The Framers Forum

I can't figure out this so called recession. I'm still getting busier, so much so that I've a new part time member of staff starting tomorrow. I've been resisting doing this for about a year now, due to all the doom and gloom talk of recession in the media and the fact that I believe that I should not take someone on, unless I'm prepared to commit myself to doing so long term.

Is anyone else so busy that they are taking on staff?

Or does this sound like a daft thing to do?

im taking another one on in January, after christmas. part time.
But for the shop rather than the workshop, admin, phone orders, emails and the shop counter, general retail grunt work.

no sign of a recession here either.......... yet.

I had to lay one member of staff off last Friday.

My figures for the year only show about a 6% drop in turnover but the " bottom line" has been reduced by about 14% due to the price increases caused by the weakness of sterling which we haven't felt able to pass on.

I don't see things improving on the high street for some time. About 50% of our business is supplying other shops / galleries and I can see a few of these retail outlets not being around for very long after christmas. Getting money in from my account customers is proving increadibly difficult.

Which is one of the reasons why I've been planning a web site.- Money upfront!!
It should launch in late January . It was supposed to be up and running for this Christmas but I felt happier with a "soft launch" when were not so busy as I feel there's bound to be problems!

Good luck to both of you with your new staff.
I believe any specialist shop who offer quality products with good service will survive.

good luck Framerpicture, bit of luck it'll be a good holiday season and they'll all go to minehead instead of florida Was up your way in May touring round Exmoor, nice spot Minehead. Will for sure be staying up there again when we get a chance.

Looking at numbers, rather than figures, we are also down on "trade" type orders, likewsie many became a PITA with their bills and excuses in the past year. specially photographers and some self publishing artists. So we pretty much just do "retail" and "online".

Retail numbers (number of orders per day/week/month on last year are probably down a bit, but retail takings are well up, due to price rises. No problem selling mid and higher end stuff, but the budget framing market (for what its worth) isn't worth the bother really now round here.

I cannot shift RMFs nowadays though which used to be a nice earner, specially as they were all made from scrap.
Anyone else finding a slump in RMFs?

kev@frames wrote: Was up your way in May touring round Exmoor, nice spot Minehead. Will for sure be staying up there again when we get a chance.

when your next in the area and get a spare moment ,pop in, the kettle alway's on and be good to meet you

Will

cheers Will, look forward to it!