Holiday business Progress Report

[Emibub]

I've had a lot of people ask how it is going. Well it ain't exactly "raining money" around here but sales have increased. Way more than last month and more than last year also.

1.I am finally getting people in to buy the "gifty" stuff.

2. The "Valpak" controversey will continue I'm sure. I started using them mid summer with decent results. I sent out coupons in September with three different companies and had zero business off of it. In fact I had decided to not use them again. One of the company's worked out a trade so I had no choice but to use them. The other company I flatly said no to because he wouldn't work with me. He then pulled one of those car salesmen tricks and said he would "check with the boss" and called me back five minutes later offering two zones for $400 so I grudgingly went with that. Valpak wouldn't deal with me so I didn't go with them. tongue.gif I have seen quite a bit of activity with these coupons so I am glad I bit the bullet. I have had only one person who was already a customer bring in a coupon. Everybody else is new business. Of course there have been looky loos but I have gotten more than my money back on both coupons.

3. I've sent out "Holiday Greetings" postcards to everybody in my existing database and included a $25.00 gift certificate towards framing and have seen some return on that.

4. Somebody had told me to offer a free gift for return business. The free gift is a mini mirror with the frame cut out of leftover scrap. I just had a bunch made up and tied ribbons around them and let the client pick one. Well for the Holidays I have started making small frames out of my clients moulding and presenting them with a small frame from the same moulding they used on an order. I just put easel backs on those and made up my own graphics for the inside saying "Happy Holidays from Out on a Whim". That has gone over very well.

5. Since the Big boxes are done taking orders around here I have given business cards to the people in the stores that I know for referrals. I even went and chatted up one unpleasant man I had the displeasure of working with. I had found out he was now working at the Michael's near my store and I figured if he knew I was here he might send people my way. He has no idea I find him unpleasant. Whatever it takes to get the word out.........

That is about it for me. Hope everybody else is doing well. I realize what I am making is just "chump change" compared to the rest of you but at least I am making something. Happy Holidays!

[Jack Cee]

November was the absolute bottom, December is much better but not as good as last year, which was the rejected pits. I still have a lot of Nov. work in the shop to be picked up; some of the owners must have left town. Oh yes, a happy note, we had a lady appear at the door and ask about a piece we framed in 1999. It was hung on the wall as an example of what not to do regarding deposits; and what do you know, she paid and was happy. I asked why my phone calls were not returned and was informed that she had not had than number for 4 years. Oh Well............!!!!!!

Jack Cee

[Jack Cee]

Another thought (had two of them yesterday) it seems that everyone is about three weeks behind in their Christmas shopping at least in my home town.

Jack Cee

[Less]

Well Kathy, sounds like you’re in control of your ship! It’s good to hear how things are going for you.

I’m not really sure where I am at compared to last year. This is my first year with QuickBooks, so I will know soon. It feels like it’s slower than last year, with not as many Christmas jobs. I always stress over balancing the art gallery and the framing business. I worry that I look a little too much like a high-end gallery for the average framing customer. I worry they think they can’t afford me. Maybe that’s true. I guess you can’t have it both ways.

November and December has been steady. A great corporate job with more than 10 framed canvas transfers so far is really helping a lot. I just had a reception for a small paintings show of original art for the holidays. This surprised me, as I had over 100 people show up for the reception and I have sold 21 pieces ranging in price from $675 to $7500 so far. It is kind of weird, since I have not been doing many shows this year due to my concerns about the economy on art sales, and my search for a new location.

The new place is getting its finishing touches. I an not sure about the burgundy accent walls, and I am have trouble deciding how to finish off some unsightly brick. The contractors did not get the lighting layout quite right, but at least the heat was turned on today. Thursday the carpet will get put on the walls of the framing design room. That should petty much do it. I will start to move right after Christmas.

All the best to everyone.

[D_Derbonne]

My business this fall has been slower than I would like, but a job for the Boy Scouts has pulled me through.
I've also supplemented my income with custom stained glass orders. I'm finding that being a glass artist works well with the custom framing business.
Today a steady flow of Christmas customers have finally started coming through the door. I was wondering where they were.

[RozR]

(whistling) Where are the crazy Christmas shoppers!?

I thought for sure from Dec 1 on would be insane... it is not. Sales have been steady - November was great... No complaints... but it just seems alot slower than anticipated. We have alot of gift items, some with Holiday themes... and figure what doesn't sell between now and the big day - will be in the "after Holiday" sale... Some items will not be returning!

Just thankful for what I am doing in my first year of business in a poor economic state. Imagine if it were good economic conditions. Wow!! I'd really be jumping!!

