):
they get here.
So, um, it's more of like, youknow, an omnichannel experience
versus just web versus justretail.
So, but 60% of our orders docome from our website and the
other 40% come from telephone orretail traffic.
We also do classes.
So we do hands on classes.
Um, you know, these days a lotis zoom classes and stuff and we
(09:41):
will have that eventually, butI'm a big fan of people learn by
hands on doing it, getting intoclasses.
I
Greg Muzzillo (09:46):
Know for sure.
For
Cindy Rumpf Novack (09:47):
Sure.
So we do hands on classes.
We have people to travel allover.
Like we've had people come fromlike Hong Kong to take our
classes and you know, all overthe place.
Oh
Greg Muzzillo (09:56):
Wow.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (09:56):
Yeah.
So that's very popular.
So the classes generate a lot ofsales.
Um, we train all of our staff.
So all of our staff knows how tomake handles and soaps and
whatever.
So, so people get a lot of helpwhen they come in here too.
So we make it more of anexperience.
So even if you place your orderon the web and come pick up,
you're probably gonna go intoour store and pick up some other
things too.
(10:18):
Um, our classes are kind of likeDisney world.
So you take a class and afterthe class, it dumps you out into
our store.
So kind of like Disney world,you go on the ride, you get
dumped out into the gift shop.
So, I went to Disneyworld.
I figured that was brilliant.
So I'm like, I'm gonna design myclassroom where people take
class, they use all this stuffand then they have to walk all
the way through our showroom toget out the door.
(10:39):
So yeah.
Greg Muzzillo (10:40):
Yeah.
It is brilliant by the way.
And it's tortured cuz when youtake your children, like I can
walk through those stores atDisney and I can get out
unscathed, but not withchildren.
Oh daddy, can I get that?
Right.
Yeah.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (10:54):
That's
Greg Muzzillo (10:56):
Brilliant.
And good.
Good for you.
Any ideas of
Cindy Rumpf Novack (10:59):
It was Disney's idea.
Not mine.
So I yeah.
That's alright there.
Greg Muzzillo (11:02):
So that's all, I think that every successful
entrepreneur has to admit, theyborrowed some great ideas
from other people, right?
Cindy Rumpf Novack (11:11):
Drew inspiration from yeah.
Greg Muzzillo (11:13):
All right.
Borrowed,
Cindy Rumpf Novack (11:14):
Not drew inspiration from
Greg Muzzillo (11:15):
There you go.
I love it.
Well, I think your story isamazing to go from a kind of a
hobby to almost accidentallymaking money and then realizing
it could become a business andthen turning it into an$8
million business, 50,000 squarefeet with lots of growth ahead.
Uh, because you love what you'redoing.
I could tell and you'repassionate about it.
(11:37):
All right.
Tell our folks one or two bigmistakes that you made along the
way and what lessons they holdfor entrepreneurs.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (11:48):
Hmm.
And choosing just one or twomistakes.
That's hard.
So mistakes are a daily thinghere.
Exactly.
I like the Thomas Edisonapproach.
It's not a mistake.
You're just one step closer toperfecting it.
So I, I love that at all times,but my biggest, biggest mistake,
um, it would probably be notreaching out for help.
(12:09):
You know, when you start abusiness, people are like, oh,
you're never gonna make a livingin candles.
You're never gonna this.
You're never gonna that.
So you, you know, the rebel inme, immediately is like, yes I
am.
Of course I am.
I can do this.
You know?
And then you think, you know,all the answers, but you're
presented with situations thatyou've never had before, because
you've never dealt with thisbefore.
And I didn't reach out for helpas quickly and to the right
(12:31):
people as I should, because Ithought that within myself, I
should have these answers cuz Istarted this business and I grew
this monster and like I shouldknow all this, but I didn't.
So and it probably took tenyears to figure that out to
reach out for help when needed,don't stay stuck.
Gosh, reach out for help.
