Would you advertise getting a CMC?

[Not your average framer]

Would you advertise the fact that you have just bought a CMC? I don't think this is a very easy question to answer and suspect that the answers given by existing CMC users might suprise some of us.

Personally I am already planning to buy a Valiani at the right time and would not advertise the fact at all, but I would display plenty of eye catching mounts. All it takes is someone who has the money to buy a CMC, thinks he's good with computers and fancies the idea. With this sort of technology he will be just as good as you, but will make sure that he is cheaper.

Most customers have no idea how we do things. Why spoil it? In this case a little secrecy might pay off better than a publicity campaign. Alternatively if you can pass the GCF advanced exam for mount design and cutting. Then why not advertise passing the exam and then wow them with your CMC.

Lots of pros and cons! Opinions?

[Grahame Case]

difficult one this NYAF,

and I'm not sure there is one right answer to it.

Kev at Moonshine has it emblazoned across his window that he does "Computerised Mount Cutting", and people can watch his CMC while he works on it, which seems to be a fantastic marketing strategy in itself.

as for our predicament, which is where this question probably stems from, we have had a turbulent year or so, with a turnaround time that has been far in excess of anything we would like to have had, hip operations, holidays and sheer volume of new customers coming through our door have seen us up at 6-7 weeks turnaround at one point... the reason we are planning on advertising is to say "hello existing customers, we've invested some money in new equipment to speed up your framing work, no more stupid turn around times." also, its to remind our customers who may have something to frame that we are still here, and looking for work!

everyone is different, and there is no one key answer to this question. We really are just using the arrival of the mount cutter as a way to say to our 850 existing mailing list members.. "Remember us?"

okay all of the above was a bit garbled but i hope you catch my drift.

[osgood]

I don't know of any reason not to advertise that you now have the capability to cut decorative mat designs and do high volume matcutting. These two things alone are services that you did not provide before!

The fact that the CMC will save you time is important to the efficiency of your business and IMHO is not something that I would promote to my customers!

I would only promote the things that are benefits to the customers, never advantages that you get from having a CMC!

[Mary Case GCF]

Just thought I would add to what Grahame has said. We don't intend to tell the customer that we will be saving time, but if we can bring our turnaround time down because of the CMC that is all to the good. As far as keeping the machine a secret, that is going to be impossible anyway. As explained in other posts it has to go out in the shop for space reasons. As soon as one person sees it, it will be all round the "village". Edinburgh is made up of little villages where everyone knows everyone's business. An example of this is when 18 months ago an employee sadly passed away very suddenly at home one morning. Within a week the word had got round the area that I had died while serving a customer in the shop! A few people were extremely surprised to see me alive and well when they came in to pass on their condolences.

[Not your average framer]

Hi Mary,

You might consider promoting the CMC as a specialist service which offers the capability of cutting "designer" mounts and can enhance your capabilty to do volume mount cutting! "Designer" is a very "in" word!

I would not mention anything about any timing improvements. I would also wait and see what effect the CMC has on your turn around times, before shouting about it. I think the speed aspect of a CMC is over promoted to small bespoke framers.

Where you will win is cutting standard size mounts for stock, speciality mounts with fancy shapes, volume mount cutting, V groove hinged mounts and undermounts, (all in one) and perhaps volume mount cutting for other framers.

[osgood]

I think the speed aspect of a CMC is over promoted to small bespoke framers.

You and I agree on everything except this! For me the speed of cutting mats is of utmost importance. My CMC saves me many, many hours per week, every week!

[Not your average framer]

Hi Ormond,

I think you will agree that most of us can cut an average sized normal mount in about two minutes. I do it all the time while customers are waiting. Allowing for the time taken on the computer before the machine can start to cut the mount, can your CMC beat this? If so, a CMC is faster!

I would be interested in hearing the factors, which you think determine whether a CMC is faster or not for different sizes of business. Most of us who are currently planning to at sometime buy our own CMC, would be glad to have any insights you can offer on this.
Mark

[kev@frames]

you soon take your CMC for granted, then you can't live without it.

If I was starting my business all over again, a CMC would be there with the "essentials" alongside a morso and an underpinner now.

[Not your average framer]

Hi Kev,

You are already preaching to the converted as I intend to get one, but could you please say why you say "you can't live without it" and why it is so essential. I for one, hope to learn from your input.

I have several reasons why I want one:

1. I have arthiritis in my hands, shoulders and neck. I struggle to cut mounts on a bad day.

2. Being able to cut "designer" fancy mounts.

3. Volume mountcutting.

4. Doesn't everyone!

[osgood]

Allowing for the time taken on the computer before the machine can start to cut the mount, can your CMC beat this? If so, a CMC is faster!

Yes it is faster to cut a single mat!

I would be interested in hearing the factors, which you think determine whether a CMC is faster or not for different sizes of business. Most of us who are currently planning to at sometime buy our own CMC, would be glad to have any insights you can offer on this.
Mark

A CMC is faster than cutting with other mat cutters. The difference is more noticeable with more complex mats. Especially multi opening, multi layered mats. Before I got mine I rarely offered those to my customers. they were almost always single layer only.

I am a one man operation and my CMC is like having an employee for part of the week.

The saved time is an important issue, but so is the ability to offer your customers more options and thus the ability to upgrade many sales!

It will also save you a lot of pain if you have arthritis!

