Another Year!
- At August 24, 2013
- By steve
- In Conversation
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13 Years Later…
I needed another open sign, as the last one was faded, cracked, and was looking pretty sad. It was then that I realized another year has passed. I have had my own store now for over 13 years now, and have been framing art work for over 2 decades! It has been so much fun, and the best part is the great people that we have gotten to know. When I worked as an illustrator for General Motors, I worked in a cube so I never really had the chance to make any friends. The framing industry has changed so much in the last 20 years…I wonder what the next 20 will bring!
So Can We Frame For Your Store Too?
- At August 22, 2013
- By steve
- In Conversation
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A Bulk Order For a Local Frame Shop
I person stopped by this week and asked if we could help their shop out with a large order. I said “of course!” We are pretty use to turning out large orders, in a short time because of all the corporate work we do. We currently frame for several other frame shops in the area, and we can also do your framing. If it”s because you need better quality than your sales staff can be trusted with (we have degrees in the arts and in-depth training from the Smithsonian!) or its too large of an order, we can help. All of the work we produce for other shops is strictly confidential, is produced in house, and will be produced without any of our identifying labeling. We can even apply your shop stickers and use you favorite hangers if you like, just let us know how we can help.
So Why the Move?
- At August 10, 2013
- By steve
- In Conversation
0
So Why Did We Move?
Now that we are moved in and people are coming to see us at our new location, everybody wants to know, after 9 years why did we decide to move? Well, back in June 18, 2012 we had a small fire in the utility room of our old location. Luckily the Ostemo fire department responded quickly, and the damage was very minimal, but with it being in the utility room it did take out the electric, heat and plumbing. After many reassurances from the owner of the building that repairs would be quickly made, we decided to stay and reopen after the repairs were made. At 8 months after the fire, and we still had no electric in most of our building we decided we would have to move. We really hated to move from a location that we had invested so much time and love in to, but its pretty impossible to run a business without electric! Seeing that it looks like repairs are still going on as of today (yep the fire was 417 days ago!) I think we made the correct decision to move.
Our old location 14 months after the fire, with repairs still going on.
Now we are close to downtown (something we wanted 10 years ago) and have more space, at a lower cost, so we are even happier with the move. What is coming in the next year? The owner of the building will be opening a coffee shop in the front and a custom order furniture store on the lower level. Our new location is getting more amazing every day. We look forward to having you stop by and letting us show you around.
So Why Are You Standing There?
- At August 13, 2011
- By steve
- In Conversation
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This is our original counter at our first location.
So why do most frame shops look like the above photo? Well…..the answer is pretty simple, because they don’t really want you getting too comfortable. Yep… all the ‘professional’ sales books tell you that it should only take 15 minutes to write up a sales order. One of the best ways to do this is to have you, the customer, stand, and place the frame samples behind the counter. One shop I worked at, the owner would even walk behind the customer, and point at his watch after 10 minutes, always distracting and pretty rude in my opinion. When you stand, your legs get sore, and you are willing to speed up the sale, and forgo some of your important questions. When the store puts the samples behind the counter, they get to hand you their most profitable samples, and less of them, so you can make up your mind faster!
When I first opened my shop, I read the books and went to the classes. Soon after I saw my guests moving back and forth on their sore feet I changed from the above (yep that’s my first store), to a lower table and chairs.
Our design counter.
We want you come in, have a seat, and ask us all the questions you may have, we will never put you on a time limit. We even put the samples where you can touch them, feel their quality, and see how they will look with your art work.
A portion of our framing selection for your perusal.
You are welcome to take down two or twenty, the thing we really want is for you is for you to know is all of your options, get all of your questions answered, and feel comfortable with your decisions.
Stop on by, pull up a chair, we are looking forward to meeting you!
Love Starts at Home
- At June 01, 2011
- By Staff
- In Conversation, Inspiration
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I have been selling art for over 20-years now and one of the most common questions I”ve received is “What should I buy that will increase in value?” To which I always reply “Something you really like.”
One type of art I personally enjoy framing is children”s art. Whenever you frame-up your child”s art it undoubtedly makes a child feel important.
The above is a piece of art my daughter created in school. I cut out red core, mat board along plus a set of hearts in the corner. It makes such a great piece to put up around Valentines Days. What mom wouldn’t love to unwrap something like this?
Stack O’ Mats
- At November 12, 2010
- By Staff
- In Conversation
0
This weekend we needed a stack of mats for one of our wholesale customers. He places these mats on each of his images that he sells. Over the years he found that placing a mat around each image gave it a finished feel and aided his sales on the unframed items. Here we cut 300 mats. Which are then double matted to produce 150 finished mats of each color. Cutting can get pretty repetitious but it’s also nice to see how much one can produce in a short time.