A Chat With Paal Gisholt, President/CEO, SmartPak Equine

Surround yourself with people who have the technical skills you lack, because in the catalog business, as I’m learning with each passing month, there’s tremendous technical knowledge which helps you to be successful. There’s not one single secret strategy that makes a difference. You’re building a business brick-by-brick with thousands of bricks, each of which are important, but none of which alone will get you there. There were probably areas where we operated a little bit in the dark for too long after starting the catalog where if I had to do it over a again, I’d say, “Swallow hard, pay someone who really knows their stuff and get them on-board early.” You’ll operate faster, you’ll build faster and you’ll have more fun in the process than trying to figure it out on your own.