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Neal Eilers, went from corporate sales to owning a successful custom framing business, but his journey is nowhere near as point A to Point B as that sounds.
Neal is a travel enthusiast who entered the corporate world and found success and adventure around the world. But it wasn't enough, he knew he needed to pursue his true passions and humbly shares about his journey of growing a custom framing and furniture business from his garage to a downtown storefront, despite the incredible odds he faced in 2020. His journey is surprising, with many twists and turns and spans across continents, all circling him back home to his garage in Ralston, Nebraska, where he has designed his life and business around what he loves.
Neal Eilers is the owner and founder of NE Custom Framing and Furniture, a business he grew from his garage to a storefront in Ralston, Nebraska. Neal has an undeniable passion for business and believes in creating a simple, elegant, and affordable experience for his customers.
Are you a business owner? Or are you on the verge of taking that side hustle to the next level? Or curious about the world of entrepreneurship? Join Vivian Kvam, Co-Owner of Tandem Works, each week for a behind-the-scenes at small businesses and what it takes to succeed.
Each episode is full of inspiration, education, tips, and great conversation with people like you, people who are figuring it out. Take your business to the next level with insight from expert guests in business, leadership, and marketing.
Vivian
Hi there. This is your host, Vivian, and you're listening to Tandem Works Works, a podcast that is all things business, entrepreneurship and the secret to operating a successful business while still having a life you love. Whether you're a business owner on the verge of taking that side, hustle to the next level, or just curious about the world of entrepreneurship, join me as I go behind the scenes of my own business and the businesses of others, unpacking some of the most valuable lessons you can apply today. Let's dive in. Well, welcome to this episode of Writing Kingdom. Very excited for our guests today. I have with us today Neal Eilers, and he is the owner and founder of NE custom framing and furniture. And Neal has been able to grow a business from his garage to a fabulous location and storefront in downtown Ralston, Nebraska. And we were talking a little bit before, and he says, I don't know if I have the most interesting story, but I do have some interest. And I'm like, no, this is going to be a super interesting story. So I'm excited for you all to be listening in today. Neal grew up in Nebraska, in the Ralston neighborhoods, and he had a great passion for wildlife photography. And that is actually one of the ways that I got to know Neal is through my husband, who also does landscape photography and a little wildlife photography as well. And so my husband kept talking about Neal and how we had to go check out his gallery and shop. And I said, okay, let's do this. And so we did. And I just knew that it was going to be a fun conversation. So it was because of the photography passion that Neal had that he started building his own frames, which makes complete sense, having been a photographer, when you can control the framing. And Matting, that's just a beautiful thing. It can really show off your artwork, and it can also just make a difference in how you show that artwork. But he was building these frames, and before he knew it, the frames were out selling his photography. And isn't that funny how things like that happen? And so from that, he decided to create a custom framing business, which is NE custom framing and furniture. And that was around 2019, which is an interesting year. I'm sure we'll talk about that a little bit leading up to 2020. But one of the things I love about Neal in the shop there is that when you work with him, it's all about the experience. He believes in picking out the custom wood in order to make that frame. And that I love on his website even says that every time you do this, it should be a simple, elegant, and affordable experience. And I'm excited to talk about that as well, because I know sometimes having something custom framed might seem impossible, but I know Neal has all kinds of things to say about that, so we'll dive into that. But Neal truly owns the entire process, from hand picking each slab of wood at the sawmill to sanding it and finishing each frame by hand. So you never have two frames that are alike. And I will say, having been in the shop, they're beautiful. And also getting to see the slabs of wood in their raw form and the texture and the smells is just a really fun experience. So if you're in the area and get to stop in, I would highly recommend it. Neal also, though, he's a man of many talents, so he also creates beautiful furniture and household items. And I know I've mentioned this before, Neal, but I'll say it again, I would love to have one of those tables someday.
