Two years ago in the spring of 2006 I unkowingly started down a life altering path. As a hobby, I started offering one peice vinyl console covers for the Honda S2000. It was a simple design that I made for my girlfriend at the time. I sold them for $45 a pop and it was officially the first JPM product.
During the time, I was repeatedly asked to offer a stitched version and a shift boot to match. I kindly told everyone that I did not sew or intended to start doing so. After about four months of requests for stitching, I decided to give it a try. It was September of 2006 and the only machine I had then was my mother's 1970 Singer Golden Stitch:
The second product I started to make was shift boots:
The stitching was so-so but making patterns didn't seem to be a problem. I started to get more confident in my abilities and invited my friend Walter over who had an S2000 as well and was willing to let me play around with his interior. I was eager to do as much as possible and we ended up making him an almost complete interior! This is the first interior that I ever made:
The stitching was horrible and tiny and crooked in some places but it made a good enough impression on the internet to start selling a few peices. I quickly learned how to operate the sewing machine and quality started increasing rather quickly. I started running into barriers with the thickness of materials and was forced to upgrade to an industrial machine about a month later.
My first big purchase! After scouring ebay for a few weeks, I settled on the only thing I could afford at the time. A chinese branded walking foot machine (Yamata).
With the industrial machine, I was able to do much larger jobs and have a higher quality product. My skills increased and I was again pushing the limits of the machine that I had. My product line increased as well and I was then offering full interiors for the S2000 and doing custom jobs as well (minus seats).
At that time in my career, I was a project manager for a rapid prototyping company and was very unhappy in my current job. Work lasted 10-14 hours each day and my higher ups were more concerned about output than employee happiness. I approached a friend of mine in the body shop business about setting up shop at his facility. So, in January of 2007, I quit my regular job and started JPM Accessories working out a space about as big as most people's closets and subsidizing my income as a take apart/put together guy for the body shop.
Times were tough and my savings was spent up before I could turn around. I was fortunate enough to find this Solstice community and introduced myself by offering a discount on a full interior project. After a number of PM's i chose FrankI to be my volunteer and we proceeded with the first Solstice interior that I had done. Some of you might still remember it: Full Custom Leather Interior Completed!! Pics Inside...
Since I could then concentrate completely on building JPM, projects and business grew quickly. JPM doubled in size easily and continued to grow as the name became more well known. A simple website was created that had a few pictures of the items available and more time was spent becoming known on various forums. That summer, JPM started to focus on quality and started using only Italian leathers and Alcantara.
However, while JPM was growing, the body shop that JPM was housed in was shrinking. Financial situations caused me to move operations back home and operate out of an empty room. Sales subsided at JPM and the fragile financial situation had me thinking about closing up shop and getting back into the business world. I struggled through another month and focused all my efforts into boosting sales. The Sky forum was added to our vendorship and new products were released on both sides. JPM was once again on top of the game and the momentum was kept going. In October of 2007, I was able to move into a larger facility that gave me plenty of room to work in and lots of resources to take advantage of. I had access to a full paint shop, body shop, and dealer parts pricing. in November, I received my first full Sky interior. Also, JPM started introducing machined parts in the form of the first ever solstice/sky shift lever/knob to hit the market.
Embroidery was reaching a level so high that my embroidery guy could not keep up with demand. In mid December, he sold me his embroidery machine:
Investments were made and the old faithfull machine that has brought me all the way here has finally been replaced with the best industrial sewing equipment from Japan.
These were recently set up and only about three or four products have had the chance to be made with them. The quality has again increased because of these machines and now products are reaching new levels of craftsmanship and design.
Also, JPM is starting to get recognized for full interiors. Of the nine cars that had their full interiors redone by JPM up to this point, only three of them have been from in state and one of them has driven all the way from Arizona. Five of those nine cars have been done in the past three months. Each one has been a success in design and customer satisfaction. Each one has been a new standard in quality for this company as well.
With each month, the quality and service of JPM continues to grow. This month will see the end of JPM Accessories as we will be changing our name to JPM Coachworks. Over the next few months, you will notice more changes such as an improved website, more products, faster turn arounds, and improved quality.
Until now, our weakest point has been timeliness in getting orders back to the customers. This will be priority number one in the changes approaching. Our goal is unmatched quality and superior customer service and will remain so in the years to come.
Our doors are always open and we are always on call to answer any questions. I mean this in the literal sense. You can actually call at any time on any day and I will more than likely answer the phone as it's my own phone that's ringing, not an office line in an empty building. You can email me or PM me on Christmas day and I'll probably respond in a few hours. Why is that, you might wonder? Because you guys are what's important to me and I will always make time for you. If you have a question, please ask. If you have a concern, please tell me.
