2013 is off to a good start!

[JDUpholstery]

Just got a job redoing 43 14' long church pews, I gave the church a good deal, and will still make out alright, so hopefully 2013 continues on this good start. I have also already brought 4 other jobs into my shop since the new year, of course those are smaller ones, but hey it all adds up!

how has everyone else' first month gone? Hope it has been as good!

[kodydog]

I love doing church pews. Once you get the first 2 or 3 done you can rip thru the rest.

Year is starting off great. My wife just got a job working for the state revenue department. Starts Friday (I know "weird" day to start). She's gonna be a revenuer.

[sofadoc]

Sales have been quite brisk. I've had a lot of foot traffic, even on bad weather days.
I've raised prices, and so far, met no resistance.
The year is starting out really good.

[byhammerandhand]

Right after the first of the year, a casino calls me to come and deluxe 70 chairs in the "high-roller's lounge."   Was a job a bid last July and now they apparently have their 2013 budget.  Spent most of 5 days there.     The only sad thing was seeing all the retired folks gambling away their money.  Twice, I saw a guy get wheeled in a wheel chair wearing flannel pants (pajama bottoms).   I wouldn't doubt that he was there every day because I only spent a bit of the time in the public areas.

[JuneC]

Busy as a one-armed wall paper hanger.  Mostly upholstery (thankfully  ::))  One canvas job, but it's done and over.  Starting a complete cockpit on a Fomula 400 SS this weekend.  Quotes out on a complete (soup to nuts) 28' Chris Craft Launch and 28' Regulator.  They may be tire-kickers though...  Time will tell.

June

[JDUpholstery]

sounds like it is just an all around busy start, hope this is a sign of things to come for us

[Mike]

I wish i had more upholstery then canvas june.
Its average for me. I have a couple  covers  signed i and a few i havnt heard back on. But it always seems just as i Get caught up more come in at the last minute.

[gene]

We talked about doing church pews a few years ago on this forum. I quoted on a big job but the church decided to buy new pews.

There's a company in Indiana that only does church pews and other church restoration project, such as statues and podiums and baptistries.

This job was going to have someone refinish the wood on the pews, and then reupholster the pews. I bid only on the reupholstery.

The biggest thing I learned was to not be the one who unbolts the pews from the floor. The floors can warp and sag and it can be next to impossible to bolt the pews back to the floor once they are unbolted.

That's a great job to start the year off with, JD. My first job for the new year was 2 pillow covers, self welt with zippers.  :D

This will be a very busy January for me, so, once again, I have nothing to complain about.

gene

[Mojo]

I could complain but wont. I still feel very grateful coming off the best year I have had. Things are very slow at the moment. I busted my butt clearing out all my orders and shipped out 4 last week. I have one order on my board and hope it stays that way for a couple weeks.

It allowed me the chance to attend the big Tampa RV show this week and got to meet with alot of people there. It was jammed packed with RV's and people.

I start chemo....again...tonight and need this little break to let my body adjust before going at it again. I am coming into my busy time starting next month with numerous seminars. Thankfully the majority are here close to me. In May I hit the road again for Indiana and am doing a two week International Rally, one week longer then last year. Then plan on spending time in Michigan with my son, daughter in law and grandkids. I have a brand new grandson I haven't seen yet that was born a few weeks ago so am looking forward to it.

So I am slow at the moment but enjoying it and it came at a perfect time. :)

Chris

[baileyuph]

Overfall, business is strong.  If the weather would be more accommodaing, it would be even better.  I don't think it got out of the 20's here yesterday, which believe it or not, slows things down.  It takes a while to just warm the shop, the temperature is lowered during closing hours.

Doyle

[JDUpholstery]

I shut off my heat at night in the shop, and even when it drops below 30 overnight it is still almost 60* in the morning so takes little time to warm up....I did an attic exploration the other day and was surprised to find it was blown insulation almost a foot deep...makes for good utility bills, my highest electric bill in the 7 months I have had this shop has been 87 bucks. The thing slowing my business down right now is getting my employees to get stuff done in a timely manner....I have 2 guys that work for me, one is skilled (25 years in upholstery) but is not reliable (thinks he can set his own hours) the other is very reliable, but more or less a grunt, does the busy work...clean up, tear downs, grinding fiberglass on my boat repairs etc..

The church job has just doubled also, they decided that they would like to add foam to the back rests of the pews and cover those as well now....so that is even better for me

[regalman190]

2013 is off to a great start. I have 5 boats with full enclosures to work on, and luckily all of them are inside. Our winters wouldn't really allow me to work on them outside this time of year. I also have 3 boats lined up for early spring. Hopefullythis keeps up.

[sofadoc]

With a week to go, this is already my best grossing January since '02 (when I was working 14 hour days to raise 2 kids).

All part of my grand plan.........work smarter, not harder.

[kodydog]

With a week to go, this is already my best grossing January since '02 (when I was working 14 hour days to raise 2 kids).

All part of my grand plan.........work smarter, not harder.

Whew! I thought you were going to say, All part of my grand plan to take over the world. He He.

[sofadoc]

Whew! I thought you were going to say, All part of my grand plan to take over the world. He He.

Hey, I haven't given up on my plan for world domination yet!

But it's gonna take a little longer than I thought.