You are reading 3Bits & Change, Joseph's email about building a direct to consumer business on the internet. Today’s email was written to a bad station Alexa chose, again.
You’re invited.
Vivront Friends Open House.
November 4th 5-8PM.
3408 County Road 101, Minnetonka, MN 55391
Good morning,
A lot can happen in a week. The sharpener moved last week Tuesday. A lot more needs to happen in the next week to be ready for the Friends Open House on Nov 4th. Yet, progress is being made!
Thanks to Neil, Avery, and Tim for their time and assistance in moving and hanging lights, etc. Thanks to all of you for your support of this knife store idea!
Here are a few highlights from the week.
Bit #1 • Moving the sharpener
While the rental attendant was making proof of previous renter infraction photos I was making some art. He thanked me for also taking photos too. I thought the light was wonderful. : )
When you get the itch to rent a gib liftgate truck, note:
No forklifts
Take pictures of your own (speaking from experience) because the next attendant might aim to blame the lower wall dent on you.
These trucks only get 3-5 miles to the gallon. Who knew? Don’t let the fact that the gas pump shuts off when filling the tank trick you. The tank is not full. According to the return attendant, and without prior instruction, I was to fill the tank until it spilled out of the top of the tank. Ha. I don’t think I’ll rent from that place again. Nice lift gate tho!
Bit #2 • The first knife in the new shop
We got the rig setup and started running our internet order right away. Good things.
Bit #3 • Buildout
While the lease says 600 square feet, now that we can see all the walls to measure the space, it’s only 532 square feet. That’s probably 300 more than needed for a one station sharpening only shop.
We’re programing the rest of the space as classroom and retail.
Tables will play double duty with retail.
Think glassware, towels and the like. The Foundry store in MPLS is on the mood board. :)
What if we can find an older French-esque hutch like the one above for the right side of the checkout where the “earthen jug” dropboxes are in the next photo? Oh, my. That’d be woah.
Note the first of 8 fixtures in place yesterday!
Still waiting on the countertop for the left wall. That’s where we’ll stage awesome shopping moments with some very special kitchen knives.
Numerous trays deliver tomorrow to make moving knives around easier. 15+ different styles of knives will be available for fitting and for use in classes and for special orders. We’ve been prototyping a few options and really like the color and texture of lentils. They’ll likely need to give way to cork in the bottoms of the boxes because of moisture considerations, but, we’ll see.
These knives are finished with nickel giving them a cool visual hue. They are also thin, light, and a delight to work with. They burned through a bag of carrots at the house last night. Oh my!
I’m excited to get these (and the others) in the hands of folks to try out in the shop. They have a way of selling themselves.
Katrina procured a first aid kit for the shop yesterday. Maybe we’ll need custom branded band aids?
Sum
The shop has moved. It’s warmer than the previous one. We’re back to sharpening nationwide via USPS. Tell your friends. There is a lot of holiday cooking to be done in the next 2 months.
The build out on the shop is underway and the excitement to be open and see this thing in action is growing.
Change
Barb the Barber stopped me yesterday as she was checking on how her planters faired through the windy weekend. She had worked in the shop two doors down for 20+ years. She shares excitement for home cooking and suggested where I might send my postcards. :) We’re making friends. Thanks Barb!
It’s YouTube channel creation day for Vivront. Also, the channel has logged 5k views in the last month. If you’ve not already, hook your feeds up to repurpose.io and then to each other. There are more views out there than you think.
On Your Way
Happy last days of daylight savings to you and yours. It’s just over a week from now, Nov 6, when we’ll swap the clocks again. Get out. See a sunrise while it’s still coming up around 7:40! It’s a great time of year for it sunrises paired with sleep.
Onward!
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Order kitchen knives sharpened or give the gift of sharp at Vivront.com.