Meet Rin and Ruckus Russ

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rin and Ruckus Russ.

Rin and Ruckus, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We both started our professional careers in consulting while living in the DC area. We talked on and off about starting a company together but didn’t have the time to do it. When we moved to the Springs, we found we had more time together and started thinking about what it would be. We found that when it came to celebrating various holidays through the calendar and Jewish year, we didn’t always have a great selection of kid-friendly, reusable decor that we would want to decorate our home with. This became the start of our business idea.

The company started selling felt pom pom ornaments and garlands on October 2018 and expanded to creating flower walls and petal garlands in winter 2019. This fall, we’re expanding our products to pom pom wall hangings, baskets, and hair ties.

Has it been a smooth road?
Has anyone had an easy time starting their first business? We started totally from scratch with no idea of what we were doing. Everything from licenses to taxes to website management has been a huge learning curve. Luckily, we make a pretty good team.

Everything seemed really hard (except for making our products, that’s the fun part!) until we started meeting other small business owners in Colorado Springs. Having a group of people who can help us navigate things like marketing and pop-up markets and even packaging has been a huge help.

Alright – so let’s talk business. What else should we know about your work?
Our specialty is felt pom poms! They started as ornaments, which grew into garlands. And now we’re putting them on all kinds of things like wall hangings and hair ties.

What sets us apart is the look and feel of our pom poms. They’re kind of like flowers, and they’re not at all like the other felt ball pom poms or yarn pom poms out there.

Having a product that’s so versatile and unique at the same time is what we’re most proud of. That, and our ability to look at it and say what else can we do with this? For example, our petal garlands and flower walls are based off a single petal, or folded circle from one of our pom poms.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Colorado definitely seems to be a small business-friendly area. There’s no way we could have done this in DC. It seems to me that there’s a huge appetite for handmade or locally made goods here in the state.

Pricing:

• Pom Pom Ornaments … $5
• Petal Garlands … Starting at $7.50
• Pom Pom Garlands … Starting at $15
• Flower Walls … Starting at $50

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rinandruckus.com
• Phone: 719-203-9417
• Email: rinandruckus@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/rinandruckus
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/rinandruckus
• Other: www.rinandruckus.etsy.com

Image Credit:
Rin Russ, Ruckus Russ

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