Three Years and $3 Million to Break Even

That’s theoretically possible, but risky in the real world, since you would be gambling everything on your first catalog. First catalogs are seldom optimized in terms of presentation, product line, offer, list selection or operations. It usually takes several seasons to wring all the misconceptions and errors out of a new catalog program. So it makes more sense to begin, not with a huge initial mailing designed to get 15,000 buyers in one swoop, but with a test program large enough to be statistically significant, yet small enough to conserve cash and avoid bankruptcy during the learning process.