We recently connected with Micah Ruiz and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Micah, thanks for joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
In the last two years, I went from a one-man-shop to having a thriving business with 10 employees, two beautiful design studios and a commercial production space that I purchased! I always planned to have multiple retail locations, because I want to create jobs and train craftspeople to continue to propel custom framing, long after I’m gone. I’m always thinking big picture. I’ve worked hard to make myself relevant in my field; framing is all about reputation and I’ve put a lot of effort into building a solid name for myself and to become an industry leader.
Often when people look at my business, they say things like, “wow, that happened so fast” or “you’re so lucky”. What people don’t see are the countless hours and years I’ve dedicated to this dream. To me, I’m thinking “FINALLY!” By the time anyone hears about any part of what I’m working on, I’ve already mapped it all out and overthought it a thousand times. I keep it to myself until I have already worked out the kinks. It might look effortless from an outside perspective, but so much effort goes into every step. I listen to my gut a lot, I have no education, but I have a good gut and unmatched work ethic. I’m completely self made and I take a lot of pride in that.
I’ve been working tirelessly and laying the groundwork for this business for decades. I work seven days a week and have made sacrifices beyond what anyone is aware of. There is no luck. There’s a lot of hard work, planning and a willingness to leap fearlessly and take advantage of opportunities when the time is right. I feel like I’ve found this perfect balance of not forcing things but also not hesitating! It’s not easy, but it’s absolutely worth it.
Micah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Micah Ruiz and I own Orion Custom Framing. We’re a preservation-level framing studio in San Francisco, California. We beautify and protect art with museum level materials and techniques. We create custom framing solutions for Museums, galleries, artists, interior designers and private collectors. We say YES to everything and take a lot of pride in our quality level and creative problem solving abilities.
I’ve dedicated the last 22 years of my life to my craft and I’ve always had the dream of opening my own business. I wanted to bring a fresh, modern take on the traditional craft of picture framing with an emphasis on craftsmanship and design. I wanted to bring the industry that I love so much, everything that I felt it was missing. I wanted to bring my passion for preserving and beautifying art to a new audience by creating a modern, airy space that feels like no frame shop you’ve ever seen!
I opened the first location of Orion Custom Framing as a one-man-shop in Bernal Heights, June 1st, 2022. I was met with an immediate positive response and had to hire within the first couple months. The momentum just kept building and I had to keep hiring and I purchased a commercial space within the first year, to expand our production to keep up with my quickly growing business. June 1st, 2024, exactly 2 years to-the-day, I opened my second design studio in the Russian Hill neighborhood of SF, to expand our reach even further!
Creating jobs was a huge part of the whole dream and so far I’ve been able to hire 10 people! This is way beyond where I thought I’d be at this point. I couldn’t be more proud or humbled by the outpouring of support and love for my business! It shows me that I’m exactly where I’m meant to be. I’m going to keep just doing exactly what I’m doing and loving it! This is still just the beginning!
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
When I was 11 years old, my parents moved us from my childhood home in Southern California to Mosier, Oregon, a town of 400 people in the Columbia River Gorge. It was absolutely beautiful, but when you’re homeschooled in a tiny town, there’s not a lot of opportunity. Luckily my friend’s parents opened a wholesale frame shop and needed help, so I started what was supposed to be a temporary job. My 16th birthday was my first official work day, on the books. I was doing two years worth of school and working at the frame shop 3-4 days a week.
I quickly fell in love with the picture framing. It’s this wonderful balance of being creative while designing and working with clients and also building and working with my hands. I love seeing designs from conception all the way through to the finished product. Framing is so tangible and so gratifying and fulfilling. I’ve been honing and perfecting my craft ever since. I never thought that framing would end up defining my entire life.
The owner’s wife had a subscription to Picture Framing Magazine the industries premier publication and she would give me the issues after she was done reading them. I remember reading the articles and slowly realizing what a big industry the framing and art world was and the opportunities that framing could bring. Fast forward all these years later, and I’m a contributing write for Picture Framing Magazine! Life is wild.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I have posted a photo on Instagram every single day since we opened; I’ve never missed! I use it as a portfolio to show examples of our work and to show what’s possible. It helps people to start wrapping their heads around all the options in the comfort of their own home and begin the design process before they even come into the shop. Since everything we do is custom, there’s a lot of imagination during the design process and it can really help them to explore finished projects, to see what they’re drawn to and to visualize how their piece might look. It also helps us to start building trust with our clients as they see all the unique and challenging projects we’ve taken on. It’’s a great way to show our expertise, our creative problem solving skills and our attention to detail.
One of the things that sets my shop’s Instagram a part, and has helped me scale my social media, is that I write a pun for every single post. It might seem like just some goofy joke, but a lot more thought has gone into it than that! Framing and art in general can be intimidating and often people don’t know much about it, so clients can tend to come in very guarded. I use the jokes to show that while we take our craft very serious, we don’t take ourselves too serious. It helps to break the ice and make people feel more comfortable coming in and talking with us. I write the jokes each day as I post and as someone that is constantly joking, I’ve been training for this my whole life!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Orioncustomframing.com
- Instagram: @orioncustomframing
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/orion-custom-framing-san-francisco
Image Credits
Kelly Keltos