How to start an upholstery repair business.
The rare-skill craft, written down: the kit, how a repair runs, the quality bar, the insurance step, and what your first week looks like. No fluff, no get-rich promises. Just the playbook we hold our own network to.
Why upholstery
The specialist craft, for good reasons.
A skill most markets barely have
Every city is full of detailers. Almost nobody can repair a torn bolster or recolor a faded driver seat. Scarce skills stay in demand, and SleekRide routes that demand straight to the few who have them.
Small repairs, big gratitude
A cigarette burn, a car-seat scuff, a sagging headliner. Repairs that save a seat from replacement make customers genuinely happy, and happy customers rate like it.
Hands that learn
Filler, graining, color matching: this craft is practice, and practice is cheap. Junkyard seats will teach you everything long before your first booking.
The starter kit
Cheap tools. Expensive hands.
The starter kit costs less than one nice office chair. What you're really building is reps: every practice seat teaches your hands something a tutorial can't. Add the level-up gear as jobs justify it; every item on the second list pays for itself in capability.
Brands are your call. Consistency beats labels: the same products, used the same way, every job.
Day-one core
- A vinyl and leather repair kit: fillers, backing fabric, graining sheets
- A heat tool for curing filler and setting grain
- Color-match compounds and mixing cups (the craft inside the craft)
- Prep cleaners and degreasers made for leather and vinyl
- Upholstery needles, heavy bonded thread, and seam tools
- Trim and panel removal tools
- Fabric and foam adhesive, sharp scissors, fresh blades
- Junkyard seats and scrap hides to practice on before anyone pays for your time
Level-up gear (when jobs fund it)
- An airbrush and a small compressor for color blends nobody can spot
- A walking-foot sewing machine, for the day full panels and custom covers enter the picture
- A steamer for wrinkles, creases, and tired fabric
- Hog ring pliers and clips for seat rebuilds
- A growing color library: every match you mix and label is one you never mix twice
A job, start to finish
What a SleekRide repair actually looks like.
The job lands
A customer books and pays on SleekRide, with photos and notes on the damage captured at booking. It hits your dashboard with a 1-hour window to accept. Accept and the address unlocks; pass and it cascades to the next pro, no penalty for an honest pass.
Read the material first
Vinyl, leather, cloth, suede: each repairs differently, and some damage wants a full panel rather than a patch. Walk the damage, agree on the result, and say plainly when reupholstery is the honest answer.
Photos before you touch anything
Before shots through your portal. They show live on the customer's tracker, set expectations, and they're YOUR protection if anything is ever disputed.
Build the repair in layers
Clean and prep, trim the damage, set the backing, fill thin, cure, texture the grain, then color in light passes until it disappears. Thin layers win. Thick ones crack.
Status as you go
Tap In progress, Photos up, Ready, Complete. The customer watches live instead of texting you. After photos close the loop.
Complete and get paid
Mark complete and the payout transfers to your bank through Stripe. The customer gets the receipt and a rating ask. Repairs nobody can find get the five stars that feed you more jobs.
The quality bar
Five standards. They're the whole rulebook.
Care for the vehicle. Keep your insurance current. Photograph every job. Communicate on the platform. Own problems when they happen. You acknowledge them when you apply, customers rate every job, and a real person reviews every issue, with due process that protects good operators.
The grown-up step
Insurance: one afternoon, and you're legit.
This is the step that separates a business from a side hustle, and most people overthink it. Have an agent? Any local one can quote an upholstery operation in a day.
Don't have one? We'll connect you with one of our insurance partners. Insurance runs in SleekRide's blood: ask in your application notes or reach out after you apply, and we point you to a partner who quotes operators like you every week.
What to ask for
General liability (the standard ask is $1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate) plus garage keepers coverage. Garage keepers is the one that protects the customer's CAR while it's in your hands; general liability alone doesn't. Your driveway, their driveway, or a rented bay: the exposure that matters is their car in your care. Doing pickup and delivery? Make sure the policy covers you driving customer vehicles.
Then send us the certificate
Your carrier emails you a one-page certificate of insurance (a COI). Upload it in your SleekRide settings, a human verifies it, usually same-day, and jobs start routing to you. Until then your dashboard shows exactly what's left.
Pricing
Know your number. We never undercut it.
In your settings you tell us what you need to make on each package, and SleekRide's fee goes on top of your price for the customer. Materials per repair stay small, so your math is the skill, the color-match time (mixing and testing is real work), and how much of the seat the damage actually touches. A tear is one number. A panel is another. The platform shows you the customer-facing math before anything goes live.
Your first week
Seven steps. The dashboard walks you through every one.
- 1Apply at /partners/apply (5 minutes; your own legal name works if there's no LLC yet)
- 2Read and acknowledge the standards as part of the application
- 3Get general liability + garage keepers (no agent? we'll connect you with one of our insurance partners); upload the COI from your settings
- 4Set your business hours so the calendar can offer real slots
- 5Enter your package prices (you keep every dollar you list)
- 6Connect payouts through Stripe with your bank
- 7Accept your first job inside the hour, photograph everything, and leave a repair nobody can find
The playbook's yours. So is the lane.
Everything above is how our best upholstery pros run. Bring the craft and we'll bring the customers, the standards, and a dashboard that never leaves you guessing.