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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
Recommendation? Thinking of becoming a dealer...
- Thread starter Heartland_edc
- Start date
midnight flyer (post #36) thank you for the long post, a lot of great points, great advice. It pretty much sums it all up.
I will echo thoughts from others that the retail knife business sounds like a very tough slog these days. Unless you find a niche, like custom knives. There are very few good custom knife websites that are any good. The best I found is arizonacustomknives.com. Most of the others have little or no inventory! And they rarely tell you the source of their knives, i.e. whether it is from maker or previously owned. Most of the time you have to guess. ACK tells you in the description for each knife, so that's one of the things that I like. Plus they have a very large inventory, and they update daily. If you look at the custom knives that are being sold these days, there certainly seems to be tremendous demand. Prices are skyrocketing.
For production knives, however, I don't think that's a business that I'd like to get into. Just too much competition. It's not enough that you want to work in that business. It has to be sustainable, has to have enough profit for you to be financially successful or happy. Of course, if you keep overhead very low, even modest profits could be enough to pay the mortgage and send your kids to school. All depends on your situation and your goals.
The only thing I'd add for the OP is that it sounds like you have to do a great deal more number crunching and so forth before you take the leap. You should know what you're getting into before you spend any serious money preparing to open up a new business.
First things first, even before knowing what kind of business you're starting up, you need to know the basics about taxes and business organization. I'd recommend buying a copy of "Small Business Kit for Dummies", from the Dummies series of how to books. Should be available on amazon. I'd also recommend J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax. That comes out every new year for preparing the past year's federal income tax return. I'd also recommend that you try doing your own income taxes, if you don't already. H&R Block has excellent tax preparation software, and I recommend software, but you need to know basically what you're doing, which is why I also recommend the J.K. Lasser book. You will find that most accountants are incompetent buffoons, which is why even if you hire an accountant, you had better know what's going on so that you can keep on top of it. Otherwise, you could easily end up paying huge penalties for stupid mistakes by your accountant. Unless your wife or someone in your family is an accountant or attorney, you just cannot leave it up to them. Be aware that for retail small businesses, the local tax authorities love to do audits, love to assess penalties. If you are a one man show, it's less complicated but as soon as you add an employee or two, things start getting very complicated. Go to your state and local tax websites and find out all that you can. Unfortunately, the state and local tax info will not be available in any books. The tax prep software will cover them, if you buy the federal + state/local version. But pdf forms on the official state and local websites are pretty much it, for forms and instructions.
Before taking any major steps to start up, do your homework. If you do it well, you greatly reduce risk. The more you know, the more likely that your business plan will be a good one and a success.
I will echo thoughts from others that the retail knife business sounds like a very tough slog these days. Unless you find a niche, like custom knives. There are very few good custom knife websites that are any good. The best I found is arizonacustomknives.com. Most of the others have little or no inventory! And they rarely tell you the source of their knives, i.e. whether it is from maker or previously owned. Most of the time you have to guess. ACK tells you in the description for each knife, so that's one of the things that I like. Plus they have a very large inventory, and they update daily. If you look at the custom knives that are being sold these days, there certainly seems to be tremendous demand. Prices are skyrocketing.
For production knives, however, I don't think that's a business that I'd like to get into. Just too much competition. It's not enough that you want to work in that business. It has to be sustainable, has to have enough profit for you to be financially successful or happy. Of course, if you keep overhead very low, even modest profits could be enough to pay the mortgage and send your kids to school. All depends on your situation and your goals.
The only thing I'd add for the OP is that it sounds like you have to do a great deal more number crunching and so forth before you take the leap. You should know what you're getting into before you spend any serious money preparing to open up a new business.
First things first, even before knowing what kind of business you're starting up, you need to know the basics about taxes and business organization. I'd recommend buying a copy of "Small Business Kit for Dummies", from the Dummies series of how to books. Should be available on amazon. I'd also recommend J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax. That comes out every new year for preparing the past year's federal income tax return. I'd also recommend that you try doing your own income taxes, if you don't already. H&R Block has excellent tax preparation software, and I recommend software, but you need to know basically what you're doing, which is why I also recommend the J.K. Lasser book. You will find that most accountants are incompetent buffoons, which is why even if you hire an accountant, you had better know what's going on so that you can keep on top of it. Otherwise, you could easily end up paying huge penalties for stupid mistakes by your accountant. Unless your wife or someone in your family is an accountant or attorney, you just cannot leave it up to them. Be aware that for retail small businesses, the local tax authorities love to do audits, love to assess penalties. If you are a one man show, it's less complicated but as soon as you add an employee or two, things start getting very complicated. Go to your state and local tax websites and find out all that you can. Unfortunately, the state and local tax info will not be available in any books. The tax prep software will cover them, if you buy the federal + state/local version. But pdf forms on the official state and local websites are pretty much it, for forms and instructions.
