My Story

After graduating college, and against the advice of just about everyone, I decided to open a custom framing shop on Clybourn Avenue in Chicago, a then abandoned factory district on the edge of Lincoln Park. Why? I had worked in a frame shop in high school and college and believed I could bring a better level of design and service to an old trade. I had also grown up in the retail business, learning from an early age the art of how to best serve customers in my father’s dime store on Armitage Avenue.

Within a few years, and much to my surprise, Artists Frame Service grew into the largest custom frame shop in the country - about twenty times the average size. Over the next 46 years, I expanded both “vertically and horizontally” adding Jayson Home, Bella Moulding, Chicago Art Source and gallery 1871 – now employing 130 people and occupying almost an entire city block and an 85,000 square foot warehouse.

My story is unusual in that I’ve never had a full-time job or a mentor. I began as an entrepreneur in the age where it was not considered “cool” and went against all the conventional career wisdom of the time. My time in business has brought with it many ups and downs. I’ve learned the hard way by making “every mistake in the book” - though I came to realize there actually was no book. That led me to write The Street Smart Entrepreneur: 133 Tough Lessons I Learned The Hard Way.  

Today, in addition to running my businesses, I also consider myself a small business advocate. I speak regularly with media outlets across the country about the complexities businesses face, as well as contribute to the small business community, 21hats.com. Whether it be speaking for a large company or talking one-on-one with an entrepreneur starting out, I use real life insights and candor to help people solve problems. That is, after all, what business is all about.