Basically, you start with a $1 file you bought at a yard sale and keep buying more tools until your last purchase was a $1,000,000 computer guided laser cutter.The steps between the two are just increments of $1. The increments generally seems to go by the rule of squares, although with careful attention you can keep it down to the rule of doubling.
The really smart maker learns to use the tools he has,before he purchases bigger and better(?) tools. Often it is a great temptation to say," If I had a ______ (KMG,power hammer,laser cutter, big shop,etc.), I could make knives like the ones in the books." It is not the tools ,but the hands that guide them.
Moving up the scale to factory maker is a process of outgrowing your capacity,not your capability. If you can't keep up with your orders in a garage - then it is time to build a shop out back.
When you can't make enough of your Model 1A fighter to have any on the table at the shows (and are making a good profit at those shows) - then it is time to either farm out the blade cutting and profiling,or hire some help.
When you have to have UPS come every day to pick up the boxes of knives you are delivering (all paid for ) and the bookkeeper says there is room for growth,- then it is time to open a small factory.
Next step is an International Joint Venture with a small nation.....well you can take it from there.
The most useful info in this message is paragraph 2.
Print it out on a piece of card stock and put it on the wall in your shop.
Stacy