There's so many resources and somany helpful people out there.
So that's my biggest mistake.
And I could, you know, go intoabout 150 different stories off
(12:55):
of that.
Why that's a mistake.
Um, and the, the second one, um,and I, I may have gotten this
from my father cuz one of thereasons he said that women can't
run businesses is cuz we're tooemotional.
Um, so I, I didn't react tosituations as quickly as I
should because then I think, amI being too emotional?
(13:15):
Like so situations, you know,whether it's an employee problem
or this problem or whateverproblem I would be like, you
know, immediately your bloodpressure goes up when anything
happens.
Um, and sometimes, you know, youdon't have to fly out the handle
and react, but you need tohandle a situation.
So, you know, I've had businesscoaches tell me that you're
being a tolerator, don'tbe a tolerator.
So, so I ended up being atolerator instead of just like
(13:38):
handle the situation matter offactly.
So that would be probably mysecond mistake.
Greg Muzzillo (13:44):
You know, from the first mistake that you were
sharing, there was a bit ofwisdom in there also, and it be
careful who you listen to.
It sounds like you had someconversations with people, maybe
neighbors or maybe friends thatwould say you can never make
money doing that.
And, and uh, I think some peopleget crushed, get their souls
crushed by sharing their ideaswith people, looking for
(14:06):
enthusiasm and looking foraffirmation.
And they've got a great idea.
They've got a great idea likeyou, that turned into an$8
million business and on the wayto a whole lot more.
But if you would have listenedto the wrong people, you might
not have ever even started thatbusiness.
People who just don't know.
So we aspiring entrepreneurshave to be careful who we share
ideas with and who we look foraffirmation from.
(14:27):
And sometimes we just gotta gowith our gut.
So that's a, that's anothergreat lesson from there.
All right.
You're successful in a big way,share one or two of the great
successes that you've had andwhat lessons those hold for our
listeners.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (14:46):
Um, probably I would consider my biggest
success is all the people thatwe've helped throughout the
years, all the customers andeverything.
So, you know, I get people likeme that they come to me and
they're looking that they'restarting a side hustle or
whatever.
Uh, we wanna make candles so alittle bit on the side, this and
that.
So I share whatever I can withthem teach.
(15:07):
'em how, you know, my staffteaches them, how, whatever
share with that.
And I've seen people do somewonderful things like, you know,
um, you know, they'll makecandles and they'll, they'll buy
a bunch of stuff and makecandles like crazy and be
selling'em.
And they're like, we're buying ahouse with the candle money we
had.
Yeah.
Oh wow.
Stuff like that.
You know, I put my kids throughcollege or this or that and it,
(15:27):
you know, it all started outright.
You know, with us.
Um, and I feel seeing them besuccessful.
I felt good cuz you know, when Ifirst started it and you know,
there's all differentprofessions isn't that doctors
and lawyers are saving li ordoctors are saving lives.
Nurses are saving lives.
People are doing all thesewonderful things and I'm like,
what am I doing?
I'm I'm selling things.
(15:48):
But then, then we started doingthe classes and helping people
develop businesses.
So that's probably my greatestsuccess is how many people we've
helped along the way.
Um, yeah, that feels really
Greg Muzzillo (15:58):
Good.
Yeah.
And to build, to build on that,most of the people that are
buying or a lot of people arebuying your, uh, buying from
you, aren't just hobbyists.
They're actually reselling thesecandles.
Right.
Um, or they're reselling all ofthe things that they're making.
So you're actually selling toresellers and empowering people
to pursue their own dreams ofbusiness ownership.
(16:20):
That's cool.
All right.
One more big success.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (16:24):
One more big success.
Um, probably my staff and thepeople that I have here.
We have, we have such awonderful collection and,
nobody's the same, everybody'sdifferent, you know, um, it
doesn't, you know, age, gender,uh, race.
It doesn't really matter.
