Best Way of Getting Into The Business

[baileyuph]

How did you do it? 

1.  Just jump in cold - business or trade experience?

2.  Work for someone to get the idea before jumping in?

3. Take formal training before jumping into the trade, example trade school?

4.  Some other way...........care to explain?

Be interesting how most got started in the business. 

Seems it would be difficult to just jump in with little experience or any thing to get you going because the business side is an important factor.

Is it still true in Europe, a fairly long apprenticeship is equired?

Doyle

[JDUpholstery]

I just jumped in....of course time has yet to tell whether I succeeded in doing so....but my first year has been profitable and I continued to grow so that's a good sign. I have no formal training or experience, got into it by doing my own boat seats and found I had a "knack" for it...and then did some for friends, and then had some word of mouth customers, working from my house, of course looking back at those first seats, I am not so sure any more because the work I turn out now is even better..... and then 3 months ago I jumped off the deep end and purchased a 2400 square foot shop....hung a sign, and crossed my fingers!

Not the exact business model you would learn at school I guess, but it so far has been working for me!

[byhammerandhand]

I used to listen to a guy on the radio who always discouraged listeners from starting a business "on the side" while you had other full time employment.   It was his opinion that it was too easy to just fold up the tent when things got rough unless you had a little more skin in the game.


I sort of got started by avocation, then did some training and due diligence before cutting the ties and setting sail.   Or as I like to say, spent a long time tunneling, broke to the surface and ran like hell.

Some may also get pushed off the deep end -- job dried up due to circumstances beyond your control - company closing, bad economy, laid off, health restrictions, etc. and family circumstances (house, spouse's job, caring for parents) kept you in an area where you could not easily find another job.

[sofadoc]

In reading posts on this forum, I'm always amazed at how many made a mid-life career change into upholstery. It almost seems to be the most common way that people get into the biz nowadays. I don't see too many young people going into an upholstery trade school right out of high school.

I think you're right about more lengthy apprenticeships in Europe. I remember Bruno (tappissier) complaining that "In America, all you have to do to be an upholsterer, is be able to pay rent".

I don't really think that great business skills are an absolute must in this field. If you can use a calculator well enough to figure yourself a profit, you can get by.

Frankly, you can jump into this business with little or no experience. But it may be several years before you start making anything more than an hourly wage.

I'm an upholsterer because my mother was, and her mother before her. If I hadn't been exposed to this trade early on, I doubt that I would've chosen it as a career on my own.

[crammage]

I'm one of those that started slow.  I took an upholstery class in 1985 and had a good time.  I then re-did pieces for friends and family for many years.  Then in 2005 I had an opportunity to buy a used walking foot machine and started a part time business.  I still run it part time and have the advantag of working from home for my full time job so it's an easy transition to go from one job to the next.  Which, living in MN is really nice in the winter when I don't have to clear off the ice and snow to go somewhere! 

This year has been my busiest by far with both repair (thank you dogs and children) and working for designers.  My customers are always patient with expected delivery times and I try hard to deliver quality work.

The biggest challenge is keeping the income at a low enough rate that we're not killed by taxes.  I'll probably buy some larger items towards the end of the year to keep the profit to a minimum.  We refinanced our house this year at a dramatically lower interest rate so our deductions are going to be much smaller, but I'm excited to save on the Interest costs!

Clay

[mike802]

I got started in this business because I was building a car in high school and couldn't afford to have the interior redone, so I did it myself, liked doing it and was good at it.  After graduation I went to Wyo Tech to study auto trim, graduated, came home and went into business.  I would have liked to have worked for someone first, but there was no one doing auto trim in my area at the time, so that was not an option.  I soon learned there was not a big enough demand for auto trim in my area and I had to branch out into furniture reupholstery.  Lucky for me furniture was easy after learning auto trim, the sewing was not as demanding and I learned quickly.  I studied antiques as I disassembled them and also continued my education with books.  I attended collage on and off when business was slow and eventually earned a bachelor degree in business.  Looking back I often wonder if I should have done things differently, but given my area I cant say as I really had any choice than to do things the way I did.  I was raised in a family of small business owners and was groomed from day one to be a business man.  I have worked for others at times, the economy took a big hit here in the mid to late 80's and I ended up working as a  upholstery department manager for a fairly large handcrafted furniture maker.  That was a very eye opening experience and I learned I had talents that I was not using to my full ability.  That job lasted about three years, the economy improved and I left to expand my business, which I keep open by moonlighting during my employment.  I would like to say I cant wait to see how this all turns out, but I think I can wait.

