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Category:
Published: November 2007
Lee Weiser, proprietor of Frame of Mind, left an executive position in New York City to turn his hobby into a business. He couldn't be happier.
Success Magazine: What does success mean to you?
Lee Weiser: The successful pursuit of your passion is success.
SM: Do you mean as a business owner, or personally, or both?
LW: It's hard to separate Lee Weiser the person from Lee Weiser the businessman, and I'm so closely affiliated with Frame of Mind that I would just say it's about the business, but it carries over to my personal life, as well.
SM: As an entrepreneur, you have to wear many hats. Why did you go into business for yourself?
LW: I wish I could say that there was a perfect logic to it, but I think it was that I didn't feel very successful or accomplished as a business executive, although I was. I was well- compensated, and a ranking officer, but I didn't like working in the corporate world, and I didn't like working in New York City. So, I kind of parlayed the picture framing avocation hobby into a profession, and it made all the difference. It's like that Robert Frost poem: two roads diverged, and I took the one less traveled.
SM: There are a ton of retail operations out there. Why did you choose the framing business?
LW: It was all about woodworking. As a hobbyist, I was an American antique furniture repair specialist. I would take apart American furniture, reassemble it, refinish it, and I became a pretty accomplished woodworker and patternmaker.
SM: Are your frames all custom-made?
LW: Yes. The molding is cut and assembled in another location in Saratoga. The art, however, always stays in the store. The mats are sized, the glass is cut, and everything is assembled within the store.
SM: Why did you choose this location?
LW: I met a man who was going to be a mall manager in Clifton Park. He asked me, "Would you like to open a store in upstate New York?" and I said yes. I'm really a farmer, and I love it up here. I was brought up in a very rural, very agricultural area. This is very comfortable for me.
SM: Did you have a business plan when you started?
LW: I really didn't have as specific a business plan as I would recommend to someone today if they were starting a business, but I did have a concept, and it was to do everything myself. This is a very vertically-integrated company. We stock molding, we stock glass, we stock mat boards. We do every part of the business ourselves. There is no reliance or dependence on anyone except the supplier of the pieces of molding, wood, and pieces of mat board. All the rest of the work is done in my store by me or my associates, and I'm still doing the same stuff as all my associates. I still frame pictures and cut frames all the time.
SM: You didn't have an initial business plan, you had a vision.
LW: Yes, and I'll tell you what allowed me to expand. It was actually that there are people who work for me who just emerged as being very capable, and their competence was observed. That character, that personality, that substantial individual emerged, and I almost said, "I've got to open a store just for this person, because he can't continue to be here, he's got to go out on his own."
SM: Would you say that you love what you're doing?
LW: Oh, yes. I love it. Even now, after almost 30 years, I'm still excited about coming up with a great frame job; a great frame job and design doesn't cost any more than a poor design. The materials in a poor design are just as expensive as they are in a great design, but what comes out of my head and is fabricated is really a great result. It's fantastic when people open their packages and say, "I can't believe it turned out this well!" I hear it all the time. This is a very interesting business in that respect, because the business cycle is very short. It's conceivable you can work with a customer, design the job, cut the frame, cut the mat, cut the glass, do the assembly, and give it back to that customer in a week to 10 days.
SM: You now have four stores, and you have to hire the right people to work in them. How did you find the right people, and how do you retain them?
LW: I think the most important thing is to have respect for your associates. I work with my associates; they don't work for me. There's nothing better than to see a young man or a young woman come in without the knowledge of how to frame pictures, and through this process, this educational process, acquire those skills, as well as that design sense. What also happens is that they become more confident themselves as individuals, and that's especially gratifying. It becomes very clear to me who the good ones are.
SM: When you're hiring, what do you look for?
LW: I advertise that I'm looking for the artsy type, but we also need people who are sales and marketing oriented. We need people who have some tactile skills, good hand skills and dexterity. We've also found that we have to be pretty good with numbers. You have to do arithmetic to be a good picture framer. We have a test, a very simple test, it's just about fractions, but it makes a difference. But what do all of these people have in common? They're conscientious, they respectful, they're diligent. Those are the qualities I demand. They're respectful; they respect the clients, they respect the artwork, and they respect the institution. Frame of Mind is almost an institution. This is our 30th year of doing business.
