We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alan Bertaux a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alan, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

After losing my wife to breast cancer, I lost interest in the business we had developed together. After grieving for about a year and an half, I remarried  and started thinking about what kind of business I’d like to get into. After researching the market for a year, I finally zeroed in on a picture frame shop that was for sale. I didn’t know anything about framing, but the price was right and it seemed like something that could be enjoyable to get into. I bought the business in 1992, which came with one employee. That employee taught my new wife and I the mechanics of framing.

Within a year of taking over that business, I realized that there was not enough income running one shop. I decided to start another one in a different part of the city, and then another, and another. Eventually, within 3 years, I had five stores in the Baltimore area.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Alan Bertaux and I’m the owner of Framin’ Place, a custom picture frame shop in Baltimore (http://framin.com)

Prior to the picture framing business, I had started a business helping foreign companies become established in America. My previous wife and I did that for about 10 years and we successfully launched about a dozen European firms in the US. However, as a result of my wife’s passing, I decided to abandon this line of business. About a year and a half later, I  eventually acquired a small picture frame shop in Randallstown, a suburb of Baltimore. After a year or so, I acquired another frame shop and eventually had five shops in the Baltimore area.

With regards to advertising, I tried a number of venues: door hangers, newspaper ads, radio and TV commercials, trade shows, emails, etc. After a several years, I realized that radio was the best way to advertise, particularly after winning, several times, the “best of Baltimore” accolade from Baltimore magazine.

One of the toughest moments in this business was when I lost my manager of 20 years. His passing was a personal shock as we had become good friends, and also a professional shock as he had been extremely instrumental in growing this business. Fortunately, a year or so before his deadly illness, he had hired a gifted employee who became my new manager.

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

After acquiring the first shop in Randallstown, it soon became apparent that an expansion was necessary to generate a sufficient income. Thus was the beginning of a small chain of 5 shops in the Baltimore area. When I decided to move permanently to Delaware, I sold four of those shops to my former managers and retained the current one in Mt Washington.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

I had been successful in my previous business. As a result, I had the capital reserves to acquire additional locations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Framin.com
• Other: I was burned with some social media some years ago, and I decided never to get involved with those things again.

Image Credits

These are personal photographs of artwork framed by our company, and therefore require no external credit.