FrameWorks was launched in 1989, when Christine Sweeny moved to Miami and opened a frame shop in the heart of Coconut Grove called Kennedy Studios. In1995, Sweeny rebranded the business as FrameWorks, moving her retail location to its current corner on Commodore Plaza. Claire Lardner became an equal partner and owner in the business in 1996, bringing her successful career as an attorney to the partnership. Over the years, Sweeny and Lardner have continued to invest in FrameWorks’s evolution with cutting-edge technology and equipment, constantly working towards upward growth and expansion.

When FrameWorks began, Sweeny operated the business solo. Today, the company employs 22 people, many of whom have been with the company for over 15 years and live in the local community, and has two locations. FrameWorks installs artwork worldwide, from Spain and Italy to Turks and Caicos, Hawaii, the Bahamas, and other Caribbean islands.

FrameWorks is committed to providing superior customer service, offering competitive industry pricing, and staying on top of business trends. This pursuit and consistent delivery of excellence has resulted in the retention of clients over many years. Both Sweeny and Lardner have achieved the prestigious industry designation of Certified Picture Framer, awarded by the Professional Picture Framing Association. Less than five percent of all picture framers in the country hold this designation. Their commitment to continued personal development in their chosen trade has allowed them to have consistent growth over the past two decades.

FrameWorks serves two sectors: residential and hospitality. The residential clientele is made up of local residents from around South Florida who come to the retail store for picture framing and art services. FrameWorks is proud of its reputation in the South Florida community for not only the exemplary art and framing services it provides, but also for its constant and continued support of local charities, community events, and school art programs.

The hospitality sector requires working with developers, business owners, interior designers, and architects who are in need of art and framing services. Clients from this sector include cruise lines, hotels, timeshares, and office buildings.

The industry standards for artwork in the hospitality industry in 1996 were prints and posters from catalogs. FrameWorks saw an opportunity to provide custom imagery at a fraction of the price. Sweeny and Lardner purchased their first wide-format printer in 1999 and began providing alternatives to the industry standards. This offered an additional revenue stream for FrameWorks and continued to distinguish the company as a leader in the industry. Today, FrameWorks offers wide-format printing services with four printers, cutting-edge software, and alternative, innovative substrates for printing and framing.

FrameWorks has seen continual growth over the years. Sweeny and Lardner acquired additional manufacturing and storage space in 2000 to accommodate large-volume production and meet all of the company’s crating, shipping, and export needs. In 2009, they opened a second retail location in the heart of the Bird Road Art District that provides retail art and framing services and houses large-format printers for servicing wholesale clientele.

Given FrameWorks’s continued growth and its proven stability of core sales, Sweeny and Lardner have cemented their retail presence by purchasing their original retail headquarters property on Commodore Plaza. The co-owners see the acquisition as a crowning achievement that will convert rental payments into on-going investments of commercial property, offer FrameWorks control over its physical plant and streetscape appearance, give Sweeny and Lardner a solid earnings stream, and act as a valuable asset to rely on for value accumulation and leveragability. Sweeny and Lardner are excited about the growth and potential of FrameWorks in the years to come.

Services include:

• Art consulting
• Printing services on multiple materials
• Banners
• Artwork
• Signage
• Picture and mirror framing installation

Client list includes:

• Hospitality Purveyors (Sandals and Beaches)
• Coconut Grove Arts Festival
• Atlantic Purchasing, Hotel Properties in North America
• Interspace Design, Coconut Grove
• Gansevoort, Turks & Caicos
• International Design Concepts, Jumby Bay, Antigua Summer Bay, Orlando
• The James Hotel, Miami Beach
• The Benjamin Hotel, NYC
• 1 Hotel, Miami Beach
• Carnival Cruise Lines
• Norwegian Cruise Lines
• Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines
• Pullmantur Cruises

Website: www.frameworksmiami.com

The post Gallery Spotlight on FrameWorks Miami appeared first on Art Business News.

In the past decade, the art and framing industry has faced a number of significant challenges. It has experienced the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the crash of the housing market, and the proliferation of big-box craft stores.

All of these factors have affected the sales and profitability of small independent frame shops and galleries. Yet, through ingenuity and perseverance, they’ve managed to survive, and art and framing sales are now experiencing a resurgence in sales. This situation is especially true for independent framers, who are starting to gain market share as more and more consumers recognize that 70 percent off a grossly inflated price is not such a great deal for a frame design showing a lack of professional design skills.

Just as handing someone a paint set doesn’t make them an artist, giving someone a title and showing them how to use a cash register doesn’t suddenly endow them with the skills they need to be a professional frame designer. It’s taken years, but consumers have finally begun to recognize that the real value of custom framing is in the enduring beauty of the results, not in the inexpensive frames they see in newspaper ads. The industry today is smarter, bolder, and more profitable than it has been at any other time in the past decade. However, despite this increase in prosperity, framers have yet to overcome one obstacle: the widespread, misguided, and illogical placement of flat-screen televisions on walls, instead of in entertainment centers or on furniture. This trend in consumer behavior has caused the framing market to shrink, robbed it of millions of sales opportunities, and generated a tremendous amount of human pain and suffering.

Despite its widespread and devastating consequences to art and framing merchants and to consumers, the problem has gone mostly unnoticed and almost completely ignored, and it has grown to pandemic proportions. And it’s got me hoppin’ mad.

Flat screens have taken over valuable vertical real estate that was once the domain of artists, photographers, and framers. Paintings, prints, photographs, needlework, and lots of frames—your frames and my frames—belong on walls. What does not belong on walls are rectangular black holes of nothingness.

