Developing a Turnaround Plan
From the banks’ perspective, a house file is a “soft” asset and is of very little value to them. Although it is critical to the continued operation of your business, it has little liquidation value if your company were to fail.
Since it is often difficult to secure financing for a catalog company, it is common for entrepreneurs to operate year after year on a shoe string budget. Although their market niche and concept may be innovative, entrepreneurs rarely have enough money up front to build their house file to a size that is self-supporting. Some businesspeople turn to friends, family, even venture capitalists for financing. Others never secure the proper funding.
- Companies:
- Lett Direct Inc.
Steve Lett graduated from Indiana University in 1970 and immediately began his 50-year career in Direct Marketing; mainly catalogs.
Steve spent the first 25 years of his career in executive level positions at both consumer and business-to-business companies. The next 25 years have been with Lett Direct, Inc., the company Steve founded in early 1995. Lett Direct, Inc., is a catalog and internet consulting firm specializing in circulation planning, plan execution, analysis and digital marketing (Google Premier Partner).
Steve has served on the Ethics Committee of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and on a number of company boards, both public and private. He served on the Board of the ACMA.  He has been the subject of two Harvard Business School case studies. He is the author of a book, Strategic Catalog Marketing. Steve is a past Chairman of both the Catalog Council and Business Mail Council of the DMA. He spent a few years teaching Direct Marketing at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.
You can contact Steve at stevelett@lettdirect.com.
