April 4, 2024 • 29 mins
Congratulations, you’ve branched out into your own business and even found your first client or customer! Now what? As the orders come in, so do the invoices and payments. In this episode, hosts Austin and Jannese talk about the ins and outs of keeping organized books, tracking payments and keeping an eye on where your money is so you can make sure it’s working for you. Michael Behn, founder of Moshi Moshi Knife Sharpening, drops by to share his journey as an entrepreneur tracking payments going in and out as his business grows. Michael spent nearly a decade working nonstop in kitchens and restaurants before becoming his own boss with a successful knife-sharpening business. He explains the importance of staying on top of payments and invoices and keeping your enterprise as sharp as a blade.
Learn more about how QuickBooks can help you grow your business:
For a recap from this week’s episode visit:
Episode 6 Recap with Michael Behn of Moshi Moshi Knife Sharpening.
Or learn more about this topic at this resource: How to Collect Outstanding Payments: Best Practices for Small Businesses
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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(00:22):
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Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hey everyone, I'm Ustin Henkwitz and.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'm Denise Torres. Welcome to Mind the Business Small Business
Success Stories, a podcast brought to you by Intwit, QuickBooks
and iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio. In each episode, Austin and I
chat with small business owners as they share their stories
about the ups and downs of owning a small business. So, Austin,
where are a couple weeks into the spring?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Now?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
How has the season been treating you so far?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
My gosh, I'm feeling great. Jenise, I love being able
to get outside again. And I actually now have a
Marshall's gift card that I'm itching to spend to transform
my house into a springtime oasis. Birthday should be good.
May ten. That that's my Birthday'll be turning twenty eight
and to celebrate, my girlfriend and I are going back
to Cancun, Mexico. We went to can Kun last year
(01:25):
for this insane all inclusive resort to celebrate again my
birthday last year, but going back again this year. Can't
wait to run it back. I'm so so excited. What
about you, Janiese, is there anything you are especially excited about?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I didn't know you were a fellow tourist too.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I am May second. Oh yeah, and I'm actually going
to be kicking off my book tour.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
On my birthday. Oh my gosh. I know.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
It's like what a way to celebrate turning thirty nine
and celebrating like eleven years of entrepreneurship. And yeah, so
I'm going to be kicking off my book tour. Super
excited about that. And then I'm also in the process
of buying a house, so that's a monster in itself,
but very exciting.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
That is awesome. Yeah, we'll have to figure out a
way to like co celebrate our birthdayscon May ten. It's
going to be in Saint Pete, Florida, and everyone's invited.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I love it now.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
We love talking to different solopreneurs and small business owners
about their journeys and strategies and the fun way that
they can market themselves. But there's another thing we have
to talk about, and it's something every entrepreneur has to
deal with. Payments and invoices.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Oh, my gosh, payments and invoices. You said it, Jenise.
It is so crucial to keep track of your expenses
and payments and keep your books balanced. That's why QuickBooks
is such an essential tool and why it's called quick books.
It keeps track of all of your expenditures, open and
closed invoices, tracks every penny moving in and out of
(02:58):
your accounts, and allows for customers and vendors to send
payment in whichever way is easiest for them and most
convenient for you. So I know for me Janie's payments
invoices it was a disaster in my solopreneurship journey. In
the first twelve or eighteen months, I used some random
website that would create these like invoice PDFs, and then
I'd send the PDF to the clients, and then I
(03:21):
would have a separate Excel spreadsheet get that right, Oh
my gosh, and manually typing in when I sent the invoice,
when it was due, and when I should manually email
them again as a reminder. It was a nightmare. Thank
God for quick books. But talk to me a little
bit about your experience watching and keeping track of the
payments the invoices as a solopreneur. To your point, who's
(03:41):
been doing this for eleven years.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, it's really the difference between me not qualifying for
a mortgage or actually being able to prove to the
bank that I can afford this right. When I'm looking
at my business finances, this is a reflection of my
overall financial situation. So when I'm applying for a more good,
I have to provide the bank with statements that show
what are my profits, what is my revenue, what are
(04:05):
my expenditures. I pay myself, so I have to demonstrate
that as well. And there's just so many moving parts
when it comes to running a business efficiently, that having
your books organized and really being able to tell your
financial story to a lender to a bank. It's critical
if you want to make these really big purchases and
achieve these financial milestones.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I couldn't agree more. I remember when I purchased my
first house here in Nashville. I think it was summer
of twenty twenty two, so a couple of years ago now.
But to your point, I was a full time solopreneur.
I was figuring it out and it is a nightmare
trying to find and prove and I mean they meticulously
come through every transaction. You have to have the receipts,
(04:50):
you got to have the invoices, you got to have everything.
And thank god Quick Books was able to do that
for me. They had it all right there for me.
I was able to find and show everything the lender needed.
But whoof I feel for you, girl. I'll be praying
for you now, thanks so much. So On that note,
let's meet our guest. Michael Bain is an edgemith who
(05:14):
uses traditional Japanese techniques to perfectly sharpen blades everything from
cooking knives to ceremonial kurpins to simple pocket knives. After
working for nearly ten years in the restaurant industry, he
founded Moshi Moshi, which provides high quality knife sharpening to
over twenty five hundred clients. In addition to starting and
running his own company, he franchises out his business to
(05:36):
other former kitchen workers who he trains in the art
of knife sharpening. Michael is passionate about providing impeccable service
to his customers, as well as having a healthy work
life balance. Michael, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Thank you so much for having me. Very excited for
this and it's just generally super cool. Michael.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Let's start with the name of your business, Moshi Moshi.
What is the story behind it?
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Moshi Mooshi is an informal way and very friendly way
that Japanese people greet each other on the telephone. So
they'll just pick up the phone and go hi, Mushi Moshi.
And I just thought it would be like a cute
thing to do, you know, when I was sort of
dreaming of the business as a lion cook, just imagining
me being super enthusiastic picking up the phone. She's just
like yelling at people through the phone, and I always
(06:23):
thought that would.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Be fun, amazing. Okay, so you started working in restaurants
when you were a teenager, but then you found yourself
at the age of twenty four working in a chaotic,
fast paced kitchen in charge of fifteen people. What was
the moment that made you realize you wanted to make
a change from working in a fast paced kitchen and
branching out into your own business.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Okay, the moment was the pandemic, Like it started when
I was twenty four as a sous chef. That started
the ball rolling of doubt for the kitchen game. But
like during the pandemic, when my hours kept going up,
my pay kept going down, the treatment of myself as
a human being was just not very nice. So, yeah,
it was the pandemic and it started very quickly the
(07:01):
knife sharpening business from there.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah. I think a lot of people had sort of
that reckoning moment during the pandemic where they started to question, like,
is this something I still want to keep doing? And
I think the restaurant industry definitely has a reputation for
being a place where you need to have very thick skin, definitely,
so I understand why you'd want to make that transition. Now,
you did say that one of the ways that you
learned how to sharpen knives was through trial and error,
(07:24):
which I think most people can relate to, especially in entrepreneurship.
