What Would You Do ??

[Mojo]

Some of you have been at this trade for years. ( In Darren and Dennis's case you guys have been at this longer then I have been alive. :)

The vast majority of us specialize in our own little world of upholstery. I do motorcoach canvas work. Some of you are masters at marine work, some are artists with furniture, some may do autos. A few do a little bit of everything and cover all of these areas.

Knowing what you know now and if the clock was rewound back to when you first started in this trade would you pursue the same specialty or would you change directions ?

Chris

[sofadoc]

Ah-h-h-h! The "path not taken". ;)

I'm sure that if I'd had a crystal ball when I first started out in the upholstery business, I would've seen all the cheap furniture coming into the marketplace in the future. I might have given strong consideration to going the auto, or marine route. There seems to be big bucks in pimping rides, but stiffer competition as well.

The "elite" trim guys make serious dinero working on high-end cars. Then there are the regular guys who patch up seats for low-budget used car dealers. Same with boats. There are primo jobs, and there are "meat and potatoes" customers.

"THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER.................."

Some of you have been at this trade for years. ( In Darren and Dennis's case you guys have been at this longer then I have been alive.

How were me and Darren supposed to know that "Horseless carriages" would catch on?

[Mike]

well thingd were what they were and I was never going to be a doctor or lawyer I wish someone had told me to join the navy and retire at fourty. I waysted 15 years working my ass before I learned to sew I just wish I had been able to move to florida
20+ years ago when I first started

[JuneC]

Wow.  Now that's a loaded question.  Off-hand, I don't think I'd change anything, but had I known then what I know now, I'd probably have chosen another trade.  I thought I'd just pattern and sew.  I had no idea I'd need a 1) drill 2) dykes 3) foam saw 4) angle grinder 5) jigsaw 6) router 7) gazillions of hand tools like pliers/screwdrivers/wrenches/ratchets/sockets as well as have to use chemicals like 8) lithium grease 9) denatured alcohol 10) DAP glue 11) MEK 12) de-bond (for 5200) and on and on....

June

[Rich]

Knowing what I know now, and living where I do (Wash DC Metro), I'd have trained for a good job in a large company or the federal gov't, retired with a good pension and started whatever business my heart desired. But all that means nothing more than fantasy, b/c what I did was probably what I'd do anyway. Actually, I think I even have proof; I originally started out training for a secondary school teacher in what used to be known as Industrial Arts (now Tech Ed). That was back in NYC. I ended up seeing the handwriting on the wall concerning job security and left to open my own auto trim business in 1977. In 1989 I decided to sell that and move to my current location with the intention of going back into teaching. So what did I do? I Started my own upholstery business. So like I said, we can say we should've done this or that, but I think we usually end up where we're supposed to be for whatever reason that may be. (I probably wouldn't have been very happy working for a big co. or the government for too long.)
Thanks for the question,
Rich

BTW, sofa, do you know for sure that these guys who do the "elite" trim jobs are making big bucks?
I tend to doubt it.

[kodydog]

I love working on upholstered furniture. Wouldn't want to do anything else and thats the main reason for staying in it so long.

The biggest mistake I wish I could erase is 15 years ago I had the bull headed idea that as long as you did quality work and treated the customer with respect you would stay busy no mater your location. I now realize location makes a big difference. But I hung in there, corrected my mistakes, and now I'm doing pretty good.

BTW, sofa, do you know for sure that these guys who do the "elite" trim jobs are making big bucks?
I tend to doubt it.

I can't speak for Sofa but everybody I meet who does both custom furniture and custom auto says auto upholstery pays much better than furniture. Am I wrong?

[sofadoc]

This is evolving into a 2-part question.
1) If you had it to do over, would you've entered a different phase of the trade?
                AND/OR
2) If you could start over, what mistakes would you correct?

I inheirited a family uph. business. So I've spent the last 20 or so years trying to correct mistakes that were already firmly established. I grew up learning a lot of things the wrong way. And it's taken me a long time to re-train the local client base. My parents and grandparents let the customers run all over them. That's why to this day, I cringe when I hear someone say "The customer is always right".

BTW, sofa, do you know for sure that these guys who do the "elite" trim jobs are making big bucks?
I tend to doubt it.

Well in that case, my answer to the original question is "No, I wouldn't have specialized in a different field of upholstery"

[JDUpholstery]

I do all upholstery, marine seems to be my highest yielding full upholstery jobs, furniture repairs are my best per hour return, and auto is the one I enjoy the most....I just enjoy it all though so plan to stay full service and do any of them that come my way

[Rich]

I can't speak for Sofa but everybody I meet who does both custom furniture and custom auto says auto upholstery pays much better than furniture. Am I wrong?

