When junior Jeremiah Tiews started fundraising for his Eagle Scout project by sharpening other people’s knives, he never predicted that it would eventually become a long-term business pursuit.
Since 2017, on breaks and sometimes during the school semesters, he provides a local service through his self-started company, Same Day Sharpening, in his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Tiews services primarily kitchen knives for residential homes, sharpening and returning them in under two hours. Other than kitchen knives, he has expanded his services to include: serrated edges, hatchets, axes, scissors, and gardening tools. Eventually he would like to also provide restoration and cleaning options for cutlery.
“I’ve realized people don’t really care about how sharp they are,” he said. “It’s all about the customer service experience and looking professional.”
Rather they care far more about someone who shows up exactly on time, texts and communicates constantly during the process, and tries to make friendly conversation when interacting with the customers.
“My philosophy is to go into the non-sexy industries like knife sharpening, which provides a service for people that they really want and really need,” Tiews said.
His philosophy of business aligns most with entrepreneur Nick Huber who started the blog, Sweaty Startups.
Huber advocates for service-based entrepreneurship rather than tech start ups.
“Who would you rather compete with? Massive companies and brilliant people from the ivy league or mom and pop down the street that runs a business like it’s 1985?” Huber said on his website. “If you answer the phone and provide customer service you are ahead of 95% of the companies out there.”
Though Tiews does promote his business online through Facebook ads and Nextdoor, his face-to-face personal interactions gain most of his business.
“I can post as many ads as I want, but they won’t get as many responses as one good review would,” he said.
The reviews have created a snowball effect for getting more customers, according to Tiews.
“Some people play video games, some people just read. I like to make money as my hobby,” Tiews said. “If I don’t have a way to make money, I get extremely anxious.”
During the past two years, word spread about his company, and several of Tiews brothers from the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity have started Same Day Sharpening companies in their own states.
Junior Eoghan Williams started a branch in Atlanta, Georgia at the beginning of his 2020 Christmas break, despite not having any knife sharpening experience.
“I wanted to experiment with the business because I trust Jerry’s experience through his success stories,” Williams said. “He’s been doing this for three to four years and he always mentions how willing he is to help anyone who wants to start.”
While Williams hopes to continue working in Atlanta with Same Day Sharpening as a side job, Tiews eventually wants to make it his primary business pursuit upon graduation.
In the meantime, Tiews plans to continue promoting his service full-time in Oklahoma along with a buddy from back home this coming summer.
“People think they need to change the world by becoming a social worker but I believe that providing a good service brings joy and happiness to the world,” he said. “You have have the same impact on someone with a conversation that you have with them when picking up their knives.”