Part-time store front

[Dancinbaer]

Anyone out there in framer land operate a store front shop on a part-time bases while still holding down a full time job? graemlins/faintthud.gif

[framinzfun]

Yes. I am in the process of opening my own shop. I have part-time hours at my shop, while still working about 30 hrs/wk at my other job. It is certainly not ideal, but until I get a grip on what I'm doing at my own shop, and start to build a clientele and get my name out, I still need to eat. I hope to be out of my other job by fall, but for the summer, at least, I will be pulling double duty.

Are you doing it now? Or planning on doing it?

[Patrick Leeland]

I have thought about his, but it seems crazy. My thought was to have Wednesday thru Saturday hours then have a job. Work all day Monday and Tuesday then a couple nights. I know it sounds odd, but I can't figure out a better way. I know it is better to have money saved up then do it full time. But sometimes opportunity comes and you got to recognize.

PL

[Dancinbaer]

Originally posted by framinzfun:

Are you doing it now? Or planning on doing it? An opportunity has presented itself. I'm thinking of doing it. I already have commited Monday and Thursday evenings to another part-time business I have. My schedule would be:
Days M-F 8:00AM to 4:30 PM - full time job
Mon & Thur Evening committed
Tue & Wed Evening 5 - 8 (9) Frame Shop
Saturday 10 - 3 Frame Shop
By appointment - Frame Shop

I've been framing out of my home for 4 years now so I have the basic equipment to do some work at home, i.e. cut mats or fitting.

Thanks for the comments. It's good to know I'm not the only one out there.

[Elaine]

Got to start somewhere, but be careful on overextending yourself and your time. I found that when I was working full-time and ramping up biz to go full time, my regular work and framing started to mix (people leaving things on my desk at my day job) As things ramped up, I didn't have enough hours to complete orders in a timely manner (I was working from my basement).

If you have limited "open" hours, you will find that you may spend all of that time designing and taking orders and not completing orders and then you will need "extra" hours to complet the work in a timely manner and not peeve customers off.

Its a delicate balance, and it can help but also hinder - just recognize the warning signs and adjust accordingly. You may find that you will ramp up faster on the frame front than you think. I know I did!

my 2 cents

Elaine

[Patrick Leeland]

Elaine good comments.

Denny Tuesday and Wednesday from 5-8...these are hard hours. Most people dont think of a frame shop open at those hours. Many folks on here have said they have tried the later hours with not much success. If these are going to be fixed hours you are going to have to work hard to make sure customers and potential customers know what they are.

I also think you are going to have to cut back and make things simpler. Getting all moulding in chops and possible joins. It does not seem like you will have enough time to cut, join, and assemble. I think you will eventually have to choose with all of these jobs which are more important. If you can only dedicate a little time to each then you will not see any of them succeed.

PL

[BUDDY]

Dancinbaer ;
I am not doing this now. ( infact I am not open any longer) But there was a time when I first opened that I did do something very similar.

The largest differance was that I did have the help of my wife. You could do the same or hire some one to open and take orders in her place.

I would come in on my off days from working shift work at an Oil refinery and do the actual framing. My wife would open the shop daily and take orders and design ( sometimes differing to my suggestions) while running a retail needlework portion of the shop.

Some of the down sides where that I often would have to stay late to catch up and to take advantge of the free time I had. The refinery could not only work me over night ( sleep was a problem) but I was subject to overtime and callins,so I had to get the work done while I was there.

Still another problem was that the refinery being a 24 /7 operation I some times was scheduled to work Holidays( includeing CHRISTMAS)which could make the rush even more difficult.

This points out that you will often have to split your loyalty and chose prorities ,while hoping that customers understand and are willing to be patient.

I will tell you that while I did it for a long time ,I did miss a lot of sleep and family gatherings and when I finally left the refinery things did get a lot less hecktic.And some times I did have to leave in the middle of the day and schedule completions around expected days off,which were subject to change.

The plus side was there was a steady check coming in and benifits .I had a wonderful WIFE who could cover for me when those things did occur.Otherwise customers will proably go to where they can get their work done quicker and on a more consistnat schedule. One of my competitors quickly caught on to that and used that very phrase in their adds.So your work had best be worth waiting for or you will need to be very efficent to keep on time.
BUDDY

[AnneL]

Denny, where is the store front located? Is it in an area where other businesses are open the same hours or will you be the only one open at that time? If you will be the only one open, it will be doubly hard to attract customers. If there are other businesses open, at least there will be people in the area shopping and more potential to attract business.

[Dancinbaer]

Originally posted by AnneL:
Denny, where is the store front located? Is it in an area where other businesses are open the same hours or will you be the only one open at that time? If you will be the only one open, it will be doubly hard to attract customers. If there are other businesses open, at least there will be people in the area shopping and more potential to attract business. The other businesses in the area that may be open are a couple bars and resturants. My full time job is two blocks away. Those hours would be summer hours. In my full time job I'm busy during the summer but slow down to almost nothing in the winter. I'm concidering approaching my employer with a plan to adjust my hours as work loads dictate. I.E. My job is slow around Christmas when framing usually picks up. I even gave some thought to being open Sunday mornings becouse there is a large church down the street. Customers could stop before or after church.

I know its a big step and all your comments raise new issues to consider, thanks again.

[Bandsaw]

I saw a sign in a store window a few years ago that said:

"If the door is unlocked and the lights are on I'm probably open, if not, I'm probably closed."