Neal Eilers
Yeah, we'll have to do one for you here shortly, but yeah, no, thank you for the introduction. That was great. And I appreciate you having me here. This is awesome to kind of brag about my business.
Vivian
It's good to do a little humble bragging.
Neal Eilers
It is, for sure it is.
Vivian
We were talking earlier. I'm actually reading a book right now, and I will look at the title, but I want to say it's something like the Art of Bragging and Tuning Your Own Horn. And there's like a tagline to it, I think of, like but not in classy way. I just switched the title. I'll look it up.
Neal Eilers
Yeah. And that's one of the things that I think we might touch on today, is not necessarily bragging, but just talking about your business, especially with networking groups and stuff like that, it's been a great key to my success.
Vivian
I would love that.
Neal Eilers
But yeah.
Vivian
Why do you think it's so hard sometimes for people to talk about their business? Or have you ever found it hard or was it natural for you?
Neal Eilers
Well, to talk about my business? It's natural because, number one, it's my passion, it's what I'm passionate about. And I think if you find that passion in your life of what you're doing, it's very easy to talk about. I've been in the corporate jobs and stuff and not really passionate about it. And it was probably a little harder to talk about because it's like, I don't really care about what I'm doing. So what do I have to share to other people?
Vivian
What are the key pieces of your story that would bring us a better understanding of how you've arrived here today? And you can go back as far as you want, like if that's five or whatever.
Neal Eilers
Yeah, I'll go back just a little bit to growing up. So like you mentioned, I grew up here in Ralston. I should have grown up in the mountains, but for whatever reason, the Midwest hill midwest? Yeah. My parents weren't apt to moving anywhere. They're from central Nebraska and their jobs were here. And I think I remember one time they were like, oh, we might move to New Mexico. And it's like, let's go, let's get out of here. But that never happened. But my parents, since even before me, my dad always talks about having the truck camper and going camping a lot. And so I spent a lot of time in nature, and especially by myself because my sister was nine years older than me. And when your sibling is nine years older than you, you're not out there playing. I spend a lot of time, like down in Wabansi. I don't know if you and Troy have been there.
Vivian
I don't think I have mentioned it.
Neal Eilers
And then traveling around Nebraska and Iowa stuff, we did a lot of camping. So I spent a lot of time in nature. And I wish I had found photography earlier. And so that's kind of where my passion lies because I also was able to move around not only the country a lot. So I ended up living in the mountains in Missoula, Montana, which was really cool.
Vivian
It's a beautiful area.
Neal Eilers
It is, yeah. Montana is kind of weird in that everything is like 3 hours away from everything, for sure. So if you're like I was in Missoula, bozeman was 3 hours, the capital was 3 hours, glacier was 3 hours. And so you're kind of just in the middle of everything, but like middle of heaven. Yeah. No, that was a good time in my life.
Vivian
How did you end up there?
Neal Eilers
So after I graduated college, so I graduated with bachelor's in hospital administration.
Vivian
Really?
Neal Eilers
Yeah.
Vivian
This is going to get interesting.
Neal Eilers
Yeah. So when I was going to school, I went to Concordia College in Morehead, Minnesota, and I played hockey up in Minnesota and I was doing physical therapy. Well, I'm not such science math type person. That lasted like half a semester.
Vivian
That surprised me with doing frames and furniture. I think of that and I'm like it's so much math.
Neal Eilers
Yeah, but it's like the simple math. It's not like calculus. I don't know how I made it through that class. Fair enough. It is a lot of math, but it's easily done on a calculator.
Vivian
Fair enough.
Neal Eilers
Fair enough. So the job that I was with in referencing, being passionate about what you're doing, I was with a company called Ferguson. They're a wholesale plumbing supply company. And then I went through their sales training management program and I did that out in Missoula. And then my cousin who ran kind of North Dakota, northern Minnesota, recruited me back to the Fargo Morehead area. And then at that time, this was 2008, 2009, and it was just, you know, getting up every day and just doing something that I just wasn't passionate about. I was in sales, and I didn't even care if anybody bought anything from me.
