There is nothing better than coming home to an immaculately designed interior...

Mobile Upholstery Repairs began in 2009 when CEO Mark Watkins saw an opportunity in the market to bring furniture upholstery repair and restorations - from repairing recliners to removing stains on a coffee table - to the client. Currently servicing Queensland and New South Wales, the franchise is looking to expand into other states and territories. “Our market is very wide”, shares Mark.

“Our clients range from a hospital to working in an individual’s mansion. We’ve even repaired a model ten-foot-tall dinosaur that was made of latex for a lady that works with toys”.

Everything is provided

Everything a franchisee needs to start work – all the tools, equipment, and product – is provided. “We also provide two-weeks training in our Gold Coast head office. During this training franchisees will also learn how to use our CRM system, do basic bookkeeping, generate sales and build their own personal clientele”, says Mark.

A successful key ingredient is the Mobile Upholstery Repairs’ diary which acts as a support system, providing direct links between the franchisee and head office. “Most of our franchisees complete four to six jobs a day”, says Mark. “Franchisee’s use the diary to see their daily schedule, access customer mobile numbers and let them know they’re on their way, and upload job information like photos and notes”.

Diary management

Head office also helps manage franchisee diaries, removing the pressure of personally dealing with large, national corporate clients. “We get a lot of enquiries from large corporations and we find they prefer to deal with one person at head office”, explains Mark. “This corporate work is then automatically added to a franchisee’s diary on our online CRM system which can be accessed 24/7”.

The benefits

Flexibility, ongoing support, and access to national clients are just some of the benefits of running a Mobile Upholstery Repairs business. “We’re looking for people who are self-motivated and have experience in and enjoy hands-on roles. As long as you can drill a nail into a piece of wood, you can be very successful”.

The job isn’t physically demanding either. “Some aspects of the job are physical but not any more so than mowing your lawn. A lot of our work is repairing leather which is not physically demanding and in fact, a lot of people say ‘you’re like an artist’ because it’s more
about precision than stamina”.