I couldn't resist going in and asking about the sign. The fellow said he had been self employed a long time and got to a point where he just came and went as he pleased - sort of semi-retirement. He said it worked well as the customers that mattered supported him. And he added that any customers that were annoyed could put it where the sun don't shine or words close to that.

Smart fellow - confident and brave enough to make it happen his way.

[joe]

I work at another job also. At a university library in the fall and spring I work 3pm-12 midnight. This makes it very hard to open the shop in the morning. This summer my hours have changed to 12 noon to 9pm. This severely limits my open hours for framing business. I could retire from the library but I am very afraid that a poor month could put me out of business.

The work never is done by the date I set. Every- one is very understanding, but I have lost jobs because of the time it takes. On the other hand I really believe that this business will never fully work until I devote all my time to it.The question is when do you jump?

If I were you I would give it a try; you have to try it.

[Val]

My predacessor often had "Be back later" signs on the door, or just locked up and left, sometimes for days, even though he had set business hours posted. He just had other interests, and this shop wasn't his top priority. The biggest complaint I've had from his customers, who are now mine, was that they couldn't count on the shop being open, and that it "took forever" to get their framing back.

I think as long as you're there when your signs say you are, it might not be a problem. I do know that it will take me a long time to get back the customers that he lost because of that, if I ever can.

[Maryann]

We had a frame shop fall in our lap about 10 years ago - it was an opportunity that we couldn't turn down. Decided to give it a shot but didn't want to give up our day jobs yet. Opened 6 PM thru 9 PM Tuesday thru Friday and all day Saturday. Found we were very busy. Had a turnaround of about 2 weeks. We did that for about six years. After Bob got his MCPF, he left his job/benefits/retirement plan and went full time in the shop. After about a year, he was offered his dream job - technical director at a Performing Arts Center. So once again, the frame shop went part time since I wasn't ready to leave my position at a University - good pay, benefits, etc. We hired part time help and opened all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Our customers adjusted to our hours but we found we were working seven days a week. Something had to give. In April, I quit my job. We are now open 7 days a week with part time help.(I work 5 days). The incoming jobs are not significantly different from being open three days a week. So I guess what I'm implying is that if you do good work, your customers will adjust to your hours. I imagine that we lost some things to M or other framers because of our hours, but I don't think it was significant. (I'll really never know).

We are in a retail space in downtown. One of the comments that we heard over and over is that we were the "only shop that they shopped at in downtown Shippensburg". Seems that most of our customers work 9 - 5 jobs. Our evening hours suited them.

A few things that I think made a difference in our success:

We had just emptied our nest - our kids were off to college so we had the extra time to devote to the shop.

There were two of us in the venture. I don't think that either of us could have done it on our own.

We treated it as a business, not a hobby. The hours that were posted, we were there.

Joined the PPFA.

Took many business classes at trade shows.

I'm sure that this is not the recommended way to open a frame shop, but it can work. Just be prepared for giving up your leisure time.....ALL your leisure time.

[imaluma]

Eat healthy, take vitamins, wear GOOD shoes, and try to get into yoga at least once a week. Those kinds of hours are a cinch... unless you have very small children.

I worked two jobs for several years before I started procreating. I usually would work from 60-70 hours a week with no problem.

Oh yeah, drink LOTS of water!!!!

good luck and enjoy the adventure, you never know if you don't try!

[AnneL]

Originally posted by imaluma:
Those kinds of hours are a cinch... unless you have very small children. I'm pretty sure Denny is past the stage in his life were he has small children of his own. Grandkids, maybe, but you can send them back to their parents when your done having fun with them. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

[Dancinbaer]

Originally posted by AnneL:
I'm pretty sure Denny is past the stage in his life were he has small children of his own. Grandkids, maybe, but you can send them back to their parents when your done having fun with them. graemlins/thumbsup.gif You are correct Anne, one granddaughter just turned 5 July 2.

Another question on part-time hours. Does LJ do business with PT Store Fronts? If my hours were 5 - 8 Tue & Wed and 9 - 1 Sat. Should I rely on other moulding supplers?

[Bob Carter]

I think you have two insurmountable problems with those hours: Customers and deliveries

[Dancinbaer]

Originally posted by Bob Carter:
I think you have two insurmountable problems with those hours: Customers and deliveries Customers: The owner noticed when he worked late, early evening, he had nearly as many customers as during "normal" hours.

Deliveries: The shop was closed on Mondays - delivery day. The driver would leave the items at the front door. The owner would stop in later that day to put them inside.

[Patrick Leeland]

The driver would leave the items at the front door.

I got to tell you this means that at some point the company is going to eat what they delivered. Many companies will not do this, if it rains, someone gets noisy, wind, too many issues that are built into this situation. If there is something wrong-chipped frme, bent mat, then it is easy for the company to say-man we got to leave it outside, who knows what happened after we left?

Get a new company that you can either pick up from or the delivery works better.Then again when your days chain...they will, then new company, this is a loose loose thing

PL

[AnneL]

Is there another shop in the area that you are friend's with that will receive your deliveries for you?

[Dancinbaer]

Originally posted by AnneL:
Is there another shop in the area that you are friend's with that will receive your deliveries for you? Nope.....

The previous owner had this arrangement for the 2-1/2 years he was open without any problems.

[AnneL]

Doesn't even have to be a frame shop. The t-shirt shop next to us will take things in if we aren't there.