Start a mobile knife sharpening route for restaurants

  1. Find the kitchens that feel the pain
    4 hours

    This step produces a contact sheet of 10–12 restaurant kitchens in your city, each with the person who decides on sharpening, what they currently pay per blade, and their complaint in their own words. The trap is interviewing the wrong person or during service hours — the answer is only as good as the person and the moment it came from. Record answers verbatim: the chef's own phrasing is the sentence your trial pitch will repeat.

    Work in off-hours and ask, do not pitch.

    1. Build a candidate list of 20–25 kitchens inside your planned route area — independents first, chains later. Google Maps, Yelp and your city's restaurant association are enough.
    2. Book the visit for the 2–4 p.m. lull between lunch and dinner prep; call ahead and say: “Local sharpener, 10 minutes, researching what kitchens pay — no pitch.”
    3. Ask the four questions: who decides on sharpening here; what do you do now — mail-in service, in-house steel, nothing; what do you pay per blade; and what is the worst part — turnaround, price or edge quality.
    4. Write answers down word for word during the visit, then type them into one sheet the same evening, one row per kitchen.