A nice, behind the scenes look at "Sincerely, Yours."
Welcome, dear Online Shopper!
By accident or design, you have happened upon the story in real time, of setting up this commerce website I call Sincerely Yours.
I'm not new to retail or b2b sales--I have been in the retail industry for over forty years. The difference now is I am not working for somebody else, which is a lovely thing. There is nothing more disheartening than working for a company, knowing what could be done, should be done but can't because decisions are made from offices, not working the sales floor.
I have been on both sides of that position, and it shocked me how much of the sales floor action faded away from me.
Opening a store as a sole proprietor just wasn't possible twenty years ago, for me or anyone else that wanted to open a store but was not independently wealthy or have as healthy business creditline.
It is my hope that I will be able to offer many options for the consuming public, though my plans will be to open with a smaller amount of merchandise that my final plans will be. I will not have a business that I can not handle properly or the chance, especially in the beginning, of even one customer being disappointed, our fault or not. I will need all of these happy people to share information about this wonderful shop they found online.
I'd like to share what I plan of products to have available by Fall of 2025.
My first full-time job was in an art gallery and frame shop. Oh, I loved the work, the materials and the creativity of a shop! Most picture framers in the late 1970s and '80s were the domain of women with husbands that were looking for tax deductions from their work.
It's tricky as hell to make framing work as a business unless you have a keen eye for business, which most didn't have.
Nor could those privatives the open a store online for the price of a McDonald's lunch. I can.😀
The amount of software that is available, solving such problems as how I as framer can get a frame assembled and overnighted from the east coast, for instance--it's quite doable. Software that is aware of how much stock I have, how much I will need to have, an solid ETA that I could track or suggestions of an alternative that would arrive early and/or at a better price.
Well, Gah-lee, it is amazing at what has changed in the passing forty years...there was talk of pneum*/atic was the gossip when I left. I was the worst at figuring fractions...
What I have up my sleeve could take today's technology one step further, and while I'd love to have that available when I open the eShop, it may take longer.
My shop will have the ability to have a client send an electronic file to us, choose a frame from samples that are all scanned three-dimensionally so a client can see the details closer than you could physically be able to view it.
I am to the point where I am setting up some additional software that can do the same thing with a variety of mats, filets and possibly show the types of glass and their characteristics.
While our client considers this, we will be able to take a digital file and show the piece of framed art as they have selected it! My work--which will to get the frame samples mats and finishing touches to, so short of holding the finished work in your hands, you will clearly know how all of this will look with your art and what the costs will be for this. Shipping & handling are always included in your price so there is no question what the finished amount will be.
As this is perfected, I plan to add kiosk "shops."
On the subject of kiosks, my thoughts right now would be in better malls close to a Nordstrom or another higher quality shop.
As for demographics, which I haven't researched enough to know. I'd say that my target customer will be a college-educated woman, in her 30s-50s and far enough into her career that money isn't so much the issue, as convenience, quality and not having to think about it until it comes in at her home or office, with hardware to hang the art, and it would be nice to find a little something extra sent with. I think a note written on a nice art card from the staff or I (which I will be staff and owner, lol~), a business card to hand to a friend with a discount and one to the client for a discount next visit.
What do you think? I want to start concervitally. While I think my funding is solid and will be there to help me get my business off the ground, and I hope with an amount that won't leave me counting pennies at the end of each day and that is just me wringing my hands. I've built into my funding request a large startup and advertising budget, which I figured was better than going back to the committee with hat in hand asking for more. Money scatters to the wind like it does when I go to the supermarket.
Bespoke, or custom framing is not a necessity, it is a choice someone makes. My customer does not need to frame the wedding invitation they received from their daughter or grandson. That they took the time to go to a good custom framer, who helped fill in the colors the sizes, and very often the taste to make judgments about something that is common enough in our homes, but who knows the details of how those choices are made. There is enough for all of those happy people to take care of than this, as important a gift that it is.
There are so many precious memories, fine things owned yet stowed away, or a piece of art that is not whispering to you, it is shouting that it needs to go home with you. Yeah, been there, done that. An idea? Bring your new acquisition by to show it off! Let us take its picture and keep the measurements on file. Good to have for your insurance broker, available for the authorities, should it need be, and that the gnomes that takes care of your art, you really have no idea when that might be handy, but we have seen that happen before.
Should anyone bump into the first page, and you have thoughts on the matter of ordering fames online or at a kiosk in a mall somewhere, I'd appreciate it!
I must tell you, I'm still not sold on Sincerely, Yours as the shop gallery name. I have to get the word Shop out of my head. I guarantee you very fancy, high end galleries have gnomes hidden somewhere and the minutes you pass from the sparkling showroom, you step into a funky beat up over-sized warehouse setting in the back. The music playing in this area is never quite like whatever might be playing "up front." These people are dressed like the freaks and bums they are. They refer to us as being WAY overdressed in the front for being chaiers, always said with a sneer.
Collectively, the only time we get serious is when art is concerned, our client's art--they pay for the lights, man!"--righteous documentation, ALWAYS writing the time and who you talked to, to ANYTHING. Lying is a very bad habit for some people so I like to have my "i"s dotted and our "t"s crossed before I push a Teller of Tall Tales* through a wall with my voice.
*We are serious about English here. I'm a writer and an obsessive.
Left to my own wits, however, I can swear a sailor to blush.
Incongruous with my dress-up suit on.
If I am driving my old station wagon and someone hits me, pish. I would just plow my car right back in theirs and see how long it takes for them to get bored of the game and quit. My poor wagon should have been junked years ago. I'd kind of think it would be fun to watch a BMW hubcap roll into the parking lot, tighter, and faster making a snare drum noise when it rattles to the floor. Does he have insurance? Well he has to, to at least the value left on the car loan. The one he is already underwater in.
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| Pissed off Chicken v1/AP artist flew the coop |
As for the chicken and its image, I'm not sure where I found this or why I would even make a point to saving it. I'm going to allow that my hand must have been involved, as my PC is verboden to other household members. But that sure smacks of AI, huh? It has sort of a look of the main pylon on the USS Enterprise. For those that look at this image and say, "My lordy, I Need That!" Send me your P/M or Email and you shall not be denied. If I am still futzing with my printer, but not anything that would prevent a nice printjob, I'd be happy to do that, too.
It is my sincerest hope that after things start getting lined up for business, one of my first purchases will be a nice giclée printer capable of making everyone's art look as good as possible.
I'm going to end here as I have been informed that I've got a lot of other blogs that I need to tend to.
I'll have more of my thoughts and plans for Sincerely, Yours I'm excited!
You're not excited? That's alright for this very moment, but I won't be satisfied until I hear some screaming and shouting~!
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