[Mojo]

LOL...... I got started in this trade in an effort to save my marriage after making three huge mistakes.

1.) I bought my wife a walking foot machine and told her I am creating a new business for her.

2.) I bought a classic car that needed new interior.

3.) I have a motorcoach that needed solar screens.

My wife who is a very busy high school teacher told me to shove the machine up the dark cavity on my backside. In her words " when am I supposed to have any free time to do this work ? Your retired so you do it. "

So she taught me how to sew and the rest is history. I started out screwing up my own projects and then started screwing up my friends projects. before long I was making train wrecks out of alot of different projects. Over time I finally learned how to pattern, cut and sew by continually making mistakes and ruining material. There is no better teacher then experience. :)

I later decided to specialize in doing nothing but RV's since I had a big knowledge base with them and then later changed course and specialized in nothing but RV slide toppers and awnings ( when I found out how much profit was in this area ).

I should note here that I am a retired corporate marketing/pr and business consultant and was going out of my mind with nothing to do. Being a workaholic this business was just what the Doctor ordered. Kinda.......:)

Chris

[SHHR]

It started as a hobby for me, my dad and I always built our own street rods and customs enjoying weekend shows in the summer. My dad alway had a full time job, but was well know with his mechanical and autobody abilities and he always stayed busy evenings and weekends for others too, wrencing on their cars. I just kind of followed suit getting a "regular" job and moonlighting evenings and weekends on other peoples cars. When I was a young teen we built a streetrod and tried to tackle the interior ourselves. That's right when the whole velour and tweed thing was gaining popularity in custom interiors, so it was just alot of glue, wrap, and staple, your material to panels. we opted for a very cheap set of seat covers from K-mart or something on some junk yard buckets. After I was grown and married, I was doing the same out of my garage now and restoring a 60 buick for a local dealer. I also just left my toolmaker job for a supposed better paying factory job that I had to work nights on and absolutely hated it. One day my dad came by and woke me up to take a trip with him and we ended up at a sewing machine/Fabric dealer in the city where he bought me a new Consew  and they threw in lots of end cuts of vinyl for me to practice on. I bought the Don Taylor books and just started banging away playing in my shop. I decided to tackle the interior in that Buick to which dad tried to talk me out of until I gained more experience. I went ahead and did it to which it turned out really decent. I still did it all as a hobby in my free time away from work. This was about the time my dad retired too from his job as a maintenance foreman with the state and I ended up being hired for that position which was great for me. I started getting more work and making a name for myself and always contemplated going full time, but never had the nerve since I had steady income and great benefits. Right when the economy started heading south though the state made up my mind for me. I worked at a very large state hospital in the maintenance department when a prison started taking over our empty buildings. They seemed to get greedier and greedier expanding their womens prison on the west side of the campus, then opening a juvenile facility on the east side with just a remnant of the hospital right in the middle. They also said they could run maintenance operations cheaper, so we got the walking papers. Scared to death I started out trying to still do it all from body work, mechanics, and now upholstery and quickly was overwhelmed not getting anything really accomplished. I decided due to some new changes with the EPA that may cause me trouble doing paint and body I would focus on upholstery. I still like auto restorations and tackle some of that work from time to time, but once about two more projects I have are completed, I'm cleaning house a re-vamping shop for upholstery ONLY since I have seemed to lost a lot of my passion for the dirty body work. I won't lie either, This area of southern Indiana has been greatly effected by the recession and work has dwindled on the boats and custom car interiors which hasn't helped us with some health issues my wife has had. I've been in talks about a full time job with a local power plant, but they don't seen to be in a big hurry on moving ahead right now either, so for now I'm still sewing away with some new prospects possibly for some fall work coming in. I never plan to give this up totally anyway, because I do love this type of work, I'll just hopefully be more selective in what work I bring in and will get to spend some more time working on my own hot rod project. In all of this I can say I wish that I had some education or experience in business instead of just being "blue collar". My wife is a special ed teacher and great at keeping records and helps me greatly. You don't know how much I admire most of you "corporate guys" on here who have left that world to do this work as well.

Kyle

[MinUph]

I grew up with my father doing Upholstery in our basement at night after cutting at a shop. I would walk to that shop after church school and hang out until he went home. At a very early age I was pounding tacks into boards. When I became old enough to work I told him I wanted to learn the business. He had already been in business on his own for a few years full time. He tried to talk me out of it. He said it is a dirty business, hair, moss, toe, dusty all that stuff back then. I told him if he didn't teach me I would have to learn from someone else. Needless to say he was glad to teach me. I don't think the threat had any bearing. I learned for years from him and other old timers.