We recently connected with Prabhs Matharoo and have shared our conversation below.

Prabhs, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Starting a business was a seed, in my mind, that was planted a long time ago. I saw the freedom that business owners had and also got to see some of the downfalls of having a business. I think we go through life, especially if we’re working for an employer, not knowing the amount of work that goes into running/maintaining a business in order to keep work coming through the door. It’s a terrifying concept of understanding by putting all your chips into the business, there will be times where a paycheck isn’t guaranteed. There are a multitude of reasons why and I still haven’t cut myself a paycheck and it’s been almost 2 years of running the business!

I’m lucky that it hasn’t affected me since I still have a day job that brings in steady income and I can imagine others who have to plan, far ahead, for any slow downs during the year

Starting this business put a lot of things into perspective; especially when it comes to, legally, forming a business. I’m really thankful to be living in Arizona where forming an LLC and getting the appropriate business licenses are so easy. I spent a good part of 2 weeks researching and speaking with individuals on what forms to fill out and within 6 hours I had submitted everything for review. It’s possible to do it yourself but I would absolutely recommend speaking with a business attorney on how to form an entity based on individual state laws

We had everything approved by mid-March and soon after, we all had to quarantine. This really set the stage for the importance of maintaining an online presence and utilizing social media to the best of our abilities. Easier said than done, since I was trying to convince people to buy my knives instead of the next person’s to which I found out that just because I’m good at something, doesn’t mean it will sell; that was a hard lesson to learn. This was driven home especially when everything was done through a screen instead of a face-to-face interaction

What really helped me was to take a hard look at what I’m doing as a maker, see what other makers are doing and find where there’s a problem to be addressed; this meant I had to evaluate myself and I was forcing sales, compromising my values to get sales and in the end I was only hurting myself. I found, once I set boundaries for myself in how I presented my projects, I began getting more sales; even though I turned more and more clients away. It was an incredibly odd feeling knowing that, which ended up working for us in the long run

We’re not where we want the company to be and I don’t think we’ll ever get execute that vision but I think there’s so much more to grow that “getting there” is already proving itself to be extremely enjoyable

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Prabhs Matharoo and my wife and I started Studio Singh LLC because as much as we love to cook and spend time in the kitchen, most knives and other kitchen tools available to us are made cheaply and don’t provide the user a fun experience

We wanted to create products that bring the fun into the kitchen and similarly with cars, a 1990 Toyota can get you from point A to B but driving Bugatti is a hell of a lot more enjoyable. We took that understanding that the tools you use impact how efficiently you get work done

We take all the raw materials, steel, handle material and such and they spend anywhere between 8-16 hours, in my hands, until a functional tool is made. We do all our own heat treatments to make the steel harder and stronger, it’s shaped to fit the design, the handle is sculpted to aid in feel and weight balance and the edge goes through 3 rounds of testing to make sure the geometry is made to, effortlessly, cut through any ingredient. Every knife we make, we’d use it in our kitchen; if that isn’t the case, then that’s not a knife we’d make for a client

We pride ourselves in creating handmade knives that don’t require clients to send us a mortgage payment. For knives that cost that much, more power to them, but there absolutely are diminishing returns when we start going past a price threshold. We don’t compromise on performance and quality which is why our Prime Collection was created to give users an option for an 8” chef knife to test the handmade knife world. Most times that’s the only knife clients need/want and that’s fine; I love making them

We’re slowly building our social media platforms and recently started a YouTube channel. If you’ve ever been curious at what goes into making a knife, this is the channel for you

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I started making things when I was still in architecture school at the University of Arizona. My buddy and I found out that our shop manager had built a forge many, many years ago and let us use it to bang on some steel and see what would happen. From the day we fired up the forge and listened to the bellows of the flames, we were hooked

We initially started making straight razors and found out, very quickly, that we were terrible at it and didn’t know anything about the intricacies of making something so precise and delicate so we took a step back and started with a simple pocket knife. It turns out that even with something like that, we were still terrible at it but enjoyed it a lot more

With school and life taking over I had to put this aside and made a knife or two per year. It wasn’t until a few months before getting married that I decided to make knives for my groomsmen as wedding gifts. I told myself, if I enjoyed making this large number of knives in a short amount of time, that this would be a confirmation to turn it into a business. I made 7 knives in 2 months and loved every second

Since then, we’ve developed and improved every single knife to cut better, balance centrally and feel like an extension of yourself; even though that’s super cliche to say

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Believe it or not, our initial investment was less than $500 and we’ve generated enough income to keep the business alive since then. All the material, every tool and every expense for a knife was paid for by knife sales and we pride ourselves in that. I still haven’t cut myself a paycheck, yet, but I’m glad I haven’t dropped our life savings into this!

It isn’t the case with all businesses and some definitely need to take out loans to get started. I know a loan would’ve helped us out a lot to get started since there were points where products had to be made and I was anxiously waiting for client payments to help pay for the next knife. After understanding finances much more than before, I also know that debt isn’t just a four letter word and it’s something that can consume your life and add unwanted stress. Running a business is hard enough, I don’t want to make it even harder!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.studio-singh.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studio.singh
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC-vjK00x-LyvYliFngwt5qQ

Image Credits
Isaac Stockton