[mitchellreid]

Techs and Owners,

Recently I have spoken with several techs who have told me some tricks they use that have been of great help to me. I believe these techs intended for me to pass this information onto to others for their benefit. All of these techs have the same unique and desirable qualities. Those qualities are their intent to help others and pass along knowledge which they have come across in their travels in this life we call Dr. Vinyl. The funny thing is all three of them called me with their “tricks” during the same week. I didn’t think much of it then, but I have always been a slow study. This epiphany eventually came to me. These techs were intentionally giving me pearls of wisdom with the hope that I would pass it on. The only problem is how to pass this information on to ALL the other techs. If I had been quicker and wiser, I would have told them of a great way to get their tricks out to all Dr. Vinyl’s. The information highway I am speaking of is the Dr. Vinyl Forums on our very own private website. Since I failed to tell them this when we were on the phone, I will take it upon myself to share their information with you now.

One of our techs, Coleman Hawkins, made me aware of a much-needed service his customers have been allowing him to do. It is a very simple but profitable one. It is refinishing rusty trailer hitch receivers. At the first dealership he did 10 hitches at $48 each in 45 minutes! At the next one he did 14 hitches. That is about $1,150 in under 3 hours time. I started to notice the rust on hitches at my dealerships and thought “I sure wish Coleman was here”. Then I realized I could do the same thing. It was as easy as refinishing rusty wiper arms. I already had everything I needed to do this repair. Then I started seeing them on every lot I worked. While you might think that hitches are only on trucks, I am here to tell you they are on SUV’s as well as cars. A little cleanup and refinishing and they look brand new. Coleman calls this “Gettin’ Rich on the Hitch!!!” Coleman is never one to shirk away from work or making money. We can all learn something from this Young Gun!

Another one of our Techs, Bruce Dockery, told me of some difficulty he had starting a perforated leather repair because the tear went to a seam in the seat. He used some carpet tape on the underside of the perforated leather to hold it long enough that he could get leather filler to cure and hold in the damaged area and then proceed to finish the repair by our normal procedures. Sometimes all you need is a little ingenuity to get past a difficulty. I call Bruce “The Innovator” because when faced with a situation where some would say “It can’t be done”, Bruce finds a way. That is Innovation!

The third tech is from another Franchise, and I have to admit that he is really more than just a tech. He is Bill Hubbard. For those of you who know Bill you know what I mean. He is more of a legend. We were talking one day when he hit me with this idea that has made things so much easier when dealing with scratches in plastic. Many of you are probably familiar with heating up plastic to minimize the scratches that are so prevalent in cargo areas, center consoles, door panels, near ignition switches, etc. In black or really dark gray plastics with deeper scratches or heavily discolored areas I would have to take some extra time to mix up a color to redye. While this would redye the area it would not camouflage the extra damage as well as I would like. Bill let me know something that he has been doing that not only redyes these areas but also helps to disguise the more damaged plastic. It is Satin Black Chip Guard (item #39813) in an aerosol can. You can shoot it straight on the affected area if you need heavy texture or heat up the can to make the texture finer. I am here to tell you it works so well! I have been able to hide more damage and make things look much better than prior to this info. I would highly recommend this to any interior tech. Thank you, Bill! I am forever in your debt..

If you have any tips or tricks you use during your Dr. Vinyl work week, please share these on the Forums so all of us may learn from you. It has been so long since we’ve been able to get together at a Convention. There is no need to wait to share your knowledge. The Forums give us a way to share things NOW! If you’ve never been on the Dr. Vinyl Website or looked at the Forums, please call Buster Coppage at the Corporate Office (816) 525-6060 Ext. 130. Buster has been able to get even the least tech savvy guy, myself, on them. If I can navigate the site, then rest assured you can as well.

We in the field eagerly await your Posts of Wisdom on the Forums.

Mitch Reid
The Wandering Upholsterer
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

[mitchellreid]

Techs and Owners,

I am not sure why, but this year has brought work my way which in many cases I have never done, and for that matter, have never even been asked to do. For the most part I like to stick with what I know, but to be honest I got into the Upholstery side of our business because I was looking to challenge myself. I would like to claim that I continue to learn knew things and involve myself in more complicated work to keep up the challenge. That, however, really wouldn’t be the whole truth. The reason why I involve myself in more complex upholstery work is due to the great support I get from other Dr. Vinyl’s that have done similar work and encourage me to try it. Even if the others haven’t had experience with the exact scope of work I am currently looking at, they give me the confidence to move forward into the unknown.