Would you say that's true about how you started your
own company.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I would absolutely say trial and error has been like
the main teacher through this and everything. Because there's no
other knife sharpener who can just like take you under
their wing and show you all the mistakes they made.
You kind of have to make the mistakes first and
then hope it's not so bad and then just go
on from there.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Can you take us behind the scenes of your learning
process as well, like how do you actually learn how
to do this stuff?
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Well, that's good that you just asked that. I just
got back from a big trip in San Francisco where
I want to a established kniveshop. Worked with them for
a few hours just to learn a couple of techniques.
I was really trying to refine the last three to
five percent of my technique. It's just learning what's the
tiny thing they do different compared to me, and then
working that into the routine. Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
I think that's a big part of kind of this
whole journey as a solopreneurs, just understanding that there's always
going to be opportunities to improve and to learn, and
to not be afraid of putting yourself out there and
looking for those opportunities wherever you can get them exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
And that's the biggest thing for me, because, of course
doubt rolls in at times when I'm just by myself
sharpening two hundred knives a day and I'm just cutting
paper on Instagram and I'm like, is this working? What
am I doing with my life? Of course doubt comes up,
but like, I just got to trust the process. If
you will, I love it.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I remember I was talking with Candice Nelson, the founder
of Sprinkle Cupcakes, recently, and she told me the story
which I think might resonate with you, Michael, where back
in the early days of Sprinkle Cupcakes, she wanted to
go out and hire the big consultants and the industry
veterans and the people who were supposed to have the answers.
But once she hired those people, she realized that, wait
(09:12):
a second, we're doing things so differently here at Sprinkle's
Cupcakes that their answers don't even resonate. So I feel like,
as a solopreneur, Michael, who's trying to figure this out,
and carve your own path in solopreneurship with your knife
sharpening business, that maybe it's even a better idea not
to take too much inspiration from the industry veterans and
(09:33):
look at yourself kind of have that self reflection and say,
how could I best serve my customers? How can I
best create processes in my business for efficiency and you know,
just awesome customer experiences, which seems like something you've done
a very good job of.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Yeah, thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
So staying on top of money coming in and going
out and tracking all the paperwork with it can be
so challenging for small business owners who are also having
to wear all the other hats to keep the company going.
That's what's so great about QuickBooks money, right. It allows
you to keep an eye on all the money that's
coming in, that's going out. It helps organizes invoices so
(10:10):
you never miss a payment. So how early into your
business journey did you start using QuickBooks?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Well, my wife has been an accountant her entire professional career,
so she was like, let's get cookbooks and I was like,
what's that. She's like the financial brain besides the entire operation,
which is so nice and amazing for me because it's
tough for me, and it's just really nice having somebody
who specializes in the numbers aspect.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I think we hear that a lot from solopreneurs, right,
you want to bode to your strengths and hire to
your weaknesses. And lucky for all of us, we can
all hire QuickBooks if you're not that great at keeping
tabs on the finances. So how has QuickBooks money helped
you stay on top of your game?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
I just think having everything out in front of me
and being able to see it is is pretty nice.
The thing with knife sharpening is that the expenses are
pretty low to keep it running. Like I bought one
expensive big grinding wheel and it's lasted me like almost
two years now, you know. So it's like I'm not
spending money actively every day to keep the business rolling.
(11:11):
It's almost like one big expense every couple of months.
So it's really nice seeing everything just in one place,
and it really kind of helps me with the unknown anxiety.
It's just like, Okay, I can just look at this
and it kind of it'll either make me a little
bit more anxious or it'll settle my nerves. So that's good.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
So, Michael, you mentioned that a big part of your
business is folks actually coming and dropping off their knives
to your home in order to get them sharpened. So
does that mean you're taking payments at the time of
service and then how are you actually tracking those?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So yeah, it's very simple right now, and that people
drop the knives off and then when they pick them
up after the service has been rendered and they've been quoted,
then they pay me either through cash or card. Right now,
I'm taking payments through Square, so it's pretty nice that
I get a big weekly report from Square, and I
can get the month, the yearly report, and then it's
all there. It's easily imported into quick books and all
(12:04):
that stuff. And then you know, I think it's important
to just report all your cash too, because, like I
think the benefits of having reportable income outweighs you know,
not paying the tax man absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I mean, if your business is way more profitable then
you're showing on paper, it's going to be a lot
harder for you to get loans and be able to
expand get that brick and mortar. So I'm glad that
you mentioned how important it is to even track those
cash payments. Let's talk about how you actually organize your finances,
because obviously it's great for us entrepreneurs to see that
money coming in, but what are some strategies for where
(12:35):
you actually put your money. Do you have different bank accounts,
do use it to reinvest in the business. Are you
planning for your own retirement? Take us behind the scenes.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Definitely. So I started retirement savings at twenty nine. That's
been really nice having like a net worth. It's like
my new hobby right now is like the compounding money
is just like there's going to be some commas in
here someday, and it's really nice doing that. And it's
like I felt like at the beginning, I was like
wasting my money, but now I'm just like I only
want to put it in there. So I've been really
(13:04):
going crazy on theroth, like loving the wroth.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
That's something that only a true money nerd can say.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
And I'm trying to do other stuff because like again,
my wife Jenna, who is a absolute superstar, she's all
up in it in the finances, and I kind of
feel like she's in a whole nother world when she's
doing her stuff. She's like investing in art and stuff,
so you know, trying to do that the most, trying
to max it out every year, because why not, that's
the best thing I could do, I think for wealth
(13:30):
building for myself right now.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, Well, and I love to hear the fact that
you're investing in retirement, right because I think it's very
easy for folks who are used to, you know, regular
paycheck to understand why that's important. But I would argue
that as an entrepreneur, it's even more important that you
think about what that exit strategy is going to be
for you, whether that's you know, retiring from your business
to go and start another one, or just wanting to
(13:52):
kind of write off into the sunset. So it's really
good to hear that you're thinking about what that future
long term plan is and not just getting kind of
down with the daily numbers of the business exactly.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
And just recently, I just like, you know, first time
of my life, I've got an emergency fund just chilling
in a high HEELD saving account. So it's like the
amount of stress I'm not feeling has been so nice.
