Meet Don Zufall. A veteran with a background in mechanical engineering and years of hands-on experience in high-pressure environments. Don never imagined he would one day be running a thriving soap manufacturing business from his home. However, life has a way of redirecting even the most carefully planned paths.
Don earned his associate degree in mechanical engineering after serving in the US Navy, where he worked in main engine rooms. The experience shaped his mindset.
“When something breaks at sea, you can’t just call someone,” Don said. “If it has to be fixed, you fix it. That mentality has stayed with me.”
After his military service, Don moved to North Carolina, attended CPCC, and worked as a machinist and mechanic in the racing industry before expanding his skill set into fabrication. Eventually, he joined the Water and Sewer Authority of Cabarrus County at the Rocky River wastewater treatment plant. While there, he received state certification as a grade 4 wastewater treatment plant operator. While preparing for a promotion, Don experienced a seizure at work. Following his epilepsy diagnosis, it became clear that continuing in his role would be challenging from a safety standpoint.
“I didn’t know I had been dealing with epilepsy for decades,” he said. “I had been having multiple symptoms, including sleep walking, that I couldn’t explain.”
The seizures intensified to including grand maul seizures making working full time increasingly more difficult. He temporarily lost his driver’s license and had to rethink everything.
“I had to ask myself, what can I do from home?” Don said.
The answer came from an unexpected place. His sister in Pennsylvania made soap and shared her formula with him. Don was intrigued by the process and discovered that he wanted to approach it differently. Rather than entering an already crowded market of specialty goat’s milk and oat soaps, he focused on creating a simple, high-quality, vegan, cold-process soap made with only lye, natural oils and essential oils. This began the journey of The Zufall Soap Company.
“I wanted something simple that cleaned well but also moisturized without irritation and contained no colorants or synthetic fragrance,” he said.
True to his engineering background, Don began experimenting with formulas, researching how ingredient combinations affected lather, hardness and longevity. What started as small 36-bar batches made in a crock pot gradually evolved. He scaled up to additional crock pots and larger molds, then five-gallon buckets, increasing production to 125 bars per batch and eventually more molds and 250-bar batches. Today, with new curing racks and an improved production system in place, Don is able to produce up to 5,000 bars per month.
He began selling at local farmers’ markets and placed products in retail locations around Concord and Kannapolis. As sales increased, Don realized he needed help with the business side of operations.
“I’m the manufacturer,” he said. “I needed support with the website, bookkeeping and social media.”
Around that time, he learned about the Retail Lab through Irene Wong with the City of Kannapolis. Retail Lab is a six-week business boot camp hosted at the Cabarrus Center and powered by the Rowan-Cabarrus Small Business Center and the Flywheel Foundation. The program helps product-based entrepreneurs refine their brand, strengthen operations and pitch for a small business grant.
“It was outstanding,” Don said about his experience inside the program. “I learned so much. There’s so much covered that gives you a real understanding of how to make your business flourish.”
During the boot camp, Don refined his business strategy and broadened his perspective.
“Before Retail Lab, I was focused on one sales demographic,” he said. “Now I see four or five additional ones.”
For example, he discovered that mechanics and industrial workers value his soap’s ability to effectively remove grease without drying out their hands. That insight opened new market opportunities he had not previously considered. Retail Lab also helped Don develop a clearer growth plan.
Before Don could grow, he needed to address a major production challenge. Since he started, one of his biggest bottlenecks has been packaging. Each bar is hand-wrapped, a process that takes Don about 30 seconds per bar. At higher production volumes, that time adds up quickly. During his grant pitch at the end of Retail Lab, Don proposed investing in a packaging machine that could wrap 1 bar per second, dramatically increasing efficiency and positioning the business for wholesale growth and expanded online sales. His pitch for the grant was successful, and he was able to acquire the machine.
“The Retail Lab helped me figure out where to go from here,” he said. “I have a detailed plan for each next stage.”
Looking ahead, Don has made his first hire and will be focused on updating his website, returning to selling on Amazon within the next year, expanding into additional retail outlets, and building a stronger presence on Instagram.
“The marketing side is going to be a big change for us this year,” he said. “We will have a much bigger presence online.”
What began as an unexpected turning point has become a sustainable and growing manufacturing business built on resilience, adaptability and a willingness to learn.
To learn more about Don and The Zufall Soap Company, visit The ZUFALL SOAP Company website or connect with him directly at dzufall@zufallsoap.com.
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