Today we’d like to introduce you to Harold Banks.
Harold, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started loving art and collecting as a young child garage sale hopping with my deceased lovely mother Mrs. Annie Earl Banks, the matriarch of the family in which the business gets it’s name. I graduated with a business degree from Navarro College so that I could one day turn my loving hobby into a business. I bounced around from city to city and state to state as a member of management with Wal-Mart for approximately seventeen years learning more about running a business. I went to work at Hobby Lobby and now defunct MJ Design’s to learn the custom picture framing business in order to add that function to my art collecting. My big brother Scott Redic taught me how to build heirloom real wood custom picture frames in the mid-1990’s in which we sold as a hobby for approximately twenty-five years. We’ve taken all of our great experience, love and passion to the public.
In October 2019, we launched Annie Earl’s Art Gallery where it is not just an art gallery but an art experience. We love our customers and thank them for helping us build our business one important customer at a time. We offer some of the rarest work from two of the greatest artist of the twentieth century, Arthello Beck Jr. of Dallas, Texas and William Tolliver of Vicksburg, Mississippi. We feature prints and other works from hundreds of other artists as well. Our custom picture framing styles, variety and quality are second to none. We sell antique telephones, 24 lead crystal gift items, calendars and many other unique gifts and collectibles. We invite all to visit Annie Earl’s Art Gallery, 210 S. Main Street Suite 14, Duncanville, Texas 75116, annieearlsartgallery.com or follow us on Facebook.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has been the median between smooth and rough. The toughest thing for me was to go from running One Hundred Million Dollar Wal-Mart Super Centers where everything is already in place and you just have to be a good manager to having to set up the business and put all of the practices and procedures in place from the ground up. When you are managing a company for someone else, there is someone to go to when you run into difficulty. However, when it is your baby, you are looking at the person to go to when you look into a mirror.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Annie Earl’s Art & Gift Gallery – what should we know?
We are a customer-oriented art gallery that values each individual customer that walks into the gallery whether they purchase a $3.00 bookmark or a $30,000.00 original oil painting. We are not just an art gallery but an art experience. We specialize in heirloom quality real wood hand stained custom picture frames. We have prints, original artwork, gifts and collectibles that are exclusive to Annie Earl’s Art Gallery. We are most known for the variety of styles and colors that we offer our heirloom hand stained real wood custom picture frames in which is one of the things that set us apart from other art galleries. Customer Service and the rare works that we offer are other things that set us apart from any other art gallery. I am so proud to be able to tell others about my loving mother who passed away at the young age of 45 in 1985 and run a successful business in her beautiful name.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Being patient with every customer and give them the experience that they deserve. Being able to offer customers items that they can’t find anywhere else is part of good customer service in the art world. We also believe in educating our customers as well so that they see that art is more than a pretty item on their wall, but an investment.
Contact Info:
- Address: Annie Earl’s Art Gallery, 210 S. Main Street Suite 14, Duncanville, Texas 75116
- Website: annieearlsartgallery.com
- Phone: (469) 513-2838/(214) 403-0635
- Email: annieearlsartgallery@yahoo.com
- Facebook: Annie Earl’s Art Gallery
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