But I don't want to be actively sharpening knives for
the next thirty years. I do feel like It's a
not easy activity on the body and the brain and
all that stuff. You know, you're grinding steel. It's not
(14:23):
an easy job. But like I met a guy with
a very, very very established knife company nationwide and he
sold his company knife sharpening for one hundred and fifty
six million dollars. Hey, yo, And I was like, that's
what I want to do. Let's do that. So like,
if someone's trying to buy motion emotion in twenty years,
let's do it, and I'll and I shall ride off
into the sunset.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Who knew there was so much money in knife sharpening.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
This is all new to me. I know, my job dropped,
and I like my priority shifted very quickly. Once he
told me that, I was like, Okay, this person in
the flesh has done it. It took generations to get there,
but like, wow.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You mentioned that you've really enjoy a healthy work life balance.
It's really important to you, so, especially now after spending
nearly ten years working non stop in these kitchens, talk
to me about how you finally found that line between
working hard to deliver something incredible but not really overdoing it.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
You know, it's a lot easier to really work super
super hard when like all the money's coming to me, right,
it's not just like four percent of the owner's paycheck
going to like one employee. Right. It's like when I'm
tired when I'm working, and it's like, okay, there's actual
fiscal motivation there. But like really establishing the work life
balance is like I have a hard stop at six,
and I you know, sometimes I'll start at one, sometimes
(15:38):
I'll start at two, you know, so it's like I
really cannot work that hard. There's an actual limit of
knives I can do a week that's healthy for my body.
And it's like, once the risk starts feeling a little
bit sore, I'm like, okay, I need to start thinking
about taking a break.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Good for you, that's incredible, thank you. So talk to
me though about maybe some precautions you take. How are
you sort of keeping your boy in shape sharpening steel?
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Definitely, safety is number one priority. But luckily with my
methods it's all slow grinding, it's all water cooled. There's
no risk of getting hurt that way. The biggest thing
for me is I have those like giant pads that
you stand on for your back. I got nice birken stocks.
I've had this pair for like eight years now in
the kitchen. Too awesome for your back. And then of
(16:24):
course I have my little wrist routine that I do
every day before I start. I might do a couple
like squats here and there just to activate the legs
because it is physical, so it's just good to just
activate the body a tiny bit before you start. But
the risk routine is essential.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Coming up after the break.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Usher walks up and just takes like ten or so
pictures of me on his phone and then just sits
back down at his table. I'm like, okay, thank you, Usher, We'll.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Be right back with mine the business. Welcome back to
Mind the Business. Small business success stories from iHeartMedia's Ruby
Studio and Into It QuickBooks.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
So you mentioned that you maybe didn't enjoy working in
a kitchen, you weren't really in love with it, But
was there anything you miss about working in a restaurant
every day? Perhaps seeing all the people come in and out,
and maybe the conversations.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Yeah, So the thing with a cooking professionally and like
in restaurants, I think the job of cooking is amazing.
You can find people who are so young and so
driven and pushing so hard for something. You know, it's
not monetary, they're not making money for something. That's just
like to a higher degree of what they are. Right,
that type of personality type is so rare. You don't
(17:46):
see it in other places, right, that type of selflessness,
the drive, the commitment, it's really astonishing, and like, I
really do miss that. I miss being in an environment
of collaboration and creativity where everybody is just like so
into it. I mean, the damn the last restaurant I
worked at, we'd get there eight thirty nine am and
(18:06):
it's like two am, and we all still got smiles
on our face. They're tired, but like we're smiling, we're
joking around, and we're just getting ready for the next
shift in six hours.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I mean, Mike w we talked a little bit about
perhaps your celebrity experiences before the show, but I'd love
to hear any other additional stories. I think you mentioned
Ludacris and Usher. Do you have any cool celebrity stories.
We're like, yep, I got to serve this person a
pork chop.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
So yeah. Back in twenty fifteen, when Gunsho was pushing
super hard for James Beard Award and stuff, This is
right when all the Atlanta film scene was going off,
crazy amount of people coming in. I remember John Hamm
came in, Andre three thousand came in. I teared up
when I served him. I was only cooking vegetarian and
veganditions there, and yeah, he only ate my food, so
that was cool. Ludacris on multiple restaurants throughout. You know,
(18:54):
I try not to touch the table often and be like, hello,
how was your dinner? It was the shift maybe me,
but but when Luda Chris comes in, I'm like, uh,
what's up, Luda. At the last one, the last one,
like interaction number four, I hit him with the what's
up Luda? And then he was just like yo, of course,
playing it super cool as mister Chris does. But yeah,
(19:15):
I remember making a really big beef Wellington at gun
Show for Christmas, and I was cutting it to order
and stuff and then Usher walks up and just takes
it like ten or so pictures of me on his
phone and then just sits back down at his table.
I'm like, okay, thank you, Usher, and then just went
back towards do you also want my phone number? Too? Usher?
Hower am the Usher.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
That's awesome. So, Michael, you're working in the kitchen, you're
hanging out with Usher and Luda Chris. Were you also
sharpening knives while you were you know, doing all your
work in the kitchen was just like a side hustle
for you in the beginning, which turned into a full
time career. Or is this something that after you kind
of pivoted away from your career working in the kitchen,
you're like, I'm so good at this, I'm ready to
do it full time and start doing it for the
(19:56):
first time.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Ah. So, I definitely always thought about it, and I
always talked to my people in the kitchen about doing
a knife sharpening business. I already was like, oh yeah,
I do it, do it, do it. But like twenty
twelve in Athens, Georgia, just started cooking. I just cut
my thumb off at the Mexican restaurant I was working at.
It was gross.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Oh my goodness, it was a bad one.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
But what I remember everybody saying, my chef was like,
you shouldn't have been able to do that. Your knives
are very sharp at least. But I got into the
kitchen through the knives. Like I remember watching very specific
YouTube video chef Hero tarad a Miami Nvie kitchen and
bar just him with his extreme knife skills, like they
don't get better than what he was doing. And I
(20:36):
just remember watching that and being mesmerized. I was in college,
not loving it, but just watching this dude in a
kitchen cutting stuff, and I was like, Okay, I'm just
going to do that. From the start, I was always
into knife sharpening, always had the sharpest knife in the kitchen.
It was never really something that I made money of
when I was working in kitchens one. I didn't have
any time to do that as a side, but it
was always something that was in my head since day one,
(20:57):
starting in kitchens and gosh, ten years afterwards and once
in a lifetime pandemic got me there, you know, Denise.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
So I think that's how it starts for a lot
of solopreneurs, including ourselves, right. I know, you were doing
your thing, I was doing mine, and we kind of
had this little like person in the back of our head,
kind of standing here on our shoulder saying, hey, go
try it. You like this, you should really really try this,
And you know a lot of us, the pandemic, to
your point, Michael, was our opportunity it certainly was mine,
and I know Janise was there a little bit earlier
than us. But it's really cool to kind of, you know,
(21:26):
have an idea that you've really been marinating on for
a couple of years and finally being able to bring
that to life.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
H I love that.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
So as a foodie and a lover of all good things,
especially good high quality equipment in the kitchen, I'm curious
for you, what is your favorite knife or type of
metal to work with?