[GUMBY, GCF]

WELL I JUST TOOK IN THE LAST FRAME JOB PROMISED FOR CHRISTMAS. I have a back log of 230 frames plus 5 shadow boxes (3military,1 1st year christmas dress, and one Mickey mouse memerabilia). That is the most I think I can do. Now I will pick and choose what to take and what to send away no job under $300.00 will be added. no shadow boxes turned away unless they don't want to pay for the time. Anyone else we will be telling maybe but no promises. That is our Holiday plan
Gumby
hope everyone else does as well! Happy Holidays this is the last you will hear from me until New Years.

[TADPORTER]

Originally posted by Rozmataz:
(whistling) Where are the crazy Christmas shoppers!?

I thought for sure from Dec 1 on would be insane... it is not. I'm with you there. Hasn't started here yet. Developed an emergency advert. plan yesterday that incorporates the FS postcards and will mail out tomorrow. Feels like the middle of August. Time to get REAL serious about getting people in here.
---Mike

[Jack Cee]

Today has been a wonderful business day; lousy work day. Took in 6 new jobs; finished 4. Telephone has not stopped; Lookie Loos all over the shop; a few have to haves. Now I remember why I was going to get some part time help. Too late now, I guess my daughters help will have to suffice. Several nice people don't need their jobs until early January.

I will take in new jobs until the 21st as long as I can get deliveries and then they will have to be happy with what I have in stock.

Things are looking up for the season.

Jack Cee

[Ron Eggers]

Originally posted by GUMBY:
Happy Holidays this is the last you will hear from me until New Years.Okay, now we can start talking about Gumby!

Oh, wait. We already did that.

[Jin Wicked]

Business is still fairly dead both in my shop and off my website. Sucks. :(

[Sherry Gray]

My business is way off; and the ice storm we had last week was just a death knell. Power off for 2 1/2 days at the shop and many people in the area still are without lights and water. They don't want to even think about Christmas.

[artist]

Hey Gumby- what part of Ohio are you in? Here in NE Ohio Christmas does'nt appear to be coming. I put my game face on, but don't need it. Should be swamped by now, but it's not happening. The good thing is that I negotiated my rent down $250
.00 last month becuase I told them I didn't thionh I could make with the business is. Hope I'm around after the first of the year. SAD-SAD SAD!!! The only good thing is the Buckeyes are going to the Fiesta Bowl and so am I !

[Framerguy]

Originally posted by artist:
Hey Gumby- what part of Ohio are you in? Here in NE Ohio Christmas does'nt appear to be coming. I put my game face on, but don't need it. Should be swamped by now, but it's not happening. The good thing is that I negotiated my rent down $250
.00 last month becuase I told them I didn't thionh I could make with the business is. Hope I'm around after the first of the year. SAD-SAD SAD!!! The only good thing is the Buckeyes are going to the Fiesta Bowl and so am I !I think that Gumby must be living in Oz or something because it isn't much better here in So. IL than artist or anyone else has it across the country! Markg1 and I were talking about the slowdown last night and we both agreed that it is definitely worse than it has been for a long while.

I will probably do about 60% of what I did last year at this time and that was far from a record breaker. Even Walley World's parking lot is only 1/3 full during most days. Business is definitely off drastically regardless of what the government would like us to believe.

(Well, except where Gumby lives.) GO GUMBY GO!!! :D

Framerguy

[RozR]

I am impressed by the number of frame projects Grumby has to be done by Christmas... wow!!

What quantities are normal for some of you? And how big are your shops?

Since I am a 1-2 person shop... Those numbers are mind boggling!! Something to aim for, though!!

Go Gumby!!

[Ron Eggers]

Roz, mine is a 1-person shop. (That one person is a really efficient and industrious framer.) I like to have about 20 average orders/week. I have 65 right now for Xmas, so I'm putting in some extra hours, but it wasn't unusual a few years ago for me to have a couple hundred to do during the last two weeks. Sometimes I'd get on the phone and start calling customers who had non-Xmas orders on the books. It's called, "Let's Make a Deal." How 'bout a discount if you wait until January?

Orders are still coming in. I can order chop for another week yet. After that it's, "Let's see what we've got in the basement."

[RozR]

Ron - Your levels impress me as much as Gumby's! (So, what are you doing online if you have all those frames to put together!! I know, I know... very efficient and industrious!!)And we do need to take a break from the back breaking work of framing - it loosens my brain when I have been working on something really intense - or thinking about the intense work to be done!!! (Like my 2 jersey's!)!! Happy Holidays! Roz :D

[B. Newman]

Originally posted by Rozmataz:
(So, what are you doing online if you have all those frames to put together!! I know, I know... very efficient and industrious!!)I just love hard work. I can watch someone doing it all day!

