I fix furniture and I build systems that keep a small shop running.

Upholstery shop owner. Small-business tinkerer. Erie, Colorado.

I own The Upholstery Shop in Erie. By day it's foam, fabric and frames. Behind the scenes I run the business with AI and automation so one guy can do the work of a few. This site is where I write about both.

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Reupholster vs. replace: a cost guide for the Front Range

By Mike Yeager, The Upholstery Shop, Erie CO Almost every week somebody sends me a photo of a chair or sofa and asks the same question: "Is this worth redoing, or should I just buy a new one?" Honest answer: it depends. But it depends on things you can check yourself. Here's how I think about it. Start with the frame The frame is the whole ballgame. A solid hardwood frame — joints that are glued, doweled or screwed, not stapled particleboard — can last generations. If you pic

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23 hours ago3 min read

Running a one-man shop with an AI back office

By Mike Yeager, The Upholstery Shop, Erie CO I run an upholstery shop in Erie. Most days it's me, a staple gun and a pile of fabric. The work itself takes real hands and real time. The problem was everything around the work: texts, emails, quotes, follow-ups, bookkeeping, posting, reminders. That stuff was eating my evenings. So I started handing it to AI. Not one magic app — a set of assistants that each handle a piece of the back office, with one that keeps the rest organiz

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23 hours ago3 min read

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About

I'm Mike Yeager. I own The Upholstery Shop in Erie, Colorado. We reupholster and repair furniture for homeowners, designers and businesses around the Front Range — chairs, sofas, benches, headboards, booths, you name it.

I've always been a tinkerer. If something's broken or slow, I want to know why and how to make it better. That goes for an old wingback and it goes for the way I run my shop.

Running a small business means wearing every hat: the work, the quotes, the texts, the books. A while back I started handing the repetitive parts to AI tools and automation. Now I've got a back office that helps me answer customers faster and keep things organized, while I stay on the work that needs a human.

I write here about the craft, the business, and what's actually working.

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