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Ooh okay, So me personally, it's so weird how I'm
like this with my knives, but I'm not like this
with anything else in my knife Like I have and
have had two knives my entire cooking career, and I've
just sharpened the absolute love out of them. But I've
been using these two blades for ten years and I'm
just like, I have no need to upgrade. People expect me.
(22:06):
I'm like, well, let me see your knife collection, and
it's just two stainless steel Japanese knives, that's it. But
they're sharpened in, they look cool. They have like a
unique profile that only a knife that's been used for
a decade could have. The brain is massa hero we
Lovednum Vanadium. Really nice steel, holds a nice edge retension
and gets very sharp. My favorite steel to work with
is Murray Carter's white Number two paper steel. Oh my gosh,
(22:29):
all the videos that upload of me, like shaving hair
and doing all the parlor tricks, essentially it's done with
his steel. His heat treatment is fantastic. The way it
takes an edge. It can become razor sharp in thirty
seconds off of a knife, like on wet stones, like
just working it very lightly. I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I definitely have a favorite knife in the kitchen, so
I totally get it. It's just one of those things
that if you love being in the kitchen, you're just
definitely gonna have that favorite knife.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
What's your favorite?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I have a woosed off that's like just a regular
chef knife that my dad bought for me, and I'm like,
that needs to be the knife that's always readily available
because it's just perfect.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Heck yeah, oo, stuff is awesome when they're nice and sharp.
I dare say, I dare you to try out a
thin Japanese knife because the Wustaf is a little bit thicker.
A thinner Japanese knife. The way that it moves to
the food. The resistance is so less and there's less wedging. Ooh,
I mean, I think you should shry it out.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
I'm gonna go down a rabbit hole now after this conversation.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I know I don't have any cool knives in my kitchen,
but I need to now go down the knife rabbit
hole and find out the best ones. This is gonna
be a great resource for me.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Let me plug my favorite guys. I'm wearing their shirt now,
some of my favorite guys Kikuwichi Okay. As far as
relatively available stainless steel mass produced Japanese knives, which is
a category. As far as in that category goes, I
do think they're some of the best. They've been making
knives for over seven hundred and fifty years. It sounds
like they know what they're doing. It's a very long history. Yeah,
they used to make the samurai swords for the Emperor
(23:57):
of Japan. They used the Emperor's santhemum as they're so
it's kind of cool. You can nerd out on that
a little bit. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Michael, tell us what's next for Moshimoshi and for you?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Well, I think what's next for me and Moshimoshi is. Honestly,
I'm pushing towards trying to get a small brick and
mortar It doesn't have to be at retail shop yet.
It just needs to be two hundred to three hundred
to four hundred square feet of me in a room
that's not my house, with professional, great equipment so that
I can really push and get more knives done to
(24:30):
a higher quality. I think I've done enough research to
qualm the imposter syndrome, which is big. The next step
is just coming around trying to ask investors to potentially
pay for this little life shop thing.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah, that's awesome. And this is again why it's so
important for you to know your numbers as a solopreneur,
because when you know how much money you're making, you
know how much profits you have, that then you can
use to reinvest in the business to take it to
the next level exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
And you know, I'm just I'm super grateful that I
have somebody who is so financially their brain just works
perfectly for it. Thank you to my lovely wife.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Amazing shout out to the unseen business partners that are
helping solopreneurs conquer the world seriously. All right, So, if
somebody wants to hire Moshi Moshi to sharpen their knives
or inquire about a franchise, or even check out your
social media, where should they go for.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Hiring Moshi Mooshi for sharpening? Really? Reaching out to me
through Instagram at Moshi Knives Atl Mshi knives Atl is
the best way to do it. And it's like, if
you don't have an Instagram, you could just send me
an email mohiknivesgmail dot com to get it all done.
But most people, they'll book online through my booking system.
They'll reserve a time slot. They'll show up with their
(25:44):
knives all wrapped in a towel or something, and then
I will text them the following day with the price,
and then like it could be a day, it could
be a week later, their knives are done.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Cool. I think that's it. Deniesk, this is so cool.
I appreciate the time Michael crushed it, dude.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Hell yeah, thank you so much, mich Go for your time.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Oh my gosh, that was so much fun. Genise, I
am super jealous by the way that you have a
cool knife set at your house. I need to invest
in a knife set.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You must, you know, especially if you like being in
the kitchen, which I know you do, Austin, because you're
always sharing your latest TikTok recipe with us. I think
it's important for you to invest in a good knife.
You know, the skill of a cook is only as
good as their knives.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I love it all right, Denise, what was your biggest
takeaway from our discussion with Michael?
Speaker 1 (26:31):
You know, it was pretty much the importance of really
just understanding your numbers, and in order to do that,
you need to actually know what's going on. I remember
having a conversation with my CPA after getting quick books
and understanding more about like all these numbers that we
need to track, and she explained to me this concept
of cost of goods sold, which is essentially how much
is costing you to actually provide the service or the
(26:54):
product that you're selling. And once I actually understood that
it's an important number to know because that ultimately he
determines your profitability as a business and kind of where
those margins are, I was like, you know what, this
is why it's so important to track your money, be
on top of your payments so you can understand the
full picture of your business.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
How about you, Austin, Oh my gosh, I'm right there
with you as it relates to understanding the full picture
of your business. I cannot explain to solopreneurs listening right
now how important it is to know your numbers. I
think for me, the biggest takeaway was how Michael was
so honest about what he's good at and what he's
not good at. And you know, he's very good at
(27:32):
working with his hands, He's hospitable, he really enjoys the
human interaction where his weakness is sort of that financial
side of the equation. And so that's what he's done.
He's hired to his weaknesses. I know he mentioned he
works closely with his wife in the business, who's a
professional accountant, so she's leading the charge on that, of course,
with quick books in mind. And I think every solopreneur
(27:53):
listening right now needs to have some self reflection, some
self awareness about what you're really good at and what
you might not be the at. I know I've done
that exercise myself. I am not the best at scheduling
and keeping my emails perfect, and I'm just not very
organized as a human being so my first sort of
help I got in the business was hiring out to
some of those weaknesses that I know I struggle with.
(28:15):
And I think that's really important again for a lot
of solopreneurs listening right now to have sort of that
time of self reflection with yourself and figuring out what
you love to do, what you're great at, and what
you might not be the best at, and really hiring
to those weaknesses absolutely.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
And if you're not great at tracking payments like I am,
then that's why you need to be using QuickBooks.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Right there with you, girl.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Well, that's it for today's episode. You can find me
on social media at jocierro Dineto podcast and you.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You can follow Into
It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks. To get
the tools you need to start, run and grow your business,
head to QuickBooks dot com today.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Don't forget to follow this show wherever you listen to
podcasts so you can stay up to date on future episodes.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
We also want to hear from you, so be sure
to leave us a rating and a review.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
See you next time.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio and Into It QuickBooks.