Bet

[Framerguy]

Roz,

You are being facetious with the "back breaking" part, I think, but I actually AM suffering from excruciating lower back muscle spasms and have had to sit down for a while to rest.

I have been rode hard and put up wet too many times, me thinks!

I have had a number of jobs over $400 come in this week which may make the overall figures for the holiday season a little more positive. But none of those frame jobs were for Christmas gifts! I have only 4 gifts sitting here waiting to be picked up with only 2 others in the back room to be built. Out of probably 37 jobs here in the shop now, that is a pitiful number that were brought in for Christmas, I think.

Framerguy

[Linda Foote]

First, it was the summer doldrums... then it was the month of the sniper attacks... then it was an early heavy snow storm... now it is a freezing rain storm... let's see, what else can we blame this slow Christmas season on? Oh,yes, the economy!
This is the first time we have had a slow Christmas season in 26 years. Very scary! I won't be surprised if next week that man in the White House will think we need a war to take our minds off the sagging economy.

There are 2 more weeks for all of us to make up for the slow time... and we usually have good business after Christmas. ;) Our best to all of you!!

[MatFramer]

Well, this is it for me. I have picked up a little bit since November, but not enough to save the day. I will be closing my doors after the first of the year. I am going to become a very part time basement framer. I have had my shop up for sale for some time with no takers, so now I am going to go out of business as I know it today. Then I am going to go find a job somewhere and bring home a check on a regular basis. I will say that I won't find that job in the framing industry right now. I do have office skills that I can fall back on as well as retail management in general. Any paycheck will be more than I am getting right now.

I am not bitter, but it does make me sad. I have been in the framing business for 15 years and I love it. I have given my own shop a good try. The first three years were great, but the last two have gone the wrong way. I am going to cut my losses now and get on with a life. I am going to take a month of vacation and see where life takes me from there. (I already have one retail store after me for an asst. mgr., not sure about that yet.)

I have been talking to my sales reps about the current situation. I use 3 main distributors. One rep that I talked to yesterday sounded discouraged and he said that he is hearing about how slow it is nearly everywhere he goes. He also told me that in his territory he expects close to 20 shops to be closing after the first of the year. Another thing that he shared with me is that when they have foam core sales or glass sales, they used to be able to sell good quantities, but now people aren't even buying those standard items at the sale price. His customers (shop owners) are waiting until they need it.

Another rep told me that they aren't doing any overtime yet. Usually, by this time in the season, they are staying until 7 or 8 everynight trying to get orders filled. I am also experiencing for the first time out of stock items. I have rarely seen this happen over the years, but it is happening to me almost on a weekly basis that someone is out of something. I can usually get that item at another supplier, so it isn't a problem. However, it is interesting to see this happen at a time when sales are so slow.

[Framerguy]

Matframer,

I am very sorry to hear of your delimna and your closing and I feel the sadness and the dispair that you must be feeling after going to such lengths to make a successful business for yourself. Those of us who are located in lucrative urban areas of the country have enjoyed the convenience of plenty of business through the years and may not have a feeling for those whose business is struggling or close to failure.

It is always easy to say that the owner didn't do this or failed to notice that in the process of building a business but let me say that, as you start out to build that business up into something you can be proud of, you will probably make some mistakes. Nobody opens a business with the goal to fail in that business. Simplistically put, you do the best you can with the resources that are at hand and you make changes as changes are needed and the rest is pretty much up to the buying public. If you are located in an area where the interest and the educational background in the arts in general is sparse, you can try to do your own educating as you pick up new people coming into your gallery. But, sometimes, there just simply isn't the interest nor the enthusiasm in what you are doing to warrant staying with it on a full time basis.

I have worked with a couple of framers in trying to bolster their spirits and give some kind of business guidance but my business isn't much better off in the end than their business. I may be a poor person to be giving advice to others but I DO know what I am doing with my business. I have come to the conclusion that there simply isn't enough demand for what I do at the prices that I have to charge to make it feasible to continue as I have been going. Maybe you are located in a similar area of the country. I do hope that you have a better experience with a part time business bolstered with a full time side job. (I consider framing the main job for me no matter what else I may have to do to survive.)

I think that there will be a rash of smaller frame businesses closing if this economy continues to lag as it has the past few years. It is a sad fact of life that we don't always have the resources to pull us through these hard times and I wish all framers the business they need to keep things together and make ends meet. There may not be such a large "pot of gold" at the end of the framing rainbow but the satisfaction and the "people" experiences are well worth the frustrations of not having all the niceties that one would like to enjoy.