It is amazing what you can do if you just try. Putting your mind to a task is not just challenging, it is also rewarding. In an old Anthony Hopkins/ Alex Baldwin movie
(The Edge) I remember one of the memorable lines was “What one man can do, another can do!” For that matter, for the ladies out there… a woman can probably do it even better.

Get out their and try. I think you will be surprised or amazed or even shocked at what you can do, but most of all I think you be proud and rewarded for your efforts.

Mitch Reid
The Wandering Upholsterer
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

[mitchellreid]

Owners and Associates,

I just wanted to update you on our progress with one of our newest customers, The Chop House, as documented in previous posts on this forum topic listed above.

Not only were we given the opportunity to recover the entire store’s backs, top caps, and end caps which only happens about every 6-7 years, but we were also given the more lucrative work of recovering the booth bottoms which occur throughout the year, every year. This customer made us aware of a few very important facts about their previous upholsterer. He was not interested in recovering anything but booth bottoms. He was older and getting close to retirement. However, the most important thing we learned was that he removed the booth bottoms from the store and recovered them off site. There were DAYS when the restaurant was without these booth bottoms and just had to wait for them to be returned to seat customers. The last fact we learned when they declared their amazement that we were recovering not only the bottoms but the backs, etc. right there ON SITE! They had full use of every booth the entire time we worked at their store. This was something totally new to them.

This information is pushing us to look for more accounts in this upholsterer’s area. An upholsterer retiring, being particular about what work they do, and removing booths from their location for days at a time ARE all things we can improve upon when approaching a new customer. These tidbits of information from customers are GOLD DUST. Use this information to not only grow your upholstery business but to leapfrog into more accounts in your area. I know we will use it every chance we get. This job was such a windfall. By the way, they have already asked us to come and take a look at another location they own. Our tech’s one cold call keeps on paying dividends. Please take a chance and inquire into work in your area. Why can’t your Franchise be the beneficiary of the next big job?

I hope this story encourages you to keep going after the work. This customer needed this work done long before we arrived on the scene. They had people come and look at the job but they never returned. There are customers out there just waiting for you to come and show them what you can do. Show them. I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Sincerely,
Mitchell Reid
The Wandering Upholsterer
“All Who Wander Are Not Lost”

[mitchellreid]

Will,

Thanks again for the heads up. I will keep a look out for the Isopropyl the next time I am getting supplies. That is a great price. I put some up on the shelf when store inventory was low. Looks like now would be a good time to stock up again. I appreciate the info.

Mitch

[mitchellreid]

Will,

Thanks for the info. Many of our guys like the Durafill as well.

Mitch

[mitchellreid]

Owners and Associates,

This is a quick followup to a post on August 21, 2021, just a few scrolls up on this very forum topic. This post was about one of our techs, Ryan McGann, who cold called a Chop House restaurant in his area. Not only did he get a huge upholstery job out of the deal ($14,220), but in addition, the Regional Manager asked if he could do the same type work at ANOTHER one of their locations! Now that truly shows the reward that is out there. This reward is for those who take the initiative to go after the work that is waiting for us all. It just goes to show what is possible for those who are willing to go look.

This pandemic has shut down many upholstery operations as well as other trades. Please understand many businesses, restaurants and otherwise, are desperately looking for someone to do the work for which you are more than qualified to do. Please go out and see for yourselves if what I am saying is true. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Sincerely,
Mitchell Reid
The Wandering Upholsterer
“All Who Wander Are Not Lost”

[mitchellreid]

Owners and Associates,

This morning while I was bringing my daughter to school I passed some of the restaurants where I take care of the upholstery. I realized since Covid came to town I have gotten out of the habit of checking on these locations quarterly as I had done faithfully for years. I pulled the files of 3 restaurants that I carry with me in my van and noticed it had been 3 months since I had worked any of the locations. At 8:00 a.m. no one was at the first or the second locations. The third location had employees on site including a manager. Even so, I held little hope for work at this location. I was counting on the first two restaurants to provide me with the majority of the upholstery on this day.

Lo and behold, the third restaurant, Buffalo Wild Wings, had 4 long booths with damage and the manager wanted all of them recovered as soon as possible. I was very surprised to say the least. I had already made plans for the next 2 days work so I told the manager I would be back as soon as possible. It was 8:15 a.m. when I left the restaurant. I double checked the first two locations. They still had no one on site. Then I realized a few things, it was ONLY 8:30 in the morning, BWW’s doesn’t open until 11:00, and I had their vinyl on the rack at the shop! I drove directly back and started to trace, cut, and sew those booths. I got back to the restaurant by 10:00 and installed all the covers by 10:45. I wrote them an invoice and was out the door a full 10 minutes before they opened for business! They were not only surprised but extremely happy that their store upholstery was back at 100%. They thanked me for “having kept a stock of their booth covers on hand”… their words not mine.

When I started today, I had no idea or intention of doing any upholstery work. Normally, I would have scheduled that work for another day later that week. However, the opportunity presented itself and I took full advantage of it. So instead of starting my day off with a zero before I went to my car lots, I started off with $700. I knew I was going to have a great day no matter what happened during the rest of it. I bet you can’t guess what I am going to do tomorrow morning. I am going to check on those other two locations!

You never know what you can accomplish until you get out there and try. Good hunting to all you Dr. Vinyls and remember those rocks don’t turn themselves over. That’s up to us.

Sincerely,
Mitchell Reid
The Wandering Upholsterer
“All Who Wander Are Not Lost”

[mitchellreid]

Owners and Associates,

I don’t usually follow a post of mine with another especially so closely, but this one just fell into place.

Within a week of the post listed above, the tech that took over Ryan’s interior accounts, Kyle Roberson, was looking to also boost his sales and called me to ask about pursuing some upholstery jobs he was aware of in the same area. Kyle is one of our newest techs and has no experience with upholstery work, but he does have experience with developing new customers and hard work. We will be looking at this job soon and you never know what it may lead to….maybe another customer. Honestly, even I was surprised at how quickly word had spread about this type of success. We will see how this, as with any job, works out. I will tell you though, without these techs trying and reaching for this work we may never have known about it much less have had a chance to do it.

Something we have noticed is success without pursuit is often not maintained. The tech that goes out and pursues accounts is much more motivated to maintain those accounts into the future because he knows how much work was involved in finding them. He also knows how rare it is to keep them and is more determined to do so. In contrast, work that is handed to a tech, even myself, is more often than not, taken for granted. As crazy as it seems the easiest work to obtain sometimes demands the least amount of attention. Hence, the saying “The squeaky wheel get the grease.”

In our Franchise we have adopted a philosophy of trying to maintain all customers regardless of the difficulty it took to obtain them. We base this philosophy on the fact that it doesn’t matter where the sales come from because “All their money spends the same.” Something to think about. Good hunting to all those techs in the field.

Sincerely,
Mitchell Reid
The Wandering Upholsterer
“All Who Wander Are Not Lost”

[mitchellreid]

Owners and Associates,

I just wanted to pass on a note of encouragement for all those Dr. Vinyl Techs out there.

One of our techs(Ryan McGann), looking to increase his sales, was investigating a lead I had given him on a restaurant (Beef O’Brady’s) in need of booth repair in his area. Apparently, he was there a little early and no one was at the restaurant yet. Now he could have given up and gone on to his normal daily route of car lots, but due to the inclement weather that morning he thought “What other restaurant can I go to that is close by?” He picked the nearest one (The Chop House) and thought at least this will kill a little time until the first restaurant’s staff arrives. Little did he know what an opportunity he was walking into.

The Chop House manager surprisingly was very anxious to show him her booths that were in dire need of recovering. Her area manager had given her to the end of the month to have them recovered, but she had been unable to find anyone who would do the work they so badly needed. The quote for the work on the “cold call” restaurant was $14,220.00!

While what is written above is exciting, it is not the most encouraging part of the story. The tech’s main work is and has always been on car lots. However, we try to cross train as many of our techs as possible in the different trades offered by Dr. Vinyl whether that be interiors, paint, dents, wheels, windshields, or upholstery. While this tech had done some booth recovery work in the past, he had never done this type of work. However, he did not let this discourage him. He asked how early they were there each morning and told the manager he would have to come back when he could devote enough time to measure the entire job. While she was worried he would not return, he reassured her he would call her and let her know exactly when he would come back with enough crew and time to quote the entire job.

He did everything mentioned in the paragraph above having no idea of how to quote or even recover the work shown him in this restaurant. He knew something that we try to instill in all our techs, he knew he had people in his Franchise and in his Dr. Vinyl family that he could draw on to get this job done. He called me and we both went to this restaurant together. We disassembled and reassembled the booths enough to not only quote it but make a solid plan of attack on how we were going to do all the work involved.

Ryan McGann has been an interior tech for our franchise for years. Recently, he passed on his interiors accounts to a new tech and went to further training at corporate to become a paint tech in the same area and at the some of the same accounts he used to work interiors. Ryan was THE FIRST TECH we moved from our hub in Cookeville, TN some 225+ miles away to start a new area in the furthest NW corner of our territory. We call that moving to the “Wild, Wild West”. Picking up roots and starting a route 100% from scratch takes a special individual. Ryan was the first of several we have transplanted into other areas 2-3 hours away from where they were living to become very successful in the Dr. Vinyl trade.

