Connie Williams: the art of the deal.

Connie Williams likes to tell people she is in the fashion business. No, she does not design clothes, But as chief operating officer for Deck The Walls, she thinks about dressing walls the same way a Neiman Marcus buyer approaches dressing a storefront window. It's all about style.

"Home decor changes for every homeowner the same way a hemline changes with every season," Williams says. "And an individual's taste is as varied as the clothes hanging in his or her closet."

That is the mentality that drove Williams, a strong wife, mother and businesswoman, to become one of the most successful franchise owners in the Deck the Wails system. She drew so much attention from her franchise peers and the corporate headquarters that she now oversees the operating divisions the entire company.

A business consultant early in her career, Williams built a reputation for advising some of America's largest companies. Then in 1984, she and her husband, a successful lawyer, decided they wanted to put their talents to work in a business of their own. After researching several opportunities, they purchased a Deck The Walls franchise in Naperville, Ill.

Following the System

For the next nine years Williams "consulted" with her customers on ways to make their homes uniquely their own through custom framing. She and her husband were so good at running the business that they met their 10-year sales goals within the first five years.

"I followed the Deck The Walls franchise system like a banshee," Williams said. And it was the franchise system that she credits for her success and the success of the entire franchise network in place today.

"I was never in the business of picture framing," Williams said. "In my mind, I was in the fashion business. And Deck The Walls provided the business tools to bring custom framing to the masses in my market. I delivered customized fashion to wails of thousands of customers' homes and businesses."

Established in 1979, the franchise system built a solid reputation on the belief that custom framing did not have to be a luxury available only for the wealthy. Instead, custom framing and the ability to create individual style in the home through art could be and should be something made available and affordable to the mass consumer.

"It's the same reason you see a chain like Target Today selling product lines from a world-renowned architect like Michael Graves," Williams said. "The average American has a new attitude about the quality of things they use and display in their homes. Consumers want unique products at affordable prices and that's what we do best."

Making a Great Leap

Deck The Walls today has more than 125 locations troughout the United States. Williams said she was a little surprised when the corporate office asked her to join its staff. Torn between running her own franchise, which had progressed into a well-oiled machine, or helping to run the national system, she ultimately chose the corporate move.

"I was able to stay with a company I loved, and help others reproduced the successes we realized in Naperville," Williams said.

She sold her store and, over the next 15 years, earned successive promotions from regional manager to her current post, executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Along the way, Williams decked the walls of her own homes in Naperville; Santa Fe, New Mexico: and now Eaton, Colo., where she and her husband currently reside. Each move required a trip to a local unit of the franchise.

"I practice what I teach," Williams said. "We have always kept our favorite pieces of art, but each of our homes demanded a certain framing treatment for the walls that communicates the feel of the architecture and the surroundings. It's the same attitude that more and more homeowners have, which drives Deck The Walls business."

Williams commutes weekly to headquarters in Houston, and calls her time in the air the best uninterrupted four hours to get planning and paperwork done. She also makes regular trips to area franchise meetings and attends the major trade shows in Atlanta and New York each year to stay on top of the latest art and framing trends.

In addition, she stays grounded with what is happening at the store level by working at a local franchise unit in Colorado during the Christmas selling season. Like many franchise executives today, she brings the best of her experiences at the store level and the corporate level to her daily job.

Meeting Market Changes

Today, as the company approaches its 25th anniversary, Williams is focused on rolling out a new store design that is being tested in St. Louis. For a business that offers the best in fashion for the walls, she said the locations needed an update, which is something that any franchisor must face in staying current. She is also working on the transition from a traditionally mall-based franchise network to one with alternative locations that appeal to the company's target demographics.

"Mall patterns over the last two decades have dramatically changed," she said. "And what offered good traffic for Deck The Walls and other retailers of our caliber is no longer a given. Today, we must broaden location options in order to reach our target customers."

Williams calls it the "Chico's factor," a name she has given to the rise of the popular clothes boutique chain that has taken much of the market share away from the high-end department store. "With a unique product, outstanding service at affordable prices, the stores can be located in malls, strip centers or life-style centers and be successful."

Williams said educated consumers don't want to have the same framed art from big box retailers hanging on their walls that is in everyone else's homes.

"It's like two women wearing the same dress to a party," she said.

Whether mass produced or one-of-a-kind, Deck the Walls treats every piece of art to a signature frame. And the same thing can be framed thousands of different ways, each way creating a different style or mood in the room where it is hung.

Williams said that tailored treatment is what will keep the franchise growing in the years ahead. "Individuality and style are keys to what we deliver, and those things never go out of style," she said.

Monica Feid is co-founder and vice president of BizCom Associates, a Dallas-based public relations firm. She can be reached al [e-mail].