Hello, Going into business for myself

Say hello, and tell us a little about yourself.
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johnspeirs
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri 19 Jun, 2020 11:33 am
Location: GLASGOW
Organisation: Framing Norah
Interests: Music (performing), Bass Guitar, Video,

Hello, Going into business for myself

Post by johnspeirs »

Hi there,

I've been framing part time, on and off, for various employers over the last 25 years. My main work has been as a self employed musician but this has been hit hard by covid and looks like it'll be among the last sectors to recover. So I'm setting up on my own as a framer. Plan is to build a shed/workshop in the garden, get tools and machines (not cheap in one go) and hope "they come".

I've never dealt with the business end of framing so that's one area I have a ton of questions - What to charge? What will they pay? Will I make money? etc.

I only ever made minimum wage as an employed framer. Probably sold myself short but my music business subsidised my framing job. Kinda. Plus I had a ton of flexibility so I didn't complain. I liked keeping my "hand in".

For now though I need to design and build a shed and I'm wondering what I can cram into 2.5m x 4.5m. Machines, tools, good bench, stock (MB, Glass and limited mouldings). Oh aye - Whilst I want to get a morso in there I will most likely be ordering chop to keep stock levels down. Are suppliers even doing Chop At the moment? Anyone out there just order chop and like it? Is it expensive? And if anyone has experience doing business out of a small space I'd love to hear about it.

Seems like a friendly forum. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts, pointers, links on my ramble here. Thanks for reading.

John Speirs
Not your average framer
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Re: Hello, Going into business for myself

Post by Not your average framer »

Hi John and welcome to the forum,

It's a risky business, storing mount board and backing board in a shed. Also stopping the Morso from developing light surface rust can keep you busy cleaning and maxing the bare metal surfaces. Have you got anywhere else, like a brick built garage to help control the humidity, the cold winters and excessive heat during hot summers. Making decent money as a framer is not easy and some jobs can be best to let the customer to take somewhere else.

You need to be thinking about hourly labour rates and how many hours per week you will be planning to work, plus where are you going to find your customers? Just in case no one has told you, running a picture framing business involves a steep learning curve and controlling cash flow is one of the things that you need to learn to keep under control. It's just to easy for new framers to find that their profits to easily disappear into more stock and that the income that you were expecting iwhen it can be too hard to avoid spending on other things. Do you know who will be your target market for customers how you are going to let them know how to find their way to you? Are you going to have some sort of speciality, or unique selling position? If possible don't just be one of the crowd, but be someone who stands out and for all the right things. From what you have said already, you will be an experience framer, which should help massively. A Morso, a reliable underpinner and a reasonably sound mountcutter are the main equipment that you will need to get started with plus a reasonable sized work bench.

Initially find your self a good reliable supplier, who can deliver to you about once a week. Don't buy too much for stock until you have got a feel for what your customers buy and what the don't buy. There is an ideal stock turn over ratio, which is normally so many times a year. This figure is not something that is set in stone, but it's good to have some ideas in your head to give you and idea if you are in the right ball park. Money should not just keep going into stock as there needs to be a meaningful income for you too. Keep a monthly spreadsheet and within the different expenses categories show what percentage each of these is as a percentage of your gross profit. It will be a serious eye opener for you. After a while you will start to realise how the business works. There are certain ratios that will tell you how your business is performing, these are called "Key perormance indicators", in time you will learn how to optimise certain key performance indicators to your advantage. Cash flow is the life blood of a business. Look after your cash flow and your business can stay alive. I'm not saying that you will make lots of money just by keeping an eye on your cash flow, but it is one thing that I can never afford to ignore. Businesses only go bust, when the owe money, which the can not pay to their creditors.

I wish you success,
Mark.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
Justintime
Posts: 1868
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Location: West Wales
Organisation: George The Framer LLP
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Re: Hello, Going into business for myself

Post by Justintime »

Hi John,
As Mark said, temperature and humidity change is the enemy, even wood glue doesn't like cold temperatures. Mountboard, moulding, customers artwork(!).
My main space is 3.5m x 5m which I find really workable.
I do about 15-20% chops. One in five gets replaced due to not being perfect.
I marketed my new business by word of mouth for about a year before I opened the doors, it was still painfully slow at the beginning. A Google verified listing, website, Instagram and Facebook, occasional advertising in a high end local magazine, business cards, flyers, gift vouchers, registering on gallery mailing lists for exhibition openings (and going and meeting people).
Year 4 and my life is framing framing framing.
In a nutshell, think working tax credits, bank loan, overdraft, credit card(s).
Here's some advice on pricing
http://www.pricingaframe.com/
Price wise, through this forum and other framers, I know that I am in the same ballpark as other framers nationally. That puts me in a position to pay my bills and make a living.
The essentials for me:
cash flow
pricing software/spreadsheet/pricing chart
Supplier with free van delivery
Feedback for everything, website, cards, customer work
Mentors for framing and business
USP!!!
Books like "Do/Purpose" by David Hieat, "Be More Pirate" by Sam Allende
A network of like minded people to bounce off.
This forum, Facebook framing groups
Joining the Fine Art Trade Guild, the scholarship and
Certification.
Once you work out your USP, you can build your business/customer base on that and keep fine tuning it.
Hope that helps.
Justin
Justin George GCF(APF)
Insta: georgetheframer
johnspeirs
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri 19 Jun, 2020 11:33 am
Location: GLASGOW
Organisation: Framing Norah
Interests: Music (performing), Bass Guitar, Video,