Before taking any major steps to start up, do your homework. If you do it well, you greatly reduce risk. The more you know, the more likely that your business plan will be a good one and a success.
ExtremAddiction
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2013
- Messages
- 1,059
if you doing it to make money then forget it ,
if you are nutcase who willing to work 7 days a week then you have chance .
start part time online store dont jump all the way in .
if you are nutcase who willing to work 7 days a week then you have chance .
start part time online store dont jump all the way in .
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- Joined
- May 4, 2015
- Messages
- 947
Ok so after reading everyone's comments, I still definitely want to try it at some point... but I think im going to ease into it very slowly. I had a friend suggest I start a YouTube channel, (laid back knife talk) and let it grow over a couple years. I think building some rep online might be a good way to start. If anything, itll be a great way to guage (roughly) if I can even gain traction. Ive always wanted to do that anyway. Might be fun. Channel is MetalComplex87 if anyone cares 
- Joined
- May 4, 2015
- Messages
- 947
That was my first vid. This is more or less what I'll do in each video. I just really like talking about knives.
- Joined
- May 4, 2015
- Messages
- 947
Nice video. You get a sub from me when I am home
Hey alright! Thanks bud!
unwisefool
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2007
- Messages
- 10,105
Good luck with your YouTube channel, I'd watch it but really don't have the patience to listen to someone talk for more than a few minutes. I prefer pictures and text
Ok so after reading everyone's comments, I still definitely want to try it at some point... but I think im going to ease into it very slowly. I had a friend suggest I start a YouTube channel, (laid back knife talk) and let it grow over a couple years. I think building some rep online might be a good way to start. If anything, itll be a great way to guage (roughly) if I can even gain traction. Ive always wanted to do that anyway. Might be fun. Channel is MetalComplex87 if anyone cares
this touches on something that I was thinking about before posting - you have to have somethign that is going to draw people to your business v/s the other established online vendors (Marketing). there has be a reason for people to go to your site, or look for your site. your also need to invest in some website and Search engine optimization stuff so that you pop up at or near the top when people are searching. I dont understand that stuff, but we had to have it done recently and it made a pretty good impact.
EDIT - having somebody with the business background and education will help -but think about the product, the margins, and how much money you have to make. how many knives do you need to sell everyday, and and what markup to make your goals and compensate everyone that is involved. part time will help, if you can maintain the level of service required, and still manage income from another source - build it from that level and use your Finance Person to let you know when you're "side gig" has grown to a full time business. thats exactly how we started here (engineering though, not retail)
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afishhunter
Basic Member
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2014
- Messages
- 15,059
Today, the only businesses I can think of that have Territories are the beverage industry, and maybe new car dealerships.
As for retail sales of nonperishable goods?
There is no such thing as a territory anymore. The Internet made them obsolete and unenforceable.
Any "Mom and Pop" Internet store located anywhere in the world can sell their goods world wide, if they want to deal with the exchange rates and shipping hassles to the different countries.
Unless you can get an "exclusive world wide distributorship" for a particular product, someone else on the Internet will be selling that product. (You would also be under contract to purchase 100% of that manufactures production ... not a viable option for a well established dealer, let alone a startup. I cannot think of any manufacturer that would "put all their eggs in one basket" like that.)
To the OP:
The online knife market is saturated.
You would be better off looking for a product/service in your local area that has a growing demand and open a brick and mortar store for that product/service.
If you do go into business, make it an LLC or INC. so you are not personally liable for anything related to the business should something happen.
Be aware that being in business for yourself is not a get rich quick deal, nor something for someone not willing or able to work.
Others have mentioned "80 hour work weeks". 80 hours would be considered a "short" week most of the time, unless you are an owner operator of a truck or a truck driver, in which case you are limited to 70 hours a week.
140 to 150 hours a week would be average, from my experience. (Convenience Stores, Nightclubs, Beverage Distributorship (soda pop)) I would also add Truck Fleet Owner, although I have never owned a fleet, I have known and dealt with a few. I think I can safely say that they have the longest hours, since they are on call 24/7/365 to deal with any problems their drivers may have while out on the road. (Breakdowns, flat/bad tires, accidents, lost fuel cards, no money on fuel card and not enough fuel to get to next pickup, driver needs pay advance for eats, etc., etc. Note that the age of the truck and the number of miles on the truck do not affect breakdowns or tire problems.)
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