A Chat With March's Profile, Jason Blake, founder/president, The Pond Guy, Inc.

Catalog Success: Where's your company headquartered?
Jason Blake: Marine City, Michigan. It's about 30 miles north of Detroit.

CS: When was the company founded?
JB: The company was founded in 1996.

CS: When did you begin mailing catalogs?
JB: The company started while I was in high school; I was cleaning and servicing ponds in the neighborhood. Then I went away to college at Michigan State and I thought that I could mail out catalogs and continue to do the business while I was here in East Lansing [Mich.]. So I put a catalog together my first year … sent that out to my existing customers. I didn't really understand the catalog business at all. I just figured I would hand them out and people would buy stuff.