Framing Business Update

[jim_p]

Just an update on how the picture framing business has been doing lately...

For a while, it wasn't. During the time that we were house-hunting, house-buying, and house-fixing I did pretty much no framing at all. I did not like this one bit, but I was almost too busy to notice...

Things have started turning around lately... not only have I gotten business from friends, but my Yellow Book ad has started taking effect! What's ironic is that I'm running my "big" ad in Leominster/Fitchburg, because back when I took it out I didn't know I'd eventually be moving to Natick. I took out a small ad in the Natick book, which hasn't had much effect yet.

The biggest news by far is that I'm going to have a shop in Natick!! This guy had been advertising a commercial space for rent on Craigslist for months with no takers. A couple of weeks ago I wrote to him and offered a bit less for the rent, and he took it! It's at 41 Summer Street in Natick. It's not the prettiest space in the world, and it's off the main drag, but it's in Natick Center and it has a storefront in addition to a bunch of workshop space in the back. Oh, and it's just across the street from the Arts Center of Natick :) Wonder if I can take in any business that way?

Anyhow, I'm going to be fixing it up and moving over the next few weeks. I hope to be completely moved out of Leominster and operating in Natick by October 1 (watch for my grand opening!).

Speaking of grand openings, I finally have my e-commerce website up and running! I still need to do some tweaking on it, but I've uploaded about half of my suppliers' data and figured now is as good a time as any to go live. Check it out at http://www.baldwinhillframing.com

I'm also looking into taking a leave of absence from the day-job starting in October or so to throw myself into this full-time... wish me luck!

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Good luck!

[androgy8.livejournal.com]

Our of curiosity, how did you get the e-commerce aspect of the web site working?

[jim-p.livejournal.com]

It's based on a package called Zen Cart (www.zen-cart.com), which is a free e-commerce package written in PHP and MySQL. I chose it partly because it provided the features I needed (including a ton of add-on modules) and because it had a fairly professional look-and-feel. I was also able to figure out how to get into the MySQL database directly so I could bulk-upload products rather than use their klunky interface to add products (it's okay for one or a dozen products, not nearly so much for over 10,000).

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

That's so exciting! I hope this works out well for you!

[myclosetdrama.livejournal.com]

Good luck!

[wren13.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! I'd love to have you frame my vet school diploma, it is currently just sitting around getting dusty. Send me email at drkaren at ilk dot org and I'll give you some more work ;-)