We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Russell Montgomery a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Russell, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

Yes, I take vacations regularly. I find my mental health suffers severally when I can’t get away. I recently started taking a 2nd day off, and it is a huge help for energy, mental health and having fun outside of work. We have already gotten in the habit of taking weekend trips, for us its Monday – Tuesday, and being able to reset after a couple weeks has really helped. We all know running a small business can be stressful, and the more you are in it, the more it adds up. So getting out of town, unplugging and doing something else you love really helps.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I have always loved knives. I mean, always. Some of my first memories are centered around using knives, both in the kitchen, and during camping. So when I wasn’t enjoying my full time job anymore, I was looking for something I could build with my hands. I considered (Briefly): welding, becoming a mechanic, carpentry, etc. And my wife said to me one day to look in learning knife making. I found Murray Carter online at that point and he runs workshops in Portland, OR. We had a great conversation and I ended up taking 5 1/2 weeks of classes over a 2 year period. Fast forward 12 years, and now we have a full service knife shop and showroom in the Heights. We sharpen customer’s knives, refurbish old and worn knives, as well as making full custom knives, and handmade knives in stock and ready for purchase.
We work with a lot of chefs, both professional and at home making them knives that help them do what they love better, or with less pain.
I am proud of so many things, and I don’t say it enough. I am proud to make 100% handmade knives that both world class chef’s and home cooks alike find real value in. I am proud that I can help another artist improve their craft by doing mine to the best of my ability. I am proud of the people I work with and what I have helped them accomplish.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Serenity Knives has been built 100% on word of mouth. From the very first Chef I worked with till now, it has all been word of mouth. One Chef finds me for sharpening, or refurbishing work, and a couple of weeks later their chef needs some and we come up in conversation. From Professional Chef’s to home cooks. We have an excellent rating on google and yelp and that really helps people’s confidence that we can help them with their knives and knife needs.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I built Serenity Knives very slowly. I couldn’t raise the kind of money needed for all the equipment and space and time required to start a business right off the go. So it was my ‘hobby’ before it was my business, with full intent on making it business as soon as possible. So I bought the tools I needed as I could, one piece at a time, over the course of years. About two years in is when I had all the pieces I needed to do everything myself. And since then I roll as much money back into the business I can. I have always wanted sustainable, incremental sales growths.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.serenityknives.com
• Instagram: @serenityunlimited
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/serenityknives1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/serenityknives
• Yelp: SerenityKnives

Image Credits
Serenity Knives took all photos. Nico Consoli and Russell Montgomery