And it’s all the Jetsons’ fault—George, Jane, Judy, and even little Elroy. They started it. They were the first perpetrators of this mess. They’re the ones who made us yearn for the advent of wall-mounted TVs. And now we’ve got ’em. But the Jetsons were wrong.

TVs do not belong on walls. They surely don’t belong in the corner near a ceiling. And they have absolutely no business being mounted above a fireplace. Just because your customers can mount their Samsungs and Vizios on their walls doesn’t mean they should. In fact, mounting a TV on a wall isn’t just a bad idea from the perspective of a custom framer, it’s also a bad idea for your health.

Historically, as you may recall, people placed TVs at eye level. Because most people watch television from a seated position, TVs were once much closer to the floor. This placement provided a viewing experience similar to what one enjoys when sitting in the center of a movie theater.

Earlier generations of TVs were in their own cabinets or consoles; placed on stands; or tucked into entertainment centers, which have doors to hide the rectangular black hole when it is not in use. Today’s TVs are much lighter and flatter than those of yesteryear. They rarely exceed a thickness of more than 5 to 6 inches, making wall mounting possible.

But almost every wall-mounted TV is positioned much higher on the wall than is optimal for comfortable viewing from a sofa or an easy chair. These viewing angles can produce stiff necks, sore shoulders, and aching backs. If you don’t believe it, ask a chiropractor. Most will tell you that wallmounted TVs are great for their business.

Any adult who has ever had the unfortunate experience of sitting in the first few rows of a movie theater should know better than to mount a TV so high up on a wall. Sure, it was cool to sit in the front row of the theater when you were 10 years old, but no adult ever willingly sits that close to the screen. Long before the movie is over, your neck is certain to feel like a PEZ dispenser locked in the tilted-back position.

Wall-mounted TVs rob custom framers of potential sales, and they need to do something about it. They need to take back what belongs to them.

Unfortunately, this trend is not likely to go away anytime soon, and there’s little framers can do about it. However, you might consider educating your customers by providing literature about the potential health problems—and letting them know why they don’t want to emulate the Jetsons.

The post Why I Hate George Jetson | The Guerrilla Framer appeared first on Art Business News.

Framers are always looking for ways to increase profits. They’ll try just about any advertising idea, even having their logo emblazoned on placemats at the local diner, cash-register tapes and bowling score sheets. They’ll squeeze suppliers for discounts; I’m guilty of this one. They’ll walk around their shops switching off lights to save a few pennies. However, one of the easiest ways to increase profits is by analyzing the markups on the materials that go into a custom-framing order and begin placing more emphasis on those that offer the best profit margins. This business concept certainly isn’t new; in fact, businesses in every industry focus their sales efforts on their most profitable items. Supermarkets place their moneymakers at eye level on store shelves; Chevy and Ford advertise their pickup trucks more frequently than they do their cars. Why shouldn’t framers do the same?

Many framers put most of their effort into selling low-margin products while ignoring more profitable items. Consider the major components that go into a typical custom-framing order and explore how to dramatically increase profits by shifting emphasis to selling products that are better for the bottom line. You can achieve these goals and give your framing more visual bang for the buck.

MATS

I consider mats—not frames—to be the foundation of custom framing and the center of the custom-framing universe. Consumers can buy some fairly nice frames in a number of places, including art supply stores, online sources and even some general retail stores, such as Target. These frames are not as nice as the ones consumers can purchase from custom framers, but they are certainly adequate for many buyers. Custom matting, on the other hand, tends to be the exclusive domain of the custom framer. Mats add beauty, create visual depth and enable the framer to control color and space. Most important, mats are among the keys to your profit picture, producing both direct and, more importantly, indirect income. When it comes to direct profit, mats are the kings of markup, when you calculate on a percentage basis. I discovered that a $5 sheet of matboard can produce more than $100 in retail sales. I proved this fact by doing an experiment under controlled conditions, and, admittedly, it required cutting concentric openings in the mat. Although this approach is great for making a mobile to hang in a child’s bedroom, it doesn’t represent the typical yield. However, even if you get only $50 worth of sales at from a $5 mat board, you’d probably be pretty happy.
When it comes to mats, however, the indirect profit has the greatest effect on both your sale and your profit, and that effect can be huge. Simply including a mat in a custom-framing order may increase your sale by as much as 35 to 45 percent. When you place a mat around a piece of artwork, you’re no longer framing the piece; you’re framing the mat. So, in addition to the price of the mat, the order now requires a larger frame, a larger mounting board and a larger piece of glass, all of which add to the total sale. For proof, try this experiment. Using a 24-by-36-inch print, a frame of your choice and your default glass type, price out the order without a mat. Then, add a single mat and once again price out the order. You should find a substantial increase in your sale. That mat can also produce additional profit by leading the way for add-ons, such as additional mats and upgrades to conservation-quality mats and fabric mats. But why stop there? Mats also open the door to fillets, decorative cuts and other embellishments. One of the best things about selling mats is that, while you’re increasing your profit margin, you’re also improving customer satisfaction. Mats provide great visual bang for the buck, and they put the “custom” in custom framing. And because the benefits of mats are readily apparent, they’re an easy sell, as long as you begin the design process with mats. For obvious reasons, it’s almost impossible to sell a mat after you’ve quoted a price without one.

FRAMES

Mouldings will typically have varying markups, with lower-priced units typically receiving a higher percentage markup than more expensive mouldings. Because the frame is the most expensive component in most framing orders, frames account for both the largest cost of materials and the largest portion of each sale—but not always the most profit. To illustrate this concept, compare two design options for a piece of artwork. The first design includes a nice high-end frame but has no mats—only a frame and your default glass choice—and prices out at $400. The second design includes a frame that’s neither as nice nor as expensive as the first. However, this option includes a double mat and the same type of glass you chose for the first design. This order also prices out at $400. On the surface, both designs may appear to produce similar profit margins, but not all $400 sales are equal. The order with mats and a lower-priced frame probably generates a significantly greater profit.

