too much competition?????

[seamsperfect]

I have people come in my shop and tell me to my face, "I've heard you're expensive and it takes a long time to get the stuff done. Here is my seat, call me when it's done."  ;D ;D

They think I'm slow, but they just don't realize how backed up I am. When they part is on the table, it goes rather quickly. Oh well. At least I"m booked up.

+1 on this statement I never get the "I heard you are expensive",  but the rest of the statement holds true. 
Kevin

[vinyldoctorlv]

That is the way. I do vinyl repair. people say, oh, everybody does vinyl repair now. err, yeah, and you can see thier work, literally. can you see mine?

[hidebound]

actually onebonehead if you had ever seen sticher_guy work you wouldnt say overconfident at all. His work is excellent.

[Ihavenoname]

Excellent but not the best?

[SHHR]

  I agree with stitchers quote about if you know your stuff WHO CARES. For along time I've been the only one in town who's done upholstery except for an older lady who just doesn't do much anymore and an older man who's beem retired for many years.

 Just last week though my next door neighbor told me she gave one of my cards to a friend who wasn't happy with the work they had done from a local marina. She told me the name of the marina and I thought "what's up I do all the work for them"! I also got to thinking I haven't done anything for them since last fall, but put that off to just being the off season up here.

I spent day's worrying about whether someone was dissatisfied with my work and then early this week I found out through the grapevine the marina was offering upholstery work now. It turns out they bought one of those industrial machines from Harbor Freight for about $300-$400 and are buying vinyl from a local fabric store that deals more in dress making material and cross stitch stuff than upholstery.


Anyway I'm not too worried anymore about the "competition" and will undoubtedly get alot of re-do's from other customers of theirs.

Kyle

[Ihavenoname]

Lets say Sticker_guy is the best upholsterer in the world. Now he comes to a town where the 5 shops are only number 2000, 2001, 2002... in the world. So now how does sticker_guy prove that he is the best and customers should come to him? After all he is number one in the world, and the other shops are behind him.

He can yell on the roof tops, "I'm number one! I'm number one!"  But who and why would anyone care? So what?

If your competition is outright the worst shop in the world no problem, but what if you are only slightly better, or even 20% better then how do you get people to buy?

You can tell everyone your are the best but how will they know?

You can not assume everyone else is bad at upholstery, and you are the only good shop. That's dreaming. Even if the other shop is just starting out, after a few years they can be pretty good.

[seamsperfect]

Lets say Sticker_guy is the best upholsterer in the world. Now he comes to a town where the 5 shops are only number 2000, 2001, 2002... in the world. So now how does sticker_guy prove that he is the best and customers should come to him? After all he is number one in the world, and the other shops are behind him.

He can yell on the roof tops, "I'm number one! I'm number one!"  But who and why would anyone care? So what?

If your competition is outright the worst shop in the world no problem, but what if you are only slightly better, or even 20% better then how do you get people to buy?

You can tell everyone your are the best but how will they know?

You can not assume everyone else is bad at upholstery, and you are the only good shop. That's dreaming. Even if the other shop is just starting out, after a few years they can be pretty good.

I see your point but Russ has a good reputation as doing good work and he has been in his location for several years.    If you consistently put out good work, people will spread the word.     You never want to be the best in the world but you want to put out good consistent top notch work at good prices.  Once you build your reputation the work follows.  Another thing is people also buy because they like the person they are dealing with.  Customer Service is a very important part in our business.
Kevin

[Ihavenoname]

Seamsperfect, so what you are saying is, if I can paraphrase, by fulfilling more of your costume's needs better then your competitor are doing, you have a great advantage over your competitor which may in fact be a better upholsterer.  So being the best at upholstery may actually be second to serving your customer needs for respect, value, honesty, service, personal and material development, adventure, love and connection, status...

I agree if that is what you are saying. 

[seamsperfect]

Seamsperfect, so what you are saying is, if I can paraphrase, by fulfilling more of your costume's needs better then your competitor are doing, you have a great advantage over your competitor which may in fact be a better upholsterer.  So being the best at upholstery may actually be second to serving your customer needs for respect, value, honesty, service, personal and material development, adventure, love and connection, status...

I agree if that is what you are saying.  

