Profile on Plow & Hearth--Reaping What You Sow (2,623 words)

"That was an interesting time," Peter Rice says with typical understatement. Unsure whether their dream was still viable, the Rices turned to The Millard Group, the company's then (and current) list broker, which also served as the fledgling catalog's primary business advisor.

"At the end of the first mailing," Rice relates, "we sat down at the old kitchen table with Don Cody, who was with Millard at the time, and we asked ourselves, 'Is this a business? Is there enough of a pulse to keep going?'"