GLASS

Glass is the last major component that goes into most framing orders. I believe that many framers err when it comes to choosing their default glass. I recommend that your go-to choice for glass should be the lowest-price option you can offer: standard, reflective picture glass—the cheap stuff. I know that many framers do not use this glass as their default choice. It’s in your and your customers’ best interest to offer premium glass products as options, not the default, however, because a large portion of the public sees custom framing as expensive, and many see it as too expensive. By forcing the customer to buy a premium glass product, you’re adding to that perception. Furthermore, most of your customers have set a limit to the amount of money they’ll spend to frame an item. A vendor who offers a variety of choices almost always offers better but more expensive materials as options rather than forcing them upon the customers. This approach lets the seller keep
the base price more affordable and leaves an upgrade path in place. It makes sense for framers to take this approach, too. Another thing to consider is that standard picture glass provides an attractive markup percentage that is second only to mats. Standard glass produces a healthy profit for you and is a budget-friendly option for the customer. Premium glass products, on the other hand, are more expensive, typically produce significantly lower margins and take a bigger slice from your customer’s budget. You should continue to sell these products when appropriate, but you should offer them as options.

One final point is that framing components fall into one of two categories: those that enhance your designs by providing visual benefits and those that provide protection. Upgrades to archival products and all glass products typically provide protection. Buying them is somewhat like buying insurance. Not everyone wants to buy insurance, but it should be available for those who do. Customers should be the ones who make the choice. Analyze some of your recent sales to see whether you might be able to increase profits—and improve customer satisfaction—by changing sales emphasis. A few simple changes could provide a big improvement in your profit picture.

Paul Cascio is the lead instructor for The American Picture Framing Academy.
Cascio also provides business and sales training and consulting.

The post Mind Your Margins – More Profit for Happier Customers appeared first on Art Business News.

By Tara Crichton

I love when people stop to look in my store’s front window. The longer they stay, the happier I am. Even better is when they come into the store because they just had to see what else was inside. It means my window is doing its job.

Put Your Personality Up Front
My front window is the face of my business that customers see from the street. Once a customer comes inside, I am the face of my business. I’m lucky that people consider picture framing artsy, so I can be quirky in my personal appearance; it only adds to my credibility. In an art business such as picture framing, people will judge you by all the artistic choices they observe in your business decor, advertising, promotion and personal presentation.

This revelation shouldn’t surprise you. Hairdressers must have good hair; if they charge top dollar, they had better have great hair. Everything that customers sense when they enter your space paints a picture in their minds of who you are and what they can expect of your product. What does the art on display in your store have to say about you? Does it look as though you have only one or two frame mouldings to sell? Does it look as though you haven’t framed anything new since the ’90s? Does your space have a bad smell? Is your store dirty or messy? If a customer notices any or all of these things, your business won’t grow and be successful.

Good picture framing is by its nature expensive, and the environment for selling expensive things needs to be inspiring. The exact method of inspiration differs for everyone.

Create Intrigue with Eclectic Accents
My store is eclectic. I’ve branched out into various modes of artistic expression through sculptures, interesting home decor, vintage frames and salvage. For me, anything that’s beautiful and unique is fair game. Oddly enough, there is a strange continuity in the store’s decor, which was completely unintentional. It works for my location and for the customers I want to attract.

One of the most successful picture-framing businesses I know has achieved its success by cultivating its own unique clientele. The business has two small locations in affluent areas of Toronto. When I say small, I mean SMALL. One has dimensions of approximately 10 by 10 feet with basement space for assembly. The other location is twice that size and has a front gallery space. Both locations dedicate 90 percent of their wall space to frame samples. But you won’t find the same frame samples you see at every other frame shop. The business derives its success from being a maverick of the framing world. The owners frame big and spectacular. Its personal presentation and the framing that the business produces have a rock-star vibe, which would-be imitators cannot copy. Customers go to these shops when they have money to spend and they want a piece of that magic for themselves.

Look at your location and decide what kind of customers you want. You can’t have everyone. Give up on that idea right away. If you cheapen your materials and workmanship to appeal to bargain hunters, then bargain hunters will become your clientele. This business strategy works only if the quantity of resulting work is so great that you can still make a profit.

Curate Your Collection
An ambitious picture framer is a curator. You should carefully choose everything that goes into your framing to reflect your artistic sensibility and the quality end product you will produce. Do you really need 100 frames with a black finish? Do you have frames from various companies that are indistinguishable from each other? Choose which ones you actually want to sell and the profiles that will give you the greatest range of finished products.

I am the worst person to advise against frame-sample hording. When I was working as a showroom manager for a national frame importer, I had more than 900 frame samples to work with. Yet, I still missed some of my favorite mouldings from the competition. This mentality does me no favors. It just ends up muddying the waters for my customers and cutting into my bottom line. I have now streamlined my business model with the mouldings I’ve chosen to be my mainstays and the unique, exciting lines that spice up the presentation.

I’ve been disappointed with most of the new moulding lines that have come out lately. They are so depressingly “safe”—that is, boring. I can’t get excited about brown frames. Instead, frames that look like iron fencing, complete with nail heads; frames that have traditional distressed silver beads and wood that looks like tortoiseshell; and frames of stained woods in Japanese red and ebony get my creative juices flowing.

