Why I'm here, What my Goals are, and How I want to Serve the Community

[bikerector]

Why "The Good Knife Co." for a company name?

I have always been a person that thought doing good for other people is a great and challenging endeavor and is never a waste of time. I've more recently begun to see business as a vehicle for doing this. The Good Knife Co.'s purpose can roughly be summed up as allowing me to do good deeds, like charitable giving, through knife sales and services. I also plan to be selective in those I partner with to maximize this purpose through other people's efforts. 1st and foremost, partnering with good people, like John, and not people or companies with some sketchiness going on behind the scenes. This last piece will be more important as things grow.

Charitable giving for The Good Knife Co. will be centered around military/veterans and environmental conservation. Right now, 10% of all profits from knife sales are destined for The Mighty Oaks Foundation. The 10% was chosen because that is a standard for a Tithe so it sets a baseline. The rest is destined for reinvestment into the company so I can grow my potential impact in the future. I fully intend for that 10% to increase as the business grows.

 

[bikerector]

Vision:

We desire to serve the knife community, the military and veteran community, and the outdoor communities. We want to serve the knife community with services like sharpening and customizing, the military and veteran community with finances, and the outdoor community with tools that are useful and enjoyable to use and own.

Mission:

We desire to design knives that are functional first but still have an attractive appearance. We do this through simple elegance where simplicity creates something we can wrap our heads around while adding in something a little different, and occasionally funky, results in some elegance. We're not afraid of making something a bit ugly if the performance can be justified but making something gorgeous and useless is not tolerable.

In service, we desire to serve the knife community in whatever capacity we can, from the knifemakers to the knife user. This means we collaborate with several knifemakers who have interest in partnering with us to help design and make knives for the Good Knife Co. This has allowed us to use the knifemaker's strengths for certain aspects of knife making, such as excelling at a certain style, construction, or grind, to allow the Good Knife Co. to offer a better variety of edged tools to our customers.

Core Values:

1. Integrity: we speak as truthfully as we know
2. Genuine: we speak from the heart, stay true to who we are, and stay consistent because we don't pretend to be what we aren't
3. Excellence: we try to build a better mousetrap
4. Fairness: we do our best to hold all stakeholders in high regard: makers, users, customers, employees, family members, and community members
5. Growth: we want to be able to serve more people as more time passes

 

[bikerector]

2021 Charitable Donations:

$806.16 Mighty Oaks Foundation

$300.00 Wixom Fire Department Foundation - Breakfast with Santa (25 meals and toys)

$1,106.16 Total Donated to worthy causes

 

[bikerector]

This year wasn't quite as good as last year, but we're still able to give some gifts. There are some neat things in the works for 2023 that I'm hoping blows the lid off this thing in 2023 or 2024.

2022 Charitable Donations:

$700.00 Mighty Oaks Foundation

 

[bikerector]

It has been a rougher year than normal, both for GKC and personally. However, we're still trying to put a good foot forward and there are some things happenings behind the scenes, very slowly. Giving generously is still at the heart of GKC. On a personal front, we've increased our givings to our church this year to better align with other good things going on outside of GKC.

2023 Charitable Donations:

$650.00 Mighty Oaks Foundation