Everybody's got their owncollective set of assets.
(16:48):
Um, and since we're growing, itmakes it really easy to take
advantage of everybody's assetsand put them like where they
like it.
We always do, you know, reviews,what are you best at?
What do you like doing?
We can put those people wherethey thrive and succeed and
everything.
Um, when I see their selfevaluation, sometimes I'm a
little disappointed cuz theydon't brag about themselves as
much as they are wonderful.
Like I would've said this andthis and this about you.
(17:10):
So, and I tell them that too,but, we really have a wonderful
collection of people and wehave, you know, no matter people
come and go, but we always havea wonderful collection of people
here.
Uh, just really good people.
I always say one of our mottosis we only work with people
we're proud of.
So it really kind of separatesthe people that should be here
versus shouldn't be.
Um, but yeah, I'm proud of everysingle person here and the
(17:33):
people that we've helped.
Greg Muzzillo (17:35):
I love that answer.
And I think it helps reallypoint out that your father was
half, right.
Women are emotional, but that'sonly half the story women are
emotionally intelligent.
And in general, not that I liketo generalize, but I find in
general, women are far moreemotionally intelligent than men
and in many ways that makes themreally great leaders.
(17:56):
And you, Cindy are a greatleader.
Thank you very much for joiningus and sharing your story.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Thank you for having me.
Hello and welcome to Million Dollar Monday.
I'm your host, Greg Muzzillo,bringing you real successful
people with real useful advicefor people with big dreams.
I understand big dreams.
I turned an investment of$200and a lot of great advice from
some really successful peopleinto my big dream Proforma.
(00:31):
That today is a half billiondollar company.
Hello and welcome.
I'm joined today by afascinating woman who actually
started her career working forher father's business, which was
called Raymond C Rumpf and son.
(00:54):
And there's a story there, andwe're gonna talk about it, but
somehow through all of the yearsand all of the hobbies, and it's
a great story.
Uh, she started Candles andSupplies.com and has grown it
into a business with 50,000square feet of supplies in the
(01:16):
business.
$8 million in sales and stillgrowing.
Please join me in welcomingCindy Rumpf Novack, Cindy.
Thanks for joining us.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (01:27):
Oh, thanks for having me.
Greg Muzzillo (01:29):
All right.
Let's start at the beginning andjust tell us a little bit about
your growing up years and wheredid you learn to have a passion
for business?
And then let's talk about thestories that led to your
starting, uh, your businesstoday.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (01:45):
Okay.
Um, my, my dad was a serialentrepreneur.
Um, he always, again, out of theneed and just business is a
game.
It's fun.
Um, you know, he taught megrowing up at anything, anything
I would wanna do, he'd be like,can you make any money at that?
Can you make any money at that?
What can you do to make money?
So it was kind of a thing.
Um, and I believe like probablywhen I started first grade and
(02:07):
would pack my lunch, I wasselling my peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches in thecafeteria.
Uh
And then wondering why I'm sohungry when they've just packed
me a lunch.
So I'm pretty sure that's how itall started, but, um, you know,
I always had something going onworking, you know, different
jobs, figuring out differentthings and learning things.
And then I did go to work for mydad because I grew up in the
(02:31):
business and he needed help andyou know, I needed a job and
they brought me in the businessand they kind of just put me
wherever needed, but what thatdid for me, I learned every
single job.
So I did everything from likeclean the toilets and swept the
floor, all the dirty, disgustingjobs that nobody wanted to do.
But I learned everything about
Greg Muzzillo (02:49):
What did that business do?
What,
Cindy Rumpf Novack (02:52):
What was that business about?
Um, a wholesale fishing tacklebusiness.
So it was a life fishingbusiness.
So basically I was, you know,selling fishing tackle and stuff
like that.
So, and I always like people Ion working with people and the
employees and um, you know, thecustomers were awesome.
You know, all my accounts wereawesome and stuff like that.
