Marketing

[Josh]

So what are you guys doing to market your blade sharpening services? Here is some of what I do and the groups I am targeting. This is what I did starting up and I have gotten decent results with this (most of my business comes from local keyword searches in Google):

• Got a website and cards
• Listed my business on Google places (now google plus I think)
• Put a bunch of key words on site and in my Google listing
• Placed a free add in Craigslist
• Made some Youtube videos (always helps)
• Listed my business for free on Yellowpages.com

This is who I am getting ready to go after and what I’m going to do:

• Got set up to do mobile sharpening (enclosed trailer – finally!)
• Called around to all of the fabric shops in the area, most sharpen themselves or don’t need the service (allegedly) but I am working on setting up a nice situation at a couple of the largest fabric shops around here to set up a table or “sharpening station” once every month or so on a saturday to sharpen scissors for their customers. One of them said some old guy used to do it but retired a couple of months ago and they have been having a bunch of the customers asking about it. Only problem is they said he charged $2/pair of scissors and $1/knife (I don’t see how this is possible unless he did a HORRIBLE job)I told her that I couldn’t do it for less than $4/pair of scissors (no knives until I get going). She said they would normally pass out some type of flyer a couple of weeks before he came. Said he stayed really busy for the 2 days every other month he came… I will keep posted
• I will be making service calls to other businesses (restaurants, upholstery shops, boot repair shopt, orthopedic doctors offices , alteration/sewing shops and clubs) I don’t really want to go after hair salons. They are heavily serviced in the area while other ones (like what I am targeting) seem under-serviced somewhat.
• I did call about 15-20 landscaping companies to try and rustle up business sharpening lawn mower blades, but it wasn’t very successful. Small companies sharpen their own blades to try and cut costs, and the large businesses already have someone (if not an employee).
• May set up at a vacant corner lot going into the city on Saturdays w/ a banner up “Get your knives & scissors sharpened while you run errands!!!” or something… it will take a few saturdays (as Tuffy has pointed out) for them to know you’re there.
• I have a friend who owns a gas station in a prime/busy part of town – he said I can put a 2×3′ sign out front next to the road (have to get it made)
• May decal my vehicle/trailer up… not sure yet but I found a way to do this on the cheap (for the trailer anyway). Found a place that I can get a 4’x8′ corrugated plastic full color sign (of your own design) for around $50. Not bad!
• Thought about radio advertising, but its too expensive ($1200-1500/month for a decent amount of ads on talk radio here locally)

You guys have any other tips or ideas on marketing? I am all ears… plus I want to help anyone else out there with what I have found works or does not work so you don’t waste time/resources =)

I have included a list of companies that use scissors for anyone interested… just for ideas if you need them.

Attachments:

• ha6f1926.pdf

[Eamon Mc Gowan]

Josh,
What a great list! That is a ton of leads! :woohoo: My kid (24) has hit me up for money :S other wise my Twice as Sharp would have been on it’s way this week. Your list makes me want to go after the scissor accounts real bad. 😉
I am very interested in the TAS convention you are headed to. I really wish I could attend. I have questions about scissors and would love the education! B)
This business section was a great idea!! Thanks a lot!
Eamon

[Robert Gilvary]

I’m from a very small beach community, one barber shop and a volunteer fire department, that depends largely on the tourist trade. There are still year round residents and within 15 miles there are two other communities a bit larger.

So, my target customers are going to be the volunteer firemen, free sharpening service for their personal on the job knives, the local police department, same offer to them in hopes that this will generate some business from their home culinary knives.

Then there’s the local tackle shop, hardware store, barber shop, wine shop next door to the barber shop to place advertising, and all the restaurants in the area. There’s also the two thrift stores I buy knives from to sharpen and resell. There’s a couple of seafood houses, charter boats, and the many hunters in the area that are getting ready for the up coming season.

I was recently told about the passing away of the man who sharpened for the restaurants in the town about 15 miles from me, Calabash NC. Maybe some of you have heard of it. Famous for it’s seafood restaurants.
I’ll be going there too.

