Amid a very tight labor market where job openings have stagnated at around 11 million, some smaller businesses are no longer looking to hire but are instead working with what — or who — they’ve got. And for Eric Vaughn at Eric’s I’ve Been Framed Shop in Detroit, he’s learned to adjust his schedule.

“I lost two employees that I had, and we’re kind of a two-man operation [now]. So, what I had to do is change the way I kind of handled my clients. So, I started doing appointments,” Vaughn said.

Appointments have allowed him to control the flow of traffic and create flexible hours around his needs, as well as the needs of the client. But despite figuring out a schedule to handle the workload, his time estimations for clients have gotten a little longer.

“In the past, I used to pride myself in being able to complete a project within a week or less. But because of the delivery schedules for the molding companies, I had to change that to two weeks or less,” said Vaughn.

But his old supply chain hangups seem to finally be in the past, and things are reaching a new normal. News of suppliers getting up and running has left Vaughn optimistic about the upcoming year.

For him, there is a lot to be excited about in 2023. Once again, Vaughn is partnering with the Detroit Institute of Arts on their program, ‘Inside Out,’ for which he provides custom framing.

“Also, I look forward to the Detroit Jazz Festival. Every year I have a booth [there]. And usually, we sell a lot of jazz-oriented pieces, and we get people from all over the world to come to this festival,” Vaughn said.

However, work isn’t all that’s on Vaughn’s mind. Every year, he makes sure to relax, and most recently, it was on a jazz cruise around the Caribbean. “I’m in a good mood for 2023,” he said. “My wife told me when we got married, ‘You work hard, but you gotta play hard too.'”