A Chat With May’s Profile, Suzanne Vlietstra, president of Hobby Horse Clothing Co.

CS: What was your biggest challenge upon entering the catalog business?
SV: The biggest challenge for me has always been nuts-and-bolts business stuff. I’m a creative person. I’m better at the financial and forecasting end of things, but by no means “shiny” at it. So I’ve always, like a lot a small-business people, been fearful about cash flow, fearful about employee issues. Stuff that’s common to almost all businesses, not unique to cataloging. These have always been the most vexing things for me, because that’s where I’m weakest. I don’t have a problem with product. And I can market the heck out of my stuff because I believe in it and I really know my marketplace, being a consumer of this type of product myself. But just things like, “How do you get people paid?” “Are you going to have enough money at the right time?” “What’s going to happen if you do this and that?” Just the nuts and bolts. Which is why I say I wish had taken more business classes in college. Or heaven forbid an accounting class.