Mats are the exception to the minimalist rule. I find that I really do need every sample out there. The mat companies have stepped up their game by producing new lines that fully optimize and expand the borders of picture framing—pun intended. Some customers would choose heavy jute overlay on gold leaf, pebbles or genuine gold and silver leaf as mat options. Apparently, the sky is the limit. I won’t use these mats every day, but as a person who has mounted gift paper onto matboard sheets to get just the right look, I applaud the innovative vision that led to their creation.

Use Your Creativity
I promote the frames and the framing techniques that comprise my vision through the framed art I display on my walls. Whenever possible, I frame original art that I acquire from local artists, university and college art sales and auctions. I carefully select decorative prints, as well. I creatively frame these gems in the best, most creative way according to their medium. I have so many options: floater frames; shadowbox frames; and mats with spacers, fillets, antireflective glass and linen mats. I do not randomly assemble these pieces as examples of framing technique. Instead, I frame each piece for the art, but I can refer to it as an example if a customer asks. The goal is to educate through inspiration. Customers first see how compelling the framed art is, and then they ask how you accomplished it.

The business you currently run is the business you have chosen. Every choice you have made about location, decor and frame suppliers has come together to create the face of your business. Ask yourself whether the face of your business is the one you want to show the world. It is completely under your control. If you build a business that shows the best that the industry offers, you will attract the customers who appreciate that quality. The universe rewards enterprises that you execute with passion and with a drive for excellence.

Tara Crichton has worked in the framing industry for more than 24 years and is a graduate of University of Guelph with a double major in fine arts. She has worked in every aspect of the framing industry, including retail, wholesale distribution, OEM and art direction. She now owns and operates a gallery just north of Toronto.

The post The Art of Framing: Put Your Best Face Forward with Your Storefront appeared first on Art Business News.

By Paul Cascio,The Guerrilla Framer

When I first joined the framing business more than 25 years ago, I had to advertise in the Yellow Pages directory. It was a necessary evil for anyone in a service business. The Yellow Pages directory was the Google of its day. There, consumers searched for services, such as plumbing, transmission repair and, yes, picture framing. The less frequently consumers needed a service, the more important it was that the company have a commanding presence in the Yellow Pages, the place where consumers let their “fingers do the walking.”

Local telephone companies published the Yellow Pages, and those companies enjoyed a virtual monopoly. Sure, there were other wannabe books, but they were, for the most part, worthless. If you wanted your phone to ring, you needed to have an ad in the Big Book, as the telephone company liked to call it.

According to your Yellow Pages sales rep, the bigger the ad, the better—especially if you also opted for the magic of red ink. Advertising in the Yellow Pages was expensive, and if the ad didn’t produce the results you wanted, you couldn’t modify it. If you didn’t pay, you would lose your telephone service.

My first ad, a quarter-page masterpiece in the Hartford, Connecticut, directory more than 25 years ago, cost more than $600 a month, and it was a fixed expense for the term of its 12-month contract. The good old days turned out to be not so good.

Fortunately, the Yellow Pages directory is now mostly obsolete. Today, your prospective customers use search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, to seek out and compare service providers. Your Yellow Pages ad is now your website or, more specifically, the landing page of your website.

This month’s column examines ways to maximize the effectiveness and visibility of the first and most important page of your website, the landing or index page. It examines methods of improving search-engine optimization (SEO), or page ranking; avoiding common mistakes; and converting website visits into sales.

Improving SEO
Having a website is worthless if your prospective customers never see it. Your objective is to bring qualified traffic to your site. A high page rank with Google places your business at the top of the list when someone in your area conducts a search for the services you offer.

You shouldn’t worry about those potential customers who search broadly for “picture framing.” It’s OK if Google lists your site on page 372 of the results for such a broad search. The people doing those searches may as well be spitting into the ocean and will have to narrow their search criteria to get more useful information.

Your focus should be on the person whose search criteria includes additional keywords that identify your town, neighborhood, area code or zip code as a way of filtering the results. By focusing on localized searches, you can be the leader of the pack when it comes to search results.

Being at the top of the list of search results is ideal, but as long as your website appears in the upper portion of the first results page, or “above the fold,” to use a newspaper term, the user won’t have to scroll down the page to find you. I consider any listing above the fold to be a prime position.

Achieving Prime Position
It’s relatively easy to get prime position for localized searches. There are typically few frame shops in one part of any town or zip code. The key to success is to include searchable information, such as the neighborhood, town, zip code and area code in as many places on your website as possible and to include that information in the metatags—the behind-the-scenes info that search engines often use to decide page rankings.

Always include this information in your website:

– Title. Use a long title that includes lots of searchable information as part of the metadata.
– Description. The page description is important not only because it enhances your page rank, but also because the first few lines of the description often appear in the search result. You can use it to convince prospects to visit your site.
– Keywords. Keep in mind that using too many keywords could actually hurt your page rank. Google’s ranking system is a well-kept secret, and the company periodically changes it. Conventional wisdom suggests limiting the number of keywords to a maximum of six to 10. Separate keywords by commas, and the keywords should include your company’s general location and the words “picture framing,” “custom” and “art.”
– Header. Work your location info into the headline of your website; for example, use a header such as “Orange Park’s Favorite Picture Framer.”
– Body. Include as much searchable info as possible in the body text.
– Image Names. Consider renaming images to include your zip code or town name.
– Alternative Text. Use alternative text for situations in which the image is unavailable to readers—either because they have turned off “images” in their web browser or because they are using a screen reader due to visual impairment. Providing an alternative allows all users to access the same information, even if they cannot see an image. Some web browsers show the alternative text when the mouse cursor hovers over an image. As a side benefit, alternative text may enhance page rank for the searchable terms that identify your location.