Up until now, my hands have made every single product that you have received and I have answered every call placed and email sent. While this may change in the future as the company gets larger, I will always have a part in every order and will always be a part of this community.
Thank you all for a great year of memories, business and most of all, friendship! I know the next one will surely be greater than I could have imagined two years ago.
I, for one, really appreciate the service and detail of the interior parts you made for my car.
Thank you, I hope you have many years of success in the future.
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Mysterious / Black Leather / Chrome / all other options except On Star and smoker pkg.
Ordered: 8 Sep Delivered to dealer 15 Dec(Watched her come off the truck)
Will you be in Denver for the 2009 Summer Solstice?
I know my elbows appreciate your great work, I didn't realize how much until I got the pads. good luck with Coachworks.
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BIX A BEL Cool, Ebony leather, Chrome, loaded, no XM/onstar Founding member of the "Lost Sols Club"
Deposit (1100) - 9/29/05, 1101/1102 - 2 Feb 06, 2500 - 7 Feb 06, 3000 - 8 Feb 06, 3100 - 13 Feb 06, 3300 - 13 Feb 06, 3400 - 14 Feb 06, 3800 - 24 Feb 06 (112544), 4000 - 24 Feb 06, 4150 - 24 Feb 06
dealer expected deliver 6 March, arrived 28 Feb, picked up that night w 3.2 miles on the clock :)
NOT WAITING ANY MORE!
Joe,
Congrats on one year and I look forward to having more work done!!! Auto. shifter assembly anyone? LOL You know I'm gonna keep busting your chops for that...
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TEAM SOLSTICE 2008
Supporting Member of Solstice Forum
That was a really cool story to read JPM...Good for you! My wife is about to start her own Speech Pathology practice so I know how much hard work it takes to just get it off the ground let alone building and growing...Once again I like to see the story behind a vendor...thanks for sharing!
Great story--I envy your courage to break away from the business world and strike out on your own. This is the American dream and hope it is a fruitful venture.
Some small advise--marketing your services is the a major key to your future success. It is a numbers game with the more "impressions" you make via the internet, word of mouth, etc. the more work you will get.
As you know I had my GXP's interior redone by Bill Dunn's Upholstery, the folks that do the interior work for Overhauling projects. They told me by having their name on the back wall of the Overhauling set brings them all kinds of business. It is one thing to do good work, that is fundamental to success, but without your name/work being marketed success can be limited.
Will forward the interior diameter of the Momo shift knob this weekend so you can coordinate the fabrication of the new shift rod.
__________________ GXP--Cool / 5-Spd.
TSW Nogaro 19" Rims, 245/40ZR-19 Dunlop SP Sport Maxx XL Tires, M/F 3" Exhaust, Side Cowl Panels, Side Skirts, Gentex Rear View Mirror, Stubby Antenna, Little Chromies, Momo Shift Knob, Hand Brake, & Floor Plates, Full Interior Reupholstery.
That was a great read and all I can say is, I am very, very impressed with where you have come from and where you want to go in the future. I can't wait to bring my car to you at the end of Feb and am now extremely confident I will get the best quality interior that is available for our cars!! Keep up the great work!!!!!!
I met Joe at Nationals in Nashville. He made a post about needing to share a room, and was willing to trade products of his for the cost. I figured... what the heck, he posted his phone number for everyone to call... many had replied to his post, but I was the first to call.
We talked briefly, and a deal was struck. I left a key to the room at the desk for Joe as he was arriving that Friday. I walked into my hotel room and there was Joe... a great guy right from the start.
We hung out the whole weekend, and spent an awesome Friday and Saturday night out on the town... we ended up hanging around late on Sunday even, taking in a lunch and a drive with some locals.
Joe is starting to work on my parts from our deal at Nationals... I can not wait until I get them back in my car. His work is as awesome as he is... and we've already made plans for Vegas.
Can't say enough about JPM or Joe... glad to see the story, and glad Joe is here to stay!
I've enjoyed the interior work you've done on my car so far. Come tax return time, well................................those seat covers I keep PM'n you about are gonna be a reality. GREAT PRODUCTS!!
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Yell all you want. Just gives me more reason to ignore you.
Happy Anniversry Joe. We wish you the best in all your business ventures with regards to JPM. Your quality of work is the best I have ever seen. I am so happy that I chose you to do the interior work on our Center Console. The complete remake was awsome. I get compliments all the time. So thank you again. Wish you the best in your future and hope your business grows by leaps and bounds.
Sincerely,
GXPinKC
Ron
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#1 On my local GXP list at MSRP; Code 1100, Order#KCPDVV 04-28-06
