Are you Diversified?

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j Paul

j Paul

PFG, Picture Framing God
Joined
Feb 23, 2004
Posts
7,299
Loc
Toledo,Ohio
Rick Bergeron's post on "Vote for Me" got me thinking...

It very interesting to see the side lines that framers are into. There is a lot of talk about the future demise of the small frame shop but I think a lot of us are finding ways to diversify and survive.


I know that when I opened my store a little over 3 years ago, gifts were a definite part of the business plan. We feel that they really help bring people in and give them an excuse to check us out. They also most definitely add to the bottom line.

  • We have unique global/fair trade gifts (moving away from most of the regular commodity stuff like CBK, Ganz etc)
  • Photo Restoration / Photo - Canvas / Photo - Tapestry
  • Digital Scrap-booking


If you are not a frame only shop, what other sidelines (business) do you offer. I know what some of you are doing, but please post anyhow so that everyone might know.
 
We have tried diversifying......with unique photo frames, gift items, prints (open & limited edition), local art, photo restoration, high end preframed art, & low end preframed art. Unfortunately, none of these things have been successful for us, with the exception of local art (which is on consignment). We are going on 5 years now. Prints and preframed art were much more successful when we opened, but can hardly give the stuff away these days. We have ended up with a lot of inventory, and the longer we have it the harder it is to get rid of it, even at break even prices. We will end up loosing money on much of it. Diversification is good, but we need to find something that the consumer can't find on every other corner.
 
jPaul
I offer photo restoration (digital custom primarily but also in house for minor things).
I also offer custom etched mirrors and frame repairs.
Some things I do that are not exactly picture frame related are custom graphics, vinyl signs and banners, as well as printed vinyl and coro signs and printed vinyl banners. Also magnetic signs in vinyl and printed.

Randy
 
Hi Paul,

I don't want to highjack your interesting topic, just remind you that I may not be the only one curious to learn what became of that coop-ad project. Is it still kicking? Any results?

OK, people, sorry for this interruption, what other sidelines did you say you offer? I strongly believe that those sideliners, if successfully chosen, may buy you time to read the market and allow for better and smoother adjustnebts in front of those agitated waters ahead.
 
2 years ago, we added Kathleen's custom jewelry and it has picked up every year. Last Christmas, it was probably 10-15% of the sales. Much is commissioned work where someone brings an outfit in on the way home from the store and has a custom designed necklace, bracelet and earrings ordered. Last January, Kathleen started learning traditional Chain Maille weaves and has been weaving Argentium Sterling (tarnish resistant) and gold filled rings. Karat gold is a bit out of our range at $18 per ring and the most basic weave begins with 200 rings. She is also doing all the pearl stringing for one of the largest local jewelers in town.

www.terrastones.net the dotcom is being held in limboland for too much money.

And we've just added the pens within the past month, but I've spent the better part of this year in training.

www.rixstix.com I didn't believe that we'd move what we have in such a short time.
 
Oil painting cleaning and repair. I'm sittin here waiting for the call from Paris on that Monet.....

Original art, mine and others.

Second tier distributor of peace and happiness.

Purveyor of questionable advice.
 
Doug Gemmell said:
Oil painting cleaning and repair.
Click to expand...

Doug, How did you get trained in the cleaning and repair? This is something that I would love to learn how to do. We have one local framer that advertises that they do this also, and we get a number of pieces in that could use it. I always hesitate referring to them because they are not Conservators.

Thanks!
 
Well, I've listed what we do quite a few times here - in a nutshell we're a framing/art/craft department store with other things thrown in.

I've seen and drooled over the photos posted here of frame shops with the 'gallery' look and also been amazed at the small amount of customers some of those same places get per day - after being amazed at how they can afford the time to be on here during working hours.

Framing was King here, and it still is really - no one dept on 'The Other Side' ever ever beats it and if you include art as well then that other side has no hope at all.

But combined the 'Other Side' is 50/50 more or less.

Within that other side are things we could expand on if framing went tits up - I'd not be too happy about that - I'm a framer.

Eg - we have a dry cleaning agency - we get 25% of sales for stuff taken in - with no mark up - if the customers went direct they'd pay the same and the cleaners are only a mile from us. They have about 25 agents like us - getting 25% for filling in a form - basically.

This dry cleaners were competitors of another cleaners we used to be agents for that gave us 30% of sales. They were just as close in the opposite direction - we fell out with them - we were the last agent to do that!

From the amount of stuff we take in, we know that if we wanted it, the market is there, and, without a framing workshop, definitely the space, to do it on the premises.

Card-making is another 'sideline' we have absolutely anything a card-maker could want and employing staff that are very very good at making the things, have at times made a few 'ranges' of our own - just on the counter - 20 here, 50 there - simple stuff.

Something also that if framing fell away we could do on a much, much larger scale in a dedicated workshop and sell, not only to our own customers, but to other oulets as indeed the dry cleaners do.

Apart from all that fallback stuff - a diverse range of product attracts a diverse range of customer.

People come here that would in no way, ever set foot in a stand-alone frameshop - all the frames they own come from Ikea etc etc - then, whilst looking for something like some fancy ribbon, they see a picture, something like they have, but it looks so much better ......... blah blah.
 
Jim, in 2002 I went to Ukiah, CA and spent three days soaking up everything I could from Adele Pruitt. She's been restoring art for years, has lifetime credentials for teaching art in California and taught painting and art restoration. Don't know if she's still teaching though (she's around 80 years old) but it was well worth the trip. She did the restoration on many of the pieces in several museums in California.

Learning from her was just the beginning though. There are many variables in oil painting restoration so before I turned myself loose on OPA (other people's art), I practiced on pieces picked up at garage sales and spent a lot of time studying the book she provided and others.

