Ingredients for a Catalog Startup

Finding time to grow. An unanticipated challenge for a startup, says Spitalny, is trying to keep up with growth. “When you start out, you have no knowledge of manufacturing, direct marketing or catalogs. You’re learning so fast that you don’t have time to plan new projects.”

For example, she says, having a seasonal peak at the holidays has always meant gearing up in September for the rush and shelving any new projects until January. “That’s changing for the first time this year,” she says happily. “We’re just now at the level where we have a team in place and everything on the operations side is running smoothly enough so that the executive staff can continue to move ahead with planning.”