Stay in business for the long haul: the owners of three long-time frame shop successes share winning strategies for outlasting the competition and maintaining momentum

Art Business News, Dec, 2002 by Jennifer Wong

Two years ago, on Christmas Eve morning, a man walked into Lou and Porter Wilson's custom frame shop with three originals he wanted framed for Christmas. The shop had the framing materials the customer wanted in stock, and the materials worked with the originals perfectly. Wilson flamed the customer's art that day in time to get it under the tree.

Such customer service isn't out of the ordinary for the frame shop--Wilson said his shop is known as the place to go for the best design and top-notch customer service. In fact, Wilson's shop, Arts & Things, located in the small coastal town of Morehead City, N.C., is so well known he has regular customers who drive two and a half hours from Raleigh to have their framing done in his shop.

Besides offering exceptional framing products and great customer service, the Wilsons also put to work key business practices common to just about every successful business today. According to Lynda Martin, senior consultant and president of Goodwin Growth Works in Atlanta, there are nine practices businesses must employ in order to be successful over the long haul. These nine business practices are divided into two categories: hard-and-fast strategies, such as creating a yearly business plan, and softer practices that include learning new skills and networking with other business owners. "The soft practices enable business owners to stay in the game, love it and bring creativity and renewed energy to their business," said Martin. "Both sets of practices are essential to the longevity of a thriving, booming business."

1 At the top of the list of the hard and fast practices is having a quality product and offering excellent customer service. Bruce and Pam Barker, co-owners of Athens-Art Inc. in Athens, Ga., which is made up of four retail frame shops, a cafe with framed poster art for sale and a wholesale frame and artist supply company, have been in business 32 years. Their clients include Ted Turner, the bands R.E.M. and Widespread Panic and a client who flies in from Texas because he loves the Barkers' work so much.

Starting out with one shop, the couple has built their success on the solid foundations of good design and making sure their customers are always satisfied. Their work is guaranteed for its lifetime. If a customer isn't satisfied with the final piece and wants to change the design, Pam Barker said they'll take the frame apart and redo it. Ultimately, they don't lose money redoing frames because their customers are happy and keep coming back to them. In fact, Barker is now framing for her customers' children.

She understands what Murray Raphel, one of the nation's leading marketing experts and author of several business books, calls the lifetime value of a customer. Too many frame shops are not quick to understand that the customer has got to be taken care of, said Raphel. But take the time to sit down and figure out how much business your client could bring to you over their lifetime. He advocates posting a specific guarantee in your shop that says you will satisfy the needs of your customers. If you turn away unhappy people, you are going to lose business.

In addition, said Raphel, successful business owners can't be the same thing to everybody. In other words, a frame shop has got to be known for something. Uldis and Susan Augenbergs of Framemakers in Bloomington, Ind., own two shops and have been in business for 26 years. They are known for their complete customer satisfaction and for their technical ability to frame just about anything you can imagine, from guitars to wedding gowns to paper-towels sketches of a dream house.

2 Establish a sound legal and financial set-up for your business. This may sound obvious, but Martin said many entrepreneurs are so eager to start their business and get busy with other aspects of setting up their shop, they overlook this part of the business. Unexpected things can happen when this is ignored, such as business penalties, tax problems, illness and not knowing how much money you have. You could run afoul with your business partner though you had planned on being friends or married for life or someone might want out, even though there's no exit plan.

Take the time and make the investment to get a good lawyer and accountant to set you up in your business soundly. This includes setting up an accounting and bookkeeping system, which a lot of mom-and-pop business owners are reluctant to do. They think they can do it themselves and save money. But you'll save time, have peace of mind and ultimately save money if you do it right in the first place. Martin said the financial set-up should include not just what your tax attorney needs but what you need to know in order to know how much money you've got at all times.

3 Create a business plan every year of your business and review it on a quarterly basis at minimum. This is not a business plan for getting money from the bank, but one that puts your goals in motion by breaking them down over the year. It's a procedural plan and not a wish list and should drive your monthly, weekly and daily goals. Say you are going to do $100,000 of business this year. That means you need to sell $8,300 in a month, a little more than $2,000 a week. You need to figure out how many frames you are going to sell and how many customers need to walk in your door every day to make that happen.