Our executive producer is Malay Sosha, Our supervising producer is
Nikiya Swinton, and our writer is Eric li Jah.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Our head of post production is James Foster. QuickBooks Money
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It QuickBooks does not have any responsibility for updating or
(00:22):
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Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hey everyone, I'm Ustin Henkwitz and.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'm Denise Torres. Welcome to Mind the Business Small Business
Success Stories, a podcast brought to you by Intwit, QuickBooks
and iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio. In each episode, Austin and I
chat with small business owners as they share their stories
about the ups and downs of owning a small business. So, Austin,
where are a couple weeks into the spring?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Now?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
How has the season been treating you so far?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
My gosh, I'm feeling great. Jenise, I love being able
to get outside again. And I actually now have a
Marshall's gift card that I'm itching to spend to transform
my house into a springtime oasis. Birthday should be good.
May ten. That that's my Birthday'll be turning twenty eight
and to celebrate, my girlfriend and I are going back
to Cancun, Mexico. We went to can Kun last year
(01:25):
for this insane all inclusive resort to celebrate again my
birthday last year, but going back again this year. Can't
wait to run it back. I'm so so excited. What
about you, Janiese, is there anything you are especially excited about?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I didn't know you were a fellow tourist too.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I am May second. Oh yeah, and I'm actually going
to be kicking off my book tour.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
On my birthday. Oh my gosh. I know.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
It's like what a way to celebrate turning thirty nine
and celebrating like eleven years of entrepreneurship. And yeah, so
I'm going to be kicking off my book tour. Super
excited about that. And then I'm also in the process
of buying a house, so that's a monster in itself,
but very exciting.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
That is awesome. Yeah, we'll have to figure out a
way to like co celebrate our birthdayscon May ten. It's
going to be in Saint Pete, Florida, and everyone's invited.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I love it now.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
We love talking to different solopreneurs and small business owners
about their journeys and strategies and the fun way that
they can market themselves. But there's another thing we have
to talk about, and it's something every entrepreneur has to
deal with. Payments and invoices.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Oh, my gosh, payments and invoices. You said it, Jenise.
It is so crucial to keep track of your expenses
and payments and keep your books balanced. That's why QuickBooks
is such an essential tool and why it's called quick books.
It keeps track of all of your expenditures, open and
closed invoices, tracks every penny moving in and out of
(02:58):
your accounts, and allows for customers and vendors to send
payment in whichever way is easiest for them and most
convenient for you. So I know for me Janie's payments
invoices it was a disaster in my solopreneurship journey. In
the first twelve or eighteen months, I used some random
website that would create these like invoice PDFs, and then
I'd send the PDF to the clients, and then I
(03:21):
would have a separate Excel spreadsheet get that right, Oh
my gosh, and manually typing in when I sent the invoice,
when it was due, and when I should manually email
them again as a reminder. It was a nightmare. Thank
God for quick books. But talk to me a little
bit about your experience watching and keeping track of the
payments the invoices as a solopreneur. To your point, who's
(03:41):
been doing this for eleven years.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, it's really the difference between me not qualifying for
a mortgage or actually being able to prove to the
bank that I can afford this right. When I'm looking
at my business finances, this is a reflection of my
overall financial situation. So when I'm applying for a more good,
I have to provide the bank with statements that show
what are my profits, what is my revenue, what are
(04:05):
my expenditures. I pay myself, so I have to demonstrate
that as well. And there's just so many moving parts
when it comes to running a business efficiently, that having
your books organized and really being able to tell your
financial story to a lender to a bank. It's critical
if you want to make these really big purchases and
achieve these financial milestones.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I couldn't agree more. I remember when I purchased my
first house here in Nashville. I think it was summer
of twenty twenty two, so a couple of years ago now.
But to your point, I was a full time solopreneur.
I was figuring it out and it is a nightmare
trying to find and prove and I mean they meticulously
come through every transaction. You have to have the receipts,
(04:50):
you got to have the invoices, you got to have everything.
And thank god Quick Books was able to do that
for me. They had it all right there for me.
I was able to find and show everything the lender needed.
But whoof I feel for you, girl. I'll be praying
for you now, thanks so much. So On that note,
let's meet our guest. Michael Bain is an edgemith who
(05:14):
uses traditional Japanese techniques to perfectly sharpen blades everything from
cooking knives to ceremonial kurpins to simple pocket knives. After
working for nearly ten years in the restaurant industry, he
founded Moshi Moshi, which provides high quality knife sharpening to
over twenty five hundred clients. In addition to starting and
running his own company, he franchises out his business to
(05:36):
other former kitchen workers who he trains in the art
of knife sharpening. Michael is passionate about providing impeccable service
to his customers, as well as having a healthy work
life balance. Michael, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Thank you so much for having me. Very excited for
this and it's just generally super cool. Michael.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Let's start with the name of your business, Moshi Moshi.
What is the story behind it?
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Moshi Mooshi is an informal way and very friendly way
that Japanese people greet each other on the telephone. So
they'll just pick up the phone and go hi, Mushi Moshi.
And I just thought it would be like a cute
thing to do, you know, when I was sort of
dreaming of the business as a lion cook, just imagining
me being super enthusiastic picking up the phone. She's just
like yelling at people through the phone, and I always
(06:23):
thought that would.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Be fun, amazing. Okay, so you started working in restaurants
when you were a teenager, but then you found yourself
at the age of twenty four working in a chaotic,
fast paced kitchen in charge of fifteen people. What was
the moment that made you realize you wanted to make
a change from working in a fast paced kitchen and
branching out into your own business.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Okay, the moment was the pandemic, Like it started when
I was twenty four as a sous chef. That started
the ball rolling of doubt for the kitchen game. But
like during the pandemic, when my hours kept going up,
my pay kept going down, the treatment of myself as
a human being was just not very nice. So, yeah,
it was the pandemic and it started very quickly the
(07:01):
knife sharpening business from there.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah. I think a lot of people had sort of
that reckoning moment during the pandemic where they started to question, like,
is this something I still want to keep doing? And
I think the restaurant industry definitely has a reputation for
being a place where you need to have very thick skin, definitely,
so I understand why you'd want to make that transition. Now,
you did say that one of the ways that you
learned how to sharpen knives was through trial and error,
(07:24):
which I think most people can relate to, especially in entrepreneurship.
Would you say that's true about how you started your
own company.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I would absolutely say trial and error has been like
the main teacher through this and everything. Because there's no
other knife sharpener who can just like take you under
their wing and show you all the mistakes they made.
You kind of have to make the mistakes first and
then hope it's not so bad and then just go
on from there.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Can you take us behind the scenes of your learning
process as well, like how do you actually learn how
to do this stuff?
