Read All About It

Starting small meant plenty of hard work for the Leveens, who juggled new parenthood and homebased entrepreneurship all at once. "We had a newborn that first year, and it was crazy," Steve says. "There were times we felt claustrophobic, especially being holed up in our apartment for long periods."

Close quarters and a small staff (limited to the two Leveens) kept costs low, which enabled the partners to develop their concept and skills at a slow pace, learning as they went along. Time and effort were two critical ingredients in the Leveens' newfangled venture. After all, they had entered a market without guideposts.

How, for example, do you reach serious readers? The Leveens used trial and error--and a plethora of inexpensive small-space ads--to figure out which publications their market read and what they would buy. It was a slow process but an effective one. "By the time we were ready to rent outside lists and do our first unsolicited mailing in 1991," says Steve, "we had a pretty good idea where to go, what to sell and what business we were in."

This article was originally published in the January 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Read All About It.