Re: Hello, Going into business for myself

Post by johnspeirs »

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Lots to chew on there. Much appreciated.
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Orde02
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Re: Hello, Going into business for myself

Post by Orde02 »

Hey John. Welcome to the forum. We have some similarities in that I'm also a bass player (double, not bass guitar), I live in Scotland too (East Lothian) but unlike you, I've only been framing for less than a year.
I work from my conservatory just now which isn't ideal. It's pretty small and when it's hot it's far to hot to work in. Lockdown seemed to be unending sunshine up here so I could only work first thing in the morning. I've discovered that mount board hates sun and heat so it's now stored under a bed!
I started buying frames on chop from Lion but they normally (not during the covid pandemic) have £50 min order, which amounts to a lot of chopped frames. Since I don't make a lot of frames I had to buy other bits and bobs to make it up to £50. Not ideal
I would get my glass cut to size by Wessex who do a weekly delivery to Scotland on a Tuesday.
Once I had all the pieces I could put everything together quite easily using pretty basic equipment. Ok for me as I'm new to it all but perhaps not ideal for more experienced framers like yorself.
The one issue I had was if one of the suppliers made a mistake. I've had moulding and glass cut to the wrong size, warped moulding that is unusable to name a few. The problem with this is I had no way of fixing it at home. I found the thought of kicking up a fuss about £3 worth of moulding not worth the effort and waiting for anther delivery a pain, particularly if it took another week.
Since I'm mostly interested in hand finished frames, I ended up buying a Nobex Proman saw and buying unfinished lengths from Rose and Hollis. While the Proman is OK just now for cutting a few frames a week, anymore than that would unworkable and I'll be looking for a Morso if and when the time comes.
Can't really help you with the business and pricing side of things unfortunately though.
Hope some of this is helpful.
Regards
Matt
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Rainbow
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Re: Hello, Going into business for myself

Post by Rainbow »

Welcome to forum, John. You've got a lot going for you if you've had 25 years framing experience, even if it's only been off and on. How are you planning to get customers? If you’re working from a shed in the garden and don’t have a shop front, can you put out banner or swing sign at the front of your house? A web site is essential, and get your location verified by Google. Decal up your car/van with your name and web site address, and leave it parked in targeted areas. Advertising is likely to be expensive in a city like Glasgow, but you might find advertising in local church magazines reasonably cheap - and effective. Try a leaflet drop in targeted areas - Vistaprint offer quick and easy leaflets as well as stationery. Start off with fairly small quantities at first as your message will probably change as you develop. As a rule of thumb, the average response rate to a leaflet drop is 1%-2% but you can increase that by getting a good message to the right areas, and looking professional. Do the distribution yourself and get talking to people who are in their gardens when you deliver - now is the ideal time for that! Good luck!
Abi
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Organisation: AbCoStudio
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Re: Hello, Going into business for myself

Post by Abi »

Vista Print is expensive, I use Banana Print for business cards and stickers and ecolourprint for bulk leaflets.
Not your average framer
Posts: 11013
Joined: Sat 25 Mar, 2006 8:40 pm
Location: Devon, U.K.
Organisation: The Dartmoor Gallery
Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
Location: Glorious Devon

Re: Hello, Going into business for myself

Post by Not your average framer »

Starting your own business is like a journey. You will discover things about yourself that you never keow and find that you have hidden strengths that you never realised. It takes a bit of working through, it helps when the going get a bit hard going to see this as a bit of an adventure. It is a road less traveled and there are places along the journey, where you have to just dig in and keep going, but it a journey well worth taking. I would not be the man I am now without it and the same will be true for you.

It's a steep learning curve, but you'll be really pleased with what you have achieved, when it all comes together. Go for it, you'll be glad that you did! This pandemic is going to be the making of so many people who would otherwise be losing out, when far too many are wondering what future is left for them, it's a good time to come out fighting and aim for something better. You already know that you can do it. I wish you ever success.

Mark.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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