I think they both go hand in hand.  If you offer good work and you back that with customer service then it is a win win for both parties.    I come from a IT sales background and have always been a consultant, listen what the customer is looking for and then give them a number of options and let them chose from there.  If they ask for opinions then I give mine but I never sway them one way or the other I let them make the final decision.
My situation is a little different as I offer DIY BMW upholstery kits and have been doing so for several years along with local work.
I have built a reputation through customers on forums and I sponsor a number of them as well.   As you know the internet can make or break you.  I have been fortunate that my works and reputation is solid.  The only complaint I get is wait times but as Russ stated (as a one man operation) some do and some don't understand how booked I am with projects.  One thing that is nice is that I have become more well known for my works in Atlanta.  I get referrals from shops that I do not even know. Customers bring their cars in for repairs and they think enough of my upholstery to pass on the word.  
Kevin

[scottymc]

I GOT SOME GOOD ADVICE FROM A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN WHEN i WAS YOUNGER, WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO SELL THE BEST PLACE TO SET UP SHOP ACROSS THE ROAD FROM YOUR COMPETITION.

[seamsperfect]

I GOT SOME GOOD ADVICE FROM A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN WHEN i WAS YOUNGER, WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO SELL THE BEST PLACE TO SET UP SHOP ACROSS THE ROAD FROM YOUR COMPETITION.

I agree if your product is just as good or better.  If I was a brick and mortar where there was a lot of traffic.  I would fill my showroom with custom reupholstered seats, leather works etc.  Almost set it up like an Art gallery, but you can sit in in it and touch it.    After all at the end of the day that is what we do, create art.   It would not matter if someone did not know about upholstery.  If you had something that caught peoples attention it will draw them in.
Kevin

[Ihavenoname]

I gave that idea of opening a shop across the street from your competitor some thought the other day.

And I might have a better idea, at least one to think about.

You might be etter to find out where people go before they call an upholsterer and build you shop there.

That is, before people decide to have a chair upholstered, where else might they go?

New carpeting
New drapes
Kitchen Remodel
and so on.

So in other words where do our customers go before they come or call use?

To take it further, what makes a customer stop and think, "I need to call an upholstery shop?"

There is a saying, if you can have any one thing for your restaurant what would you want more then anything else?

Best location, Best food, great atmosphere...

The answer to the question as I hear it was, "A hungry Crowd." Makes sense.

So where is our hungry crowd right before they get hungry? Now just maybe that is were I should build a shop.

[seamsperfect]

There is a saying, if you can have any one thing for your restaurant what would you want more then anything else?
Best location, Best food, great atmosphere...

If you can have all 3 then you just got your answer.  With this combination you will have success similar as to what I stated before good top notch work, good pricing and good customer services will keep people knocking on your door.  If you could have only one thing I would say best food as it would also keep people knocking on your door.  As far as upholstery I do not think you could have one with out the other and still be successful.
just my 2¢
Kevin

[scottymc]

I gave that idea of opening a shop across the street from your competitor some thought the other day.

And I might have a better idea, at least one to think about.

You might be etter to find out where people go before they call an upholsterer and build you shop there.

That is, before people decide to have a chair upholstered, where else might they go?

New carpeting
New drapes
Kitchen Remodel
and so on.

So in other words where do our customers go before they come or call use?

To take it further, what makes a customer stop and think, "I need to call an upholstery shop?"

There is a saying, if you can have any one thing for your restaurant what would you want more then anything else?

Best location, Best food, great atmosphere...

The answer to the question as I hear it was, "A hungry Crowd." Makes sense.

So where is our hungry crowd right before they get hungry? Now just maybe that is were I should build a shop.

You could set up across from a furniture store, then you could point out why your goods are better, the best place to find people looking for furniture is a furniture store and funnily enough you usually find a few on the same block as they are all competing. 

[kodydog]

Furniture store sounds good but won't people be coming in all day to compair your prices with new furniture prices? I guess that's where salesmanship comes in. How about next to a fabric store? Then again picking your location based on another business would be a gamble seeing that business may not be around next month.

All the way back to the original question, I noticed some of the listings in my phone book don't do the work them self. Decorators and fabric stores that farm the work out aren't competition and if I could get them to send  that work to me they would be an asset. I was looking through a phone book from a city on the east coast that had 10 listings but when I called them only 2 we're real full time shops. I wouldn't base my decision on the yellow pages.