While working as a freelance sales rep selling gaskets and seals, Whitlock accumulated piles of catalogs and bulletins. He organized and cross-referenced them in huge black binders. With the help of an investor, he launched a seal-manufacturing business that at one time had 300 employees. But he quit in 1993, weary of worrying about inventory, personnel, finance, and working with a partner.

Whitlock went back into business in 1995 as a distributor of other people's seals. This time, he vowed, he would do it without warehouses, employees, or partners. His new company, EPM Inc., consisted of a home office, the help of his wife, Rita, and his binder collection. Whitlock purchased two cell phones and a beeper so that factories could reach him if a seal failed any time of the day or night. He set up a site on the World Wide Web where people could read about his product line and order catalogs. He noticed various Internet information searching services about how to locate his site on the Web so that anyone seeking "gaskets" or "seals" would find his Web site. Soon, 10 percent of EPM's sales leads were coming from the Web.

Every night Whitlock sets up his personal computer (PC) to dispatch 150 marketing faxes advertising his experience with rush jobs and hard-to-find parts. When a purchase order arrives by fax or e-mail, he looks up the product in one of his big notebooks. Then he orders it from the manufacturer for next-day delivery to his home. When the shipment arrives, Rita repackages it in EPM's packaging and ships ot to the customer using Federal Express or United Parcel Service (UPS). EPM has access to over 1,000 suppliers from all over the world and can provide more than 1 million hard-to-find sealing devices as well as standard parts. Most inquiries are answered within 24 hours and shipments made within 72 hours. EPM claims it will ship to any destination in the United States or around the world, even if the order is for only one seal.

Whitlock can run his company anywhere. When he and Rita vacation along the Gulf Coast with their family, they take the business with them on a laptop computer. By using information systems to keep costs low, EPM's gross profit margins average 60 percent.

While Whitlock's high-tech systems have tremendous reach, they haven't totally replaced face-to-face selling and customer service. Whitlock might climb in his truck to deliver a shipment to a nearby customer or fly to help advise a factory having equipment problems. Technology can't totally replace shoe leather.................