4 Frame Shop Overhead Costs and How To Manage Them

Framing might be your passion, but running a shop takes more than creative flair. Those behind-the-scenes expenses — insurance, climate control, equipment upkeep, and waste disposal — can sneak up on you. Without a budget strategy, they drain your margins.

In this blog, you’ll discover four common frame shop overhead costs and learn how to manage them with helpful tips and the right point of sale (POS) tools. 

Let’s dive in.

1. Business Insurance Premiums

Insurance keeps your shop protected when accidents happen or artwork gets damaged. But it’s one of the first places surprise costs show up, especially once you start building a team. 

To stay covered, you need to:

• Purchase artwork liability insurance: Pay for repair or replacement if a client’s artwork is damaged, lost, or stolen while in your shop.
• Carry workers’ compensation coverage: Provide workers’ compensation benefits when an employee — full-time or part-time — suffers an injury while handling equipment or materials.
• Maintain general liability insurance: Cover claims if a customer slips, falls, or is injured in your shop. 

Insurance runs nearly $2,500 annually — making it a fixed line item in your frame shop’s overhead costs.

2. Utilities for Climate Control

Every delicate watercolor and treasured heirloom needs a shop environment with a regulated temperature, balanced humidity, and controlled lighting. Those safeguards, however, come with a price — your monthly utility bill.

Plan for energy expenses to: 

• Run heating systems in winter: Keep indoor temperatures near 70°F for comfort, and use humidifiers to prevent mats and moulding from drying out and cracking.
• Operate air conditioning in summer: Cool your workspace and maintain about 50% humidity to stop mold from forming on fabric jerseys or shadowbox lining.
• Use low-UV lighting year-round: Provide bright work areas while protecting prints and photographs from fading.

Budget about $2.10 per square foot for monthly climate-control expenses, with a little extra for seasonal spikes during the hottest and coldest months. 

3. Equipment Maintenance

Mat cutters, saws, and presses keep your frame shop running, but everything grinds to a halt when they break. Worse, emergency repairs usually cost far more than routine maintenance.

A portion of your overhead often includes the cost to:

• Service mat cutters and saws: Sharpen blades and calibrate machinery for accurate, consistent cuts.
• Repair presses and joiners: Replace worn springs or clamps and adjust alignment so frames join cleanly.
• Upgrade worn tools: Buy new equipment when older pieces no longer function safely or effectively.

Reserve 2 to 5% of a tool’s replacement asset value (RAV) for yearly maintenance. For example, a $25,000 joiner may require $500 to $1,250 annually — much less than replacing the machine outright.

4. Waste Disposal and Other Common Frame Shop Overhead Costs

Insurance, utilities, and equipment aren’t the only expenses. Small recurring charges like waste disposal can erode your bottom line if you’re unprepared.

In a frame shop, you’re likely obligated to:

• Dispose of specialized waste: Hire recycling or hauling services to remove glass, mat board scraps, and treated moulding that regular trash won’t take.
• Process customer payments: Absorb 1.5 to 3.5% in credit card processing fees on most sales, reducing revenue before funds are deposited.
• Invest in professional development: Cover the cost of workshops, trade shows, or certification programs to stay current with techniques and industry standards.

For instance, a Professional Picture Framers Association (PPFA) membership costs between $150 and $595 annually. Work these fees into your cash flow to avoid surprises that put you in the red. 

The Break-Even Point: Tips for Managing Frame Shop Overhead 

Your break-even point is the amount you must sell each month to cover expenses before earning a profit.

It’s calculated using a simple formula: 

Total fixed expenses ÷ gross margin (as a decimal)
= break-even sales

Example: Your shop has $12,000 in monthly expenses and a 55% gross margin. To break even, you need to bring in $21,800 in sales.

Once you know the number, lower it with these strategies:

• Adopt energy-efficient lighting: Replace fluorescent or incandescent bulbs with LED installations to cut electricity costs by 40% and reduce monthly utility bills.
• Negotiate bundled insurance: Consolidate coverage with one carrier to reduce premiums and simplify paperwork.
• Schedule preventive maintenance: Create a service calendar to spread out costs and avoid downtime from sudden equipment failures.

Even small changes can reduce your frame shop’s overhead costs and help your business thrive.

How To Automate Expense Management in a Frame Shop

Too many expenses to track? Automate them. Frame shop POS systems, like LifeSaver, give owners more control and less stress by centralizing vendor management, inventory, and pricing updates in one easy-to-use system.

With an industry-specific POS system, you can:

• Track product and supply costs: Record and organize inventory and vendor pricing automatically to help manage your material expenses and maintain accurate cost-of-goods (COGS) data.
• Manage vendors effectively: Connect supplier catalogs and orders to the system, reducing waste from over-ordering and pricing errors.
• Eliminate IT overhead: Operate fully in the cloud, removing the need for costly servers and on-site tech support.
• Review automated sales and inventory reports: Gain clear, real-time insights into your store’s revenue, product performance, and inventory levels to support informed business decisions.

Modern POS systems take expense management off your plate, helping you save time, scale back overhead, and protect profits. 

Control Frame Shop Overhead Costs With LifeSaver

Frame shop overhead costs are a part of doing business, but lasting success comes from knowing how to manage and reduce them. That’s why you need software built specifically for framers.

LifeSaver manages quoting, vendor catalogs, and payment processing, while helping you track product and supply costs. Our automated reports and cloud-based tools show you exactly how profitable your shop is while boosting efficiency and trimming costs.

Get your free 14-day trial today. Sign up now to see how LifeSaver can help you control overhead and grow your shop.