Although it’s impossible to know exactly how Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines determine page rank, include information that identifies your location in as many places as possible. This approach gives you the best chance of achieving a high ranking whenever someone conducts a local search. After you maximize your chances of attracting prospects to your website, the next step is to focus on what to do with them once they’re there.

Primary Objective
The main objective of your website is to produce sales. However, if your business is a retail store or home-based business, you’re probably not directly selling products or services from your website. Therefore, the goal of your website should be to get customers into your store or to call you.

Unfortunately, most framing websites don’t achieve these goals. Most landing pages are nothing more than electronic business cards. With a bit of effort, however, you can make your site into an engine that repeatedly produces new customers and generates sales.

The key is to design your landing page as if it were a Yellow Pages ad. Despite being just keystrokes away from the competition, your landing page must convince visitors to end the search and choose you. And you want them to consummate the decision with a telephone call, which will give you an opportunity to get a verbal commitment for a face-to-face meeting.

Where Are You? How Do You Get There?
A good Yellow Pages ad included not only an address but also, when necessary, a map. The landing page of your website should include a map and written directions or a link to a Google Maps or MapQuest page with your location prelisted as the destination. Placing this information prominently on your landing page can help bring prospects directly to your store. A photo of the exterior of your store can also be a helpful navigational aid.

Next, make it visual. Picture framing is a visual business, yet many framers have a website that primarily includes only text—which is neither visual nor appealing.

A one-page website that looks professional and inviting is all you need to capture prospects. Later, you can add more content to your site. It’s a good idea to offer useful information, such as picture-hanging tips. However, the landing page makes the all-important first impression. Make sure it looks good before you spend time adding more pages.

Don’t Derail the Sale
The Google search that brings prospective buyers to your website also provides easy access to most, if not all, of your competitors, which invites comparison shopping. Naturally, it’s in your best interest if the shopping ends with a visit to your website.

Encouraging a phone call offers the most consistently valuable outcome, and it’s what you should strive for. A phone call does what a web page can’t: It creates a personalized experience. A phone conversation gives you a chance to build a rapport with your new prospect and an opportunity to separate yourself from the competition. It also allows you to answer questions and address your caller’s concerns.

If you effectively handle the call, your prospects will no longer feel the need to call other framers. Their search ends with you and with a promise to ask for you by name when they arrive at your store. Because of this rapport, you almost ensure a sale even before you end the call. When you actually meet your prospect, both of you will feel more at ease because you’re already familiar with one another.

Without that telephone conversation, distractions and nearby competitors can prevent even a well-intentioned prospect from arriving at your store. There’s no reason to rely only on the power of what visitors see and read on your website. A telephone conversation personalizes the experience and strengthens the prospect’s desire to do business with you and only you. Near the end of the conversation, be sure to ask, “Can you come in now?” Confirm an appointment, and you’re almost certain to make a sale.

Make the Phone Ring
Encourage customers to call by prominently placing your phone number in large type near the top of the page. Include some inviting words of encouragement, such as, “Call us with questions.” Consider displaying your number as an image rather than text. This approach can help reduce the number of telemarketer calls you receive.

Consider adding a call-me button, which immediately connects you to the prospect’s phone. A number of companies provide this service for a fee, but Google Voice users can get it free with Google’s Call Me widget. When a visitor to your site clicks on the call-me button, Google immediately calls both your phone and the visitor’s. In just seconds, you’re connected, giving you a chance to turn a website visitor into a customer.

Don’t use your website as just a business card; turn it into a sales engine with the techniques and strategies that made Yellow Page ads effective. Exploit these techniques and you’ll find that the next time that prospects let their fingers do the walking, there’s a good chance that walk will end with you.

Paul Cascio, aka The Guerrilla Framer, is director of the American Picture Framing Academy (pictureframingschool.com), where he conducts training workshops and seminars for new and established framers. Contact Cascio at pdc@pictureframing school.com.

The post The Guerrilla Framer: Turn Your Website into a Sales Engine appeared first on Art Business News.

By Paul Cascio

The framing and art industry has undergone a number of changes in recent years. Some of these were by design, while others were forced. Many were positive, perhaps even revolutionary, including innovations in technology. Most were evolutionary, brought on by the ever-growing power of the Internet. Yet other changes, like the proliferation of chain stores, have been a scourge for the many small businesses that, even today, form the majority of our industry.

One thing is for certain—it’s still a jungle out there. But it’s a different jungle. Today’s successful frameshop and gallery owners are a new and different breed from those who ruled the industry back in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. Today’s owners are smarter, focused on increasing market share and profitability, and have more business savvy. They enjoy making money at least as much as they enjoy making frames.

The industry is attracting a new generation of entrepreneurs who have been successful in other careers. They’re aggressive marketers and promoters who may be competitive by nature. Unlike framers of old, they refuse to hide their head in the sand but instead choose to stand up to bullies and, in some cases, beat them at their own game. They know who the competition is, and they’re going after them.

They’re guerrillas.

They recognize that potential new customers shop at big box stores. And that’s exactly who they aim for. In this column, you’ll learn how they do it, and how you can do it, too.

Of course, not all successful framers operate from a storefront, and not all art dealers are found in galleries. Our industry is full of creative, enterprising and in many cases, highly successful individuals and couples who enjoy the benefits of operating from home.

Long forgotten by the trade press and often shunned by mainstream retailers, Homies comprise a huge portion of our industry. In fact, it’s been estimated that more than half of all business owners in our industry got their start working from their basement, attic or garage. This silent and under-appreciated group knows it takes a special set of skills and its own set of unique strategies to succeed as a “homie.”

