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Well - if you havent been busy - its probably too late. We have been rushed off our feet - to the point that i tend to get a bit cranky and realy just want to be left alone to get things finished. The stuff that normally just passes by becomes irritating - the customer who took an hour of my time today - then decided that the total cost was too expensive for her cheap prints
But too look on the bright side - ive had some nice bottles of wine from reps - lots of cards - some from unexpected people - and probably best of all lots of happy customers..
I shall feel that my busy Christmas will have earned me a pleasant break - just hope I can finish the work thats got to be done for Saturday without any problems.
And then I suppose its the new year planning - revamp the samples - replace the lighting track that failed after 1 week - sort out a proper marketing strategy - build a bench for the underpinner - lubricate the morso etc etc.
For the first time ever, we are closing between Christmas and New Year. Though I suspect that I might be sneaking in to do a bit of calibrating, thanks for reminding me Mark!
I have been nursing the venerable Valiani for so long now, making allowances for the odd mm here and there that I probably won't know how to use it once it is set up correctly.
Merry Christmas from Sarawak.....and prosperous 2007 to all.
Many thanks to all who have given advice and assistance throughout the last year.
I shall be mothballing my equipment during the holidays and heading back to the uk for a year, i'll be taking some courses and attending a few trade shows in the coming year so hope to see some of you in my travels.
It has been a very eventful and interesting year as well as starting a new career I have had to learn the local cultures and customs and the impact they have on doing busines here.
Good to hear everyone is busy this Christmas one of the good things here is that there is a good ethnic mix so as well as the rush at christmas it gets busy around ramadan, chinese new year, deepavali , all the bhuddist and hindu festivals and the indidenous festivals, so all you framers who are rushed off your feet......it could be a lot worse!
Hi all
We were wondering if Christmas was ever going to happen this year, very few 'layaways' at the beginning of December as in previous years.
We wondered too soon.
The past two weeks have been hectic, hopefully we will have caught up with all outstanding Christmas work by close of play tomorrow.
Overall 2006 has not been the worst year we have had, but nowhere near as good as last year. Thankfully still in the Black.
Wishing you all a prosperous trading time for 2007.
Just when you think things are going well - the compressor packs up. Dont panick - much pulling out of hair - kicking of compressor - general cursing etc - wife goes out and buys new compressor - great can get back to work.. Bloody compressor comes in large box and has to be assembled - spanners dont fit - cursing has increased.. anyway we are back up and running having lost a few precious hours.
All this talk of having all the work finished by close of play tomorrow or Saturday is making me green with envy. Do your customers not shop on Christmas Eve like they do in this part of the country? We usually have a sweep to guess the time the last framing job comes in on the 24th - last year it was 4.45pm. It will be different thi syear as CE is on a Sunday, but we are still expecting a busy day. The next question is do we open on Boxing Day? I don't think we will this year but it may well be the last year we stay closed. The 27th is often one of the busiest days of the year with the town full of bargain hunters for the sales. My biggest dislike after Christmas is the customer who comes in the shop with one of our bags demanding that we give them a refund on a picture some one chose and had especially framed for them. Actually, I don't like anyone asking for a refund!
Right, must go, only 2 and a half hours to closing time and the streets are beginning to fill up!
Happy Christmas and a prosperous 2007
May our sportsmen be more succesful than in 2006 (so we have plenty of pictures to sell next Christmas!)
On the (framing/art) business side, this Christmas will not be our best, it will be our busiest regarding bespoke framing, until next year, but not regards sales of framed artwork.
This is because I am framing alone, with help from Mrs R as and when - she does the 'fitting' thing is - I build a load of stuff up for her - she gets waylaid on her 'side' and it all starts getting in the way......
...anyway I'm sick as a parrot - I've sold all my own photos bar three and just can't frame or even mount any more. I've got all the latest sexy Ltd Edns in plan chests out back - ditto.
Our in-house ready mades have been hammered - can't replace them - normally we would have several herds of them out back to replenish with.
My workshop's a tip and I'm like Basil Fawlty with no Manwell to take it out on.
I suppose with increased sales on 'her side' we will at least break even on last year overall, but due to staff problems are way way off operating to full potential and even further off enjoying it.
We are taking next Wednesday off - Mon & Tues at in-laws, Wed daughter staying. Frankly I'd happily pitch a tent on top of Chanctonbury Ring, live on what I could catch/pick and talk to the stars for four nights!
Roboframer wrote:
Yeah - pity you're crap at celebrating though - all get shitfaced too quick on Fosters or Castlemaine XXXX - try some Harveys Best Bitter.
I'm a non drinker myself so I don't celebrate in that way. I would rather keep whatever small quantity of wits I have, about me all the time.
I think you will find that only Queenslanders drink XXXX and Fosters doesn't seem to be consumed by anyone in Australia. I think it's some sort of urban legend!
Sales have been similar to the trend Robo mentions, rubbish sales of framed art/prints, but serious amounts of bespoke framing and ready made frame sales.
I think that might vindicate our decision to drop almost all of our art/prints sales in favour of increasing the ready made frames in the shop.
For the first time in almost 15 years we got everything for christmas done by 5pm tonight, friday, still with 2 shopping days to go including the sunday christmas eve!
well, all save for three that is, which are "waiting for the paint to dry" that suzi will seal up in the morning.
Then its shop shut at 1pm tomorrow, alarms and cctv set, saturday afternoon christmas eve off, and back on the 2nd Jan.
I think this is the first Christmas where we finally decided to "shut the books", which we did on wednesday. usually we run around like headless chickens doing the last minute desperate orders, but half of them dont pick them up till after christmas, despite the alleged urgency the day before christmas eve (usually they pitch up in february saying "sorry i was too busy to pick it up") this year Mrs Kev put her foot down and said "so are we".
Mind you, Tom and Al did a LOT of overtime and we do have an awfully large amount of offcuts to make into ready-made frames after the new year.
Good to see that you're on top of things Kev. If you look at the posting time of this (05:20) you'll see I'm not quite there yet. Been working for the last hour and I've got a wedding to photograph later in the morning. Mind you, I'd be more upset if I wasn't busy.
Turns out that this week broke all records and I've got enough framing in already to practically write January off!
Crafts, giftware, greetings - all things we have really expanded on, made up for poor sales on art and ready-mades - not due to lack of potential, but lack of ability to churn stuff out as normal. One day I may bite the bullet and buy ready-mades in. Just that if you have the staf and the time - there's bags of profit in making your own exclusive stuff.
Back to work on Thursday and the pressure will be on almost as much as it was this week.
As usual, this Christmas I was worked off my feet, but when I checked the months takings they were almost 30% down compared to last year. Customers have not been pushing the boat out this year, but looking for ways of saving money.
