Ace of Trades: The family business inspired Russell Bryan to create custom frames
ZANESVILLE – His business gives him a sense of “completion.”
“I was active, participated in sports, hunting and fishing,” recalled Russell Bryan. “I stayed busy helping my mother as she flipped houses in the 1970s. And I became a licensed Realtor after high school while I developed Bryan’s Custom Framing.”
Today, Bryan in fact owns and operates Bryan’s Custom Framing.
“I’m a one-person operation so I do it all,” he said. “The opportunity to be my own boss was the route I wanted to go. Being in the furniture industry, which I grew up in, helped guide my path. Most people thought I made a couple of frames a week and took them to Bryan’s Furniture to sell. That was a very small part of the business. But by attending industry trade shows, I developed relationships with different vendors and gained key contacts in the photography and re-seller industry and now my framed products are distributed nationwide.”
Bryan grew up in Zanesville and graduated from Zanesville High School.
“Being around the family furniture businesses,” he said, “I realized a need for custom framing in the community.”
The family businesses he refers to includes Bryan’s Furniture Interiors, among others.
“In junior high,” he added, “I began my entrepreneurial career with a candle sales business. I hired a sales rep who attended furniture and decor shows to sell locally made apple-shaped candles. My responsibility was purchasing and shipping the product to businesses across the United States. This lasted through high school.”
Dana Matz is president of the Zanesville-Muskingum County Chamber of Commerce.“I’ve watched Russell’s business grow and evolve over the years,” Matz said. “As he’s upgraded his inventory of framing equipment, it’s allowed him to be more creative and take on higher volume projects, all the while delivering a quality product. Whether he’s framing a family heirloom, a sports jersey or a business product, his attention to detail is topnotch.”
“The framing business,” Bryan responded, “has allowed me to work with a lot of people locally and meet people regionally and establish many friendships.
“The creativity of choosing the frame and the mat type and colors,” he continued, “which will hold a family’s memories, a business’s promotional messaging or a person’s favorite jersey, is rewarding. The ability to work with machinery and my hands while building the product allow a sense of completion."
For more information about Bryan’s Custom Framing, log on www.bryansfurniture.com.
Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs – whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at trnews@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com.
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Family business inspired Russell Bryan to create custom frames