So, but you know, I just reallydove into it and my dad was like
setting up his exit strategy andgetting ready to retire and
(03:14):
stuff like that.
I, I think he, he had high hopesthat my brother would take over.
Um, but my brother had otherinterests and everything and
he's, he's off doing his thingand doing awesome.
but never really wanted to takeover the family business.
So
Greg Muzzillo (03:26):
Is that the son in Raymond C Rumpf and son.
Okay.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (03:29):
Yep.
That's that's Raymond Jr.
Greg Muzzillo (03:31):
Okay.
So the son never really showedan interest in taking over the
business.
So
Cindy Rumpf Novack (03:36):
No.
Greg Muzzillo (03:37):
No.
So why didn't it become RaymondC Rumpf and daughter, talk to us
about that.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (03:42):
Yeah, so, you know, my dad was very old
school.
You know, not that he wasn't ajerk, he was the most amazing
one of the most amazing peoplein my whole entire life and one
of my best mentors ever.
Um, but you know, and not thathe believed that women should be
at home cooking and cleaning andstuff, but he just believed that
women shouldn't run businesses.
(04:03):
So there was that, I mean, atone point, you know, I wanted to
buy him out.
I had financing this, that, andhe's like, I'm sorry, I just
can't do it.
The second generation screwseverything up and you're a woman
and I just can't do it.
And um, so that's, I'm like,well, you know, that's, you
know, back in 98, 99, 95 is whenI really, um, started to think
(04:25):
about like, you know, I, I kindof wanna do this on my own.
I love the fishing tacklebusiness, but if it wasn't gonna
be my own, then you know, Iwanted to have my own thing.
So the internet was comingaround, people were putting
websites out, selling on them.
I'm like, wow, this, this isprobably gonna be pretty big
because like, who wouldn't wannabuy on the internet?
I, I think it's gonna be a bigthing.
So I think I want my ownwebsite.
Um, so then, you know, mydaughter wanted to make candles
(04:46):
and we made candles and uh, youknow, paid for, we had a heater
blow up, we needed to makemoney.
So we made money and bought anew heater, that type of thing.
And it just turned into a realthing.
So, um, how
Greg Muzzillo (04:58):
Old, how old were your daughters when you started
making candles and I'm assumingit started as a hobby or just
for fun?
And how did that hobby or fun,how old were the girls when you
started making candles?
Just for fun.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (05:13):
Yeah.
Uh, I think they were six andeight.
Five and eight.
Okay.
You were around there, so,
Greg Muzzillo (05:17):
Yeah, that's really cool.
And it's so cool that you as afamily were able to make enough
money to, you know, pay for somethings that were needed around
the house that had to give thema sense of pride, that they were
really contributing in ameaningful way.
They weren't just bringing homemovie money.
They were bringing home realmoney.
So then how does this go from ahobby or a hobby where some
(05:42):
there's some money being made toa real business that, that
becomes a real business, gets awebsite and starts doing it
seriously and full time.
Talk about that transition inthe details of it.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (05:54):
Mm-hmm
went pretty fast.
I started working on my websitein August of 1999, the website
actually went live September22nd is our anniversary.
So, and it was a year afterGoogle went live.
So we share the same anniversaryas Google, which kind of makes
me feel like an underachiever,but, you know, whatever,
(06:18):
it, wasn't my life path.
That's
Greg Muzzillo (06:19):
All right.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (06:20):
Yeah.
So the website went liveSeptember 27th and then back
then, you know, it's still thesame, you know, when you put a
website up, it's like having abusiness on a back street,
nobody finds you.
So I sold, I ran some auctionson eBay, so I, and then I used
the auctions to actually drivetraffic to my site.
So if somebody would win anauction for Wix or something,
(06:41):
I'd be like, Hey,congratulations, you won, here's
your Wix, you know, if you needanything else, ship with this
here, click on our website, goto our website, see if there's
anything else you need.