Vivian
No.
Neal Eilers
And that's like, the whole point of sales, is like, you want to sell stuff, and it's like, if you want to buy it for me, that's great, but if you don't, go somewhere else. But I wasn't rude or anything to my customers, because early on, you mentioned owning the whole experience and creating an environment in my store. And that's where I'm thankful for that job, because that's where I really learned the value of customer service. And the customer signs your Paychecks, not like your boss. And so when I was in the corporate world, I always had that mentality. Like, my boss doesn't sign my Paychecks, my customer signs my Paychecks. And that's where we'll get into that a little bit in terms of owning the whole experience and just having that customer service that is next to none. So I moved back to Fargo, and at that time, it was like, well, what do I do with my life now? And I made a plan in 2008. It was October of 2008. I'm going to save up for one year, and then I'm just going to go travel.
Vivian
Nice.
Neal Eilers
I didn't know where, but I finally, for some reason, I landed on South America. I don't know why. I don't know what the reasons were. I thought, like, Asia maybe, but maybe South America. I took Spanish in college, and that was cool. But I don't know, maybe I did.
Vivian
You were, like, fluent.
Neal Eilers
No, I barely passed that class. I think the teacher felt bad for me. I remember sitting in the because I didn't take it in high school. I took German because in high school, I took German because I knew the instructor. My sister took German. And so the instructor sorry, the instructor knew me, and I was like, oh, that'll be an easy grade. And so that's why I didn't even take Spanish in high school. But I'm sitting in college Spanish, where everybody at least had a year or two in high school, and I didn't even know how to conjugate. I didn't know what conjugate a verb means. This girl next to me, and she helped me out a little bit, so I kind of fumbled my way through those classes. But I don't know. For some reason, I landed on South America.
Vivian
I didn't drive there. Were you going to drive?
Neal Eilers
No, actually, I wanted to bike there.
Vivian
Really?
Neal Eilers
Yeah.
Vivian
All this multi, passionateness I'm loving it.
Neal Eilers
Yeah. During that time, I tried to get my friend to bike the Pan American Highway. So from the top of Alaska to the bottom of South America.
Vivian
Would love to not bike. I don't want to bike it. I'm not a biker, but I would love to.
Neal Eilers
It's like an overland vehicle.
Vivian
That would be awesome.
Neal Eilers
And he long story short, he didn't want to do it at that time. And then now, years later, he's biked, like, almost all the way around the world. I'm like, man, why don't you do this with me earlier? Now I can't. I mean, I could I would miss my wife, but I could go and bike with you. But it is what it is. And so I got hooked up with a nonprofit, and I did some work in Bolivia. We worked with an indigenous tribe. That would be a whole podcast in itself. And then I met my friend who has biked around the world in Chile. And we spent four or five months traveling, like Patagonia all around Chile in Argentina. And then I went back and lived in Santiago for a little bit, and then I found myself in Columbia, which is where I met my wife. So my wife is from Columbia. I spent a couple of years there, and then we moved back to the States in 2014.
Vivian
Okay. I feel like the big question people always ask at this point is like, that sounds amazing. How did you pay for it? Was it all nonprofit?
Neal Eilers
No, I saved. So in 2008, I made kind of a pact with myself, like, we're going to save for a year. During that time traveling around, we didn't spend more than, like, $1,000 a month. So on average, it was about $500 a month is what we would spend. And so we had plenty of money. We weren't filthy rich, like, living like kings. But it was very cheap to travel around. I mean, hostels back then, I don't know what they are now, but they were $5 a night, right? And breakfast was like a dollar or something. And so I was able to travel for quite a bit after we moved from Columbia back to the States in 2014. My wife had always wanted to study in an English speaking country. When we met, she was trying to go to Australia, and I kind of put the kibosh on that and got her to move. Well, I didn't really get her to move. I love Colombia. The people are nice. The weather is like 75, 80 tops. 80 tops. And then at night, it's been getting down to like, 55, which is cold for them.
