Bladepoint is a small company.
Currently it consists of me as owner and founder and I employ my partner Daisy part time. I am writing this post from our sofa in the living room wearing sweatpants and a 30 year old fleece jacket I inherited from my dad from his days as a logger. Daisy´s cockatiels Kreacher and Dobby are out and flying around, Tara the mixed breed dog is out in the pen as she is a bit -too- interested in the birds. All the while 3 guinea pigs are watching us from their enclosure.
Bladepoint starts small. The first wood stabilization happened in the toilet with the vacuum-pump and -chamber on top of the drying machine. We cured the blocks in a small toaster oven from Lidl on the washing machine. First epoxy casts cured on the dining table. Not ideal by any means, but we work with what we have.
We have been organizing closets and workspace here at home to allow Bladepoint to start and grow. Luckily we live in a rural area of Finland and stand alone houses are more or less the norm here so we have space. A small office is taking place in a nook behind the stairs to the second floor, sacrificed a large closet and the guestroom to work as a warehouse, the one car garage will be for production that is not temperature sensitive.
Running on a budget with everything, I am also the one making the website and everything with it. Luckily again, this has been made fairly easy these days with the Shopify platform for example. Making this site is a lot easier than a Magento site I build some 6 years ago, but it is still a matter of juggling a thousand different things at the same time. All back-office matters such as taxes, payments and shipping contracts, making content and trying to keep things relevant, planning products and categories, making things work logically. And so much more.
I have an advantage in the situation tho. Years of work experience in the knife industry and also previous experience with website building makes things much easier. I try to think things from a customers perspective, what would be appreciated and what not. I may not always get it right, but also I am always open to suggestions and ideas. What is possible to do on a low budget may be the most restrictive aspect.
Bladepoint has come far, but there is still alot to do. The light in the end of the tunnel is coming closer, once the tax office approves the VAT number I can get to work on a lot of administrative things that have been in limbo for most of the holiday season.
Keep up the good work and stay safe!
best regards
Kaj-Mikael
