How's business?

[gene]

I've been looking for an upholsterer or sewing person to help with my work load. I'm not swamped, but I am very pleasantly busy.

My supplier told me that she knows of 4 or 5 other upholsterers in this area who are looking for help.

I don't know of any young people coming into the upholstery business. And the same for folks who sew cushions and drapes. I've talked to several folks who say that when their sewing employees retire they won't have anyone to replace them.

I hope business is better than just sew sew for everyone.

gene

[sofadoc]

I'd say this problem has been increasing for the last several years.

Anybody that is any good already has their own shop. So all you can hope for, is to hire some basically unskilled help for stripping and such.

You can hire a sewer, but unless he/she can do their own cutting (blocking out patterns, etc.) then really all you have is a sewing machine operator that you have to work even harder to stay ahead of.

BTW my helper for the last 10 years was recently busted for possession of coke and meth. It was his "3rd strike", so I won't be seeing him for a long time. I had no idea he was doing anything like that. If he was dealing, then he was obviously making way more money than I was paying him, and would've had no interest in working for me. If he was using, then again, he would've needed more money than I was paying him in order to procure product. Either way (dealing or using) I can't understand why he had any incentive to work for me. That lack of incentive certainly was evident in the quality of his work. The only tool that he could operate with a reasonable degree of skill was a broom.

[SteveA]

It's difficult in that young folks don't necessarily want to learn a trade - I saw an interview with Mike Rowe who said there are 500,000 blue collar jobs available that aren't being filled. 
Here in NY there are workers who congregate in commercial areas hoping to be picked up randomly every day by contractors.  If I needed a steady guy I would train one of them who has working papers and who I thought had potential - they are very grateful to work and extremely thankful if it becomes steady. I know this isn't an immediate solution but it will work.   Most of these guys are jack of all trades since they do different jobs every day.  The learning curve is much shorter whatever you ask them to do.
SA

   

[sofadoc]

Here in NY there are workers who congregate in commercial areas hoping to be picked up randomly every day by contractors.

We have an area like that here. I've hired a few before. They're pretty good for heavy lifting, but that's about it. Then they swarm my shop every day, and it takes me forever to get rid of them. I don't even go near the gas station where they hang out. Most of them live in a trailer park right behind the gas station. I swear, there isn't a functioning door or window on any of those homes.

I guess in a big city, there's more quality to choose from. But around here, the only ones congregating in commercial areas are the bottom of the barrel.

[65Buick]

I'm a younger person (under 40) and my trouble is getting designers and other people to be interested in their furniture enough to stop buying big box/main stream crap.

On the flip side, older designers have probably realized that nobody is coming into the trade so they buy Chinese. Which perpetuates itself.

Funny thing is, anyone who has bought foreign/poorly made furniture knows is no time that  it's garbage. But they don't seem to care enough to do anything about it.

[SteveA]

Not always but you can find someone who has it together and wants to make a go of it here.  They can be life savers especially as you mention heavy lifting .......... and I'll add - at this point - light lifting  -

One guy I know who became the head baker in a catering hall after the head baker kept harassing the waitresses - he watched the process for over 10 years and this young guy took over the job. He has 2 days off a week and looks for the extra income by shaping up with the contractors. I have his cell phone and he'll help me whenever I ask but I'm limited to the days he has off.

He pays income taxes, has a bank account and a work sponsorship but can't get citizenship. He tried once and an immigration lawyer took him for 3 grand and did nothing to help him along.  He's scared to death that Trump will find him -
SA  

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Very busy.  Usually I'm much slower Jan-Mar and I had zero down time this winter.  One long time alteration person retired end of the year and I've picked up quite a few of her customers.  Lucked into several upholstery projects and that mean's I'm very busy.  I am definitely not complaining though!

Virginia

[Mojo]

We came off the best year ( 2016 ) we have had in history. Since the wife/boss took over her company she has really increased business which leads me to believe our former manager left a lot of sales on the table. In other words she was not a closer. Our customer call and inquire and get my wife's Australian voice on the other end and Bingo...sale closed. :)

2017 is going to be a transition year for us. We are sticking to our normal mode of marketing but are laying the ground work for 2018. We are expanding our market reach next year by going to different association rallies and have essentially ignored one huge market. It took us a year to figure out this one awning assembly but now have perfected it and will go after that market next year. We will be the only after market company in the country who offers fabric replacements for these assembly types. They are a royal PITA which is why no one has offered them. Precision with these things are needed to make them look nice and operate correctly. But they have great margins. I worked with 3 beta customers and gave them free replacements costing us several thousand dollars but the pay back will be awesome.

Our business is strange since we are a National company with sales all over the country. We are now starting to see the Texas orders come in as snowbirds are making their way from CA and AZ back to Texas. Our Midwest orders will start picking up as well and our AZ, NV and NM orders will drop like a rock. Our markets across the USA fluctuate according to the seasons. Our biggest issue is flattening out our annual production schedule which is something we are working on. Summer is always our slow period.

Our other business, the manufacturing company just got me in a pickle. We had a run on a product we were making and I got so backlogged I had to contract out the manufacturing to another company. After crunching the numbers, it turns out they can make them much faster and cheaper through CNC manufacturing then I can by hand. They filled a 2 month back log of orders in twp days.
I guess you have to admit when your slow and suck at one thing and someone else can do it better. :)

In regards to hiring someone I believe we are going to bring some one on soon. I plan on running an ad at a couple JoAnn fabric stores and see if we cannot find a retired lady looking for part time work.
I am pretty much over the young crowd. Their work ethic sucks. Florida is loaded with retirees and many like working a part time job. Since our work is not heavy a retiree would be a good fit I think.

Chris