People start businesses every day. Some succeed quickly; some
fail right off the bat; still others percolate slowly and grow
gradually, one day emerging as bona fide success stories.
At some point, every start-up business owner needs a little
help-a few pieces of sound advice from professionals to help steady
a new business' sometimes shaky beginnings. But good
old-fashioned irony usually dictates that, just when they need it
most, small-
business owners can least afford to spare the time or the
expense to hire experts who can give them the advice they need.
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Len and Greta Buffinton can identify with that. In August 1994,
the newly married Len, 32, and Greta, 35, started a mail order
catalog selling self-help, relationship and psychology books.
Admittedly, they weren't experts on direct mail, but they'd
done extensive research to determine whether there was a
substantial market for their products. They also determined whether
there would be enough subject material to keep the catalog
interesting and functional. In Len's words, they wanted the
catalog to offer books that were about "sensitive issues but
tasteful, helpful and not just quirky."
After deciding there were more than enough books to fill a
diverse catalog, the Buffintons settled on a name, Brown
Wrapper Bookstore, and a cover concept to match. Despite its
furtive exterior, you won't find any X-rated tomes in the
Brown Wrapper catalog-just reputable literature and
videos.
Designing their catalog would be no small endeavor-the
Buffintons knew that. So instead of taking on the responsibility
themselves, they hired a graphic artist to design the format and
handle all the pre-press arrangements. Greta wrote the copy; but
aside from that and offering a few layout suggestions, the
Buffintons let their designer do the rest. "We told her which
books should be in which category, and then we shut our
mouths," says Len.
The result was a 20-page black-and-white catalog, its cover
printed on full-color 100-pound stock bearing the appearance of a
package wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. A "Slim
Jim"-taller and wider than the standard mail order
catalog-Brown Wrapper was designed to be sent in the mail
without an envelope. The Buffintons printed 30,000 copies of the
first catalog at a cost of approximately 50 cents apiece.
In deciding who to mail their catalog to, the Buffintons
contacted a list broker who supplied them with three rosters of
5,000 names each. Unfortunately, mailings to these lists garnered
an overall response of less than half of 1 percent, which Len
characterizes as "just horrible." Later, the Buffintons
learned the list they'd bought was
8 years old. When confronted, the list broker told the
Buffintons there were "no guarantees." "That mistake
cost us a lot of money, time and effort," says Len. Lesson
number one.
Even as the Buffintons were putting their first batch of
catalogs in the mail, they were already beginning to suspect that
finding their target audience was going to be a difficult process.
That's why, in later mailings, they adopted the habit of
constantly testing small lists. Keeping track of the multitude of
lists began to pose its own challenge, so the Buffintons decided to
hire an outside company to handle database management. Lesson
number two.
As any budding entrepreneur knows, growth is a tricky thing.
Grow too slowly, and you miss the boat; expand too quickly, and you
may harm the business. After their first fiscal year, the
Buffintons' Brown Wrapper catalog had earned them
$200,000, and they were eager to grow the company, but they
didn't want to do anything they'd regret. They are as
cautious as they are enthusiastic-with a good balance of passion
and prudence. From day one, they and their five employees have
handled fulfillment in-house, stocking inventory in a
3,000-square-foot warehouse adjacent to their Old Saybrook,
Connecticut, commercial office. Lesson number three.
The Buffintons have made some mistakes, but they've also
done a lot of things right. How can they improve on their success
and make their burgeoning business grow even more? For some sage
insight and advice, we've sought the help of a few experts.
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