How to Start a Knife Sharpening Business

Finding out how to start a knife sharpening business can give you a chance to start an interesting business which you can run either part time or full time.

Knives are used in every home, as well as in restaurants and a lot of other businesses. Making sure that they are sharp and in good condition can help create a low cost startup business for anyone willing to put in the work.

Practice Makes Perfect

If learning how to start a knife sharpening business is something that you think could be for you, the very first step in being successful is, of course, to learn the skill of sharpening knives properly. There are a lot of free sources online that will help to teach you exactly what it is you need to know. Some websites even have videos of people demonstrating knife sharpening so that you can get a good look at how it’s done.

While some professional knife sharpeners complete all of their work by hand, many prefer to utilize electric sharpeners. A typical local home improvement or hardware store will offer a wide range of options to choose from. Once you start sharpening knives for the first time, make sure that you’re extremely careful in order to avoid injury.

As with many other skills, becoming a truly proficient knife sharpener takes time and practice. Once you’ve sharpened all of your own knives, ask your neighbors if they’d like to have their knives sharpened in order to obtain as much practice as possible. Familiarize yourself with the wide variety of knives that are offered. For example, there are kitchen knives, pocket knives, hunting and fishing knives, etc.

Establishing a Customer Base

Once you’ve become completely comfortable with knife sharpening, the next step is to attract customers. One way to start is to approach people who depend on sharp knives on a regular basis. For example: Chefs, fishermen, and hunters are all great examples. Try to think of people who probably don’t sharpen their own knives.

For example, many butchers will sharpen their knives themselves. On the other hand, a personal chef probably doesn’t have the time or knowledge to ensure that their knives are razor sharp at all times on his or her own. Therefore, they have no choice but to depend on a knive sharpening business, like yours.

Often times professional knife sharpeners will also branch out to scissor sharpening. People like hair stylists, tailors, and dressmakers all rely on precise cutting, so having sharp scissors is imperative. People in these professions generally have their scissors sharpened on a regular schedule.

Once you’ve established who your customer base will consist of, visiting them and offering a free sharpening is a great idea. People remember getting things for free, so return to their shop in a few days and see if the prospective customer has any more items that need to be sharpened – but this time for a price.

Checking with stores like kitchen supply, home goods, hardware, sporting goods, etc. to ask if you can perhaps offer a knife sharpening service to their customers is a terrific way to get your name out there and build up a decent sized customer base.

Developing professional and reliable skills in conjunction with a solid plan can help you to build a knife sharpening business that’s better than you ever even expected!

100 Ways To Make Money

See author's posts