[Not your average framer]

Thanks Ormond,

I must admit that as soon as you come to consider double mounts, then CMC's really start to look very interesting, especially from a creativity standpoint. Also because a CMC saves a lot of marking out when cutting multi-aperture mounts, there must be a substantial time saving on these.

However, I still think the speed advatage issue on normal one off mountcutting is not as strong an agreement for small volume framers as is being suggested.

Using a CMC requires far less skill to do the more difficult mountcutting and in that respect considerably de-skills that part of a framing job, to such an extent that anyone can do it. Which may or may not be a good thing depending on your personal standpoint.

I can also see how useful a CMC is in a mass production environment, but to generate enough of that sort of work almost certainly means aiming at the bottom end of the market and competing mainly of price.

Like I said before, I think the speed aspect of a CMC is over promoted to small bespoke framers and if speed is the main reason for a smaller framing business to buy one, I don't think it necessarily will work out how people are led to expect.

When I can afford to get one, it won't be just to speed up my normal "run of the mill" mountcutting. It will be for the flexibilty it gives me, in easily creating a good stock of "ready made mounts", offering volume or multi-aperture mountcutting service to other framers and a specialist "designer" mountcutting service. For many of us this will be the only way such a machine will be able to pay for itself, as we simply are not big enough to do it on volume of business alone!

[osgood]

I must admit that as soon as you come to consider double mounts, then CMC's really start to look very interesting, especially from a creativity standpoint. Also because a CMC saves a lot of marking out when cutting multi-aperture mounts, there must be a substantial time saving on these.

I rarely show a customer less than a double mat! They sometimes decide against a double or triple, but always show at least a double.

However, I still think the speed advatage issue on normal one off mountcutting is not as strong an agreement for small volume framers as is being suggested.

I disagree, but for you this may be valid, but in the whole pile of advantages of a CMC it is of lesser importance than the other advantages.

Using a CMC requires far less skill to do the moance to mre difficult mountcutting and in that respect considerably de-skills that part of a framing job, to such an extent that anyone can do it.

I think this is a good thing. Currently it is too easy for anyone to get into this industry with no knowledge or ability, but if CMC's become a necessity, then perhaps less people will jump into the business and those already in it will prosper a little better. I don't know about your country, but I know there are many more framing businesses in Australia than are necessary.

I can also see how useful a CMC is in a mass production environment, but to generate enough of that sort of work almost certainly means aiming at the bottom end of the market and competing mainly of price.

Sorry, but that point of view is way off the mark. I have had a CMC for seven years and I am right at the top end of the market and stay right away from the bottom end! The bottom feeders here in my area don't have CMC's.
Before I got mine I also thought I would make squillions of ready made mats and make a lot of money from that. It never happened and never will. For me it's a non event!

The main thing is that my CMC allows me to cut mats quickly and easily and also allows me to upsell better designs, more layers and 8 ply mats. I have increased the average price of my frames by having a CMC. What more could I want?

[WelshFramer]

I disagree, but for you this may be valid, but in the whole pile of advantages of a CMC it is of lesser importance than the other advantages.

Well I suspect most experienced mat cutters are faster than me but I suspect I'd benefit from the speed and accuracy of a CMC.

Recently a customer wanted a multi-opening window mount with printing. So, I measured it all out and worked out the various window sizes and margins etc. Then I cut a piece of board and put it through the printer. Then I marked up the back with lots of lines and squiggles and cut it.

Went fine till I noticed I'd cut one of the bevels the wrong way.

So, I started again. Can't remember what went wrong that time but I remember that it was third time lucky.

What a waste of a couple of hours!

Anyway, the customer liked it. In fact she liked it so much she came back for an identical frame two weeks later.

Back to the drawing board - cut a piece of board, print it, cut the openings. Got it right first time. (Must be improving.)

This time she wanted the oak framed stained to match her furniture so, having cut the moulding, set about it with a brush and a tin of medium oak stain. Did quite a nice job. So I set it to one side to dry and then set about sticking the photos in the window mount.

That's when I noticed that the brusk had flicked medium oak stain all over the window mount.

Oh well, get another piece of board, cut it to size, put it through the printer, cut the windows. What a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

I'm really looking forward to getting the CMC I ordered on Friday. When it arrives I'll be able to make mistakes at twice the speed I can now.

[Grahame Case]

we've veered away from advertising our new machine, instead we are advertising what we have done to improve the quality of our product over the past year... Tru Vue, Estlite, bevel accents, oh and of course our nice shiny new mountcutter ...


it just seems more relevant to our existing customers, explaining the benefits to them

[Not your average framer]

Sorry for proding and getting some to bite, but this thread is touching on aspects that those of us who don't yet have a CMC are keen to learn about.

One more thing I didn't think about at the show - do any of these machines offer mount (mat) decoration facilities other than embossing, such as pen lines, etc?

[Spit]

Some do printing on the boards, but you'll have to search the manufacturers for the exact models... and they probably won't come cheap.

[Moglet]

Using a CMC requires far less skill to do the more difficult mountcutting and in that respect considerably de-skills that part of a framing job, to such an extent that anyone can do it. Which may or may not be a good thing depending on your personal standpoint.

If one's business gets to the level where one has to recruit staff to keep up with demand for one's services, I see a CMC as being a great way of controlling quality: one is less reliant on employee commitment to work to the accuracy that one would oneself.

[Spit]

You could say that where you are de-skilling in one respect, you are gaining skills in others.

[Moglet]

For skills read "yoyos"...

[Spit]

For skills read "yoyos"...

Or if you read Pratchett, 'Old gods do new jobs'