It is people like Ryan that make our Franchise successful. Please encourage your techs; for they are the ones who will make your Franchises even more successful.
You never know when that next stop, even an unexpected or unplanned stop, will be the next piece of the puzzle that makes your business soar. I hope this story will encourage each of us to strive to overcome any roadblocks that may get in our way.

For the record, I did not know how to recover this upholstery either. I called on other Dr. Vinyls like Nina and Brian Greenfield and Jason McCurdy to give me as much guidance as they could. Their input was not only invaluable and encouraging but empowering. I don’t know if all Dr. Vinyls out there realize how much their advice and instruction gives us with less experience the confidence to learn and grow in this trade. Thank you to those who helped us in this endeavor as well as those other Dr. Vinyls that help each other everyday.

Please know there ARE other Dr. Vinyls that are willing to help you. It may be someone you met at a Convention or that you heard about from a fellow associate. If you don’t know who they are or how to get in contact with them call 1-800-531-6600. Corporate can give you their contact info. Help is only a phone call away.

Sincerely,
Mitchell Reid
The Wandering Upholsterer
“All Who Wander Are Not Lost”

[mitchellreid]

Owners and Associates,

I have observed another Covid pattern. Along with receiving calls from existing customers again, I have also received calls from NEW customers. This group of customers includes restaurant chains that we were previously unable to get into, even locally. This was due to restaurant chains where corporate had set up contract agreements with vendors to do their upholstery work. One restaurant in particular was Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen. There were 2 reasons this restaurant chain called us. One was their contractual vendor did not survive the restaurant maintenance shutdown for Covid. Two was that we did work for a sister company of theirs, Longhorns. Both chains are owned by Dardin group. We have long done work for several Longhorn restaurants but never any Cheddars. This was a mutually beneficial arrangement. They needed someone to fill the gap immediately and we gained a customer that is very loyal to its vendors.

I say all this to encourage you to look for the gaps in upholstery accounts you may not have previously serviced. It may be at a Cheddars or almost any other restaurant chain in your area. We have also had calls from medical facilities and playground rental companies. These are all brand new customers to us. They are searching for someone to fill the gap of a displaced upholstery company. Whether we like it or not the last year and a half has been a time of attrition. Many small businesses have not survived. I would encourage you to take advantage of this time and scoop up as many customers as you can take care of. I know we will be looking for them. It is always a good idea to be looking for new customers, but there will probably never be another time like this with so much potential new business. Whether it is the biggest accounts in town or the ones that have always turned you away, now is the time to knock on their door. Your next customer may just be waiting for you to drop by. You never know when you will arrive just in the knick of time to fill a gap for a customer you may have for years.

Please take advantage of the time immediately following this Covid catastrophe. Your business can surely benefit and grow during the weeks and months to follow.

Sincerely,
Mitchell Reid
The Wandering Upholsterer
“All Who Wander Are Not Lost”

[mitchellreid]

Bruce,

Thanks for the insight on the door panels. On the formula for the tan color I assume the numbers do not represent ounces. Are they in grams?

Thanks again,

Mitch Reid

[mitchellreid]

Owners and Associates,

I want to continue to encourage all upholstery techs that the upholstery world is continuing to open up even more but with a bit of a twist. In the months since my last post on this topic I have had several upholstery jobs that were somewhat different than the work before the world shutdown for Covid. Instead of the normal number of booth recovers I have had to do all the work which was stopped for the past year to year and a half all at once. What I mean by that is all of the sudden the tap went from off to full blast. My most recent job involved recovering over half the booths in a restaurant and also spring repairs on all the booths. This work could only be done between 8-11 a.m.each day. No overnight work was permitted. It took me 9 days at 3 hours a day to complete this job.

My purpose in making the previous statements is to let you know that as restaurant chains start loosening up on their maintenance restrictions they are wanting all their upholstery back to pre Covid levels ASAP. This sounds great but is a tremendous amount of work which takes quite a bit of time. I have found that the best way for me to catch up on all this work is to push as hard as I can to get it done as fast as possible. I can easily see how things could get backed up and customers get frustrated waiting on us to complete the work which they are being pressured to get done by corporate. I never imagined that I would or could be the reason for any slowdown in service when it came to upholstery. The ONE thing I thought I was actually good at in the upholstery world was service!