But something we must all come to terms with: someday we will all retire. And this means we will likely become a homie. A home-based framing business is low risk, enjoys low overhead and can provide a very attractive retirement income in a way that’s neither stressful nor physically demanding.

Well, now that you have an idea of what the Guerrilla Framer column is all about—making money—let me warn you about what you won’t find here. You won’t learn how to cut fancy mats. You won’t learn how to join corners seamlessly or mount a bowling ball with wheat starch paste. And you won’t be told how to remove spots from anything. It’s not that I couldn’t share a few ideas on those subjects, because after all, I am framer, and with all proper modesty, a pretty good one.

Actually, I’m only a pretty good framer for a maximum of about two hours. That’s because, although I’ve never been formally diagnosed, I am certain I have Attention Deficit Disorder. In fact, I had it before it was fashionable and before it even had a name. After two hours of framing, or anything else for that matter, I have what I refer to as “The Midas Touch.” Everything I touch from that point on turns into a muffler.

So while there are many awesome framers who would love to share their technical prowess, I’ll just limit this column to trying to help you take your business to a new level of success and your enjoyment of owning a business to a new place of happiness. So, thanks for reading and I hope you’ll look for this column in the next issue. That’s when the real fun begins.

Paul Cascio is director and lead instructor of The American Picture Framing Academy at pictureframingschool.com.

The post The Guerrilla Framer appeared first on Art Business News.

As framers, our framing design habits tend to be influenced by various trends that crop up in the world of art and decor. Sometimes you have a favorite frame profile for a long time, but then eventually you eventually drop it from your repertoire. We all have that group of corner samples that’s worn from constant use and relegated to the lower corner of the sample wall. We just stop seeing them as we once did.

Seeing Old Frames in a New Light
Sometimes it’s to pick up samples that you haven’t used in a long time and reacquaint yourself with them, almost like you might with an old friend. With a little attention, you might start to see the design in a new light. And perhaps those frames you lost interest in will be worth rediscovering and falling in love with all over again.

In this regular column, Attention to Detail, we are going to focus on various details of frame design. Each month we will select a design detail for close examination. We’ll start with a quick look at its history and origins. Then take a look at how we’ve used that design over the years, as well as what the market currently has to offer. By examining frame design details that we are already familiar with, we can gain an expanded perspective and refreshed appreciation of them.

Why pay attention to trends that are not currently popular? After all, trends come and go and what looked good ten years ago may seem tired-looking and overused right now. But give it another two years and it could become fresh and new all over again.

What Goes Around Comes Around
Staying in touch with an array of design details, regardless of their popularity, keeps us a strong player in the design game. Consider two such trends—the flat square profile and the ornate frame. At one point not too long ago, the flat profile was considered by some framers as somewhat of a compromise and a selection for the customer that couldn’t make up their mind or the customer that was afraid of picking something that had “too much style.” So they would default to something that was safe and easy which often meant the flat profile.

But is simplicity always a compromise? Fast forward to 2012 and the situation was a bit different. When you opened an interior design magazine you saw almost nothing but flat square profiles, usually in white. Demand for flat frames increased in some markets to be a considerable percentage of sales. Some framers became frustrated at the lack of variety in the trend. But then change cropped up again. Open an interior design magazine this year, in 2014, and you will often see a single, highly ornate, eye-popping frame as the centerpiece of a room.

Ornate Influences
Why so ornate in 2014? Right now, Victorian clip art in the graphic art and printmaking fields is stirring interest in designs from the Industrial Age and the Victorian Era. As well, major museums are getting a fair amount of media coverage around the restoration of important paintings to be displayed in their original large-scale and extremely ornate frames. Simply put: people are being conditioned to like ornate frames once again. The domination of the market by the ornate frame may not be here today, but it could be on its way and soon. Are you ready? How familiar are you familiar with your design details?

As framers we know what we like about a particular frame. However what makes the framing customer pick a certain frame? Every frame has a range of elements and details that collectively make the profile what it is. In the eyes of the consumer there is often just one prominent feature that is foremost in its appeal and influences their choice of that profile. In reality, though, there may a dozen or more elements in the design that contribute to the success of that choice and to the pleasure in viewing the finished work.

Giving Frame Details Their Moment in the Spotlight
Its overall impression is the combined presentation—the shape, finish, width, ornament, proportions, patina, etc. These are all so important, even if they are more subtle or in the background. It’s like when you go to see a musician perform. They are the one in the spotlight and reason that you to bought a ticket, but what about the band? There are the drummer, keyboardist and the bass player. While not always in the spotlight, the band members certainly add to the experience and are a big part of why you enjoyed the entire performance. Fortunately, at some point during the performance, each member gets a chance to do a solo, taking the spotlight for the moment and showing us what they can do. In this column we are going to give each of the design details that make up a frame their deserved attention by giving them a solo, their moment in the spotlight.

Consider each of these articles as the start of a great conversation about design. And by all means, feel free to chime in and offer your own perspective. Share pictures of your work as an example of the design detail being considered. Tell us your favorite moulding in this design category. Is there a discontinued profile that you miss? Tell us what you liked best about it and someone might suggest a replacement option.

We have invited a wide variety of informed perspectives to our conversation in order to add depth to it. This includes the people that put the frames out into the world like the manufacturers, the custom frame shops and the frame makers. We will also get input from those who use frames in their own fields such as artists, interior designers, antique dealers, galleries and museums.
Ultimately, we hope each conversation will become an in-depth consideration of the design detail being featured and become a resource that you can turn to when in need of design inspiration and frame design confidence.