SM: You worked your way up to V.P. of Citibank, which is an admirable position. What did you learn there that you took and brought forward to Frame of Mind?
LW: Every discipline in business makes a difference. As it relates to the corporate side, my approach is, "It can be done." I can do rush jobs. I can do hard things. I don't want to disappoint people, and that all came out of that corporate mindset. I really do want to say that as I look at Frame of Mind, it's an artistic venture for sure, but it is truly a business, and as time has gone on, I have seen that every single business discipline rears its head. I never thought I would be interested in accounting, but now I am, because if I have to make a pitch to a bank for a bank loan, they want to see the accounting. They want to see pure and simple balance sheets and P&L statements. The marketing, advertising, and merchandising stuff is another part of it. What's unquestionably most important is the human resources component. It's all about dealing with people, and it's not only your associates, but your customers as well. It's those relationships, you know, having good relationships, nurturing those relationships, and that's all based on respect for those people in their environment, both personally and professionally.
SM: Was there ever a time when you were down and out or second-guessing yourself?
LW: All I can say about small business is that it's extremely challenging, and I think the climate today is even more challenging.
SM: In what way?
LW: I think that my competitor is not necessarily the next frame shop or art gallery; my competitor is my next-door neighbor. The consumer is out there looking, they have $100 to spend, and the question is are they going to buy a new suit of clothes at S&K or are they going to buy a picture frame from Frame of Mind? It's a competition for the disposable dollar and the discretionary spending. The items in an art gallery frame shop operation are unquestionably discretionary spending items, and I think the fact that we're thriving in that competitive environment speaks volumes about the way I do business, and the way I run the business.
SM: What makes you different from the other framing entities within the region?
LW: We all possess the components that I see as critical for any business to have: good service, good quality, and good value. I think that riding the wave on those three things gives people bang for their buck. You're getting your money's worth at my store. So that's the value component. If all business people followed that, we'd all be a lot better off. The idea of being taken advantage of is distressing to me, terribly distressing. That's not good value. That's not good service. I think the value of the job that we do is extraordinary. That's on the custom picture framing side. On the art side, I know there's not another gallery in Upstate New York that's as committed to focusing attention on local artists and their artwork as Frame of Mind. The artists we feature are local people, they're people I know, and that speaks volumes. It's been a good relationship.
SM: What does the future hold for Lee Weiser and Frame of Mind?
LW: I have to say that I'm pretty satisfied with how things stand right now. I've built a great deal from humble beginnings and not a lot of money. I was as resourceful as I could be. I'm trying to do some community service things now. I'm the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners at the Saratoga Springs Housing Authority. I was appointed by both Republican and Democrat mayors. I served on the hospital board, and I've served at the Historical Society.
SM: So you're giving back to the community?
LW: I think you have to. I'm as generous as I can be. I have a nice relationship with Skidmore College. I have an even more profound relationship with the School of Business at Siena College, where I serve on the Dean's Advisory Council. Again, that's a case where I periodically meet with business students and discuss real life business, not textbook business. It's the real McCoy, and that's exciting.
SM: You've done mentoring within your own organization, and now you're talking about being with business students. The mentoring process is very critical. Have you ever taken on interns, mentored them, worked with them, or worked with other business owners to help them along the way?
LW: I really haven't. I'm sorry to admit that. The level of training that's necessary to make somebody productive in my enterprise is serious. It's just not something where I can say, "Can you give me one day a week for me to make you a businessperson?" I have done some job shadowing experiences. A friend of mine is a teacher of business courses at Corinth High School, and over the years he's brought in handfuls of kids to shadow me a day at work. I've also done the same thing at Siena College, where some foreign exchange students did the same thing for a day. So, people do get a feeling and flavor for what I do, but it hasn't been in a structured way such as in a mentoring program.
SM: If you had to describe yourself in one word, what would it be?
LW: Balanced. I think the most important thing is to balance business, family, personal, professional, your own home, your community, and I hope that I'm using good judgment in that balancing.
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