Blueprint for an upholstery business

Blueprint for an upholstery business

To be an upholsterer, you must have a sharp eye for design and an understanding of various textures and textiles. The upholstery business is one driven by passion and perseverance.

To start your own company, you need to have experience and training in upholstery. Furniture or vehicle upholstery is a complex trade, and to ensure the success of your business, it will be to your advantage to have a qualification or some form of training in upholstery.

There are many avenues to venture into. You could decide to do furniture upholstery, specialise in the restoration of antiques or vehicle seat covers and upholstery.

To start an event planning business, follow this blueprint:

• What it entails: An upholsterer can offer services for vehicles, and indoor or outdoor furniture. Have a portfolio of a few of the top jobs you have completed. Clients are more reassured to make use of your services if you can view your past work.

Get clear guidelines and instructions from your client so you know what’s expected. Some clients might even rely on you for advice on which fabrics to go for. If you are working on restoring furniture, remember that these items hold sentimental value to the client, so you must be able to deal with emotive comments and critics.

Since furniture is a big item to work on, you will need a place or workshop that has sufficient space. If you’d like to have a showroom where clients can look at sample fabrics as well as the quality of your work, you will need a very large space.

This business will entail a lot of unpaid work in terms of transport costs and time to go out to clients premise to do quotations. Draw up a budget so that you can see at a glance all your cost and income. Your budget will guide your decisions and allow you to make structured choices.

• Your target market: Vehicle upholstery – provided you have the right tools and level of expertise, your target market would include individuals who want to revamp or pimp up their old cars interior. Once you have contacts in that area you can expand your market reach to the more exclusive market like boat or yacht owners who want refurbished interior. This could also be a stepping stone to do interior fittings for aircrafts.

Outdoor furniture – In South Africa we have hot summer days and most entertainment is hosted outdoor. With budget being tight, individuals, guest houses and event venues opt to revamp their outdoor furniture instead of buying new furniture.

The market for indoor furniture upholstery is also vast – this ranges from home owners, hotels, lodges to corporate offices.

• Start-up costs: The costs of starting an upholstery company is largely dependent on type of upholstery you decide to specialise in. You will need start-up capital to start this business. If you’ve been an apprentice and been doing upholstery jobs to build your experience, you might have built up your collection of tools over the years. If not, you will have to buy all the machinery and tools necessary to sustain this business.

• A complete toolbox – R3,000 – R8,000. You will need a drill, sander, staple gun, hammer, screwdrivers, carving knife etc.
• Industrial Sewing Machine – R8,000
• Industrial Over locker – R5,500
• Laptops and printer – R20,000. You will need a laptop and printer in your business. You will need a computer and printer to communicate with suppliers and clients.
• Office stationery – R1,500. Office stationary is a must. Notes pads, pens, printing paper and files are essential. You’ll need to make details notes of your client’s requirements and keep strict records of measurements and specifications.
• Connectivity – R500 a month. Emailing through quotations, designs to customers or for research. So make sure that you get an uncapped internet solution from a reputable internet services provider. A mid-range uncapped connection could cost you around R500 a month.
• Cell phone and landline – R100 to R1,000. Event organisers need cell phones and landlines. Calling for quotes, managing suppliers and dealing with urgent queries is a way of life. That’s why it’s essential to have a landline.
• Advertising and Marketing R20,000. You’ll need to spend a significant amount of money putting together marketing brochures detailing all your products and services. Don’t skimp on the design of these brochures, so be prepared to spend at least R20,000 getting your website, brochures, business cards designed, uploaded and printed. If you’re going to setup a showroom as your adverting venture be prepared to pay a few thousands more for this.
• Salary – R7,500. You might need an employee to help you with administrative and reception duties. Or you could employee a carpenter. You have to restore the wood before you can start with the fabric, so it would benefit you to have someone with assisting you has a skills set in wood and materials.
• Insurance – R1,500. Because you will have power tools, large machinery and products in your workshop, it’s advisable that you have insurance in place to protect yourself from huge financial losses if an unfortunate incident occurs.
• Small truck or van R60,000. You’ll need a workhorse to cart your materials up and down and make delivery of your newly upholstered furniture. So, look around for a reliable second hand truck or van that’s perfect for your business.

• What you can earn: How much money you can make in the upholstery industry? Well this is very dependent on the reputation you establish for yourself in the industry. When you start out, you might have to make do with small weekly wage, but if you manage to setup your business with an excellent reputation and align your work with top designers you could earn up to R500,000 per year.

• Location: Your business premises will have to be large even to accommodate large items of furniture. However, you can start your business from home. A garage could be converted into a workshop. It must be a functional workshop where you have a reception area to meet with your customers and areas displaying the samples. You could opt to rent workshop space and add an approximate rental cost of R6,000 per month. For this business to be successful you have to a physical location. This not the type of business that can be done online or virtually.

• Marketing: The best way to market your new business is to get referrals from clients that you’ve worked with before. Remember, you need to have strong experience in upholstery before you start your own business. So keep a list of all contacts and places where you did your apprenticeship.

Word of mouth is the best marketing tool, so use testimonials from satisfied clients to demonstrate your reputability and the quality of your work. Don’t forget about the fabric retailers you work with, you have shared customers, so establish good relationships with them as they are a great source of business. They’ll be happy to refer business to you if you use them as a preferred supplier for your events.

Now that you know what it takes to start your upholstery business, start putting your business plan together. Make sure that you target the sectors where you know your expertise lie.