A Chat with July’s Profile, Howard Flax, CEO, FLAX art & design

CS: What would you say are your keys to success?
HF: Having an open mind and an open door. In order to make the best products available and extend the best service, I think it is critical to remain receptive to everyone. Also, we genuinely try to be different. The mailbox is a crowded place, and we like to think that things like our catalog cover contest help set us apart. We run the contest once a year and we get hundreds of entrants. From those entrants we select three different winners. Each will have their cover during one of our seasons – winter, spring, summer or holiday. We’ve been doing it for 20 years. It’s really fantastic. It builds a lot of loyalty to that segment.