We were lucky to catch up with Reba Kolbeck recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Reba, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

Even as a girl young I always knew that I would own my own specialty shop/business. My first job, starting at age 14, was working at a seasonal ice cream shoppe where I grew up. I worked there for 9 years! All through high school and college. When the owners decided it was time for them to move on to something else, they offered me the business. At that time, I was 21 years old, and it scared me to death wondering if I would be able to handle it on my own. While I knew in the back of my head I absolutely could and I knew I had the skills and knowledge to make it work, it still scared me to take plunge into it. I passed it up and for years afterwards I kicked myself for it. I still have days where I wonder where I would be if I took the chance all those years ago. Fast forward to present day, I now own Pittston Popcorn, and we just hit our 10-year anniversary! We opened our popcorn shop in 2012. At that time, I had a full-time job managing a full-service restaurant in the area. I recently bought a house with my soon to be husband. Life was good and full, but I still had that urge and feeling deep down inside of owning my own business. The opportunity arose and I couldn’t say no this time. I was scared to death, again! I remember the night before signing papers sitting on the couch crying because I was so overwhelmed and nervous about taking the risk. I was constantly weighing out the pros and cons of it all. Would it work? Would it fail? Would I make our financial situation worse? So many questions and in reality, no definite answers. I obviously went through with it and signed all the necessary paperwork. Oh, was the first year tough. I am not even sure tough is the correct word to describe it. It was an uphill battle for several years, in all aspects – physically, mentally and financially. I worked a full-time job, a part time job and ran the business for the first several years of it. I knew I wasn’t going to make money for the first couple years, especially money that I could live off of. I mean I hoped I would, who doesn’t when starting a business, but in reality, I knew it would take time for me to build the business and be able to make enough money to live off of. I wanted to invest any extra money back in the business to help build it more and be more stable. Over the years we took several different approaches on how to do get our product out to the public, how to promote, how to advertise, how to wholesale to other companies. It was a lot of trial and error, as expected. We moved locations a few times, we seemed to outgrow our 2nd and 3rd locations within months of moving in. We knew the name was getting out there and people were recognizing us! It felt amazing to hear “Pittston Popcorn’ coming out of people’s mouths!
It wasn’t until the end of year 5 that it felt like I could see light at the end of the tunnel, that I wasn’t playing a rat race just trying to keep up with all the jobs and life in general. To this day, I still question and change and try new ways to get our product out to the public. Adding new items and trying to keep up with what is trending now. It is honestly one of the things I love most about business- there is always something new to learn and new knowledge to gain. If something doesn’t work one way, there is always another way to try. My mind is constantly going, and I love every minute of it!
I honestly cannot say I regret not taking over the ice cream shop when I was 21. I think I will always wonder what would have been if I did. What would my life have been like? Would I have met the people I did, would I have been successful back then like I am now, would I have learned the things I know now? There were several job applications in between leaving the ice cream shoppe and opening up the popcorn shop that I was turned down from. At the time, I still remember being upset and wondering why they wouldn’t give a fresh, young, ambitious 22–25-year-old the jobs I was applying for. It was frustrating to say the least. Looking back now, knowing what I know now, I understand it and see. I have gained so much knowledge over the years working for other companies and working my way up and around the hospitality industry, and none of that knowledge was anything I could learn from a book or sitting in a college class. I always had the ability and willingness to learn and grow, but it took years to develop the skills I needed to succeed in today’s world of business. And because of that, looking back, I guess I could say that I am glad I started when I did and not earlier.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been in the restaurant business my whole life. My mother worked in it as well, so growing up I remember getting dropped off from the school bus at the restaurant and going to one of the tables in back to do homework while my mom finished her shift. The owners became like a family to me. When I was old enough, I got a seasonal job at a local ice cream shoppe that I worked at through high school and college. I worked at another restaurant opposite of that seasonal ice cream job where I started out as a dishwasher. I have worked as a cook, a hostess, a waitress, a bartender and then to management. I still always had that itch of owning my own ice cream or specialty shop, so in 2012 I had an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. In 2012 I started an adventure that hasn’t stopped. My husband and I own Pittston Popcorn Company. We have over 100 flavors of gourmet popcorn, over 40 flavors of homemade fudge, handmade chocolates and hard candy lollipops. We offer gift baskets, party favors and holiday gift items along with popcorn tins. We offer fundraising and wholesale opportunities. We have our store front located on Main Street in Pittston, PA. We also have a mobile side of our business, which is a very large asset to our business. We go out to local events and farmers markets and set up a stand to sell our products.