I say all this to encourage all you upholsterers to complete all the work you can as fast as you can in order to not only take care of your business but to help preserve those customers that we have worked so hard to get in the past. Best of luck to you all in the Post Covid Era.

Sincerely,
Mitchell Reid
The Wandering Upholsterer
“All Who Wander Are Not Lost”

[mitchellreid]

Techs and Owners,

Recently I touched base with a fellow Dr. Vinyl, Steve Biggerstaff, out of North Carolina. We have become friends and have done our best to stay in contact at least, a few times a year. During our most recent phone call we were talking about the entire gym recovering work we had done for Hi Tone Fitness in the Southeast. He mentioned that he had received a call from another private gym in his territory who had heard about us from that previous work. This gym was a little far away to handle while he and his nearby, fellow Dr. Vinyl’s were so busy with their local work. I let him know I might be able to get to it as I was near that area once or twice a week. He was nice enough to send me the matching vinyl so I would not have to make a “dead head trip” to that location just to see what colors they had at the gym. The week after I received the vinyl I traveled to the location in North Carolina when rain chased me out of my normal route in East Tennessee. I spent a few hours working on the priority pieces the customer needed recovered while I was inside out of the weather. I made arrangements to return on a second trip for pieces that required sewn covers. The next day I traveled back to finish up my weekly work in East Tennessee that the rain had pushed me off of a day earlier. It really worked out well for me. I was able to work my route and additional work and not be hampered by the weather. That is what we mobile techs are constantly looking and striving for.

The funny thing was Steve felt like I was helping him when in fact, he was really helping me. This has become a reoccurring theme with us. I would have had no work to do on that rainy day. Basically, I was once again handed a job to do when I normally would not have been able to work.

I know I may be starting to sound like a broken record, but I want to continue to encourage all Dr. Vinyl’s to work together. I know in the everyday grind of business we have to focus on our own day to day problems in order to be successful. My point is that I think we can make money and help our fellow Franchises out as well. There is little to be gained in letting ANY work we can do as Dr. Vinyl slip away and possibly go on to help our competition. Just think about the possibility of what I am saying. Doing this could fill gaps in your business, like it did mine, and make your business stronger while weakening your competition who does not have other Franchises to work with, learn from, or rely on.

Morale of the Story: Helping another Dr. Vinyl out is a great thing to do…You may just find out the one you are helping the most is You!

Mitch Reid
The Wandering Upholsterer
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

[mitchellreid]

Owners and Associates,

I have started to see a little light at the end of the tunnel recently in reference to restaurant upholstery. While there was some work still going on between March 2020 and March 2021 I have to say it was at a severely reduced rate. The floodgates by no means have swung open, but they are starting to open somewhat at least in our area of Tennessee. I am interested to know what, if anything different, is happening with other Dr. Vinyls around the country involving this element of our business. Any light you can shed on this subject would be welcome news. Please take a minute and share anything that comes to mind.

Sincerely,
Mitchell Reid
The Wandering Upholsterer

[mitchellreid]

Will,

The following is another direction you may wish to take instead of the repair. It should take much less time, produce great results, and be worth more to your customer and I mean you could charge more for it.

I have dealt with this situation before first in Cadillacs then other vehicles. When I was strictly an interior tech this was a much more difficult repair. I currently do upholstery work so I have a few more options. I never felt confident in the longevity of my repairs in this particular case so I understand your concerns for the future. I currently recover armrests in door panels in the $200 and up range. The door panels are normally not to hard to take off the door. The panel the vinyl is covering can be screwed on or plastic welded on. Both options are able to be removed. However, the plastic welds are a little more tedious to remove and reattach. The new vinyl cover with a “real” sewn seam looks like the imposter but is much stronger. The vinyl can be glued to the foam, stapled to the substrate, and is very durable. Some positives are that the material is brand new and therefore does not look like a repair. However, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING is that the job can be done easily within an hour and look great. Even if you have to get someone else to sew the material for you, you will be time and money ahead recovering the panel. I doubt you will have an concern over the look, strength, or longevity of the repair. Your customer will like it and should be happy paying the $200+ recovering charge instead of the $500-$1,000 for a new door panel which they only sell in whole units not in replaceable parts.

One thing you didn’t mention is if the foam behind the vinyl is injected into a form that the vinyl is the outside skin of (basically bonded to it in a mold) or is the vinyl simply glued to the foam shape. If you can find out I might have some other suggestions.

Best of luck to you on your next fake stitching repair.

Sincerely,
Mitch Reid
The Wandering Upholsterer
“All who wander are not lost.”

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