Eric Jarmann has been in the picture framing field since 1997 being the owner of John Haywood Gallery and of Eric Jarmann & Company. With background in retail management, gallery, photography, graphic design and restoration of old homes he brings a broad range of design and business skills to the picture framing industry. He is the in-house framer for Thornwillow Press and its boutiques located in the St. Regis Hotels. He also is founder of Newburgh Portfolio, a regional arts organization. He is active in social media and runs a blog about picture framing called All About the Frame. He can be reached at eric.jarmann@gmail.com.

The post Attention to Detail appeared first on Art Business News.

During interactions with framers in the past several years, speaker, trade writer and tri-location frameshop owner Ken Baur has noticed a growing need in the picture-framing industry.

“The amount of questions and uncertainty expressed by shop owners around the country is very high right now,” Baur says. “The economy is the major aspect, but framers also realize that the industry is evolving very rapidly into something different.”

Baur says he’s faced and overcome his fair share of challenges since he entered the framing industry 18 years ago as a custom framer at a Ben Franklin store and then later branched out on his own to found Framing Concepts Gallery in 2001. Now that he’s got a strong footing in running three locations of the business in northwest Indiana, Baur is working to help custom picture framers compete in a changing market through a full-service firm he recently launched—KB Consulting.

“KB Consulting is a new company dedicated to working with custom picture framing businesses to help them compete in this changing market,” Baur says. “KB Consulting concentrates on helping frame shops develop inexpensive, client-based programs that increase repeat business and referrals for new business.”

KB Consulting offers a full range of services, including marketing, designs for gallery layouts, pricing strategies for increasing profit, programs for improving customer service and advice on expanding framing services such as delivery, installation, off-site sales and corporate sales programs.

The company specializes in e-mail marketing programs that tie directly to company websites. These programs are based on promoting relationships with clients while offering incentives for referrals and repeat business, Baur says.

KB Consulting also will soon have the capability of providing websites specifically designed for custom framers that can easily be updated to reflect gallery activity.

“These sites also will offer versatile e-mail programs designed to bring activity to the sites,” Baur says. “The result is an increased ability to market directly to clients without the cost of direct mail.”

KB Consulting will offer full support and guidance for developing these Web sites into interactive marketing tools that build client relationships.

As far as Baur’s experience in this area, Framing Concepts Gallery recently won the Best Web Site Award category in DECOR’s 2009 Top Art & Framing Retailers Awards competition for the company’s exceptional online presence and ability to connect with customers digitally.

A portion of all KB Consulting proceeds will be donated to American Forests, a non-profit organization that works to protect, restore and enhance the natural capital of trees and forests.

For more information on 
KB Consulting, visit 
www.framingbusinessconsulting.com, 
or e-mail 
ken@framingbusinessconsulting.com.

The post From One Framer to Another: A Successful Store Owner Offers Assistance appeared first on Art Business News.

When Lisa Crabtree requested a mat cutter for Christmas some years ago, she had no idea the simple gift would lead to a dramatic upheaval in her life.

A longtime information technology specialist in the Houston area, Crabtree had installed software for companies throughout the world for nearly 25 years. Armed with this new tool, however, she began spending her free time on new projects, working in software by day and experimenting with custom picture framing by night.

What started as a hobby soon became a passionate interest, and by March 2006, Crabtree was in the framing business.

Crabtree worked from home for more than a year before opening Frames of Distinction in Spring, Texas. By 2007, interest in her skills had grown to the point that Crabtree could leave her day job. With her frame shop occupying her full attention, Crabtree was able to continue perfecting the skills she is so well known for in the Houston area: custom framing and engraving.

Today, custom framing comprises the majority of Crabtree’s business. With the local community as her primary market, she works with holiday and celebratory gifts as well as memorabilia, awards and certificates.

But, Crabtree’s work oftentimes does not stop there, as her shop offers a unique means to add a finishing touch: laser engraving. With this incredibly versatile technique, Crabtree can engrave nearly any material, from marble and glass to leather and wood, with inscriptions, symbols and even images.

Laser engraving opens the door to a myriad of options, but as Crabtree has observed, a little laser can go a long way.

There’s so much diversity to the service. You don’t have to do a whole lot to it’s just something very subtle, she says.

Sometimes subtlety is a necessity, as early summer’s flood of graduation and wedding gifts often call for simple, restrained elegance in the form of inscribed plaques and photographs.

Requests for laser engraving and framing are not limited to the expected annual holidays and events, though. On more than one occasion, creative customers have asked Crabtree to add her special touch to a number of unexpected objects.

When super slugger and second baseman of the Houston Astros Craig Biggio got his 3,000th hit in 2008, two of his teammates sprang for a special gift with local flavor.

They went to a gun shop in the Houston area and bought him an incredibly beautiful shotgun and brought it to my store to be engraved, Crabtree says. We did it in cooperation with the gunsmith.

Crabtree’s foray into unusual materials didn’t end with guns. She recently did engraving work on guitars, drumsticks and picks for California-based hard-rock band Buckcherry.

Buckcherry was doing a benefit for breast cancer, and they were donating engraved guitars for the cause, she says. They were definitely some of my more interesting clients.

In addition to rock stars, Crabtree’s client list has included industrial manufacturers who require laser markings on their stainless steel and anodized aluminum products. She has found, though, that familiarity with these materials can cross over to everyday consumers as well. For instance, on more than one occasion, Crabtree has engraved personal laptops with names.

Marble engravings are another one of Crabtree’s increasingly popular specialties. We engrave photographs on marble—something I love doing, she says. They turn out beautifully, and people really appreciate it.

