The Framers Forum

Our part of the country was reported as being a lot slower to be affected by the recession than many other parts of the country, but recently a lot of major business failures and job losses have been reported around these parts and for us, things are a looking tighter this year than last year.

At the same time, I'm hearing that things are almost booming in some of the bigger towns and cities, when compared to towns in rural areas like my own. Conversations with some of my customers two own two homes, suggest that the economy is completely different in major towns / cities and people are a lot more free with their spending particularly in London and the south east.

It would be interesting to hear if others are experiencing results which suggest a difference based upon whether they are located in a rural area, or in a bigger town / city environment.

Living in a rural area has its pro's and cons. Although wages are far lower, there is often a higher proportion of more wealthy retired folk.
We're fortunate to trade in an area where tourism is key part of the economy.People on holiday tend to spend money, but there not here all year round.
Saying that,Exmoor is now being well promoted as a walking, relaxation, get away from it all destination with some quality accommodation to match and we are finding we are now busy at weekends all year round in our Porlock gallery. Some of these visitors quite obviously earn large salaries' in the city. However to make sure we see these customers it does mean opening our gallery on Sundays, which from Easter to October half term means we are open 7 days a week.

With picture sales 75% of our customers live more than 30 miles away.
With picture framing 82% of our customers live less than 30 miles away.

Interesting facts regarding spend. My daughter has a flat in London and that only briefly lost a small proportion of its value and is now back on the climb. It has increased 10% in the last 18 months. London has always been a completely different environment from the rest of the country which has taken a hammering.

having said that, property near me is starting to move, housebuilding is gearing up to start following the announcement of the stimulus for buyers, but we are based in the countryside and are clearly a "destination venue" We are on the main routes from the affluent commuter villages which make up much of our bespoke work and we have grown nearly 30% this year so times must be getting better.

Also, no framers have jacked it in during the last 12 months so I suspect times are getting a little better. Much to the annoyance of the media of course.

20,000 pop town, second highest footfall for shoppers in the county according to stats. So rural market town?

But round these parts art is part of the local economy and people grow up surrounded by art and original paintings. even chavs buy originals and have stuff framed.

but same as will and nyaf we are westcountry, and we are in a recession of our own all the time anyway, caused by highest house prices outside london and low wages, but we have a high percentage of the economy locally revolving around self employed SME tourism and defence which accounts for the flatter (less ups and downs) economy and far less public sector.
we do well out of second home owners who have stuff framed for both homes, a noticeable bit from tourists, but mostly at the shop its walk-in jobs from people living in the area, mostly people who actually live or work in town.

I'd say its been on the up right through the recession, no problems here at all. was same last recession.

We also do well with customers who own two homes. We also used to do well with MP's who had weekend homes in the area, but I have not had any orders from MP's since the parlimentary expenses scandel.

As per Kev, during the down turn we have come on leaps and bounds, despite many falling around us.

We have 600k+ people living in our city yay! But countered by a lot of competition, my nearest bespoke competitor is 0.6 miles away, nearest shop selling frames, well they are on the next block, in the last few years 3 bespoke framers have gone to the wind within 1 mile of my shop, there are still 3 that I know of within 1 mile radius.

Within a 5 mile radius to many to even think about, so not so yay.
Numerous customers have told us they enjoy the design process? Not sure how or why but maybe this has something to do with why we are still here, we are not the cheapest.

We have benefitted from a number of different factors during the recession and have survived where some framers have not, but it has been quite a learning curve changing to meet a more challenging economic situation. I had hoped that after riding out the storm since the start of this recession, that things would have got easier by now, but this is not the case.

One of the factors of being based in a small rural market town is that local population size is limited and sometimes it helps to find extra business from other sources. These can be customers beyond your normal catchment area, or your existing customer base, plus increasing the range of what you have to offer to your local and existing customers.

To some degree, I try to re-invent my business in some way, or another, as regularly as possible. Aiming to always have something exciting to offer to your customers is like trying to hit a moving target, since what may have been good for you last year, may not neccessarily work this year. Everything in my shop is still framing oriented, but over the priod of the recession, a lot of things have been given a new twist.

Also I now have a range of different price related options, to keep any financially challenged customers from walking out the door and spending their money elsewhere. At the same time, I am still offering a standard of framing and product which I feel proud to claim as my own work and without compromising on my own profitability. This is not easy, but it can be done!

It does have to be said that a lot of my rural customers are having to live on a tighter budget and I have to try harder to meet both their reduced budgets and their still high expectations. It's amazing just how many new things and ideas you can develop in a recession. I even mamaged to take on a new member of staff during the last few months of last year.