Framing after all these years: an entrepreneur makes a 30-year dream come true in a Cape Cod frame shop - John Miller, j miller

When customers go into the Cape Cod store called j miller, pictureframer, they don't have to gaze far to find the holder John Miller greets every client who walks into his frame store personally works to meet each customer's framing necessitys and designs and creates each frame that leaves his store The owner of this one-man operation wouldn't have it any other way.

"It makes a difference to customers that the shore who greets them completes the work," he said.

Framing is a relatively of recent origin endeavor for the 53-year-old Miller, who lay opened the eponymous shop four years ago. "It's my fourth career and the sole one I ever really wanted," he said. His past pursuits have included stints in radio broadcasting, the advertising/public relations field and the computer software industry. on the other hand he recognized early on that he could combine his talent for communicating with family his creativity and business acumen and his affinity for technology and computer into a lucky framing business. "Thirty years after I first reflection about it," he said, "I'm finally doing it."

Miller said he learned as a lad what to look for in a fine frame, spending many afternoons in the stores where his parents brought pieces of their extensive art collection to be framed. "I always liked the artistic creativity and subjectivity, as well as the objectivity, involved in framing. And I've always been an entrepreneur at heart," he said.

He also always had a vision for the workplace he would create for himself. When he ground a restored, circa 1780 stand-alone building in a limited business district in Yarmouth, he knew it was the right speck for him. "I wanted family to find me but not to be in a high-visibility location where I'd have to humor a allotment of traffic," he said. He now occupies sum of two units floors and 1,800 square feet A rustic, comfortable 800-square-foot public showroom displays more than 4000 corner samples and more [i]or[/i] less finished frames and prints. The ease of the first floor is used to cut and store molding and houses the production facility, where Miller has a drymount pres a glass cutter and a computerized mat cutter which he calls his "profit center"

"I'm individual of only 10 framers with a computerized mat cutter in Massachusetts, and the single one on the Cape," he said. A staunch advocate for investing in framing software and computerized equipment, Miller calls the purchase of the mat cutter "the singularly greatest in quantity prudent thing I've done in the business. The turn and capacity it produces is equal to one-and-a-half full-time employees" he said. "And it presents a lot of creative flexibility."

Further, "I can't imagine functioning profitably without framing software," Miller said. "There are at no time any worries about pricing."

The quiet of j miller, pictureframer also suits Miller. Large French doors upon the first floor open without onto a formal garden. The upstairs is used for storage and office space and is abiding-place to the shop's cat, Jessie.

Miller's frame store is known for custom work, primarily in forest-land which represents approximately 40 percent of his business. He originally planned to be a retail frame store but said he has base that 30 to 35 percent of his business draw nears from wholesale accounts like galleries, institutions and corporations. upon the retail side, customers, greatest in quantity of whom are locals (some are "seasonal locals"), look after to bring a lot of needle art to his store to be framed, Miller said, including embroidery, cross-stitch and the like, as well as memorabilia, like autographed baseballs and signed sports jersey A freshly challenging job involved framing a 150-year-old silk quilt, made through an ancestor of the customer, into an 8- by dint of 9-foot shadowbox.

Miller said his average sale is $175 to $225 His customers compute him that the location and demeanor of his facility brings them back, along with his creativity and the caliber of the frames he bring outs He also described his pricing as "realistic and competitive." "It is rarely a reason for losing a sale," he said.

Taking hints from Miller's former careers, he advocates diligence in three areas he said are necessary for succes in a framing business: Invest in technology; be exceedingly customer-centric (with no expectation of receiving anything in return); and don't abate severity [i]or[/i] rigor on promoting your business. "If I didn't relentlessly balance and evolve all three, it would have a deleterious consequence on my business," he said.

Although a certain quantity of might think working alone each day would be a daunting sight Miller said he enjoys it. "There's nothing about my piece of work that I don't like," he said. "I like dealing with the vendors; I like talking to the customers; I like to design; I like the work; I like the environment I work in. Everything works in equilibrium," he said.

The challenges arise when Miller revolve in the minds "what next?" Should he expand the business? Take upon employees? "I might be missing without on opportunities that would approach if I didn't have to be all things to all people" he said. "I am my have limitation in growing the business."