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