Vivian
Perfect.
Neal Eilers
So no humidity up in the mountains. And so that's like the perfect place that anybody would want to live.
Vivian
Sure.
Neal Eilers
I'm not going to tell you the name because I don't want anybody to go on there. I don't want people going there.
Vivian
And I'm thinking Australia.
Neal Eilers
Okay.
Vivian
You said English speaking. Yes, but I don't know if that.
Neal Eilers
Would set you up quite no, it ran across my mind, be like, yeah, I could follow her to Australia. But then it's like, now the cost of living and finding a job there would be just nearly impossible. We moved up here. She works in public health, so she was a public health administrator in the city of Metajean, which is four or 5 million people. It's not a small town. And our deal was I'm going to find a job and when we move up here and I'm going to support you through school and when you graduate and find a job, you're going to support me in whatever my passion is. I found a job. It was an amazing time. This was kind of like the corporate world. I ran our cross border operations to and from Mexico, so everything to and from Mexico by train called Intermole went through my group. And so I traveled a lot through Mexico, spend a lot of time down there and it was great, but it wasn't necessarily something that I'm passionate about. In comes the photography. So growing up in nature, I've always developed this just passion for nature and just being out in nature, it's something that everybody should experience, I think. Naturally we're not supposed to be in big cities, we're supposed to be in nature. And so I just enjoy seeing wildlife. Just being in nature is just a different experience. It just takes you away from everyday life and the daily grind and stuff. And so I was able to start buying equipment. I'm sure as you went progressed through your photography equipment, it's like, yeah, I can buy this little Canon SL one and start photography and then it's like two weeks later you're buying a $2,000 camera.
Vivian
Troy just got in the good old Amazon, right? Yeah, he just got a gimbal to be able to balance the larger lenses for wildlife photography. And he unpacking it last night and now of course, he needs a different tripod.
Neal Eilers
Yeah, you go down that rabbit hole and pretty soon you're spending 2000 $3,000 on a lens. It's like, where is all this money coming from and where is it going? Yeah, I know the feeling. So getting involved with nature photography, I mainly do wildlife and birds are kind of what my passion are.
Vivian
What is it about birds?
Neal Eilers
I don't know. I think the crane migration through Nebraska kind of what drew me more into birds. And being able to go and see something as incredible as that is just.
Vivian
Life changing when those snow geese come through. So I'm from Nevada originally and so birds to me was like mountain birds, blue birds, and jakes and hummingbirds, things like that. We moved here. And I remember going out to DeSoto Ben, and I know the bird counts down quite a bit since they've had the flooding, they spread out more, but at the time, that flooding hadn't taken place, and so they would just swoop in. And it would make me think of those biblical stories you hear where the sun's blocked out by because there's so many. I know, they just like clouds come in and then noise. And it is pretty awe inspiring. You say awesome, but with the emphasis on the awe. It's amazing.
Neal Eilers
Yeah, the first year I went out and rented a blind. So there's some places where you can rent a blind on the plat and literally be like 5ft away from the water and you stay out overnight.
Vivian
Oh wow.
Neal Eilers
The estimate for that year, the week that I was there was like 750,000 birds and in the mile span where I was, it was like 100,000 or something like that and it's just incredible. I don't know how to explain it.
Vivian
If you haven't experienced it, you just haven't experienced it. Even when you take photos. That's one of my things. I don't do landscape or wildlife because to me I'm frustrated that I can't capture it.
Neal Eilers
So I'm like, no, that's a fair point. Yeah, I try to do my best to capture what I envision my experience was, or what I want to share with others. And so back on photography, well, let me back up. When I worked with Ferguson, I've always been somebody that likes to own the whole process. And so when I did sales, I did new home construction. So they would come and pick out their plumbing. But Ferguson also did lighting and appliances and we would have people, we'd have a sales person for each thing. So a homeowner would come in, they would pick out their plumbing with somebody and then they would pick out their lighting with another person and then they'd pick out their appliances with the appliance gal.
