Turning The PageCatalog maven John Peterman deals with a new chapter . . . Chapter 11.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
John Peterman started J. Peterman Co. and its legendarymail-order catalog in 1987 with a $20,000 unsecured loan. Thecompany had annual sales of $75 million by the time it wentbank-rupt in January 1999, a victim of excessively fast growth. Inbetween, the J. Peterman persona became part of pop culture asactor John O'Hurley portrayed Peterman as Elaine's boss onSeinfeld.
Peterman still has his hands full, working on a book due out inOctober, Never Take No for an Answer (Prentice-Hall), and startingJohnPeterman.com, a multimedia business devoted to shopping theworld. This mail-order icon recently took some time out to discusswhat he did right . . . and wrong.
Continue reading this article — and all of our other premium content with Entrepreneur+
Join the internet’s leading entrepreneur community! With your subscription you’ll get:
- Unlimited access, including premium content
- No ads
- Subscription to狗万官方magazine
- Four free e-books a year
- Subscriber-only events with our experts
