A Chat with October’s Profile, Bill Boatman, Founder and Owner of Bill Boatman and Company

Catalog Success: How was the catalog established?

Bill Boatman: Prior to printing my first catalog in 1955, I owned a small grocery store. While running the grocery store I was buying space ads in specialty hunting magazines advertising accessories for dog hunters. I decided to buy an inexpensive mail-order course to start learning the catalog business. I started by collecting and processing the names and addresses of the customers at the grocery store. When I’d collected about 3,000 names and addresses, I mailed my first catalog.