Balance, branding key for small businesses, Almost Famous Popcorn CEO says

For The Gazette of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa

(Jimmy Centers photo/Cornerstone Public Affairs)

Sydney Rieckhoff, CEO and co-owner of Cedar Rapids-based Almost Famous Popcorn, took away a long list of “action items” she gathered during the 10,000 Small Businesses Summit in Washington, D.C.

But chiefly, she said by phone Wednesday during a break in sessions, “At a high level, I feel really renewed. We’ve all been through a lot lately,” citing the pandemic, hiring challenges, inflation and supply chain issues affecting all small business owners.

Rieckhoff and 27 other Iowa-based small business leaders were among the 2,500 10,000 Small Businesses alumni who attended the Goldman Sachs-sponsored two-day event this past Tuesday and Wednesday, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center and at Nationals Park.

Among the large slate of business leaders, politicians and academics who addressed the conference were former President George W. Bush, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, former New York City mayor and Bloomberg Philanthropies founder Michael Bloomberg, GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani, NBA player Chris Paul, chef and author Marcus Samuelsson, and actor and Goop CEO Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as U.S. Sens. Krysten Sinema, Marco Rubio and Tim Scott.

In addition, some 400 government officials were expected to be on hand during the conference, according to Goldman Sachs in a news release shared by government consulting group Cornerstone Public Affairs of Washington, D.C.

Iowa small business leaders also met with U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Ashley Hinson, and with a representative from Sen. Joni Ernst’s office.

Among other highlights of the conference for Rieckhoff:

• Bloomberg on Tuesday spoke to the group about “a willingness to bet on yourself … as a badge of honor,” Rieckhoff said. The one-time presidential candidate encouraged entrepreneurs as well as elected officials to “think boldly.”
• Bush related some of his own experiences in business — he helped start Arbusto Energy and was one of the owners of the Texas Rangers baseball franchise. He emphasized the importance for small business owners to maintain a “positive attitude and an optimistic outlook,” Rieckhoff said.
• Sens. Sinema and Scott, who presented together, talked about working collaboratively and significance of being motivated by something other than yourself, Rieckhoff said.
• Alli Webb, fashion consultant founder of Drybar, a blowout-only hair salon chain, detailed the importance to a business’ brand of how, “from the logo (out front) to the bathroom, everything should feel like you,” Rieckhoff said, vowing to do an audit of her own customer-facing operations upon her return to Iowa.
• Chef Samuelsson and fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff — who also presented jointly — encouraged the attendees to work toward giving back through their businesses.
• The importance of an exit strategy for leaders of small businesses was mentioned by several speakers, including Webb; Melissa Bradley, Ureeka co-founder and small business development program 1863 Ventures managing partner; and actor Ryan Reynolds, who sold his Aviation American Gin company in 2020 for $610 million. “It’s kind of funny at the start (of a business) to think about the end,” Rieckhoff said, but it is crucial.

One of the key messages Rieckhoff said she took away from the conference was that, “You don’t have to strive for balance for everything.”

Small business leaders — especially women business leaders — need to “focus on quality time” rather than trying to achieve balance in every task every day.

Sometimes, Rieckhoff said, “some things are out of balance.” And that’s OK.

A family-run gourmet popcorn and ice cream business, Almost Famous Popcorn was started in 2012 by Bill and Robyn Rieckhoff — Sydney Rieckhoff then was 14 years old — and it was named in 2017 by Orbitz as one of the “Top Five Popcorn Shops in the Country.”

Almost Famous today has storefronts in Cedar Rapids’ NewBo District and Des Moines’ East Village and a factory in Cedar Rapids. The company bought Noble Popcorn in Sac City this past March.

Almost Famous today has storefronts in Cedar Rapids’ NewBo District and Des Moines’ East Village and a factory in Cedar Rapids. The company bought Noble Popcorn in Sac City this past March.

Rieckhoff, a 2020 Stanford University graduate with a bachelor’s in international relations, also is a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, which was launched in 2018 and which Rieckhoff described as akin to “an accelerated MBA” program.

Des Moines Area Community College is the host site in Iowa for the program’s educational sessions during the year. The seventh class of Iowa businesses began earlier this year.

Small businesses hindered by hiring, inflation

The summit came a week after investment bank Goldman Sachs released its annual “10,000 Small Businesses Voices” survey, which can be viewed at https://bit.ly/3zbzImb.

Much of that survey — conducted June 20 through 23 among 1,533 respondents, all 10,000 Small Businesses participants from 48 states and two U.S. territories, according to Goldman Sachs — highlighted business concerns being heard nationwide, with hiring challenges and inflation called out as the chiefs headaches.

A majority of respondents — 93 percent — said a possible coming recession with the next 12 months was among their worries. Seventy-eight percent believed the economy had gotten worse over the previous quarter.

Among the survey’s highlights on hiring:

• 84 percent said hiring challenges have gotten worse or stayed the same over the previous three months.
• 97 percent of those who said they had difficulty hiring reported that it in turn affected their bottom line.
• 55 percent said it takes on average more than two months to fill an open position with a qualified employee.
• 78 percent reported competition with larger employers on pay and benefits.
• 68 percent noted “high labor costs.”

When it came to inflation and ongoing supply chain issues:

• 97 percent said inflationary pressures have increased or stayed the same compared to the previous three months.
• 2 percent, however, responded they’d seen a drop in inflation’s effects over the previous three months, and 7 percent said they expect inflationary constraints to fade in the coming half-year.
• 65 percent said they raised the prices of their goods or services to offset the impact of these broader trends.
• 38 percent responded that supply chain tangles had gotten worse compared to the thee months before.
• The same number, 38 percent, said claimed to have seen a decline in customer demand as a result of price increases.

And on top of those challenges:

• 80 percent said higher gasoline prices hurt their business.
• 78 percent contended supply chain issues became worse or stayed the same compared to the previous quarter.

And yet, the Goldman Sachs survey found, nearly two-thirds — 65 percent — of small business owners expressed optimism for the financial health of their own business for this year.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management, a business unit of Goldman Sachs acquired Cedar Rapids-based ImOn Communications this past April.