So that ended up, uh, yeah, keptit, drove enough traffic to
sustain the business.
And then by January, I think Iquit eBay.
So it was very fast there.
And after my website went live,I think by like November, I had
(07:04):
actually given notice to my dadthat I'm, I, you know, I started
this thing and it's consumingall my time.
I'm not sleeping at night, soI'm gonna have to quit.
How
Greg Muzzillo (07:12):
Do you feel about that?
Cindy Rumpf Novack (07:15):
Uh, it was tense.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was very intense, but,um, you know, he watched me grow
something from nothing.
Um, and he knows that he taughtme that, so, yeah.
Greg Muzzillo (07:29):
Well, that's
Cindy Rumpf Novack (07:30):
Amazing after the initial, you know,
well, what am I gonna do with mybusiness?
And, you know, uh, he ended upselling his business cuz he, you
know, I ran the business, hewould come back a couple days a
week.
He was an avid fishermanobviously.
So he'd come, come back like,you know, a couple days a month
and check the PNLs and yell atme about this, that whatever, go
back to fishing.
And then, you know, said that,well, I kind of wanna do this,
(07:53):
you know, well I definitelywanna do this and this is my new
path.
And it was a little intensebecause he didn't know how to
run his business at that point.
So, but like I said, he got thatall figured out, you know,
everything's good.
And then he, uh, he was actuallyvery prideful, you know, after
he retired and the tension wentaway after a year or two, he
would be like, Hey, do you needany errands?
(08:13):
He'd run up to uline for us andget stuff.
Oh, nice fly.
You know, whatever, we'd go ontrips together.
You know, couple times I had tolike travel outta state to like,
you know, Sue a customer thatdidn't pay or whatever.
And he would go with me andstuff.
And so yeah, it was awesome.
It was
Greg Muzzillo (08:28):
Awesome.
That's amazing.
I'm glad.
I'm glad that that's how itprogressed.
I'm sure I'm, I'm sure,including a lot of pride in what
it was that you were building.
All right.
So I love the eBay idea.
Um, that's a very clever way toalmost get free advertising, but
once you quit the eBay thing,how did you continue to drive
(08:49):
customers eyeballs to yourwebsite?
What percentage of your businessis done at the website versus
people coming to your location?
Cindy Rumpf Novack (08:57):
Uh, right now we're about 60% web and
about 40% traveling.
So it gets, it gets a littlemuddy cuz people were on I these
days it's called omnichannel,right?
So you have, you know, a webpresence you can pick up in
store, that type of thing.
The website becomes a tool foryour store.
So people can pre-order and theydon't have to wait in line when
(09:18):
they get here.
So, um, it's more of like, youknow, an omnichannel experience
versus just web versus justretail.
So, but 60% of our orders docome from our website and the
other 40% come from telephone orretail traffic.
We also do classes.
So we do hands on classes.
Um, you know, these days a lotis zoom classes and stuff and we
(09:41):
will have that eventually, butI'm a big fan of people learn by
hands on doing it, getting intoclasses.
I
Greg Muzzillo (09:46):
Know for sure.
For
Cindy Rumpf Novack (09:47):
Sure.
So we do hands on classes.
We have people to travel allover.
Like we've had people come fromlike Hong Kong to take our
classes and you know, all overthe place.
Oh
Greg Muzzillo (09:56):
Wow.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (09:56):
Yeah.
So that's very popular.
So the classes generate a lot ofsales.
Um, we train all of our staff.
So all of our staff knows how tomake handles and soaps and
whatever.
So, so people get a lot of helpwhen they come in here too.
So we make it more of anexperience.
So even if you place your orderon the web and come pick up,
you're probably gonna go intoour store and pick up some other
things too.
(10:18):
Um, our classes are kind of likeDisney world.
So you take a class and afterthe class, it dumps you out into
our store.
So kind of like Disney world,you go on the ride, you get
dumped out into the gift shop.