Vivian
Interesting.
Neal Eilers
And the proposition that was made to me by my cousin who was running the branch and stuff, was like, we need to have somebody that owns the whole thing. And I was like, I'll do it. So I learned everything about plumbing, everything about appliances and everything about lighting.
Vivian
Interesting.
Neal Eilers
I even became like a lighting specialist. I don't know what I learned from that, but the goal was to have somebody just stay with one person. So I'm accustomed to owning the whole thing. So when it goes into photography, I wanted to own the whole thing. And as you know, when you print a photo, or when you have somebody print a photo, you take it and you try to frame it to try to make it look nice and try to sell it. And you walk into a frame shop and it's like 5000 samples on the wall and you're like, where the heck do I start? And so I just was like, I'm just going to own the whole process. And I've always done woodworking, so I'm familiar with table saws and all of that since high school. So I graduated Ralston and I won't say what year, but I was always good and I was good working in the wood shop and stuff like that. And I still have the table that I built, a couple of tables in fact. And so I just decided that I'm going to start making my own frames. And so I went on YouTube University and started looking at how people are making their own frames and started getting a table saw and all the equipment, which is probably worse than camera equipment, if I must say, because if you walk into my shop like you have, I've invested a lot of money into the tools. But that's not to say that people don't create stuff with very little because they do it all the time, but it's just easier to have the nice things. And so, yeah, I literally started out of my garage building my own frames. I think the first frame that I did took me like, three days to make because I was doing like a custom inlay with this African wood, and the wood kept warping on me. And so it it was just it was a frustration, frustrating process. And but I finally got it. Now I'm down to like, you know, 510 minutes to make a frame, really, just to, like, glue it up together. Probably overall, it's like half hour, 45 minutes over the course of a couple of days of actually doing it. So I started making my own frames. I had a printer in town printing my pictures, and that didn't work out as well as I thought it would. And so, of course, me being the type that I am, I just bought my own printer and then started learning how to print my own prints. And so I truly owned the entire process, from printing, from taking the photo, to editing it, to printing it, to mounting it, to matting it, to framing it and hanging it. And the plan was, the original plan was to travel, because obviously I love traveling. And on that part, I built a camper van. I think I've showed you pictures.
Vivian
I don't know, We have talked about it a lot.
Neal Eilers
I've recently sold it, but we had a camper van that we did some traveling in. But the plan was to travel, take pictures, come back and try to sell pictures.
Vivian
Right.
Neal Eilers
And you mentioned starting this business in 2019, and that was like, right before COVID hit. And so I set up a gallery in my house, and the plan was to have potential clients come over and view the gallery and stuff. And it was the week before everything shut down, so I think everything shut down, like on a Monday or something.
Vivian
For us. It was March. It was St. Patrick's Day.
Neal Eilers
And that would have been I forgot I don't know what date it was, but I had an open house planned on March 14, right?
Vivian
Yeah, that'd be right near there.
Neal Eilers
It was either like a day after, a day before or the day. And so it was my wife being in public health. She was like, no, you need to cancel. I was like, no, I've worked too hard to just cancel something. And so I had an open house and I sold a few prints, but I think my expectations going in, and maybe probably a lot of people's expectations in terms of photography when they first get going, is like, yeah, everybody's going to love my stuff and I'm going to sell a lot, and yeah, it's just not true. You really have to work hard in terms of getting your name out.
Vivian
I say that all the time, and I agree it's true of photography, but it's just true in general of everybody's passion or business. I mean, you're so immersed in it, and you're just like, if I build it, they will come. Like Field of Dreams and I just say this all the time, sound like a broken record, but they're not coming. No, they're not. They don't care as much as you do.
Neal Eilers
No.
Vivian
Until you make them.