I am most proud of where we are today and that we are still here and open. It was definitely an uphill battle from the very beginning. I love that we are a small family owned and operated business in the town we live in. I love the idea that our daughter will grow up with a sense of pride in her parents and a sense of community in our town.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think what helped build our reputation within our market the most was being flexible. Us going out to several events and setting up a stand to sell our products has definitely helped reach more people and get our products out there to more people. We have always had a store front that customers can come to us and buy and order items. But I firmly believe in a business model where you have to go to the people to get your business, not wait for them to come to us. There have been years that we have done over 140 events on top of our retail store location. I honestly believe this is what has helped us build our reputation and meet our amazing customers. Some of them we would have never had the experience of meeting if it weren’t for these events. And because of these events, we have gained other customers in our fundraising and wholesale parts of the business.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Back when this all first started, I saw an ad in the paper for a ice cream and popcorn shop for sale. My business partner at the time, and I went to look at it. We talked with the owner and her father and came to terms on a lease to own agreement. We signed the papers and foolishly believed the word of the past owner on what she was making as income for the business. The first year was brutal financially. We followed her business process and plan and at the end of year one we did not even do a quarter of the sales she said she was consistently making. It ended up being a lot of personal money and time being invested into the new business venture without seeing much if any return on it. We moved locations at the end of year one in order to move closer to our hometown as well as saving cost of rent for the business. Year two was slightly better but still a struggle, and now a tighter struggle with finances because of all that was put in from the first year. My best friend even loaned me money to continue. My business partner and I parted ways during that second year, but I just couldn’t give up the urge to continue with what we worked so hard on. We ended our lease to own agreement with the previous business. So now I was out a business partner and out on some major equipment needed to continue the business. A co-worker at my other job, who was a saving grace at the time, for my sanity, jumped in and helped to acquire the equipment needed and helped get my mind back into continuing. We worked together for several months building back up what was needed to continue down the business plan we had. The business was there, as were the customers at the events we set up at. It was time consuming and exhausting both physically and mentally at times. Then she saw her life going in a different direction and we parted ways. I was left standing there with my head spinning and having to decide if it was the right idea to continue with it or close the doors. After many long discussions with my husband, we decided to take it head on together and have been working side by side ever since. Over the years of working together with my husband, we have grown the business into what it is today. We have grown our event side into consistent shows we do every year and have had record breaking years on the number of events we have attended. We have built up our fundraising program and have groups who support and continue with us each year. We have grown our wholesale portion of the business from 3 companies to over 20 companies that we love working with! Personally, my husband and I have grown together from buying a house, getting married, business partners, his other business growing with demand and building, losing our first daughter to a still birth in 2018, and giving birth to our second daughter in 2020. It has been a whirlwind adventure to say the least of the last 10 years.
We wouldn’t be where we are today without our friends who became family and our family helping out through all these years. And we wouldn’t be here today without the help of best friends and business partners along the way. Each who are prospering in other business ventures and in life- and who we wish the best for!

Contact Info:

• Website: pittstonpopcorn.square.site
• Instagram: Pittston Popcorn Co.
• Facebook: Pittston Popcorn Co.
• Linkedin: Reba Kolbeck
• Twitter: Pittston Popcorn Co.
• Yelp: Pittston Popcorn Co.