Thinking of S/E.

patman99

Am still researching the pros/cons of running my own business and would like to ask if anyone thinks a mobile sharpening service for knives, scissors, mower blades etc. is the sort of service they would personally use if it were available.

nickj_2

i think you would have to weigh up the costs of what you would charge to say sharpen a couple of knives per house against all your outgoings - van costs etc + any other overheads you may incur unless you've got one of the knife sharpening bikes that used to go around yerars ago . the cost of sharpenining against replacing is probably not much of a difference
if you're going any distance for just say £5 worth of work by the time you've taken your expenses out it's not going to leave you with much cash , unhless you can build up a round of regular customers or businesses... hotels etc
i would have thought there may be more money in sharpening / servicing mowers and their blades

NiceGuyEddie_2

Lots of people with horses and/or dogs have their own sets of clippers, and the blades on these regularly need sharpening.

Most people send these off in the post to be sharpened, but if you had the time then I think you could have quite healthy levels of trade in autumn/winter when horsey people do most of their clipping and then find that the turnaround time for sharpening by post can be a matter of weeks, rather than days; if you were able to sharpen blades quicker than the main existing providers can, then people would willingly pay.

Knives/scissors I can't see being as well received, for cheap household items people will replace rather than repair and those people who have more expensive knives (and hence the types who will sharpen blades) are likely to do it themselves without too much bother.

patman99

Hmmm, I had not thought about animal grooming kit. There are quite a few horsey types round my way, and also a few animal trimming places too.

At the mo., this is just an idea in the making, I will be looking into various ideas, but will not even start on any of them until after my cataract op. (just in case it goes wrong).

Just wondering if a stand at a car boot sale would work. It would be ideal for advertising my business to begin with.

jexygirl

We have a guy "mike the knife" who does the restaurant rounds up here. He has been established years and pops in twice a year, we have all mixerblades and knives sharpened, plus he sells "chef" stuff clothing, knives, chopping boards etc. He basically travels around all the restaurants making it worth his while.
Jex

motorguy

patman99 wrote: »

Just wondering if a stand at a car boot sale would work. It would be ideal for advertising my business to begin with.

Are the sort of people who bring Knives to car boot sales the sort of clientelle you want to be aiming at?

patman99

I was thinking more along the lines of using the bootsale to advertise the business (and people sell all sorts of things that could be sharpened, like mower blades & hedge trimmers).
The more I think about it, the more the idea is developing. Thanks to the posters on here, I can see more areas to explore than I originally thought of.