A full workbench doesn’t always mean a profitable frame shop. Strong sales can still hide slim margins, rising costs, and cash flow pressure. To understand if your frame shop is actually making money, look beyond daily sales totals and see what you keep after costs, labor, and overhead.
For hands-on framers juggling production, customer service, and daily operations, that clarity matters. Without it, profitable work can slip through the cracks while seemingly successful months still strain cash flow.
This blog breaks down the difference between revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, and net profit to help you understand what your shop is really earning.
Revenue is the money your shop brings in from framing jobs, retail items, and services before expenses. It’s the top-line figure — and it can feel reassuring at first glance.
But revenue alone doesn’t answer whether your frame shop is actually making money. A high-revenue month can still produce minimal profit if costs rise alongside sales.
Framers can misjudge how well a job is performing when they:
A $900 framing job might look impressive on paper, but once moulding, glazing, mounting materials, and labor are factored in, the margin can be thinner than expected.
Gross margin represents the amount remaining after direct job costs — materials, outsourced services, and production labor — are deducted from revenue. It’s expressed as a percentage of the sale price, with most shops aiming for 55–65% as a healthy target.
While a sale price may suggest a strong gross margin, the gap between what you charge and what the job truly costs isn’t always apparent due to misquoted custom projects, missed overtime, or unexpected supplier fees. This is where owners often question if their frame shop is actually making money.
To keep job profitability clear and controlled:
Many specialty framers find that their highest-revenue projects aren’t their most profitable once labor, rush turnaround, and material waste are fully accounted for.
Framing point of sale (POS) tools help simplify margin tracking by recording material inputs and labor as jobs happen, so when it’s time to review performance, you have accurate job-level data.
Even strong gross margins don’t guarantee profit. Operating costs — the everyday expenses required to run your shop — can steadily erode earnings.
For example, framing businesses must:
During slower seasons, this challenge becomes harder to ignore. Even when orders dip, overhead remains constant, leading many framers to question whether they’re breaking even, let alone earning a profit.
The best way to stay ahead of fixed costs is to calculate your monthly overhead and use that number to guide pricing and performance expectations. After taking a closer look, many framers discover minor operational tweaks can stabilize cash flow when orders aren’t coming in regularly.
Net profit is the amount remaining after all direct costs and operating expenses are paid. This income is what supports growth, equipment upgrades, staffing, and owner compensation.
Most importantly, it’s the number that answers whether your frame shop is actually making money in a sustainable way.
Here’s how to calculate it:
Start with total sales for the period.
Subtract total direct-job costs (materials, outsourced services, and production labor) to determine gross margin dollars.
Subtract total operating expenses (rent, utilities, payroll beyond production, insurance, software, marketing, and administrative costs).
The amount remaining is your net profit.
For example, your small frame shop earns $200,000 per year in sales, with $80,000 in direct-job costs and $85,000 in operating expenses. After subtracting these totals, you end up with $35,000 in annual net profit before owner compensation or reinvestment.
That difference between revenue and profit is significant — but at 17.5% of total sales, it represents a healthy result for a small specialty retailer. Many retail businesses operate on net margins of 2–10%, depending on category and overhead structure.
Without calculating profit, it’s easy to overestimate performance and misunderstand what the business is actually generating in real income.
Modern framing operations need more than spreadsheets or manual calculations to understand what the business is earning. A purpose-built POS system connects sales activity to real cost data, giving owners a clearer financial picture.
With the right tools in place, frame shops can:
As a result, quoting becomes faster, pricing stays consistent, and financial reporting reflects what’s happening in the shop. Instead of relying on estimates, you can see whether each job supports sustainable profit.
A busy frame shop doesn’t always translate into strong profitability. Understanding revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, and net profit helps framers price smarter, control costs, and plan for steady growth.
LifeSaver provides pricing automation, vendor cost updates, and reporting tools that help you see real margins without guesswork. When pricing reflects true costs and reporting shows real performance, you can focus on delivering exceptional framing while knowing your business remains financially strong.
Are you ready to see if your frame shop is actually making money? Build and Price your system today to see how LifeSaver helps track margins, automate pricing adjustments, and turn craftsmanship into consistent profitability.