Matt has a recurring contract with a sheep shearer and trades haircuts with a salon for keeping their shears sharp. Here is a list of some of the businesses Matt has worked with: He keeps in touch with them, and sends out newsletters with knife tips and special offers. “I treat every client as recurring,” Matt said. Matt doesn’t just sharpen knives for private individuals, he also has a business client base.īusiness to business relationships are more likely to be recurring and have a higher value too. This structure worked out to earn him between $30-60, with an average customer spending $20 per order. The first thing he did was simplify the pricing compared to what he was seeing.Ī lot of competitors broke down pricing per types of knives, so Matt settled on a flat $1 per inch of blade with a minimum of $5 per knife. Matt did a Google search for “Sharpening around me” to see how much competitors were charging and to get a ballpark figure for how much he should charge. “Building the community has become the biggest unexpected blessing in starting this side hustle for me,” Matt said. The second year, he approached the market as a way to get to really know the community and other vendors, and said he got a lot more out of the experience, not just more customers. The first year, Matt approached the market as a way to make money. Matt also set up a booth at the local farmer’s market for a cost of $25 a season. (He lives in a small town in New Hampshire.) He later built a drop box on his driveway and put a sign on the side of the road which he says is now his number one marketing tool. Matt said his business started steadily growing without spending any money on marketing or advertising this way. He then put up a Facebook page, which started bringing in a few new customers too. He started out asking friends and family members if they needed any knives sharpened or knew of anybody who did. Matt said, “If you drive down the road, every house that you pass has a bunch of knives in it.” There is no shortage of potential customers! How Matt Found His First Paying Customers It will set you back around $255 for the basic kit, and Matt has added some other attachments to enable him to sharpen a wider range of blades. Matt started out with an Edge Pro Apex sharpening system and says he’s found it to be a really versatile and reliable sharpening kit. What Equipment Do You Need to Sharpen Knives Professionally? He got some paid work from referrals while in Djibouti, but it was once he got back home that he decided to turn his new skill into a true side hustle. Then he started offering to sharpen knives for free to get some practice. So, Matt found out as much as he could about knife sharpening, purchased the gear he needed, and started watching YouTube instructional videos. He reached out to the ad poster to get some more information, but he had already been sent home. He saw an ad in a local listing, similar to a Craigslist, for a knife sharpening service. He was working a desk job, and being the hands-on type of person, he wanted something more to do with his hands while he was out there. Matt was recalled to active duty for the Navy and was deployed to Djibouti for a year. Do You See This Becoming a Full-Time Business?.How Did the Pandemic Affect Your Business?.How Are You Using Google My Business to Find New Business?.What Do You Attribute the Jump in Revenue To?.Suggested Playlist: Local Business Ideas.How Matt Found His First Paying Customers.What Equipment Do You Need to Sharpen Knives Professionally?.For the 2020 update, please see “ Where Are They Now?” below. NOTE: My first interview with Matt aired in November 2018. Tune in to hear how Matt got started with this idea while he was deployed in Djibouti, Africa, including his equipment, how he learned how to do it, and how he’s marketed and priced his service. That means an almost limitless number of potential customers. “If you drive down the road, every house that you pass has a bunch of knives in it,” Matt said. The best thing about the knife sharpening business?
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