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Well, that's good that you just asked that. I just
got back from a big trip in San Francisco where
I want to a established kniveshop. Worked with them for
a few hours just to learn a couple of techniques.
I was really trying to refine the last three to
five percent of my technique. It's just learning what's the
tiny thing they do different compared to me, and then
working that into the routine. Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
I think that's a big part of kind of this
whole journey as a solopreneurs, just understanding that there's always
going to be opportunities to improve and to learn, and
to not be afraid of putting yourself out there and
looking for those opportunities wherever you can get them exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
And that's the biggest thing for me, because, of course
doubt rolls in at times when I'm just by myself
sharpening two hundred knives a day and I'm just cutting
paper on Instagram and I'm like, is this working? What
am I doing with my life? Of course doubt comes up,
but like, I just got to trust the process. If
you will, I love it.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I remember I was talking with Candice Nelson, the founder
of Sprinkle Cupcakes, recently, and she told me the story
which I think might resonate with you, Michael, where back
in the early days of Sprinkle Cupcakes, she wanted to
go out and hire the big consultants and the industry
veterans and the people who were supposed to have the answers.
But once she hired those people, she realized that, wait
(09:12):
a second, we're doing things so differently here at Sprinkle's
Cupcakes that their answers don't even resonate. So I feel like,
as a solopreneur, Michael, who's trying to figure this out,
and carve your own path in solopreneurship with your knife
sharpening business, that maybe it's even a better idea not
to take too much inspiration from the industry veterans and
(09:33):
look at yourself kind of have that self reflection and say,
how could I best serve my customers? How can I
best create processes in my business for efficiency and you know,
just awesome customer experiences, which seems like something you've done
a very good job of.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Yeah, thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
So staying on top of money coming in and going
out and tracking all the paperwork with it can be
so challenging for small business owners who are also having
to wear all the other hats to keep the company going.
That's what's so great about QuickBooks money, right. It allows
you to keep an eye on all the money that's
coming in, that's going out. It helps organizes invoices so
(10:10):
you never miss a payment. So how early into your
business journey did you start using QuickBooks?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Well, my wife has been an accountant her entire professional career,
so she was like, let's get cookbooks and I was like,
what's that. She's like the financial brain besides the entire operation,
which is so nice and amazing for me because it's
tough for me, and it's just really nice having somebody
who specializes in the numbers aspect.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I think we hear that a lot from solopreneurs, right,
you want to bode to your strengths and hire to
your weaknesses. And lucky for all of us, we can
all hire QuickBooks if you're not that great at keeping
tabs on the finances. So how has QuickBooks money helped
you stay on top of your game?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
I just think having everything out in front of me
and being able to see it is is pretty nice.
The thing with knife sharpening is that the expenses are
pretty low to keep it running. Like I bought one
expensive big grinding wheel and it's lasted me like almost
two years now, you know. So it's like I'm not
spending money actively every day to keep the business rolling.
(11:11):
It's almost like one big expense every couple of months.
So it's really nice seeing everything just in one place,
and it really kind of helps me with the unknown anxiety.
It's just like, Okay, I can just look at this
and it kind of it'll either make me a little
bit more anxious or it'll settle my nerves. So that's good.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
So, Michael, you mentioned that a big part of your
business is folks actually coming and dropping off their knives
to your home in order to get them sharpened. So
does that mean you're taking payments at the time of
service and then how are you actually tracking those?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So yeah, it's very simple right now, and that people
drop the knives off and then when they pick them
up after the service has been rendered and they've been quoted,
then they pay me either through cash or card. Right now,
I'm taking payments through Square, so it's pretty nice that
I get a big weekly report from Square, and I
can get the month, the yearly report, and then it's
all there. It's easily imported into quick books and all
(12:04):
that stuff. And then you know, I think it's important
to just report all your cash too, because, like I
think the benefits of having reportable income outweighs you know,
not paying the tax man absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I mean, if your business is way more profitable then
you're showing on paper, it's going to be a lot
harder for you to get loans and be able to
expand get that brick and mortar. So I'm glad that
you mentioned how important it is to even track those
cash payments. Let's talk about how you actually organize your finances,
because obviously it's great for us entrepreneurs to see that
money coming in, but what are some strategies for where
(12:35):
you actually put your money. Do you have different bank accounts,
do use it to reinvest in the business. Are you
planning for your own retirement? Take us behind the scenes.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Definitely. So I started retirement savings at twenty nine. That's
been really nice having like a net worth. It's like
my new hobby right now is like the compounding money
is just like there's going to be some commas in
here someday, and it's really nice doing that. And it's
like I felt like at the beginning, I was like
wasting my money, but now I'm just like I only
want to put it in there. So I've been really
(13:04):
going crazy on theroth, like loving the wroth.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
That's something that only a true money nerd can say.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
And I'm trying to do other stuff because like again,
my wife Jenna, who is a absolute superstar, she's all
up in it in the finances, and I kind of
feel like she's in a whole nother world when she's
doing her stuff. She's like investing in art and stuff,
so you know, trying to do that the most, trying
to max it out every year, because why not, that's
the best thing I could do, I think for wealth
(13:30):
building for myself right now.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, Well, and I love to hear the fact that
you're investing in retirement, right because I think it's very
easy for folks who are used to, you know, regular
paycheck to understand why that's important. But I would argue
that as an entrepreneur, it's even more important that you
think about what that exit strategy is going to be
for you, whether that's you know, retiring from your business
to go and start another one, or just wanting to
(13:52):
kind of write off into the sunset. So it's really
good to hear that you're thinking about what that future
long term plan is and not just getting kind of
down with the daily numbers of the business exactly.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
And just recently, I just like, you know, first time
of my life, I've got an emergency fund just chilling
in a high HEELD saving account. So it's like the
amount of stress I'm not feeling has been so nice.
But I don't want to be actively sharpening knives for
the next thirty years. I do feel like It's a
not easy activity on the body and the brain and
all that stuff. You know, you're grinding steel. It's not
(14:23):
an easy job. But like I met a guy with
a very, very very established knife company nationwide and he
sold his company knife sharpening for one hundred and fifty
six million dollars. Hey, yo, And I was like, that's
what I want to do. Let's do that. So like,
if someone's trying to buy motion emotion in twenty years,
let's do it, and I'll and I shall ride off
into the sunset.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Who knew there was so much money in knife sharpening.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
This is all new to me. I know, my job dropped,
and I like my priority shifted very quickly. Once he
told me that, I was like, Okay, this person in
the flesh has done it. It took generations to get there,
but like, wow.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You mentioned that you've really enjoy a healthy work life balance.
