Someone To Meet

Independents in micro-businesses are few and far between and often hard to discover, despite the internet's ever-increasing web of enterprises. The backbone of British industry is made up of small, independent people striving to retain a measure of individualism, independence and entrepreneurialism in their lives. Statistics from 2019 show that in Britain there were 5.82 million small businesses responsible for 99.3% of the total business output in the UK.

Small businesses here comprise those with 0-49 employees and digging deeper still into what might at first seem more irrelevant than relevant is that the niche that small businesses fill in the real world of enterprise. Over 76% of businesses are operated by one-man bands; single-person enterprises who operate alone comprise almost 4.5 million men and women. With an additional 1.15 million micro-business (1-9 employees) around 95% of businesses here operate on a strength of under just 10 people. So over 99% of small to medium business enterprises, that's zero to 249 employees, but only 0.6% have a workforce of 50-249 employees. Less than 4% are small businesses with 10-49 staff members and get this, over 95% operate as micro-businesses with 0-9 employees. What does this tell you about businesses output. What it tells me is how little of this is newsworthy by the mass media manufacturing companies (Like BBC New and ITV, Sky and so on) who constantly tell us about how many this massive company or that massive company is laying off and how little this really affects our economy because the little guys still get out into their little micro-shops and make what cannot work work.

So this prefaces my post here today. There is a man I have come to know called Jacob who owns a business called Jakob's SawRevival and the name says it all. He and I became friends two years or so ago. and later when I bought a 16" Disston saw with a beautiful replaced handle from him because I collect them. We both have a joint interest in autism too.

Ko likes the restoration of handsaws and can take a pitiful saw and restore it for those who want a user saw and then too, as many do, want a restored saw for sentimental reasons. He is unusual in that he has perfected the rare art and skill of shaping, reshaping, and making saw handles along with his hand sharpening and setting up of saws altogether. Hand filing is a skillful craft and customising the saw teeth to a particular task maximises your efficiency.

Anyway, I do recommend this small enterprise because I know the man behind it and if you need your saw setting up then send it to this micro-business. You'll love the results. Here is a link to his site.