I’ve got my business cards, magnetic door placards, big banner to display, and knife sleeves from the same place Tuffy gets his. I’m thinking I’ll need some small yard signs to display at some of these locations, if the proprietors agree. Might even work out a percentage for the placement of my advertising.

Now, all I’m needing is for WE to come through in this 3rd week coming up since ordering, because nothing will be done until I have the sharpening equipment. I know how delays can pop up out of nowhere, and I hate to break my word.

[Jed Bowen]

What a great list. I may need to borrow an idea or two from there.

Can I add take credit cards to the list. There are many mobile credit card readers out that work off of your smart phones now. I have the PayPal one and it works great for keeping up with payments received in forms of cash, check and credit card., You can generate invoices, and send receipts through email or text. Plus they do not charge monthly fees and are at 0.27% per swipe.

As I am also slowly trying to build up my sharpening business and pay for things as I go and have the money for it. I have a small generator that I will use for what ever kind of scissor sharpener I may get or lighting etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I have been looking at the 4×8 closed in trailer too with heat and A/C. But I just got the sharpening gig at our local fancy restaurant yesterday. The owner/Head Chef asked me to come by and see what I can do for some knive.

[Mark76]

One thing that springs to my mind is the free ad space Google gives away. Nearly every it/related magazine where I live contains a voucher for EUR 50 free of Google ad space. If you read some of them, that amounts to quite a lot of ads.

And since sharpening is a local business, flyers, posters, … And most importantly: word of mouth.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Kent]

I have no intention of making this a business to support my self9. I just want to buy my knifes and sharpening products, but I do need some marketing for this. This is what i have done.

I have 3 of the 6 marketing items.

I made cards on the home printer with the help of avery paper products.

I made a face book page.

I do have a few videos on youtube.

I did post a Craigslist add.

The face book page is free and easy to manage on a android phone. Lets you constantly update where you will be. And post pictures of your latest sharpening efforts.

[Daniel maloon]

This is a great topic. Is there anyway to restrict this to business owners? I see there’s 9 members and 600+ guests on right now. I don’t really want to be sharing business ideas with the casual sharpener that does it for change on the side. I started my Mail-in Knife Sharpening Service and made my website http://www.eliteedges.com on vistaprint. I had banners made by them. I’ve also made t-shirts, die cut stickers/decals and small signs made. I’ve advertised on several free websites and have done paid advertising with newspapers, google search and bing. I’ve also started going to local markets and talking with local restaurants.

[Jed Bowen]

I do agree with Dan on trying to make a business only section for members. But how will this be verified? Also how many WEPS are out there to open this specialized type of sharpening business? I do understand trying to protect valuable trade secrets and keeping people from underbidding our businesses.

[Kent]

This is a great topic. Is there anyway to restrict this to business owners? I see there’s 9 members and 600+ guests on right now. I don’t really want to be sharing business ideas with the casual sharpener that does it for change on the side. No offensive but i don’t want to give out a roadmap of everything I’ve done just so someone can do the samething in a fraction of the time and undercut me

I wouldn’t see hiding this necessary. Marketing in today’s world is on so many ppl minds, that it can be easily researched. The small one man shops of any service or product need marketing. though this site give specific info, any person can go to the library or surf the Internet and find what we will say here that is knife specific. Also it varys quite a bit regionally what type of marketing u do. Being in the Indianapolis area, yahts and fish markets and river side restaurants dont exist. While some ppl cater to those industries specifically. unless you feel your neighbor is going to take your business, I dont see it as an issue.

[Josh]

Well, after making about 15-20 phone calls to all of the fabric stores in my area, I managed to get two leads… 1 with Hancock Fabrics and the other with Joann Stores (just opened up here in Greenville).