I'm not saying auto trim doesn't pay better than furniture, it may, but I know that many hours are spent designing and building these custom interiors and in many cases, the end result is a per hour rate that ends up being less than it really should be for the skills involved.
Rich

[scott_san_diego]

When I started my business, strictly did work for restaurants only.  Did this for about 7 years and felt the money was really good.  Then started to expand into boats and then residental.    Felt expanding into residential market would be good. 
Looking back my profit margin was much higher with restaurants and commercial customers. 
Residential would not want to do.

Scott

[baileyuph]

repairs on auto is a better return than custom.  Repairs correlate with newer cars and dealing with high tech furnishings, design and power options.  Don't mistake and think that it is all about used car dealer work.  Heck, the independent used care dealers have been going broke during this great recession.  One would starve depending on that avenue for work.  Locate in middle class market and be able to do the repair work.  Custom work is all about loud colors and different designs, that activity isn't near as technical as dealing with original seat repairs on an expensive newer vehicle.

Repairs on anything provides the best return, the rest is too labor intensive.

Would I do it the same way starting over, probably not.  What then?  I don't know, because there is no perfect business unless it is government, where a profit isn't required.

Doyle

[mike802]

In my younger days I gave both a try.  I was raised in a family business, but I also landed a good job in a large corporation and I hated it.  I also have had several good positions with other company's and found out I just dont make a good company man.  When I started out in upholstery I did only auto trim and soon learned people in my area did not have the money to customize their cars, most of my work was repairing rips in seats, replacing headliners and conv. tops.  Occasionally I would land a complete interior on a restoration.  I had a good thing going for a while in truck seats, mostly 80's Chevy pick ups.  I had two in stock a folding bench and a non folding bench, covered in a beige vinyl, customer would drop off the truck and I would replace the seat.  The family business was a service station and grew up turning wrenches, by the age of 12, I could completely rebuild a small block Chevy and wanted to learn everything there was to know about cars.  The next step was auto body and I got a job with a body shop and learned how to do bodywork and paint.  Next was trim, so I went to Wyo Tech and took their trim class.  By the time I was 30 I was completely sick of working on other peoples cars.  The rusted bolts, the grease, oil, grim and the smell of exhaust, all of it.  So I decided to specialize in furniture.  If I had one thing to do over I might consider moving to a location where people have more disposable income, but that would mean giving up living in the state I love, money, or home, it's still a difficult choice.

[sofadoc]

I also have had several good positions with other company's and found out I just dont make a good company man.

Actually, I had a few company jobs in my younger days. But always in conjunction with the upholstery business. I was a GREAT company man. I was well liked. And I received many bonuses and "attaboys".

The only reason that I always gravitated back to upholstery, was the pay. It made no sense for me to treat upholstery as a secondary job when it was bringing in the primary income.

4 years as a low level manager at Texas Instruments. 3 more at an aerospace plant. All the while covering couches in my spare time. I grew weary of working 40 hours at my day job just to equal what I was making in half that time upholstering at night.

Back then, companies that didn't pay much tended to treat you very well. Not like now, where many of them pay you like crap, and treat you the same way. So I really enjoyed my time at those places.

Many of us do what we do because we like being our own boss. I never minded taking orders. If the pay had been better, I probably would've phased upholstery out of my life.   

[byhammerandhand]

I used to listen to a guy on the radio that was a "serial entrepreneur"    He had dozens of small businesses that he'd started.   He always said that entrepreneurs made poor employees.   They were used to making their own decisions then acting on them rather than following the corporate line, asking permission, marching to the beat of the drummer, etc.

There is a large company in town that likes to hire people as they graduate from college and keep them for life.   I worked with a guy who had first worked for the US government, then for the small (1500 people) company that we worked together at, then for this very large company.   He could not get into its corporate culture and quit in a couple of years.

In my younger days I gave both a try.  I was raised in a family business, but I also landed a good job in a large corporation and I hated it.  I also have had several good positions with other company's and found out I just dont make a good company man. 

[west coast]

I love upholstered furniture as well and like kodydog would not want to do anything else. 12 years ago I took on a partner that nearly destroyed me financially and mentally. I have since remedied that problem but with only 7 years to go till retirement and 40 years in the biz theres not much time to recover now. The only thing I would change I guess is the partner issue everything else has been great.
Sure wish I had invented the pet rock though.