Starting An Upholstery Business

Submitted by Stephen Winters on Fri, 09/14/2012 - 02:45

What do you need to do to start an upholstery business. The answer will vary depending upon your knowledge and skill level of upholstery and business practices, you desires, your finances, your determination to persevere through difficult times.

For example, if you have little or no knowledge and experience of the upholstery trade, then, of course, you must learn some basic upholstery skills before you start a business. This article does not include that.

Let's assume that you already know the uphostery trade and want to start your own business. The first question to ask yourself is, "Why do I want to start my own business?"

  1. Do you want to make all the profit of working for yourself?
  2. Do you want your time to be your own?
  3. Are you tired of having someone else be your boss?
  4. Are you tired of following someone else's orders

It has been said that when you work for yourself, you can make your own choices. A running joke is that "when you work for yourself, you can work any 80 hours a week that you want." Although this seems funny, it is more true that we want to admit. Working for oneself requires a lot more time and effort than working for someone else. I easily spend a third to a half of my time doing "non-paying" work..... (giving estimates, answering the phone, answering emails, writing ads, doing bookkeeping, organizing the fabric samples, working on the website....) It is so much easier to just work your 40 hours a week for someone else.

Starting your business

  1. Set up your workshop 
  2. Get fabric samples. If a fabric sales rep comes to your home, they want to see some evidence that you are in business.
    1. A set up and functioning workshop
    2. A customer area, sales desk, sample table or shelves.

 

Resources:

10 Steps To Starting A Business at Business.Gov

Starting and Managing a Business, SBA

Tips on Running Your Upholstery Business at Upholster.com

5 ways to start a company (without quitting your day job) at CNN

Kim's Upholstery: Do You Want To Learn How To Upholster Furniture?