{"id":480,"date":"2007-08-24T00:27:29","date_gmt":"2007-08-24T04:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/starting-anothe"},"modified":"2007-08-24T00:27:29","modified_gmt":"2007-08-24T04:27:29","slug":"starting-anothe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/?p=480","title":{"rendered":"Starting another small business from scratch – part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nAs some of you have suspected, I’ve been launching a small business in the last few weeks and have been so busy that I haven’t had time to blog about it.<\/p>\n

I thought I would write about the experience so that some might make use of the discoveries I’ve made in the process and others might have ideas that I’ve missed.<\/p>\n

I am not writing this from the viewpoint of how one should do this sort of thing. It is being written because I took an approach that seemed to be so far off the beaten path that it just might work for someone else who is trying to come up with a way to start a company with very little seed money.<\/p>\n

I’ve created Floyd Custom Framing<\/a>,  a custom picture framing business, which sounds like an unlikely prospect for a guy who used to design computers, but I needed to use every bit of business and technical knowledge I have to make it happen. The startup costs, including insurance, equipment and supplies was covered with an ordinary credit card.<\/p>\n

The timing may seem odd because America’s picture framing business is in a long-term downtrend because of changing demographics. New Gen X and Gen Y home buyers do not seem to have the disposable income of the previous generations. Plus, every big box retailer is selling ready-made frames at what seems like pennies on the dollar.<\/p>\n

So, you might ask, why this business? And why me?<\/p>\n

The basic answer is that there has been no custom picture framer within 25 miles for several years and there is a growing number of artists who are turning out amazing work at an ever-increasing rate. They need custom picture framing at an attractive price to expand their business. I have seen this at a personal level because I was spending more time every month obtaining frames and mats for the pastels that Gretchen was turning out. It was getting to be a chore and the choices were limited. <\/p>\n

I decided to teach myself conservation framing techniques and to convert my wood shop into a professional framing shop. The rest just seemed to follow naturally.<\/p>\n

What I created is not your conventional retail store business. I don’t have a storefront, but I have a display window in a prime location. I don’t keep regular hours, but I have a backlog that is growing so fast that I have to scramble to handle it.<\/p>\n

I have written my own software to create POS estimates and it also generates orders for framing supplies. I have a trusted supplier, Roanoke Moulding Designs where one of the owners has mentored me on the finer points of running a custom framing operation. I have had great feedback on my services so far and I am  finally getting around to writing a tri-fold brochure that describes what services I provide.<\/p>\n

It amuses me that this venture violates every sensible startup procedure except one and that was discovering a market niche that was woefully under-supplied.<\/p>\n

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\nI was essentially coaxed into the business by my artist wife<\/a> who needed a service that wasn’t readily available. Once I discovered that the rest of the artists in the Art Under the Sun Gallery<\/a> were in need of the same services, it all started to make sense.<\/p>\n

It also aligns with my long-term purpose to help artists create viable businesses and contribute to sustainable economic development for this region.<\/p>\n

I will try to cover more interesting bits about this startup in the next few posts. Feel free to ask questions and suggest alternatives I may have missed.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As some of you have suspected, I’ve been launching a small business in the last few weeks and have been so busy that I haven’t had time to blog about it. I thought I would write about the experience so … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1804,1762,1792],"tags":[1323,223,14,1317,1322,1321],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3R4iK-7K","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}