It's really important to you, so, especially now after spending
nearly ten years working non stop in these kitchens, talk
to me about how you finally found that line between
working hard to deliver something incredible but not really overdoing it.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
You know, it's a lot easier to really work super
super hard when like all the money's coming to me, right,
it's not just like four percent of the owner's paycheck
going to like one employee. Right. It's like when I'm
tired when I'm working, and it's like, okay, there's actual
fiscal motivation there. But like really establishing the work life
balance is like I have a hard stop at six,
and I you know, sometimes I'll start at one, sometimes
(15:38):
I'll start at two, you know, so it's like I
really cannot work that hard. There's an actual limit of
knives I can do a week that's healthy for my body.
And it's like, once the risk starts feeling a little
bit sore, I'm like, okay, I need to start thinking
about taking a break.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Good for you, that's incredible, thank you. So talk to
me though about maybe some precautions you take. How are
you sort of keeping your boy in shape sharpening steel?
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Definitely, safety is number one priority. But luckily with my
methods it's all slow grinding, it's all water cooled. There's
no risk of getting hurt that way. The biggest thing
for me is I have those like giant pads that
you stand on for your back. I got nice birken stocks.
I've had this pair for like eight years now in
the kitchen. Too awesome for your back. And then of
(16:24):
course I have my little wrist routine that I do
every day before I start. I might do a couple
like squats here and there just to activate the legs
because it is physical, so it's just good to just
activate the body a tiny bit before you start. But
the risk routine is essential.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Coming up after the break.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Usher walks up and just takes like ten or so
pictures of me on his phone and then just sits
back down at his table. I'm like, okay, thank you, Usher, We'll.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Be right back with mine the business. Welcome back to
Mind the Business. Small business success stories from iHeartMedia's Ruby
Studio and Into It QuickBooks.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
So you mentioned that you maybe didn't enjoy working in
a kitchen, you weren't really in love with it, But
was there anything you miss about working in a restaurant
every day? Perhaps seeing all the people come in and out,
and maybe the conversations.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Yeah, So the thing with a cooking professionally and like
in restaurants, I think the job of cooking is amazing.
You can find people who are so young and so
driven and pushing so hard for something. You know, it's
not monetary, they're not making money for something. That's just
like to a higher degree of what they are. Right,
that type of personality type is so rare. You don't
(17:46):
see it in other places, right, that type of selflessness,
the drive, the commitment, it's really astonishing, and like, I
really do miss that. I miss being in an environment
of collaboration and creativity where everybody is just like so
into it. I mean, the damn the last restaurant I
worked at, we'd get there eight thirty nine am and
(18:06):
it's like two am, and we all still got smiles
on our face. They're tired, but like we're smiling, we're
joking around, and we're just getting ready for the next
shift in six hours.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I mean, Mike w we talked a little bit about
perhaps your celebrity experiences before the show, but I'd love
to hear any other additional stories. I think you mentioned
Ludacris and Usher. Do you have any cool celebrity stories.
We're like, yep, I got to serve this person a
pork chop.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
So yeah. Back in twenty fifteen, when Gunsho was pushing
super hard for James Beard Award and stuff, This is
right when all the Atlanta film scene was going off,
crazy amount of people coming in. I remember John Hamm
came in, Andre three thousand came in. I teared up
when I served him. I was only cooking vegetarian and
veganditions there, and yeah, he only ate my food, so
that was cool. Ludacris on multiple restaurants throughout. You know,
(18:54):
I try not to touch the table often and be like, hello,
how was your dinner? It was the shift maybe me,
but but when Luda Chris comes in, I'm like, uh,
what's up, Luda. At the last one, the last one,
like interaction number four, I hit him with the what's
up Luda? And then he was just like yo, of course,
playing it super cool as mister Chris does. But yeah,
(19:15):
I remember making a really big beef Wellington at gun
Show for Christmas, and I was cutting it to order
and stuff and then Usher walks up and just takes
it like ten or so pictures of me on his
phone and then just sits back down at his table.
I'm like, okay, thank you, Usher, and then just went
back towards do you also want my phone number? Too? Usher?
Hower am the Usher.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
That's awesome. So, Michael, you're working in the kitchen, you're
hanging out with Usher and Luda Chris. Were you also
sharpening knives while you were you know, doing all your
work in the kitchen was just like a side hustle
for you in the beginning, which turned into a full
time career. Or is this something that after you kind
of pivoted away from your career working in the kitchen,
you're like, I'm so good at this, I'm ready to
do it full time and start doing it for the
(19:56):
first time.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Ah. So, I definitely always thought about it, and I
always talked to my people in the kitchen about doing
a knife sharpening business. I already was like, oh yeah,
I do it, do it, do it. But like twenty
twelve in Athens, Georgia, just started cooking. I just cut
my thumb off at the Mexican restaurant I was working at.
It was gross.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Oh my goodness, it was a bad one.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
But what I remember everybody saying, my chef was like,
you shouldn't have been able to do that. Your knives
are very sharp at least. But I got into the
kitchen through the knives. Like I remember watching very specific
YouTube video chef Hero tarad a Miami Nvie kitchen and
bar just him with his extreme knife skills, like they
don't get better than what he was doing. And I
(20:36):
just remember watching that and being mesmerized. I was in college,
not loving it, but just watching this dude in a
kitchen cutting stuff, and I was like, Okay, I'm just
going to do that. From the start, I was always
into knife sharpening, always had the sharpest knife in the kitchen.
It was never really something that I made money of
when I was working in kitchens one. I didn't have
any time to do that as a side, but it
was always something that was in my head since day one,
(20:57):
starting in kitchens and gosh, ten years afterwards and once
in a lifetime pandemic got me there, you know, Denise.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
So I think that's how it starts for a lot
of solopreneurs, including ourselves, right. I know, you were doing
your thing, I was doing mine, and we kind of
had this little like person in the back of our head,
kind of standing here on our shoulder saying, hey, go
try it. You like this, you should really really try this,
And you know a lot of us, the pandemic, to
your point, Michael, was our opportunity it certainly was mine,
and I know Janise was there a little bit earlier
than us. But it's really cool to kind of, you know,
(21:26):
have an idea that you've really been marinating on for
a couple of years and finally being able to bring
that to life.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
H I love that.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
So as a foodie and a lover of all good things,
especially good high quality equipment in the kitchen, I'm curious
for you, what is your favorite knife or type of
metal to work with?
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Ooh okay, So me personally, it's so weird how I'm
like this with my knives, but I'm not like this
with anything else in my knife Like I have and
have had two knives my entire cooking career, and I've
just sharpened the absolute love out of them. But I've
been using these two blades for ten years and I'm
just like, I have no need to upgrade. People expect me.
