Akron to Tyler: Rebuilding My Business & Does Hobby Lobby Build Custom Frames?

Show Notes

Does Hobby Lobby build custom frames? Yes — but here's the honest answer you're actually searching for: big box stores put an apron on an 18-year-old, hand them five training videos, and call them a framer. In this episode I pull back the curtain on the difference between an assembly line and a real, certified custom framing craft — and why that difference matters when you're trusting someone with a family treasure. I'm Tricia Pottinger, Certified Picture Framer and owner of Tricia's Rose City Framing here in Tyler, Texas. I take you all the way back to Akron, Ohio — a family of eight kids, frisbee tag in the yard — through fifteen years owning a frame shop, twenty years overseas as a missionary pilot family, and the night my husband Brian said over dinner, "You just need to open up your own frame shop again." We didn't borrow money. We didn't take investors. Within thirty days we found the perfect location, and two weeks after I left big box, we cut the ribbon. We made money our very first month and earned 277 five-star reviews in three and a half years. You'll learn what custom picture framing really involves, why I won't apologize for the cost, and how we solve the hard jobs through "framing by committee" — because what we don't know, we'll research. Quality over quantity. Shop local over big box. Indeed. Bring me your treasure and its story. Call [phone] or visit www.rosecityframing.com. Love you — and have a great day.

What is Tricia's Rose City Framing Podcast?

Certified picture framer in Tyler, Texas sharing the real stories behind the treasures people trust her to preserve — plus what it takes to run a small business the right way.

Welcome to the show, y'all. I'm Tricia Pottinger, and today I want to tell you about the day I decided to build my whole business over again from nothing, in a brand new state, in my fifties.

But before I get into all that, let me answer the question a lot of you actually came here wondering about. Does Hobby Lobby build custom frames? Yes, they do custom framing, and I want to talk honestly about that, because I used to work in a big box frame shop myself.

Here's the thing I learned in there. The framing itself can be fine, but the corporate structure ties your hands, and that is not the fault of the sweet person wearing the apron. They'll put an apron on an eighteen year old, hand them five training videos, and call them a framer.

I'd bring real ideas to the table, real solutions for a customer's treasure, and I'd get told to just stay inside the parameters of those videos. I loved the framing and I loved the people, but I hated working for a company that didn't have integrity at the core of its framing department. That, my friends, is a hard way to live when you actually care about the work.

So let me rewind a little. I grew up in Akron, Ohio, one of eight kids, and I never set out to be a picture framer. I was studying communication in college, half expecting to become the next Barbara Walters.

Somewhere along the way I started framing, and oh my, I fell in love with it. I'm not an artist and I'm not artistic, but I am creative, and framing takes both an analytical mind and a creative one. My husband Brian and I ended up owning a frame shop in Akron for about fifteen years.

Then we spent twenty years overseas as a missionary pilot family, fifteen of those years in the tropics. When we finally moved to Tyler, Texas, I needed a job right away, so I went back to what I knew, which is how I landed in that big box shop I just told you about. And I complained about it, oh, quite a bit, over dinner.

One night Brian, probably tired of hearing me go on and on, just looked at me and said, "You just need to open up your own frame shop again." I told him I didn't even know if this area could use another one. Within about thirty days that man had found us the perfect location at a good price.

Now here's the part I'm proud of. We didn't borrow money and we didn't take investors. If this was going to succeed, it was going to be on us, and if it failed, that was going to be on us too.

Two weeks after I walked out of big box, we cut the ribbon on Tricia's Rose City Framing. We made money our very first month and a good profit our first year. In three and a half years we've earned two hundred seventy seven five star reviews, while a competitor who's been in business for fifty years is still hovering around a hundred forty five.

So back to your question about whether the big box builds custom frames. They do, and if that's what fits your life and your budget, I'm not going to fuss at you about it. But what you're really asking is what's the difference, and the difference is care and story.

When you hand me your treasure, a photograph, a piece of fine art, your great grandmother's embroidered jeans, there's a story behind it, and I want to hear it. Sometimes there are tears, sometimes there are huge smiles. I treat every single item that comes through my door as if it were my very own.

I'm a Certified Picture Framer, I passed a three and a half hour proctored exam, and when a job is beyond me, I call my three mentors and we solve it by committee. What we don't know, we'll research. That's a promise you're not going to get from five training videos.

So that's the whole reason I rebuilt everything from scratch. Because framing isn't a commodity, it's a craft, and the people who bring me their treasures deserve somebody who is genuinely thrilled to walk in that door every single day. And honestly, it's just been a blast since day one.

If you've got a treasure sitting in a closet because you're scared to trust it with anybody, come see me. You can call the shop at nine zero three, three six zero, seven zero zero four, or visit us online at rose city framing dot com. Love you, and have a great day.