The navy had a big problem.

Thousands of towels from their gym were disappearing each year, mistakenly taken home.

Not wanting to accuse any midshipmen of stealing, the Navy turned to Strategic Solutions International for help. The answer was simple: pink.

“Pink towels!” Shuly Einhorn says with a laugh. “They would be more visible, and less likely to walk out of the gym.”

“No macho navy midshipman is gonna be caught dead with a pink towel out in public,” Craig Einhorn, the SSI Operations Manager and Shuly’s husband of 20 years, explains.

Finding thousands of plush pink towels and shipping them to the Navy was a large task, but not impossible. It’s what Strategic Sourcing International does.

The company, just nine years old, is located in north Dallas and is 51% owned by Shuly, making it a much-sought after woman-owned business. She is the numbers person, keeping the books and paying the bills, and soon will become the front office “face” of the company. Craig is the “sourcer”—searching for unusual items needed at a good price—and the operations manager. He doesn’t mind being #2 on the organization chart, and is happy to have a boss he can work—and live—with.

Their love story may have never happened if it wasn’t for him.

Shuly, born in Israel, was recovering from surgery in a hospital in Virginia when the two met. Craig was in a Gap Year--taking time off between high school and college—to recover from his own recent surgery when his Rabbi suggested he go cheer up Shuly in the hospital. She was in too much pain, and was too mad at the world, to take notice of him, but Craig was intrigued.

As she slowly recovered, Craig would check in with her on a regular basis, bringing fudge and movies to help her pass the time, always there to cheer her up. Two years later, back home in Israel, when Craig came to visit his relatives, the two re-met. That night Craig told Shuly’s mother, “She’s going to be my wife.” Shuly, in a much better place emotionally and physically, realized it too.

They both went off to college and married a few years later in Israel, enjoying a typical family life with two kids: son Roy, now a senior in high school—about the same age as Craig when he met Shuly—and daughter, Tia, 15, a sophomore. They moved to Virginia and about ten years ago and then on to Dallas three years ago.

The family is close. Shuly is at her daughter’s volleyball games each week as the “Team Mom,” and Craig is there to handle the score sheets at home games, and cheer on their daughter at away games. The entire family went on a college visit last month to New York City so Roy could check out NYU and Emerson College. Craig and Shuly typically ride together to work, just a few miles from their home.

Craig is a member of a business networking organization that meets weekly. Members discuss business and support each other's businesses by sharing references. He’ll go to the early morning meeting and swing by to pick up Shuly on the way to their office. Next door to their office space is their pristine warehouse, where they store many of their customer’s products for them.

One way to make more profit is to buy in bulk, and sell in portions. Craig will find the item a customer is looking for, negotiate a better price for more product than his customer needs, then store the rest for the next time his customer has a need for more. It’s a bonus that the SSI warehouse is connected to their leased office site. But he and Shuly plan to build or buy their own bigger building in about a year, to save on rent. The two enjoy helping other businesses save money by finding the best deal for them, and go the extra mile to source, ship and store the products to help start-up companies become successful, and larger companies to save time and money.

Shuly hopes to inspire young women to become leaders in business like she is. In the meantime, SSI is growing with new customers and new employees, many of whom come as interns and stay on as full-time employees. All are treated like family, and like the navy oath, SSI employees work hard and “serve honestly and faithfully,” just like Shuly and Craig--so there’s no need for pink towels at their headquarters.

Shuly is happy to meet women who want information on how to start their own business. For more information about Shuly’s company, see the SSI website at: https://www.sourcingint.com/

To learn more about the Power Lunches for Teen Girls contact Shuly at SHULY@RNTENT.COM