Meet Theresa Frazao | Owner, Rath Art Supplies

We had the good fortune of connecting with Theresa Frazao and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Theresa, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
The opportunity to buy Rath Art Supplies came across my path a bit surprisingly. I’d actually never set out to own an art supply store or really a business of any kind. I’d been working in the nonprofit field for 25 years working in fundraising and event planning and I was an artist in my spare time and it was something that I was trying to fire up in my life a little bit more regularly and so I visited Rath Art Supplies on a Saturday afternoon while Stan was here alone stretching canvases, and we stuck up a conversation. He was tired that day and had to rest in between rounds of stretching and stapling because his hands ached and we just chatted about the store and he talked about his plans to retire one day and sell the business. I was enchanted I guess you could say and when I got home I just started fantasizing about buying that store so over the course of the weekend I wrote Stan a letter and popped it in his mail slot and asked if he would have coffee with me and talk about that retirement plan and the possibility of me being the new owner. A few days later he called and we met and it all seemed pretty crazy but it also just seemed to fit and Stan and I got along and I offered to work for him on Saturdays for free just to learn the business in the time that it would take for him to retire in the next year or so. I ended up working here just on Saturdays for three years until Stan was ready to retire, and then I became the owner.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
From a very young age, I pretty intentionally set out to have a career that involved helping people in whatever way I could versus trying to make a lot of money. Starting when I was a teenager, I began to volunteer and work for different nonprofit organizations, I chose organizations who primarily provided services for marginalized people, but also worked for many different health care charities. I loved the dynamic work of fundraising events, but also wrote hundreds of fundraising proposals and creative communication pieces. I was lucky to work for a number of organizations that really trusted me and gave me a lot of freedom to express myself creatively in those jobs, while also engaging in continual ongoing learning about the field. Towards the end of my career, I changed roles several times, and took on some big challenges. I once took over management of an annual fundraising event that was already halfway through the year as the long-term organizer for that event left the organization for a new position elsewhere, and while I was a bit terrified, having to take it on with no prior experience and halfway through with some serious time crunches, I ended up doubling the revenue of the event that year. I’d also been trusted with a portfolio of third-party events and asked at my job interview how I would double the revenue within a year. I wrote a fundraising plan for my second interview and got the job and while I wasn’t able to double it in the first year, by the second year I had. I learned how to create something out of nothing, and how to meet goals on a shoestring budget. It was exciting and fun working with volunteers and board members and a lot of what I learned managing fundraising portfolios for charities has proven to be extremely useful in running my own business.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
You have to look at the city with new eyes if you’ve been living here for a while so I try to think of the places that really impressed me when I first came to Vancouver in 1995 – places that were nothing like anything I’d seen where I was from, in the prairies of Alberta. So for me, that’s always anything to do with the mountains and the ocean. I love easily accessible places to take anyone of any age like Granville Island, Spanish banks, when the tide is all the way out, and Gouse Mountain for for dinner if you can time it so that you can see the transition from the top of the mountain with that spectacular view of the city down below as the sun goes down and the city lights come up. It’s just breathtaking. I went to two places with my niece last year that really surprised me. The Vancouver aquarium which has a lot more going on than just fish and kind of blew my mind and was so beautiful, and the revolving restaurant in Gastown. Starting with the glass elevator on the way up and then having dinner at a window seat that gives you a 360° view, it’s just something I wouldn’t pass up anywhere. And lastly, one of my favourite restaurants in the city is the Twisted Fork also in Gastown, it’s French comfort food with a twist. I love the owners, and the chef/owner Corey makes everything from scratch, including all the jams and relish and sauces and breads. It’s just exquisite.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to dedicate this opportunity to share my story to the late Stanley Rathbun, the former owner for 30 years of Rath Art Supplies. Stan had only met me once before as a customer in his shop, and even then it was quite brief, before we sat down for a serious conversation about me buying the store upon his retirement. Stan let me into his world and shared every detail of how he ran the business and was here whenever I needed him throughout that entire first year. He passed away just before Covid and only a year after his retirement but I believe that he felt he left the store in good hands and was confident that this little part of the world that he built would still remain once he was gone.

Website: https://www.rathartsupplies.ca/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rathartsupplies/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresa-frazao-8b997119/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rathartsupplies

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rathartsupplies

Yelp: https://www.yelp.ca/biz/rath-art-supplies-vancouver

Other: https://goo.gl/maps/Rr15PZgCjyygLvxz8 Our Google Business page. We have 115 reviews and a 4.6 star rating.

Image Credits
Photos by Theresa Frazao