A Chat With Harvey Dean, president/CEO, Pitsco

CS: In the first few years of running the business by yourself, what was your biggest challenge?
Dean: Finances. I was young, living in a small town in middle America, taking some huge risks. I didn’t understand banking or business. I just had this passion for education. My personality was such that I got along well with the bankers. But early on, the first bank really saw me as a huge risk. I had a difficult time. I was able to get the money to finance my inventory, which was important, because our entire reputation was built on the idea of fast, friendly service. And if you’re going to have fast, friendly service, I had the good sense to know that you needed inventory to ship. I worked at a hardware store in college, and I learned a few things there about service. My boss really stressed that it’s vital to keep each and every customer. But financing that way of treating the customer was difficult.