Neal Eilers
Yeah, that's a good point. You can build something that you think is magnificent, but until other people think the same way, then they're not going to buy it, and you have to build it up to where people want your product and stuff like that. And that was the toughest thing for me after that weekend. And then it kind of was like, sit down and where do we go from here? And so I started an Etsy shop with the frames, and it's like, well, maybe the frames are going to take off because people need frames rather than my photography. And so I opened an Etsy shop, and before you know it, I started having sales. And it's like, all right, well, this is cool.
Vivian
That's the magical part, right?
Neal Eilers
Yeah, it was the best feeling in the world, like, sitting, eating breakfast or whatever it is, and then you hear that, like, money lItching on your phone is like, Heck yeah, I made another sale. Yeah, I remember. It probably went off. Like, I probably had, like, two sales in one day, and my wife was standing next to me and she's like, what's that? I was like, that's money, baby.
Vivian
We're going out for dinner.
Neal Eilers
That's like the best sound in the world. And I still get a little giddy when somebody even comes in and buys something for $10. For me, it's like that little video of the small business doing a dance after a purchase. It's like, I do that every time because that's my customer buying something from me, and that just shows that maybe I am doing something right.
Vivian
How did you end up in the building that you're in now? Because that's a big leap from like, we're going to go it was from a camper to all of a sudden you have a building because now you're attached, you're tied down, especially when you own it.
Neal Eilers
Yeah, it was a big decision, so I never envisioned opening a storefront, but I have a good friend of mine who he actually gave me my first job, he owned some Dairy Queens. And in 97, my mom came to me and she's like, oh, there's a new owner at Dairy Queen, which was like across the street from us. And she was like, you're going to go up there and get a job? And I'm like kicking and crying like, I ain't getting no stinking job at Dairy Queen. Who would want to ever work at Dairy Queen? And she tells me at the time, I wanted to work at Best Buy Electronics. Back then, like the CDs or the Walkmans or whatever was the hot item. I was like, I want that not ice cream. Yeah. And so she was like, I'll take you to Best Buy, but you have to go into Dairy Queen first. And so I was like, whatever. So I walked into Dairy Queen and I walked out five minutes later. And I was like, well, we don't need to go to Best Buy. And she's like, why not? I was like, well, I have a job. I tell that story because that guy, he's changed my life. And he has helped me build my business into what it is. And so he was going to a short story when I built my camper van, I thought that that could be a business as well because a lot of people are buying camper vans and stuff like that still to this day with remote work and stuff like that. And so I kind of forgot about this. But I would be able to spend a couple of months building a van, selling it, and then go and travel and then sell my photography in between. And so him and I made a trip down to he was going to help me invest in doing this business. And so we went and looked at some camper vans down in Lincoln. And then on the way down and back, I was kind of mentioning to him because I drove by in downtown Ralston. So Ralston is we'll get into this later. But Ralston is a nice town. It's a small community, but it's in the bigger community. But it feels like you're truly in a small town where everybody knows everybody knows what businesses are opening up or who owns what and stuff like that. And there's a building that had been for sale for like a year and a half. And I kept driving by it. And the guy just wanted way too much money. And so fast forward to driving to Lincoln with my friend. We were kind of talking about this building. And he long story short, he helped me get the building. That wasn't like an overnight decision. It was like, do I really want this? Because I'm going to I'm not going to be able to travel because I would never own a business. I don't like it when you go up to a business. And it's like, well, sometimes we're here on Mondays and we. Might be open Tuesday or Wednesday. We're open for a few hours, but it's by appointment only or something like that. It's like if you're going to do this, you got to do it right and you got to have regular hours. And so I finally came to terms with myself, realize if I want to have a business, maybe the frames are what is going to sell and keep money coming in.
