Profile of Success: Booting It Up

This month, Terry Powers, founder/president of the ComputerGear catalog, recalls how a simple dare led to her career in the catalog business.

Catalog Success: How did you get started in the business?

Terry Powers: At the time ComputerGear was founded, in 1993, computers were starting to come into the workforce, and they weren’t very friendly. They were ugly, too. Our company was basically started on a dare. Someone said, “Why don’t you make computers more friendly?” I saw there weren’t really any products out there to decorate your desk or make it more fun, so I pretty much took someone up on a dare and did it.

We started designing, manufacturing and selling a preprint line of T-shirts and gift items to other catalogers; we were on the wholesale side of it as a vendor and a supplier. Eventually people started writing notes and sending letters asking us to put out more and more products. So in 1995, we mailed our first 16-page, digest-size catalog featuring not only T-shirts, but more of the gift items as well. We started as a wholesaler and migrated to a cataloger.

CS: Was this your first foray in the catalog business?

TP: No. Out here in Seattle, I started a Seattle alumni association for the University of Florida. The Gators are about as far from home as we could get, so we needed stuff to wear to our football games and when we would watch them on TV.

So I started a mail order catalog, Club Gator, to sell University of Florida sweatshirts, T-shirts and gift items to other alums who were out of state. I was putting together a compiled list to go forward with that when, through our research, I discovered it wasn’t going to work because 75 percent of alums still live in Florida and can get their Gator goods pretty quickly and locally.

CS: What’s the toughest challenge you’ve faced at ComputerGear, and what did you do to overcome it?

TP: We used to be able to prospect a lot more heavily. With the cost of postage and paper going up, we have to do less prospecting by mail. But on the flip side, to overcome that and fine-tune that a little bit, we work more economically by buying our own paper and co-mailing a letter-automated, digest-size catalog. I’d like to be prospecting a little bit more, but I think everybody’s pulled back on their prospecting
and circulation.

CS: To what do you attribute ComputerGear’s success?

TP: A lot of it is luck and timing. Most of how we stand out is that our products are unique. Seventy percent of our products are developed at our headquarters. That’s how we stand out.

CS: Has ComputerGear had to downgrade its projections because of the recession?

TP: We did fine last year — we were just off plan by a single digit. And again, it has to do with the fact that these are people’s passions. These are things that really strike a chord when people see them.

This year we’re mailing smarter. We pretty much mail more when our operations are streamlined and efficient. We’re looking at those prospects. We’ve always prospected at a profit and will continue to do so. «

To read the full interview, click on A Chat With April's Profile, Terry Powers, founder/president, ComputerGear, at right.