Local businesswoman finds success at home, work

By Sophia Fischer sfischer@theacorn.com

READY FOR BUSINESS-Rhonda Sapirstein, a super mom who juggles both career and kids, is the owner of Niche Sales & Distribution, a video company that distributes products wholesale and to nonprofits worldwide. Sapirstein is an Oak Park resident.

For most of us, juggling work and family can be trying at times. Not for Rhonda Sapirstein. The Oak Park resident and owner of a Westlake Village business appears to have it all.

Sapirstein is happily married and has one child and another on the way. The secret to her success is simple.

"When I have a goal in mind I do whatever I can to achieve it," Sapirstein said. "You have to be organized and focus only on getting the job done."

Sapirstein owns Niche Sales & Distribution Inc., which sells and distributes wholesale videos, DVDs and CDs to educational distributors, direct mail catalogs, museums, and other nonprofit groups.

Hers is one of only a handful of such companies nationwide. It’s a $3-million-a-year business that she started five years ago using her savings account and the contacts she had made through previous jobs.

"I did everything by myself for a year and a-half. It didn’t happen overnight," Sapirstein said. "I had a lot of good friends in the business who helped me, and I have my husband to thank for encouraging me to use my skills for myself and not for someone else."

During that time, Sapirstein was raising a daughter, who is now almost 13. Sapirstein is due this month with her second child.

Her business, like her family, has grown and now includes a staff of five who handle sales, customer service, accounting, and shipping and receiving.

Sapirstein purchases her products from 30 different companies, including major movie studios such as Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Home Video and Columbia Tri-Star Pictures. Her 1,400 wholesale clients are located nationwide and include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Sports Illustrated, the Autry and Getty museums in Los Angeles and a number of celebrities such as Shirley Maclaine, who purchases her own videos from Sapirstein and resells them on her website. Only businesses that are going to resell the videos can purchase them from Sapirstein.

"This business is a lot of fun and very dynamic," Sapirstein said.

In a way, Sapirstein has come full circle from her childhood in Montreal where she worked for many years in her father’s direct mail order business. Although she recalls her father paying her only 50 cents an hour as opposed to the $2 an hour he paid his other employees, Sapirstein picked up important skills that would serve her well later on in life.

"My dad was a real entrepreneur. I really learned how to run a business from him," she said. "But it was also a source of conflict for me. I felt he depended on me too much and we didn’t always agree."

After graduating from McGill University in Montreal with a labor relations degree, Sapirstein moved to California, where she had relatives.

"Montreal is the kind of city where you don’t move out of the house until you’re married, and I wanted a change of scenery. I had lived there all my life," Sapirstein said.

Sapirstein returned to Canada during the 1980s recession in the United States. Her father had moved his company, which now included a 100-page catalog of housewares, gifts, and camping and fishing equipment, to Toronto. Sapirstein rejoined the family business as a manager.

"The economy was not good in Canada and the business didn’t flourish in Toronto as was hoped," she said.

As a result, Sapirstein returned to California and decided to find work as an administrative assistant. Within three months she was promoted to the marketing department of Media Home Entertainment in Culver City, where one of her first assignments involved mail order.

"Here I was trying to get away from mail order. I had done it all my life. Talk about karma," Sapirstein said. "I couldn’t seem to escape my past."

After going through a difficult layoff at Media Home Entertainment and then a management change at the video distribution/marketing firm she was later with for nearly a decade, Sapirstein decided to venture out on her own.

The decision has paid off. Sapirstein credits other women with helping her become successful. Many of the contacts she developed at the movie studios before starting her own business were women.

"The home video industry is one where women do hold positions of influence, prominence and power. It’s a very tight-knit business where everybody knows everyone," Sapirstein said.

She enjoys her work but admits to rarely watching any of the product she sells.

"I’m in the office all day, so at night I want to get out," Sapirstein said. "I like seeing movies on the big screen."