(22:06):
I'm like, well, let me see your knife collection, and
it's just two stainless steel Japanese knives, that's it. But
they're sharpened in, they look cool. They have like a
unique profile that only a knife that's been used for
a decade could have. The brain is massa hero we
Lovednum Vanadium. Really nice steel, holds a nice edge retension
and gets very sharp. My favorite steel to work with
is Murray Carter's white Number two paper steel. Oh my gosh,
(22:29):
all the videos that upload of me, like shaving hair
and doing all the parlor tricks, essentially it's done with
his steel. His heat treatment is fantastic. The way it
takes an edge. It can become razor sharp in thirty
seconds off of a knife, like on wet stones, like
just working it very lightly. I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I definitely have a favorite knife in the kitchen, so
I totally get it. It's just one of those things
that if you love being in the kitchen, you're just
definitely gonna have that favorite knife.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
What's your favorite?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I have a woosed off that's like just a regular
chef knife that my dad bought for me, and I'm like,
that needs to be the knife that's always readily available
because it's just perfect.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Heck yeah, oo, stuff is awesome when they're nice and sharp.
I dare say, I dare you to try out a
thin Japanese knife because the Wustaf is a little bit thicker.
A thinner Japanese knife. The way that it moves to
the food. The resistance is so less and there's less wedging. Ooh,
I mean, I think you should shry it out.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
I'm gonna go down a rabbit hole now after this conversation.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I know I don't have any cool knives in my kitchen,
but I need to now go down the knife rabbit
hole and find out the best ones. This is gonna
be a great resource for me.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Let me plug my favorite guys. I'm wearing their shirt now,
some of my favorite guys Kikuwichi Okay. As far as
relatively available stainless steel mass produced Japanese knives, which is
a category. As far as in that category goes, I
do think they're some of the best. They've been making
knives for over seven hundred and fifty years. It sounds
like they know what they're doing. It's a very long history. Yeah,
they used to make the samurai swords for the Emperor
(23:57):
of Japan. They used the Emperor's santhemum as they're so
it's kind of cool. You can nerd out on that
a little bit. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Michael, tell us what's next for Moshimoshi and for you?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Well, I think what's next for me and Moshimoshi is. Honestly,
I'm pushing towards trying to get a small brick and
mortar It doesn't have to be at retail shop yet.
It just needs to be two hundred to three hundred
to four hundred square feet of me in a room
that's not my house, with professional, great equipment so that
I can really push and get more knives done to
(24:30):
a higher quality. I think I've done enough research to
qualm the imposter syndrome, which is big. The next step
is just coming around trying to ask investors to potentially
pay for this little life shop thing.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah, that's awesome. And this is again why it's so
important for you to know your numbers as a solopreneur,
because when you know how much money you're making, you
know how much profits you have, that then you can
use to reinvest in the business to take it to
the next level exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
And you know, I'm just I'm super grateful that I
have somebody who is so financially their brain just works
perfectly for it. Thank you to my lovely wife.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Amazing shout out to the unseen business partners that are
helping solopreneurs conquer the world seriously. All right, So, if
somebody wants to hire Moshi Moshi to sharpen their knives
or inquire about a franchise, or even check out your
social media, where should they go for.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Hiring Moshi Mooshi for sharpening? Really? Reaching out to me
through Instagram at Moshi Knives Atl Mshi knives Atl is
the best way to do it. And it's like, if
you don't have an Instagram, you could just send me
an email mohiknivesgmail dot com to get it all done.
But most people, they'll book online through my booking system.
They'll reserve a time slot. They'll show up with their
(25:44):
knives all wrapped in a towel or something, and then
I will text them the following day with the price,
and then like it could be a day, it could
be a week later, their knives are done.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Cool. I think that's it. Deniesk, this is so cool.
I appreciate the time Michael crushed it, dude.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Hell yeah, thank you so much, mich Go for your time.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Oh my gosh, that was so much fun. Genise, I
am super jealous by the way that you have a
cool knife set at your house. I need to invest
in a knife set.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You must, you know, especially if you like being in
the kitchen, which I know you do, Austin, because you're
always sharing your latest TikTok recipe with us. I think
it's important for you to invest in a good knife.
You know, the skill of a cook is only as
good as their knives.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I love it all right, Denise, what was your biggest
takeaway from our discussion with Michael?
Speaker 1 (26:31):
You know, it was pretty much the importance of really
just understanding your numbers, and in order to do that,
you need to actually know what's going on. I remember
having a conversation with my CPA after getting quick books
and understanding more about like all these numbers that we
need to track, and she explained to me this concept
of cost of goods sold, which is essentially how much
is costing you to actually provide the service or the
(26:54):
product that you're selling. And once I actually understood that
it's an important number to know because that ultimately he
determines your profitability as a business and kind of where
those margins are, I was like, you know what, this
is why it's so important to track your money, be
on top of your payments so you can understand the
full picture of your business.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
How about you, Austin, Oh my gosh, I'm right there
with you as it relates to understanding the full picture
of your business. I cannot explain to solopreneurs listening right
now how important it is to know your numbers. I
think for me, the biggest takeaway was how Michael was
so honest about what he's good at and what he's
not good at. And you know, he's very good at
(27:32):
working with his hands, He's hospitable, he really enjoys the
human interaction where his weakness is sort of that financial
side of the equation. And so that's what he's done.
He's hired to his weaknesses. I know he mentioned he
works closely with his wife in the business, who's a
professional accountant, so she's leading the charge on that, of course,
with quick books in mind. And I think every solopreneur
(27:53):
listening right now needs to have some self reflection, some
self awareness about what you're really good at and what
you might not be the at. I know I've done
that exercise myself. I am not the best at scheduling
and keeping my emails perfect, and I'm just not very
organized as a human being so my first sort of
help I got in the business was hiring out to
some of those weaknesses that I know I struggle with.
(28:15):
And I think that's really important again for a lot
of solopreneurs listening right now to have sort of that
time of self reflection with yourself and figuring out what
you love to do, what you're great at, and what
you might not be the best at, and really hiring
to those weaknesses absolutely.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
And if you're not great at tracking payments like I am,
then that's why you need to be using QuickBooks.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Right there with you, girl.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Well, that's it for today's episode. You can find me
on social media at jocierro Dineto podcast and you.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You can follow Into
It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks. To get
the tools you need to start, run and grow your business,
head to QuickBooks dot com today.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Don't forget to follow this show wherever you listen to
podcasts so you can stay up to date on future episodes.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
We also want to hear from you, so be sure
to leave us a rating and a review.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
See you next time.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio and Into It QuickBooks.
Our executive producer is Malay Sosha, Our supervising producer is
Nikiya Swinton, and our writer is Eric li Jah.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Our head of post production is James Foster. QuickBooks Money
is a standalone into it offering banking services provided by
Green Dot Bank member FDIC only. Funds and envelopes earn
annual percentag yield. APY can change at any time. Money
movement services provided by Intuit Payments, Inc. Licensed as a
money transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
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