Dear Framer, Are you Ready for a Recharge?

If you’re like me, every once in a while I’m in need of a makeover – a blast of new energy – new ideas – and a new direction. Running a business can be exhausting with the endless list of tasks needing attention. Every once in a while I need to take a break and readjust my focus to get my business back on track.

I’ve spent a decade teaching seminars at framing conferences across the country and listening to framers’ questions about advertising and how to build a successful marketing strategy.

I’ve complied the best ideas to solve your biggest concerns; from business planning to the most effective marketing solutions and selling tips to turn your business into a money making machine. This e-book was written for you, the framing entrepreneur, designer, frame-maker, janitor, book-keeper and marketing whiz that works hard every day to make your business a success. 

Recharge Your Business is perfect for existing framing businesses, galleries, new frame shop start-ups or home-based businesses looking to expand. It’s packed full of valuable advice on how to plan, implement and evaluate marketing and sales activities.  Unlike other business books, this is tailored for small business frame shops with printable worksheets providing a step-by-step marketing strategy.

Read a bit of the introduction:

Does your company have more memories than dreams? Chances are that if you’ve been in business for any length of time the goals you had during the busy first years have long been forgotten. Some achieved and happily crossed off the list with others replaced by the endless number of tasks we business owners face daily.  It’s understandable. We get busy, too distracted by the relentless number of jobs required in the day to day operations of running a small framing business.  But, it is an interesting question. Stop for a moment and think of all you dreamed of accomplishing during those early weeks when your shop was new; the freedom you’d have being your own boss, the fame that comes from devoted customers so in love with their frames the line trails out the door and of course, the fortune that was sure to come with such a loyal following of fans. So what happened?

Life happens. Papers stack up on your desk. Someday projects collect in corners. The backroom fills with stacks of scrap moulding and leftover matboard. Before you know it, you are no longer running a business – the business is running you.

This is not unusual and could even be considered normal when you think of the number of small businesses out there enjoying the comfort that comes with running an established business. But for a company, it can signal the plateau where growth grinds to a standstill and the slow decline into outdated obscurity begins.  As a side note here, I strongly recommend against letting this happen. I’ve met with too many shops that have somehow lost the enthusiasm common in the start-up phase, no doubt worn down by the rigors of self-employment. I get it, but it should not be ignored. Complacency is a slow death for a business.

I’m speaking from experience of course. My company recently reached the fifteen year mark. The anniversary took me a little by surprise because for some reason I forget to count a decade or so, making me younger in my imagination than in actual years. But when I stop and count I’ve now been framing for over twenty-five years. When I think back over the company’s history, I remember many cycles of steady growth and tepid plateaus when sales slowed. Some caused by economic factors well out of my control, others caused by my own distraction and lack of attention paid to the business. After all, I was not only an entrepreneur of a new start-up, I was a mom, wife, caretaking daughter, friend, volunteer, not to mention household cook, maid and gardener. It’s easy to get distracted. It was always when my cash flow dwindled to zero and the panic set in that the CEO in me reawakened to get the business back on track.

Employees have come and gone. Goals have changed. Sales have fluctuated.  But one thing that has stayed constant is that I’ve kept reinventing the business in an attempt to remain relevant. I’ve remodeled, relocated and recommitted to my business in the recent years.  I’ve had to train myself to act like a CEO leading a profit driven company instead of simply a picture framer satisfying a creative urge to build frames. It has been healthy for the business and has kept me well out of the lazy lull of complacency.

If you find yourself thinking back on the best memories of your company, do not stay stuck thinking the best has gone by. Continue reading. This book is dedicated to guiding you though a complete business makeover. The first section will help you craft a winning business plan, tips to increase sales and the best ways to brand your business. The remainder of the book is packed full of ideas on how to use traditional and new methods of marketing to get your business noticed. You will learn my best ideas on how to improve your business and how to earn more money and more custom framing customers.

Recharge Your Business: The Ultimate Frame Shop Owner’s Manual will be available at WCAF Expo this January or for download at www.megglasgow.com or if you prefer, a CD can be mailed to you by calling 208-888-9898.