Crabtree finds the effect of marble images particularly complements old photographs and mementos. In one instance, the engraved marble was as much an act of preservation as a tribute.

I once did an engraved photograph for parents of a police officer who was killed in the line of duty, Crabtree says.

Apart from these types of special, individual requests, Crabtree embraces charitable causes, as she’s contributed engraved items to raffles in the past.

Still, Crabtree enjoys the standard requests. One of her favorite projects in recent months has been commemorative items for local football and baseball teams. Because the items are made of wood and plastic, they have proven easier to work with.

Unusual materials have their downsides, Crabtree says. There are things that you get one shot at. We do a lot of guns—maybe because we’re in Texas. Glass is the same way because it’s fairly unpredictable.

Silicone wristbands from cyclist Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG phenomenon were another unique material to grace Crabtree’s shop. In the end, though, they proved to be more effort than they were worth.

You can engrave them, but for the amount of time you spend on them, they really don’t make any money, Crabtree says.

As Crabtree has expanded her offerings, she has learned to think critically about her materials and methods.

You have to think about the return on your investment, she says. I’ve done a lot of things that I thought were a great idea, but they turned out to be fruitless. Because the work itself is fairly time-consuming and expensive, you have to know what you’re getting into.

For Crabtree, familiarity with technology has been crucial to her success. When you’re starting out, you have to be good with computers, she says. You’re going to make mistakes, and knowing the system really helps.

Since she entered the custom framing world in 2006, Crabtree has done a number of things to publicize her services. Not all frame shops offer laser engraving, which means other framers are as much a part of Crabtree’s market as the individuals and organizations of the Houston area.

When advertising to frame shops, I make samples of engraved glass and matboards and just give them out, she says. I look at other custom frame shops as colleagues—people I can collaborate with.

There is no question that Crabtree’s unique laser engraving offerings have garnered a reputation. Although the majority of her custom-framing clients come from her local community of Spring, Texas, her engraving services bring customers from 35 to 40 miles away.

Ultimately, it really helps to have diversity in your offerings, she says.

Despite hard economic times, Crabtree’s business has had its share of successes. The framing requests have gone down, but the engraving has increased recently, she says. Last year, I was incredibly busy around Valentine’s Day, and framing was my big summer market. This year, I’ve had a rush of business for graduation, Mother’s Day and weddings.

Maintaining her unique services will benefit Crabtree, particularly if consumers continue to cut back on luxury purchases.

In this business, Crabtree says, it’s that little extra that goes a long way.

The post A Little Laser Goes A Long Way appeared first on Art Business News.

Each year, Finer Frames hosts a juried art competition in the spring to build name recognition and highlight the work of many talented local artists. Fifty area artists compete for $700 in cash and ribbons in watercolor, oil/acrylic painting and mixed media categories. Promotion for this event begins months in advance with press releases calling for artists, distributing posters at area art supply stores, and getting the event scheduled on art events calendars on television, radio and newspapers.

This annual event has been a tremendous success and has become my signature event. Entry fees cover all of the expenses and the media coverage is free. It’s so perfect that the only down side is the tremendous amount of effort (and room) that it requires, but I’m convinced it’s worth it.



Recruiting artists.
To attract area artists, I sent out a call to artists, arts groups and local media. I began by preparing a press release that contained all the basic information describing the media categories, prizes, show dates and location. I faxed the press release to arts editors of four area papers and the college paper as well. Arts groups like the Idaho Watercolor Society included the release in their monthly newsletter, which helped to recruit great competition in that category.

Judging the show.
The judge of the contest has changed every year. Each has had a professional art background and has given careful consideration to every entry. The first year, I made the mistake of asking three experts to judge the show. When the three couldn’t agree, I finally had to step in and choose some of the winners. I learned my lesson and invited a single judge the following years. The most passionate judge was an art professor from a nearby college. He really seemed to enjoy his role and spent hours critiquing each painting. Thus far, all have been willing to do this for free, although I do give them a nice thank you gift.



Awards.
The judge’s results are announced at a special awards presentation on the opening night of the show. Artists are encouraged to bring their family and friends and all are welcome to vote for the People’s Choice award. Winners in each category receive a cash prize and beautiful rosette ribbon, which accompanies their painting for the duration of the show. I serve complimentary wine and hors d’ovres for the partygoers. It is an exciting evening for the artists and for all those who attend.

Where to hang the ugly painting?
It has always been my intention to encourage new artists, but when it comes to displaying amateur artwork in questionable frames, I start to get a little concerned. The first year of the show, the entry fee was only $10. I learned the hard way that the price was too cheap to attract professional artists but low enough to catch the attention of anyone who had a whim to put paint to paper. The nicest people brought in the ugliest work.



Promoting the show.
From the very beginning, the local media was very interested in my effort to support the arts. The newspapers, radio and television were generous with their coverage (which, by the way, was completely free). This was community news: an event to get excited about and one with pretty pictures too. I faxed details about the event to the paper and sent them photos of a few paintings. The news release appeared in the papers with a color photo by its side.



Hard work pays off.
The generous amount of media attention helped to drive new customers into my store. Artists who were unfamiliar with my services brought me their business and introduced me to their own family and friends at the awards reception. They were so excited to have their work exhibited in a gallery that they eagerly told everyone they knew about the show. Attendance was good as supporters of the arts came out to see the paintings, and many patrons asked to be added to my mailing list. The exposure was tremendous. The event and its coverage cemented in my mind the reality that it’s not what a business says about itself that counts, it’s what others say that matters.

The post Meg on Marketing: Let’s Put on a Show appeared first on Art Business News.