H ershy Kirsh is the owner of Simply Elegant Gifts the company behind The Decorizer a designer dip holder. He and his wife Miriam run the business from their home in Lakewood New Jersey.

How did you come up with this novel serving product?

My wife had the idea for quite a while but we never thought we’d actually put it into production — a lot of people have ideas you know? Then two and a half years ago on the last day of Succos my sister was saying she’d love to make lots of money by inventing something. We told her to hold off and after Yom Tov we’ll tell her about my wife’s idea. My wife explained to the family how she likes having a pretty Shabbos table but she’s also extremely practical. Instead of transferring dips into dip dishes it would make more sense if you could somehow keep the dip in the container so you don’t have to wash anything. The whole family thought it was an awesome idea; they said we should totally do it.

Did it take long to make it happen?

Right after Succos I started doing some research online seeing what it takes to design a product and get a manufacturer. After about a year of going back and forth and doing lots and lots of research we came out with this great product The Decorizer. And it’s kind of a family project. I’m from a large family and we’ve been having such fun with it! My mother does the bookkeeping my brother does the business advisement and my sister was involved in the heavy decision making especially when we started. I have a brother who runs the mechanic department at a packaging company so he helped make the prototype and another brother who’s single and living in Brooklyn was doing deliveries for us.

Did you travel to the Far East for manufacturing?

Actually not. We did this all over email and internet not even phone because there’s a big time difference between here and India. We did our packaging in China and we found our manufacturers on IndiaMART. We were very nervous about their legitimacy because I’d read all these stories about people who sent you samples took your money and didn’t send you the products.

What was your biggest worry manufacturing The Decorizer?

Putting lots of money into something we weren’t sure was going to take off. Our first shipment was small. We ordered only 1000 pieces. Baruch Hashem we sold those within two days to the first three stores we went into! We started getting calls from other places so we started placing larger orders. My wife and I used to sit and think how we were going to get the stores to buy our product and in the end stores all over were contacting us. When you have a good product stores want it because the customers want it.

How far have you shipped to?

All over the world. Stores in Poland England and South America for example have called to ask about placing orders. We also sell retail on Amazon and we’ve had orders from random places like North Dakota and Kansas.

Any surprises along the way?

The whole thing has been one big surprise not something we had planned on or for. I was learning full time in BMG and my wife was working as a nurse at SCHI the School for Children with Hidden Intelligence and we had three kids under the age of nineteen months —twins and a baby — at the time. And somehow the business just took off and took over. We thought we’d do this make a few extra bucks and that would be the end of it or like my sister said “Just make something and make a lot of money.” But that’s not how a business works — people think we’ve hit the jackpot but even if something sells well it’s a big undertaking and you can’t even begin to try to put all the details on paper. We learned as we went along that when you’re dealing with an inventory business it takes a while to make anything because any money that comes in goes right back into the business.

Did you try other products that didn’t take off?

So far it’s been just this product the dip holder but there were styles we discontinued —the plain non-hammered metal the etched chevron pattern — because they didn’t sell as well.

What was your biggest challenge?

One of the main hurdles is that we had companies imitating us a few months after we came out with our product. One of my wife’s friends put it nicely — she said a true form of flattery is imitation meaning if you make something good it’s going to be copied. We knew the other companies didn’t mean bad — business is business the mentality is if something sells you also produce it. No one stops to think that this young couple in kollel is trying to make it this is just how businesspeople do things. Another issue we had to figure out how to deal with in the beginning was when stores were interested in the Decorizer but wanted to be exclusive and we just wanted to make everyone happy.

What’s your next project?

A lot of the local stores sell their dips in square containers not the round deli ones so we’re making a square Decorizer. We’re also upgrading with the square one adding a glass insert for people who make their own dips or whose containers don’t fit in. So far we’ve been focusing on metal dishes and now we’re working on a glass crystal-style version and trays to put the bowls on. Another thing we’re trying to do is find a way for me to go back to kollel. This wasn’t the plan but we feel Hashem brought this into our lives — there was a tremendous amount of siyata d’Shmaya every step of the way from finding a manufacturer to getting our product onto store shelves. We were given this parnassah and it would be irresponsible to throw it out so we’re trying to find a way to make the business run while I’m in kollel. When I started looking into it I was able to make it work — I’d research bein hasdarim in the Cubicles internet cafes for people who didn’t have internet at home and after night seder. But now we’re giving up so much time for this business we want to find a way to make it work.

What’s the best feedback you’ve gotten?

We’ve had people send us messages about how it’s always an argument in their home whether to transfer dips to a dip bowl or just put out the plastic container and they thank us for saving them from these major shalom bayis issues.