The Upholstery Forum

So I have been in business since my retirement for a few months now. Having a new start up business definitely has been a learning experience. What were your lessons learned so to speak when you first started out trimming? For me I have issues with properly estimating the time needed for bigger jobs. Im doing a boat currently that needed some upholstery seat repair, trim recover, full tow cover and Bimini top. This jobs lesson learned is take your time when estimating repair work. Covers are generally easy to estimate as I do it by the per foot length of the boat. The simple upholstery repair however is going to eat my lunch so to speak as the simple panel replacements has turned out to be full recover of all the seats. The quality of the upholstery (recovered some years back by someone else) is extremely poor and is something that I dont want my name associated with Hence the full recover. In the long run it will probably take less time to just redo everything. Some other lessons for me have been.

Business will come to you. Dont worry about having work.

You dont need to pay for an accounting program. The free Wave App works just fine as Jon has mention in other post.

Get Business insurance. Prices will vary among different carriers.

Take your time doing estimates. Dont under estimate your time needed for completing jobs.

Your skills will develop over time. Those individuals on social media accounts that are doing SEMA quality work have been doing it for years. Dont get discouraged when comparing your work to theirs.

If your having a difficult day getting something to work out walk away from it for a little bit. Call it a day. You will only screw it up worse if your frustrated.

How about the rest of you that have started up a trimming business? What are your tips?

@Ddedman , I am on my last estimated job and started another. The estimated job is going to make me pennies per hour the straight rate per hour and the purchase cost of materials up front are more encouraging. Keep plugging away!

@Ddedman
I started my business a little over a year ago part time. Was forced out of my job early 2021 and had no choice but to dive in head first and go full time. It has been stressful, busy, slow, exhausting, and rewarding.

I learn every day and try to learn from my mistakes so as to not make them again. Especially in business decisions.

Estimating is the hardest part for me as well. I have some somewhat "menu" priced labor charges, but every job is different. It never fails something happens or comes up or is just something you could not have known about. So i have gotten to the point when building an estimate to start with my "menu" items, then do all the add on stuff. Add material costs, foam, vinyl, cloth, scrim, closed cell, supplies, everything i can think of. Then add things like repairs for springs, foam, frames, etc at a reasonable price range based off your experience and knowledge.

Once i get those i add my mark ups and any other things i think of. All with the hopes that it could get cheaper if certain things are not needed, but the expectation that it will need more. And explain that thoroughly to the customer.

I still take hits on things that i screw up or miss, but thats not their fault so i expect to eat those costs. If the price is going to drastically change for any reason, then it is a phone conversation with the customer to get their approval.

It's all a process and trying to limit costs. I lose some and win some and at the end of it all i do my best to earn profit overall.

Hope you get this and have a good experience with your business!

Aside from estimating my time, dealing with customers was a big lesson for me. Boaters saying "It's a simple repair, all you have to do is...." People who are not trimmers seem to have it all figured out and want you to cut corners to save money.

@Adam12 , that was the best think I could have ever seen! I think there must be a website for potential customers that tells them you can reuse foam

- Estimating is hard and never gets easier. I no longer accept jobs where the customer expects the estimate to be set in stone. I charge by the hour, plus material. I make sure the the customer understands that the estimate may likely not be the final price. I know when first building your reputation this is not realistic. However it should be your to get to that point of being able to charge what your time and skills are worth. When I did commit to estimates I found that 2x the time I expected is fairly accurate. So I used to literally double what I estimated.

- Avoid getting the reputation of being the lowest price in town. Its hard to loose that reputation and get better customers down the road.

- Run away from any customer that promises to get all his car buddies to use you if you give him a good deal. In my experience these people have no friends and you never hear from them again once you finish their project.

- Always get a deposit before starting the Job.

- Never!!! release the project until paid in full.

- Car shows never seem to get me much business.

- Get a website and build your project portfolio. Most people these days need to see your website before they will ever call. Websites are pretty easy to build yourself or I can refer you to my web site guy.

- Post your business listing on any business listing service you can find. Example: Yellow Pages, Google, Yahoo, Yelp, etc. This has always been my best source for getting new customers.

- Don't be afraid to do other areas of upholstery besides cars. Lots of times I find boats or even making protective equipment covers can be more lucrative than cars.