We recently connected with Henri Laborde and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Henri, thanks for joining us today. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?

One major thing i have come to realize is that not everyone needs perfection when it comes to restoration. Most people want to hold on to their items and are ok with an ok/presentable repair. They juts want to see their precious and sentimental pieces everyday. When i started i only offered full restoration, which is way more expensive. Easily twice more. I’d have gotten much more work when i started. Many people get scared by the price which is not cheap, most of the time. I have been able, over the years, to increase my income and not increase my hours worked too much. Lesser restoration takes much less time and looks great, but not perfect. it allows me to reach more people much less fortunate. It has kept me going through the Covid times, as it did in 2008.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was working in an antique store and this fellow asked me if i wanted to do extra hours working for him in his repair shop. I did and discovered i had a gift for this. I then worked for myself once properly trained. I restore anything artistic except paper. When i can’t perform the entire job i ask help from my sub contractors.
I have to be a problem solver on a daily basis. I’m often an art repair contractor. When a piece require several skills set. 95% of the work is done by me. I do have to challenge my skills daly. Every piece is different and poses a different challenge. Could be the material, the finish, the deadline… I have to adapt and be open, always.
What i’m very proud of is the range of emotions and gratitude i get from my customers. From happy to ecstatic with hugs and happy tears. That’s gold.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

My outstanding cratfsmanship has helped me get to where i am right now. My people’s skills too. being very forward with the clients is always appreciated by everyone. it shows up in reviews a lot. People loooove the fact that i explain all the options to them so they know exactly what to expect. it’s rare today to have that kind of clarity and honesty and poeple really appreciate that.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In 2008 the phone stopped ringing for weeks. Scary. I had always been very reluctant to advertise, not knowing if it’d be worth the money i didn’t really have at the time. But i tried. I got on Google ads and the phone started ringing again. I spent hours and hours training myself to know how to get at the top of the search list. Lost of fine tuning, experiments, failures and quite a bit of money went into that. At the same time i started mailing out large postcards to insurance companies, cleaning services, moving companies… I also sent large envelopes with cover letter, resume, before and after pictures to museum, auction houses My business actually thrived throughout the 2008 recession.

Contact Info:

• Website: Fixfineart.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100049971476938
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/fine-art-restoration-los-angeles-7

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