It's sort of like framing: expensive materials, time consuming, and not something I'll get rich doing, but it's enjoyable.
 
I do digital imaging services: scanning, photo repair, large-format photo and giclee printing.

Is "frame repair" considered a sideline or not? I didn't think so, but customers seem pleasantly surprised when I say I can repair frames as well as build new ones...
 
Diversification works very well for a lot of framers. Greeting cards, theme-related photo frames, sculpture, art specialties, gift items, scrapbooking, photographic processing & related services, packaging/shipping, photocopying, laser engraving, wide-format printing of images and signs, banners...you name it.

I offer all sorts of services and products related to framing and art, such as sub-contracting conservation treatments, photo-restoration, and frame restoration. However, I do not promote them in any context that could diminish my emphasis on framing. I have tried a few diversifications in years past, and found every one of them to be a dilution of my core business.

I learned that, instead of investing time and money in new inventory, tools/equipment, and marketing/advertising, the results would be better if I spent the same time and money enhancing my company's effectiveness in the core business of framing.
 
We have cut the amount of hand made cards that we sell in half, and are phasing out most desk frames. Aside from earthquake hangers, acrylic cleaner and related frame accessories, like ready made wall frames, we sell nothing but framing and framed art on our walls. And most of our framed art serves as examples various framing techniques. We sell Digital Custom restoration, but that also brings in framing. We are framers and that's what we concentrate on.
 
Framing is my focus and anything else I take on is meant to augment my framing sales. I have less than zero walk by traffic so regular inventory items make no sense.

Items and services that I do offer outside the normal realm of framing are:

1.) Aerial Lake photos. My shop is centrally located to quite a few inland Michigan lakes. Folks buy the photos and then get them framed. I only make about $ 50.00 on the photos, but the framing is usually a $ 300-400.00 frame job. I usually sell about 30-50 year.

2.) Digital Custom

3.) Minor cleaning and varnishing of paintings. Any restoration work I send out to a local conservator and have a 25% upcharge.

4.) I still have a number of commercial accounts from my old business and continue to service them selling cartons of foam-core, polyflute board, rolls of printable vellum, blueline paper and even flat files and vertical storage cabinets for engineering drawings.

5.) Limited laminating services with a Xyron cold roll laminator.
 
If you subcontract conservation work, aren't you then taking on the risk and possible disappointment? We send people to the restorer and let them make thier own agreement with the professional. Just curious. I can see that subcontracting keeps the work "in-house" so to speak and may lead to more framing than the other way. Just curious. I think years ago we read articles which advised not being responsible for restoration if you don't do the work yourself. It may be a mute point in my area because the retoration experts I use like to deal wiht the customer. Opinions?

Carry on--or move the thread?
 
We are in the process of totally re-doing our website to reflect our focus of "Newman Valley - it's more than a place, it's a way of life!"

This will show everything that we do here on the farm. (You've heard of agri-tainment, right?)

Right now the website only showcases our Art and Antiques Studio/Gallery, but (hopefully) by Jan 1 it will show everything. (For those who got our last e-mail newsletter, it will have things like our son and daughter-in-law's horseshoe garden accessories, etc.)

While we do quite a bit of framing - it's (percentage-wise) a minor part of our overall business.
 
There are advantages to keeping things in-house ...and you are providing a one stop service. You do have exposure, but so does the conservator.
 
There are some risky conservation treatments for which I would prefer to avoid responsibility. In those cases I just refer the customer to the conservator as a free service. But usually I take a fee and handle the transportation as a convenience to the customer.
 
Kirstie said:
We have cut the amount of hand made cards that we sell in half, and are phasing out most desk frames. Aside from earthquake hangers, acrylic cleaner and related frame accessories, like ready made wall frames, we sell nothing but framing and framed art on our walls. And most of our framed art serves as examples various framing techniques. We sell Digital Custom restoration, but that also brings in framing. We are framers and that's what we concentrate on.
Click to expand...

I've added the digital custom printing, but only because I print my own photos which I sell out of my store. I agree with Kirstie, that I am a picture framer first, and anything else must support and add to picture framing.
 
We've had local artists hanging on our walls for a couple of years, but nothing really moved. Now that we also have a growing selection of Fair Trade jewelry, crafts and goods sales for everything has started going up. Including the local artists' work!
 
high end framed art..low end framed art...tapestries and fabric items...metal and wood wall decor (sculpture) ....art sculpture...stain glass....open and limited edition prints and LE giclees ...original local and regional artists works....art supplies....and I also paint murals on interior and exterior walls, driveways(Decorative) , and airbrush on anything.
60% framing, 40% the rest. www. couturesart.com to see some of it
 
We sell Heraldy Products , the name plaques and surname meanings -all a bit of a gimmick really, but people love to know where their names originated from etc. No outlay for us as everyone pays up front on orderering for obvious reasons as all plaques etc are made to order and then we usually get to do the framing if required so a win win :D

We also sell historical photos of our local area only, we matt them and we have a few framed.

We used to sell giftware but I found I was rushing to and from the wholesalers too often and spending too much money on items I hoped wouldn't sell and I just had to take them home :D

This is a great topic :icon21:
 
Diversification? Yep, that's me! I sell books, art and collectibles about history. I mostly just frame the art I sell but if a customer wants something else done, I'll do it. The books and miniatures are the best sellers so far, but I only recently got my walls filled with framed prints, so we'll see. They get a lot of attention in the store and at shows, but they're rather expensive as impulse buys so customers will more likely come back to the store to make those purchases. Hopefully the art and framing will pick up as that is where the biggest markup is.
 
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