Crofton Gallery Owner Stays True to His Heart

Eric Krimmel, owner of Crofton Fine Art & Framing, moved to a new country because of love. He picked his second career for similar reasons.

Krimmel, who was born in England, met his future wife – an American – in England. When she came back to the United States, he came to visit and in time they married. The union eventually dissolved, but he stayed here.

“I worked for corporate America – even in England,” said Krimmel. He worked for Ford, but left the company when a reduction in force took place. Krimmel then worked for several other companies, but was always in marketing. “I was in the blunt end of marketing – the data analysis,” he said.

In 2005, his employer, Arbitron, had a reduction in force and Krimmel was let go. “I found myself without a job and not looking for another job,” he said.

“I started thinking I should be guilty, but I wasn’t,” Krimmel said. “I was playing tour guide to some family and friends,” he said. Three or four months passed. Through a conversation with a former co-worker, he found out that a UPS store in Annapolis was for sale.

Krimmel made an appointment to view the store with a broker and the owner and while there found himself asking “do I really see myself in the packing and shipping industry?” The answer was no.

When the broker called to follow-up, Krimmel told him he wasn’t interested in the shipping business. He was surprised when the broker asked if he was interested in art.

“I told him I’d always been interested in art – I studied history of art and history of architecture when I was in school,” Krimmel said. Then the broker told Krimmel he had a gallery for sale.

“I came over on a Sunday, took one look and thought ‘Yes, this is what I want to do. This is me’,” Krimmel said.

When asked why, Krimmel said, “it was a love of art, it was the location, it was the fact that it was an existing business with an established clientele.” So many businesses fail in their early years, he said, but Crofton Fine Art & Framing is celebrating 20 years in business this fall.

Business has been hurt by the downturn in the economy, “everything I do here is discretionary,” but “things are starting to percolate back up,” Krimmel said.

“It was such a no-brainer,” to open the gallery, he said. When Krimmel was trying to decide what to do, he made a list of all the things he did well and all the things he couldn’t do or did badly. To be a business owner of a venture like this, you really need to be a generalist, he said.

“I like people and I like working with people. Every time someone brings something in to frame there’s a story. Hearing those stories is sometimes just truly amazing,” said Krimmel.

When Krimmel was looking to buy a business, a franchise broker asked him, “Do you want to help people in trouble, or do you want to help people celebrate?”

“This business helps people celebrate,” Krimmel said. If you are going to start a business, “go where your heart leads you,” he advised.

Krimmel’s heart may be leading him to yet another career – teaching yoga. Becoming a yoga teacher is almost like the process that happened when he became a gallery owner, he said. “I couldn’t stop it – it’s like someone is tugging you down a path,” he said. Who knows where this will lead me, he said.