Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in art framing, but not sure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Mehdi Kajbaf, the founder of Matboard and More LLC, a framing and matting entrepreneur for artists based in Marietta, GA, USA.
Tell us all about your business...
We make displaying your art easier than ever! If you have odd sized art and don’t want to pay a fortune to get it framed and matted, we are there for you. We do ANY size, color and quantity, with free shipping all across the USA.
We also work with thousands of artists around the country to help them display their art at shows and exhibitions.
We are proudly made in the USA, using the highest quality Crescent mats. We think it’s important to support local businesses including our suppliers and our amazing small business customers.
What's your background and motivation to grow as a business owner?
I’ll be honest, when I first started this business I knew very little about matboards and framing, but my genius partners recognized the need for custom matting. Nobody was providing a service to make ordering custom mats online easy and affordable.
From the beginning of our launch we realized the awesome potential of the service as the feedback was phenomenal. People were looking for this, and they didn’t even know they needed it!
On a personal level, my entrepreneurial spirit is motivated by my values around personal freedom. I was always willing to sacrifice and risk security for freedom, because I knew from my past experience as an engineer, that the 9-5 lifestyle was too limiting and frustrating for me. This business has really been an awesome opportunity to live my life on my terms!
As an entrepreneur, what does success ultimately mean to you?
I’m responsible for the marketing and customer service aspect of the business. I’m really proud of our 20,000 reviews online rating us at nearly 100% satisfaction. I always believed in creating a business for the long term, and we have lots of incredible VIP customers that we’ve served for years.
The longevity and sustainability is what I’m most proud of because it’s difficult to create a sustainable business with repeat customers. It’s a sign of having great products, pricing and service. We hope to continue this success for years to come and keep growing.
I’m also quite proud that we did all of this with zero outside funding. We scaled effectively and sustainably, without requiring a big influx of cash to keep us going. Many businesses these days get funding, and quickly spend money on marketing campaigns that give them a false sense of success. It’s not that hard to spend thousands of dollars on digital marketing to increase revenue. It’s much more difficult to create high ROI campaigns that are sustainable, so that goes back to my earlier point as well.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being an entrepreneur?
There’s no manual for how to grow a business that you can simply follow. Of course there are some best practices and guidelines, but every business is unique and requires creativity and a determined spirit to be successful. There isn’t anyone to tell you how to do this exactly.
All you can do is try things, experiment and keep learning until you find the right mix of products, marketing, service and production to make your business work. That process is a lot of fun, however there’s no linear and simple way to do it and so you have to be willing to learn, discover and keep trying even if something doesn’t work.
You don’t always know what will work, or if you are on the right track either. It’s easy to fool yourself sometimes with misleading metrics, so you need to be transparent and honest about where you are, and where you are going. Building in quantifiable results and sticking to that is not easy, because we can become emotional about our businesses and successes, or failures.
So you need a healthy detachment, which not everyone is capable of. On the flip side, you also need to work in some of that Steve Jobs Reality Distortion because creating a business from scratch is always a risk, and if you focus too much on the risks it can limit your ability to push forward.
Essentially, it’s about keeping a positive but realistic attitude that is based on evidence, but is incredibly hopeful, creative and optimistic!
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run or grow a small business today?
Most importantly, I’d say understand the values that are driving you to start a business. Both for you personally and for the company. For example, my personal driving value was freedom and making sure I could adopt that into my life.
For the business, it was around making the process of ordering incredibly easy. That went into how we did pricing, the products we chose, the website UI, production, customer service etc. It’s Easier Than You Think is our tagline and we consider that value in everything we do.
Aside from that, it is definitely valuable to have good partners. I have two incredible partners that have completely different skill sets and experience. Our diversity allows us to grow as each person brings their own unique perspective and experience to the table. We have a CTO, COO and CEO with the right tools for their respective jobs.
Finally, choose action. There are always decisions to make, but nothing is as valuable as actually acting on your decisions. Don’t waste too much time planning and deliberating, just do it! See what happens, and learn. Always build learning into your actions, so that even if they fail, you gain something. The worst is to be scattered in your experiments and actions, and end up empty handed.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
I think it’s great to try and start your own business, and if you are in a position to give it a shot, I encourage you to do it! The only caveat is to have a clear understanding of your values behind that decision so that it’s a sustainable approach. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
A lot of times people ask me about how to be successful as if it’s quick or easy. Or even that there are clear steps to reach that. There really isn’t, so find your own path and know that it may take some time. So long as you are working every day and heading in the right direction, success will be infinitely more likely.
Where can people find you online?
Our website is the place to learn more! www.matboardandmore.com, but you can also check out our Instagram :) www.instagram.com/MatboardandMore/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as an entrepreneur or business coach that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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