Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebecca Nagy.
Hi Rebecca, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
After I retired from nursing, my husband and I were on vacation walking along a boardwalk on a beach, checking out quaint little shops along the way. We went into an ice cream shop where you got to dispense your own soft serve ice cream and customize it with toppings. Cupcake shops were offering every kind of cupcake you could imagine. I noticed the trend at that time being that customers were more interested in getting exactly what they wanted, when they wanted it, rather than the traditional, limited menus where the combinations were already pre-set.
It was then that the light bulb went off, so to speak. Our family had always been known for our extraordinary cinnamon rolls, a recipe made by my now 90-year-old mom, Shirley, and passed down to her children and grandchildren. At that time in 2013, there was no cinnamon roll company in the U.S. that offered old-fashioned traditional cinnamon rolls with assorted frosting and topping choices. I knew right then and there that a business like that using our treasured family recipes would be a huge hit, and so the story began.
Within a couple of months, we rented a small storefront in Lapeer, MI and opened with about 20 different varieties of cinnamon rolls, which gradually grew to over 100 varieties to choose from. I made the decision to not only offer the old-fashioned traditional glaze icing but also smooth cream cheese buttercream frostings in different varieties that had real ingredients whipped into the cream cheese frostings. These were not your typical buttercream made with just butter and sugar. These frostings would be a real game changer.
Since I wanted these unique cinnamon rolls to be available to everybody, and knowing that internet sales was the way of the future, I taught myself how to build my own website and the orders started coming in. Right away, I ran Google ad campaigns to draw attention to our website and hired a Google analytics company to help. I advertised on Facebook and spent a lot of time researching marketing methods and taking mouth-watering pictures of our cinnamon rolls using only me cell phone. The pictures drew customers in as there was the WOW factor of unique, over-the-top varieties and customers loved the story of cinnamon rolls that are all about family traditions, memories, hand-rolled and handmade in small batches.
Less than a year after opening the business, I got a call from a QVC broker who was interested in putting our products on QVC. Although I felt validated, we mutually agreed at that point that we did not have the square footage to provide the thousands of cinnamon rolls needed for a QVC airing.
Fast forward to two years later. We were in a much larger facility when I received another phone call from a different QVC broker and we decided to move forward. Now, 11 years later, our products are still featured on QVC, which led to us being noticed by many other venues, including Zulily, Good Morning America, The View, and other news outlets. Our own website was gaining momentum, but when the Covid virus hit in 2020, our business doubled since we were already positioned with e-commerce; whereas most food businesses relied strictly on brick and mortar sales, with none or very little e-commerce sales. By this time we were up to 13K regular email subscribers to our website and growing rapidly.
After five years, we bought a new facility and continued growing sales. I discontinued paying for ads as our business had been growing organically and we had so much business pouring in from word of mouth and excited customers who tried our cinnamon rolls and loved them. We were having growing pains with needing more space to fulfill the orders that we had. Our staff grew from around seven employees to over 20 and still growing.
We started offering our products for wholesale to retailers and food service two years ago. Our products are now offered in almost 50 locations across the United States. Many of those locations are in digital food courts in big cities, such as New York City, Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and many more. Today, we are continuing to grow and once again and need more production space at our facility. We are planning to add on to our current building, starting work this fall.
By this time, cinnamon rolls are trending all across the United States. There are tons of bakeries making cinnamon rolls with different varieties of frosting. I’m sure our daily posting of Pinterest pictures of our cinnamon rolls facilitated the growth and trend. Cinnabon even ordered our cinnamon rolls and shortly thereafter introduced a new “Oreo cookie variety” and have added other varieties since then. They even started concentrating more on e-commerce than what they had previously. I feel complimented that this huge company realized that what we are doing is working.
We’ve never felt threatened by other companies that make cinnamon rolls. We make the best, hand-rolled, small batch cinnamon rolls . That’s the simple truth. That’s all we do. We don’t bake pies or make cookies, brownies, cheesecakes, or anything else. We are committed to being the best at what we do and carrying on the time-honored family recipes and traditions using real, quality ingredients that make our cinnamon rolls delicious, ooey-gooey, and the best you can buy. We want everyone, everywhere, to have the opportunity to try a bite of our buns!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road to where we are now has been filled with challenges:
1. Growing pains with not enough space
2. Scaling the business and financial constraints while growing
3. Employees that will keep up the quality without me personally being on site at all times
4. Learning best practices for shipping; i.e. shipping boxes, packing, the best carriers so that the product arrives on time.
5. Working 24/7 and doing every mental and physical part of the business for 13 years-physically and mentally exhausting.
6. Teaching myself how to build a website, marketing, with Google and Facebook advertising, rewards programs, email marketing, financial planning, tons of training of bakers and bakery clerks, managing payroll, operations, QVC and many other venues, that required significant knowledge for onboarding: Sysco, Uncommon Goods, Kehe, Mable, US Foods, GMA, Amazon Website, Zulily website and the work continues…
7. Hiring and training managers to take over each part of what I do so I can gradually retire..
8. Learning about health codes, FDA requirements, building codes, and a whole remodel of our current building.
9. Applying for grants, and loans and juggling our finances.
10. You name it, we’ve done it all from scratch. Pardon the pun:)
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I believe I answered all of these questions in my previous long descriptions.
I am the most proud of teaching myself how to do all aspects of this business with no previous business training. I taught myself by googling everything on the internet. I was a professional: an RN with a BSN in nursing, but had no business education.
I am known for being an entrepreneur who started a business from scratch that is now rapidly growing and the sky is the limit.
What sets me apart? Nobody else makes the quality of cinnamon rolls and variety of frostings that we do. Many have tried, but our recipes and dough processes are very unique, tedious, and time consuming. It pays off! I have a niche, specialty business and have no plans to compete with other cinnamon roll bakeries or companies that make other products.
I am known for quality.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
My advice is to ask questions of every friend you have in business of any kind. Spend lots of time on the internet doing market research. Order other businesses’ products and keep up with the best trends in packaging, quality, what customers prefer…listen to your customers. They will give you ideas.
Don’t be afraid to admit you don’t know something. Pick others’ brains. Learn, learn, learn.
Wake up every morning expecting to accomplish something new and grow the business every single day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cinnamombakery.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/cinnamombakery
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/Cinnamombakery