Framerguy

[wpfay]

Retail has not been the best. Not many through the doors and I am experiencing more price resistance than in the past. The corporate and designer work is still good, so that will see me through.
A commonly heard reason for balking at spending the money for a framed Christmas gift is that the customer has already spent a good deal on the other gifts, and that they would get the framing done after they had a chance to recover from Christmas.
I am putting in a few extra hours a week to make sure the slate is clean should any late season business come my way.
The reps tell me that the south end of Florida is suffering greatly, and the deals they are offering, even from some of the more well known names in the industry, tell me that their numbers are not so hot.

[Emibub]

This thread certainly is taking an unfortunate turn. Everything seems to have come to a screeching halt businesswise for me this week. I've had a good couple of weeks and this week nothing. I am on top of it too. I am so prepared to knock out any and all latecomers. I had them last year. Oh well, just gotta keep on going. I am not ready to call it quits.

I've delved into my subconscious the past couple of months to find the inner strength and determination. Unbending intent, irrevocable decision. I refuse to give up. But in searching for my inner strength I have also realized some of this is out of my control, mainly the economy. So, at least I am better prepared for failure. As Deepak Chopra says "In every failure there is a seed for success".

The way everybody around the country says the economy is going it is comforting to know it isn't me. But it is also obvious I don't stand a snowballs chance in h e l l. But I've gotten this far on sheer determination I am going to continue as if I still have a plan. I don't know if unbending intent is going to pay my bills, but I just won't quit yet.

Too bad you have to quit MatFramer. Sounds like you gave it your best. Good luck in the future.

[gemsmom]

I have found, over the years, and in my case, December has never been the big month others claim it to be. November has always topped December in dollars spent and number of orders processed in my shops. There is something I call the "Christmas Phenominum" which happens this time every year. My average ticket drops 20-25% on an average, and more people walk. People will not spend the same amount of money on gifts that they are willing to spend on items for themselves. How many people do you have on your Christmas list that you are willing to spend more than $100.00 on?

[Less]

Less work (not much Christmas), bigger tickets, strong art sales. Less is happy! I can't seem to get any work done, and time is a tickin'.

Someone came in today from a referal with two large (45x50+)Tappas. I threw an $800 each or more at her and she did not even blink. I'll be back tomorrow with my husband, she replied.(I have some reading to do in the Grumble archive). Less asked them to please come back in January. :confused:

The signs are up at my new place and they are starting to walk in already. Maybe there is something to this location thing after all. We will see soon enough.

[Reynard]

I am working on stuff that came in half way through November!I am working twelve hour days just now and my wife is quite sick as she is expecting......I moved house last week.So am shelling out horribly to lawyers and estate agents and accountants just now.Thankfully I am busy and will take in plenty of money in the next ten days if I get the work out.But I,m young and fit so I can handle it and the bulk of the stuff in now is just straight framing jobs which take no time.I also have a pretty full order book for January which is encouraging as my tax bill is due at the end of that month.

All the best to everyone for the coming week or so and hope you all survive the rush intact.Just look forward to christmas eve with your feet up and a glass of wine.And enjoy the break.

[Reynard]

Oh yeah...I tried a wee winter show in the gallery with about thirt pieces by well known scottish artists from the turn of last century and the early part of the twentieth century...a few Glasgow Boys and a couple of Scottish colourists as well.Got some brochures printed out and held an opening at the end of November.And have sold none!LOL!

So the retail side is a tad slow.... :D

[Art Giano]

Hello Grumbler's, this is a great site! it's good to see what is happening in the framing trade in the States. I work in a village in the Cotswolds and have only been working for myself since January, trade has increased steadily during the year but October and November have been very busy. Work has come in slower in December, but I am still catching up from November, having said that 7 good jobs have come in today so I think I am going to be working flat out until Christmas eve. Generally though, talking to other framers and gallery owners in the area trade does seem to be somewhat down.

Richard.

[AnneL]

Framing has been steady, a bit up from past years overall, but even as far as xmas orders go. That's ok because we are swamped with orders for photography right not, many of which are weddings, which means they require alot of work. This week is going to be interesting. We are expecting quite a few orders back from the photo lab on Tuesday. We are definitely looking forward to our annual Christmas eve crab leg feast and bottle of wine. If it is like xmases past, we will be collapsed on the coach asleep by 8 while our daughter watches xmas specials on tv. We lead such exciting lives... :rolleyes: