[TheForge] Somewhat OT question...

[Bob Ehrenberger]

Andy,

Most of the guys around here do uphostery as a sideline to their real
business.

The one exception is a guy that works on cars, that's all he does and seems
to be real busy at it.

I would suggest asking them if you can work there for a while to learn the
business and decide if it's good for you.  You might even earn a little
money while you take your time to decide, at the very least they should give
you a place to park your bus and feed you.

My grandfather was a cabinet maker and worked for a big department store.
He built and repaired furniture for them during the day and did upholstery
at home in the evenings.  Most of the uphostery work was word of mouth and
friends. He died in 68 which was way before I had any interest in the
bussiness side of such things.  He redid the uphostery on my brother's 34
Ford, did a real nice job.

Robert Ehrenberger
Shelbyville, Mo.

----Original Message ----
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 11:39:57 -0700
From: Andy Vida <osan at netlabs.net>
Subject: [TheForge] Somewhat OT question...

Folks,

I have a rather serious question to ask you all, since there are so many
experienced and smart people here ( how's that for buttering up?).

My bid for a senior position at IBM just got shitcanned, which leaves me
even less hope than I had earlier this morning, so I guess I have to get
serious about finding a new way to make a living.

Be that as it may, here is my question: does anyone know if uphostery
restorations/rehupholstering is a decent business to get into?  There
is a family in NJ that my mom knows that is getting out of their
business because they are getting old but would like to have the
business survive and are looking for someone to take it over.  I guess
my quesiton is whether this is something I could make a decent living
at it or would I just be wasting my time, assuming I'm capable at it
and actually work the business semi-intelligently?

Any help would be very greatly appreciated.

-Andy