So
I figured that was brilliant.
So I'm like, I'm gonna design myclassroom where people take
class, they use all this stuffand then they have to walk all
the way through our showroom toget out the door.
(10:39):
So yeah.
Greg Muzzillo (10:40):
Yeah.
It is brilliant by the way.
And it's tortured cuz when youtake your children, like I can
walk through those stores atDisney and I can get out
unscathed, but not withchildren.
Oh daddy, can I get that?
Right.
Yeah.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (10:54):
That's
Greg Muzzillo (10:56):
Brilliant.
And good.
Good for you.
Any ideas of
Cindy Rumpf Novack (10:59):
It was Disney's idea.
Not mine.
So I yeah.
That's alright there.
Greg Muzzillo (11:02):
So that's all, I think that every successful
entrepreneur has to admit, theyborrowed
from other people, right?
Cindy Rumpf Novack (11:11):
Drew inspiration from yeah.
Greg Muzzillo (11:13):
All right.
Borrowed,
Cindy Rumpf Novack (11:14):
Not drew inspiration from
Greg Muzzillo (11:15):
There you go.
I love it.
Well, I think your story isamazing to go from a kind of a
hobby to almost accidentallymaking money and then realizing
it could become a business andthen turning it into an$8
million business, 50,000 squarefeet with lots of growth ahead.
Uh, because you love what you'redoing.
I could tell and you'repassionate about it.
(11:37):
All right.
Tell our folks one or two bigmistakes that you made along the
way and what lessons they holdfor entrepreneurs.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (11:48):
Hmm.
And choosing just one or twomistakes.
That's hard.
So mistakes are a daily thinghere.
Exactly.
I like the Thomas Edisonapproach.
It's not a mistake.
You're just one step closer toperfecting it.
So I, I love that at all times,but my biggest, biggest mistake,
um, it would probably be notreaching out for help.
(12:09):
You know, when you start abusiness, people are like, oh,
you're never gonna make a livingin candles.
You're never gonna this.
You're never gonna that.
So you, you know, the rebel inme, immediately is like, yes I
am.
Of course I am.
I can do this.
You know?
And then you think, you know,all the answers, but you're
presented with situations thatyou've never had before, because
you've never dealt with thisbefore.
And I didn't reach out for helpas quickly and to the right
(12:31):
people as I should, because Ithought that within myself, I
should have these answers cuz Istarted this business and I grew
this monster and like I shouldknow all this, but I didn't.
So and it probably took tenyears to figure that out to
reach out for help when needed,don't stay stuck.
Gosh, reach out for help.
There's so many resources and somany helpful people out there.
So that's my biggest mistake.
And I could, you know, go intoabout 150 different stories off
(12:55):
of that.
Why that's a mistake.
Um, and the, the second one, um,and I, I may have gotten this
from my father cuz one of thereasons he said that women can't
run businesses is cuz we're tooemotional.
Um, so I, I didn't react tosituations as quickly as I
should because then I think, amI being too emotional?
(13:15):
Like so situations, you know,whether it's an employee problem
or this problem or whateverproblem I would be like, you
know, immediately your bloodpressure goes up when anything
happens.
Um, and sometimes, you know, youdon't have to fly out the handle
and react, but you need tohandle a situation.
So, you know, I've had businesscoaches tell me that you're
being a tolerator
So, so I ended up being atolerator instead of just like
(13:38):
handle the situation matter offactly.
So that would be probably mysecond mistake.
Greg Muzzillo (13:44):
You know, from the first mistake that you were
sharing, there was a bit ofwisdom in there also, and it be
careful who you listen to.
It sounds like you had someconversations with people, maybe
neighbors or maybe friends thatwould say you can never make
money doing that.
And, and uh, I think some peopleget crushed, get their souls
crushed by sharing their ideaswith people, looking for
(14:06):
enthusiasm and looking foraffirmation.
