How a sharpened focus on the market let Terri Alpert carve out new niches for her two catalog businesses, Uno Alla Volta and Cooking Enthusiast

By Mark Del Franco

Doing the Homework
As Lee Helman, managing director of New York-based investment bank Financo, observes, “Starting a business from $10,000 takes a tremendous amount of determination, cleverness and resolve. Most businesses don’t make it to the $10 million level, not to mention beyond the $20 million-plus level to which Terri’s already taken her companies,” he says.