Vivian
I'm curious to know because I talk with a lot of people who want to start a business and they ask a lot of questions, which I think is great. But one of the big questions is, and I don't love the word should, but this is what the question is, should I turn my passion into a business or should I not? Because then all of a sudden it's not my passion, it's my work. And can it flip on its head? That's a fear that I hear a lot of people say. And then the second one to piggyback on that. And I'd love your like, if that was me and you were going to talk me through that, I want to know what you would say to me. The second piece of that is, I have so many passions. How did you practically narrow it down to pull the trigger on such a large investment? Because now you've really set the tone. Not that you can't change them. You could certainly change what you do in a building, but you're kind of putting a pin in the map at that point and saying this way after having all these ideas. So those are the two questions I have for you.
Neal Eilers
On the first thing, how do you turn your passion into a business?
Vivian
Yeah. And should you and should you how do you know when you're like, okay, this is actually just for my enjoyment. I'm working ... and no, it's not my first love, but there's enough there. And so this is like my passion is actually through my hobby. And I'm good with that. I put a dollar behind everything. I'm like, I love this. How can I sell it? This is great. How do I sell it? But sometimes it's hard to decide, should I do that or is it better to keep it as a passion? How do you decide?
Neal Eilers
I guess what went through my head first is and what should go through everybody's head is like, can I monetize this? Because if you can't, then, well, first of all, the IRS will look at it as a hobby. And if you're not making any money but also that's tough because you don't want to try to put somebody's dreams down. But at the same time, you do have to be realistic and knowing that. I guess the bigger question is, like I said, can you monetize it? And not necessarily maybe that, but how do you monetize it in terms of that keeps you in business? I guess it kind of just depends on the passion that people have. But I'm a firm believer in trying to do whatever you can to, I don't want to say make your dreams come true because if that was the case, I'd be a millionaire right now. But to follow your passions, I'm a big advocate of doing that. And so it's hard for me to sit here and say, well to somebody like, well don't do that because you can't monetize it. Maybe the better question is how can I help you to monetize it?
Vivian
So many things can be monetized too. Who would have thought that sitting and gaming could be monetized or people are professional poker players.
Neal Eilers
Especially with today, with everything that is viral and everything that goes online, I don't think there is a limit to what you can and can't monetize. It's creating a need or want that people want and capitalizing on that. So the other question, before you jump.
Vivian
To your question, I have a follow up now already. All right, when you were figuring that out, okay, can I monetize this? Did you sit down and actually run some numbers out? What was your process? Did you research a little bit? Did you look around and say, well there are framing shops?
Neal Eilers
Yeah, that's a good question. I think what I did was I didn't necessarily put any numbers down. I should have. I didn't write a business plan or anything like that, which I probably should have. But what I did do is look more into the framing industry and see how that is run. And so there's not very many people that in terms of what I would consider like a professional frame shop, none that I know of in Omaha that do what I do in terms of building everything from scratch. Now, yeah, I don't offer the four or 5000 that's probably exaggerating a little bit, but I don't offer the thousands of moldings that the other frame shops have. But I do like to keep things simple in terms of not the basic stuff.
Vivian
Well, one of the things I like about coming in your shop is it feels like there's options. I could enter the shop and clearly see right away, okay, I have some options here. Things are going to be customized, but it doesn't feel overwhelming.
Neal Eilers
And I don't know, I'm not trying to overwhelm my customer.
Vivian
There could be too many options somewhere.
Neal Eilers
Exactly.
Vivian
Like you're the expert, you guide me.
Neal Eilers
Yes, exactly.
Vivian
I feel like you're guiding and curating that experience.
Neal Eilers
Exactly. And so my whole thing in owning the process was I'm not just another frameshop setting up and selling the molding that's imported from Asia or wherever. I'm creating a value for my customers that is number one, made here in states, number two, made locally. And it's something that's unique and also not more affordable, but within reason. I'm not trying to gouge people here, but also I am trying to make a living. And so I think going through my mind, it's like I can offer something that's unique and nobody else does it around. And so I think I went down that direction. Instead of writing down a bunch of numbers and saying, is this going to.