And they've got a great idea.
They've got a great idea likeyou, that turned into an$8
million business and on the wayto a whole lot more.
But if you would have listenedto the wrong people, you might
not have ever even started thatbusiness.
People who just don't know.
So we aspiring entrepreneurshave to be careful who we share
ideas with and who we look foraffirmation from.
(14:27):
And sometimes we just gotta gowith our gut.
So that's a, that's anothergreat lesson from there.
All right.
You're successful in a big way,share one or two of the great
successes that you've had andwhat lessons those hold for our
listeners.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (14:46):
Um, probably I would consider my biggest
success is all the people thatwe've helped throughout the
years, all the customers andeverything.
So, you know, I get people likeme that they come to me and
they're looking that they'restarting a side hustle or
whatever.
Uh, we wanna make candles so alittle bit on the side, this and
that.
So I share whatever I can withthem teach.
(15:07):
'em how, you know, my staffteaches them, how, whatever
share with that.
And I've seen people do somewonderful things like, you know,
um, you know, they'll makecandles and they'll, they'll buy
a bunch of stuff and makecandles like crazy and be
selling'em.
And they're like, we're buying ahouse with the candle money we
had.
Yeah.
Oh wow.
Stuff like that.
You know, I put my kids throughcollege or this or that and it,
(15:27):
you know, it all started outright.
You know, with us.
Um, and I feel seeing them besuccessful.
I felt good cuz you know, when Ifirst started it and you know,
there's all differentprofessions isn't that doctors
and lawyers are saving li ordoctors are saving lives.
Nurses are saving lives.
People are doing all thesewonderful things and I'm like,
what am I doing?
I'm I'm selling things.
(15:48):
But then, then we started doingthe classes and helping people
develop businesses.
So that's probably my greatestsuccess is how many people we've
helped along the way.
Um, yeah, that feels really
Greg Muzzillo (15:58):
Good.
Yeah.
And to build, to build on that,most of the people that are
buying or a lot of people arebuying your, uh, buying from
you, aren't just hobbyists.
They're actually reselling thesecandles.
Right.
Um, or they're reselling all ofthe things that they're making.
So you're actually selling toresellers and empowering people
to pursue their own dreams ofbusiness ownership.
(16:20):
That's cool.
All right.
One more big success.
Cindy Rumpf Novack (16:24):
One more big success.
Um, probably my staff and thepeople that I have here.
We have, we have such awonderful collection and,
nobody's the same, everybody'sdifferent, you know, um, it
doesn't, you know, age, gender,uh, race.
It doesn't really matter.
Everybody's got their owncollective set of assets.
(16:48):
Um, and since we're growing, itmakes it really easy to take
advantage of everybody's assetsand put them like where they
like it.
We always do, you know, reviews,what are you best at?
What do you like doing?
We can put those people wherethey thrive and succeed and
everything.
Um, when I see their selfevaluation, sometimes I'm a
little disappointed cuz theydon't brag about themselves as
much as they are wonderful.
Like I would've said this andthis and this about you.
(17:10):
So, and I tell them that too,but, we really have a wonderful
collection of people and wehave, you know, no matter people
come and go, but we always havea wonderful collection of people
here.
Uh, just really good people.
I always say one of our mottosis we only work with people
we're proud of.
So it really kind of separatesthe people that should be here
versus shouldn't be.
Um, but yeah, I'm proud of everysingle person here and the
(17:33):
people that we've helped.
Greg Muzzillo (17:35):
I love that answer.
And I think it helps reallypoint out that your father was
half, right.
Women are emotional, but that'sonly half the story women are
emotionally intelligent.
And in general, not that I liketo generalize, but I find in
general, women are far moreemotionally intelligent than men
and in many ways that makes themreally great leaders.
(17:56):
And you, Cindy are a greatleader.
Thank you very much for joiningus and sharing your story.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Thank you for having me.
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