I stopped by Hancocks and talked to the manager there. She said that the “old guy” who used to sharpen all of their scissors just retired a few months back and they have been having a lot of customers ask about getting their scissors sharpened. She said that they would normally pass out a flyer of his about two weeks before he came and set up, and when he came, he would be busy for 2 days (every other month) straight. I asked if she had one of his old flyers and she did… INSANELY cheap prices – I can’t imagine that he did a good job. $1.00 per knife, $1.50 for regular scissors, and $2.00 for plinking scissors. I told her I can’t go that low but could offer scissors at $4/pair and knives at the same (no serrated on site until I can have my trailer there). We also discussed the settup… I am going to bring a table along and put it in the middle of the store for the first time or two, then I will transition (more than likely) to working out in the parking lot from my trailer (that way I will have greater freedom of equipment. She thought that was a good idea. The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that I have to fill out paperwork because, basically I will sharpen the scissors and the customer will pay Hancock fabrics, who will then in turn cut me a check. I didn’t verify yet if they want to take a cut out but will next week before I proceed further. Seems like it should be a nice gig!

She did say that he screwed some people’s knives up from improper sharpening… so that is good for me =)

Joann Stores said she will check with her district manager and get back with me… seems real hopeful. I will keep you guys posted!

[Josh]

Oh yeah, the lady at Hancock said that if it works out well, they have another store in the next city over that wants me to do the same thing!

It was funny… after talking to her a bit, she said something along the lines of “well I might bring you my nice kitchen knives” lol.

you can make good money at scissor sharpening guys… if you don’t do it yet, look into it. On the TAS you can get your time down to 2-3 minutes/pair.

I am wanting to start hitting up alteration shops next, and eventually mid to high end restaurants (this is where the WEPS will come into play B) B) )

[Mikedoh]

There are those magnetic signs also for your vehicle. And those static cling signs for windows. Just want to make sure for the magnetic ones that the area is clean. Can still show a difference in paint color because of fading from the sun, but lets you return the vehicle to “yours” at the end of the day.

[Daniel maloon]

I had my different die cuts made at http://www.speedgraphics.net/

Designed different t-shirts at http://www.spreadshirt.com/
They had the best T-shirt making program I thought

Made my website at http://www.vistaprint.com
I’ve used them for years. Got my cards and banners made there.
They have alot of stuff. I like how the site was formatted for mobile devices and other
Features it has like tracking locations. I know it’s still pretty plain and needs
More content but I’ve been busy.

All my advertising online is free right now and its working pretty good with
Some places referring more traffic then others. My whole goal is to avoid ppc and optimize
Everything for search engines. I do run small ads in about 10 papers every other
Month but honestly print is a dying breed and has never returned much business.
There’s definitely more that im doing and trying but that stuff is for more personal conversations.
hope something here helps

[Jed Bowen]

I just posted on the WEPS and scissor sharpening thread about my scissor adventure. So I took the leap into the scissor sharpening market and purchaced the Twice as Sharp and boy does it work well. It ran $300 for the standard model but I made $200 sharpening scissors the first week I had it. So hopefully by the end of next week it will have paid for itself. I am charging $5 for standard sharpening. $8 to take apart and sharpen and lube the scissors and $10 to sharpen, lube and paint the metal handles black. So this is a business one can get into easily and make money if you go look for work doing scissors.

[Eamon Mc Gowan]

I just posted on the WEPS and scissor sharpening thread about my scissor adventure. So I took the leap into the scissor sharpening market and purchaced the Twice as Sharp and boy does it work well. It ran $300 for the standard model but I made $200 sharpening scissors the first week I had it. So hopefully by the end of next week it will have paid for itself. I am charging $5 for standard sharpening. $8 to take apart and sharpen and lube the scissors and $10 to sharpen, lube and paint the metal handles black. So this is a business one can get into easily and make money if you go look for work doing scissors.

Congrats Jed on your new adventure and of coarse a great $$$ week :woohoo:

Funny you post this, as I just got my TAS professional in today. I agonized as to with model to get? And went with the professional at $390. I just sharpened three pairs of scissors I had laying around the house. Two came out screaming sharp and the one pair..well lets just say I made a boo boo. :ohmy:
I was really surprised as to how compact it really is? I thought it would be the size of a regular grinder? It will be super easy to tote around! I’m really excited..I really had no idea that my knife sharpening hobby would turn into something more? I don’t want a full time business, but I do love my toys and this would help me get them :silly:

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