Vivian
Work or not, do you write down numbers at all now? Like, now that you're in it, do you track anything like that or is it still really driven off of, this is a unique piece I'm going to put out there and see how it does.
Neal Eilers
I'm in the transitional phase right now to where obviously it's a legit business, but from the tax man perspective, I'm getting more into depth of setting goals, trying to reach those goals, and what do I have to do in order to get to those goals? So definitely. I've been open almost a year and a half now, and I feel like I have a small piece of the market here in Omaha. Now. It's not as obviously, I'm not going to be like the other people, the other framers and stuff, but I know that I can grow this business to whatever I want it to be.
Vivian
And you're setting some benchmarks for yourself.
Neal Eilers
And that absolutely like you said. Whereas before I kind of just went on a whim and was like, let's try it, because you're not going to know if it doesn't work if you don't try it. And so I think that's where a lot of people have that fear is what if it doesn't work? And yeah, it's good to have an exit plan as well. And the relationships that I created in the corporate world, like, worst case scenario, I can always go back to that, try to build up the bank account again and try something else.
Vivian
There is a lot of fear for people taking that first step. At times it is, and then I will say, but on the flip side, there are people who they kind of pull the trigger maybe a little too fast. It feels like you're sort of waiting in the middle here, like you're considering things, but you're not getting bogged down in too many details because sometimes creating all the business plans and things, though, they can be a very helpful roadmap. You can spend all of your time learning and thinking, creating, learning, thinking, and never actually taking the steps.
Neal Eilers
Yeah.
Vivian
Then there's the other side of it where I certainly see people start businesses and you're like, okay, we didn't think that through at all. And they're closed within a year or a month. You're kind of like, yeah, not surprised, right? There has to be this healthy mix of the two. And some people might lean heavier, one or the other, but you've got to be able to balance between those. At some point. You just bite the bullet and you do it. And like you said, I've not really met anybody who goes, gosh, I regretted all of that. You gained something from that experience, regardless.
Neal Eilers
Of what the absolute. Yeah. If you really put yourself out there and try to do it, you're going to gain stuff. That's what's great about where we live in terms of the overall country is like, I hear a lot of people, like, on podcast talking about that. Our culture is accepting a failure. I think that's great. Whereas even though over in England or other countries, if you fail at your business, you're looked down upon by other people, like, oh, you're a failure for, like, generations. Yeah, exactly. And so I think, number one, we're very fortunate enough to live where we live and be able to do some of the things that we want to do, but also just getting over that fear.
Vivian
How did you get over it? Or was there none? And then I'm also curious if you have your wife as well, so she has to be playing into this as well.
Neal Eilers
Yeah. So part of it is financially, we're okay, like, financial wise that I can step out and do this. And the other part of it that didn't scare me is like, I don't want to go back to an office. I can't do it. So you either make this work or you're going to have to go back to an office. And so that probably scared me the most in terms of wanting to make this succeed and figuring out what my path is in terms of the business world, because I have a lot of passions and I could have done the van business. I could have kept trying to sell photos and stuff like that, but I think you just take what's in front of you at the time and run with it.
Vivian
It is true. I love that perspective because you could have made, theoretically, really, any of those models work, at least for a time, but sometimes the window closes or the door closes or the opportunity passes and that's okay, and then you take the next one. And if you spend too much time looking backwards going, well, I could have done this, or what about that? Well, now I'm tied down to a building. Gosh, I wish I hadn't done that. If we spend our time looking that direction, our current direction can't move forward. And there are times, certainly in my life, I mean, the multi, passionate people like us, I could look back and be like, gosh, it could have gone this way and it could have gone this way, but this is the opportunity presented in front of me now. I'm going to see that and just kind of ride that wave.
Neal Eilers
Exactly. Yeah, that's exactly like what I'm trying to do, just riding the wave. Come back next week as Vivian continues her conversation with Neal Eilers.
Riding Tandem Work is recorded on location at the studios on South Fourth at Council plus Iowa. In cooperation with Todd Stewart Productions.