Susan Leonard’s family-business frame of mind earns Small Business of the Year award nomination
Susan Leonard’s family-business frame of mind earns Small Business of the Year award nomination
When Susan Kuckelman Leonard was growing up, working alongside her father at Westlakes Hardware instilled in her keen business sense and a strong work ethic. Now she passes those values on to the next generation—working with her sons, Paul and Ted, at her own business, Frame It Right, which is one of five finalists for the Columbia Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year Award.
For those with Kuckelman blood, family business is not about nepotism. When Susan Kuckelman Leonard started working at Westlakes while she was a student at Rock Bridge High School, her father made that clear.
“When he hired me, my father said he would fire me the same as anyone else,” Leonard said. “He didn’t want me think I’d be treated any different.” Her father passed away five years ago, but he was able to see Leonard launch her own business in fall 2000—after she closed the frame shop she had managed inside Westlakes for 20 years.
She moved everything from the Westlakes department to the store’s current location at the Crossroads Shopping Center and has continued to serve her regular customers.
Leonard said she spent years training and learning the business, and even after she had graduated from Stephens College, she decided to stick with framing. The nature of business, combined with Columbia’s diverse population, enables her to see artwork from around the world, she said. She attributes the success of her business in part to that diversity—as well as the city’s “incredible art community.”
Leonard admits she struggles to compete against the large craft stores. “People ask us when we’re going to run 50 percent off coupons” like the bigger chain stores do, she said. “We don’t because we don’t mark things up as much as they do.”
Part of Leonard’s job involves educating customers about framing and framing materials. The framing industry is changing rapidly, she said. For example, inexpensive framed artwork is readily available at discount stores. “For $5 you can find framed art in grocery stores. It’s a different ballgame, but if someone just needs a picture to hang in the bathroom, or a nice framed print to hang over their couch, it’s O.K.,” she said. “They don’t realize that picture is hot glued with cardboard behind.”
Leonard said many frame shops are closing around the country, but thanks to the healthy local art community, she doesn’t feel the threat is as great in Columbia.
“There’s always going to be a need for customized framing,” Leonard said. “I just hope that the need is big enough to support all the shops in town.”
An advocate for locally owned businesses, Leonard showcases the work of Columbia artists in her shop, featuring notables such as Paul Jackson, Doug Hardesty, P.J. Webber, Byron Smith, Bart Larson and Jerry Thompson.
The stability of her business is aided by giving customers the option to do their own framing. “With do-it-yourself, we help through the entire process, and customers save on the labor cost,” she said.
During the week, the shop employs three to four workers at a time, and on the weekend, six people are on hand to help with the do-it-yourselfers. At Westlakes, the do-it-yourselfers could cut their own mats, but Leonard said that too many accidents and stitches led them to change that practice. She now has a computerized mat cutter. Her husband, Bob, programs any pattern, and the machine cuts it out. He’s even able to scan images for a customized look. For example, a pet lover had a mat cut in the shape of her dog to display a photograph. Leonard said the machine is a time saver and has “opened up a whole new world.”
Materials are changing, Leonard said, “as the industry gets smarter and learns what materials are better to use for conservation.” Instead of permanently affixing the artwork, she uses corner pockets and mounting strips to make the art totally removable in case the customer wants to change things years later. Another change in the industry is emphasis on environmentally friendly materials, including alternatives to aerosol sprays. Leonard said her shop recycles and reuses everything. Extra frames and other materials are donated to local organizations, and Leonard said the shop uses every scrap of glass. “I hate throwing things away,” she said.
Leonard, her family and her employees are involved in volunteer work in the community, helping out with Art in the Park, the fall Columbia Festival of the Arts and several other events and organizations. Leonard also has volunteered through tutoring, mentoring, scouting, a Christmas stocking project, vacation Bible school and activities at her sons’ schools. In addition, she tries to follow her father’s tradition of being at all the grand openings of the stores in the Westlakes corporation. Westlakes holds a special place in her heart, and she still puts in two hours a week there.
Frame It Right
2101 B. West Broadway
445-2388