We were lucky to catch up with Kirsten Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kirsten, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Actually the decision to start this business came about because of health issues I was having. I was managing the support staff at a local outpatient mental heath clinic when I started experiencing worsening health issues over the next 6 months. They got so bad at one point that I was on short-term disability. My doctor’s finally discovered that I had gotten Lyme disease from a tick bite. While in bed trying to recover, I was spending a lot of time on my phone. I happened to be looking around on Pinterest and saw a post with mismatched floral china. It had never occurred to me that mismatching patterns could be so pretty together. The posts I was looking at were from a rental vendor in California. I am in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

At first I was just inspired to collect some china to have a Ladies Tea at our church once I was feeling better. I really felt like God was leading me to have a really pretty and special event that all the ladies could come to. I realized that there were many ladies in our church who were widowed, divorced or single who did not have close ties to family and probably didn’t have many opportunities to go to fancy bridal or baby showers. God put these women especially on my heart. There were some middle school girls from our church that I was meeting with who were excited by the idea of helping decorate and host the tea party.

During this time, due to continued health issues, I had to leave my job. I was trying to find something that would give me the flexibility I needed with my new energy level and health concerns. I remembered that I had originally seen the idea for mismatched china on a post by a rental vendor. So, I looked around online to see if there was anyone in Kalamazoo renting vintage china and I couldn’t find anyone. So, I told my husband that I wanted to start a rental business. His response was “Is that really a thing?”, but he was supportive. I worked to increase my inventory, create a contract, get the necessary documentation filled out with the city and state and created a website. My website and business officially launched in October of 2016. My first clients were during the summer of 2017.

Kirsten, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Kirsten Smith. I am married to Scott and we have 3 kitties: Hanky, Yoshi and Turbo. I took art classes in college and thought that I wanted to do something with design, but life happened and I have an Associates Degree, but that is as far as it got. I worked for many years in healthcare management and enjoyed the work very much, but always had some creative outlet on the side. I had a side business doing senior class pictures and a few weddings. I also did a little print work in my spare time mainly advertisements and flyers for some local businesses. I also enjoyed helping people with interior design decisions as part of my home interior painting business. Honestly, this is the first time in my life that I haven’t had multiple business ventures going at once. Although, when you own your own business you wear multiple hats.

I really enjoy owning Delicate Dishes. I love working with people. I always have and this business is all about people. It also gives me the opportunity to help people create a beautiful look for their event. My level of involvement in the design is different for every event. Some clients know exactly what they want and I just provide it. Some clients have a rough idea, but they need suggestions or fine tuning. Others are just getting started and don’t really know what they like yet. I am happy to meet with people so we can set some mock place settings or table decor to figure out what really fits for them.

I started off with just vintage china, teacups, clear goblets and silver flatware, but my inventory now includes several different color pallets of vintage floral china, ivory china, a huge selection of colored goblets, gold flatware, dessert stands, serving pieces, vases, candle holders, ring boxes, table numbers, vintage decor and signs and mirrors.

What I thought was going to be a small tea party business has turned into much more!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best sources for new clients for my business have been:

1. Having a good website that is easy to navigate and has pictures of the products and clear pricing.
2. Connecting with venue owners, planners and caterers. People that will be meeting potential clients before I do that can provide my business as a resource to their clients.
3. Utilizing as much free advertising as possible to get my name and brand out there. In the event industry there are many bridal sites that you can create a free listing on in addition to all the main social media sources.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

To be honest, I started with very little. I started the business and still run it out of my home. I had received a little bit of money when my grand mother passed away. Most of it was actually used for my medical bills, but I used about $1000 of it to get the business started. For the first few years I invested almost all that I made into new inventory, but because of building slowly and reinvesting I do not have any loans or business debt. I fully own all my inventory and now. I still invest in some new inventory every year, but there is more profit each year as my number of events grow.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.DelicateDishes.com
• Instagram: www.Instagram.com/delicatedishes
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/delicatedishes
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/delicate-dishes
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@delicatedishes-luxeeventrental
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/delicate-dishes-kalamazoo
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/Delicatedishes/