Becoming a locksmith

[hopeful]

Hi,

I am a 35 year old self employed joiner and would like to get into locksmithing

Would a trading locksmith take me on ?. I understand I'd be on low pay but as long as im learning im not to bothered as long as the future prospects are good or are people just looking to take on school leavers

After a look on the net seems to be a lot of firms that look like they should be appearing on rogue traders

I'm in the manchester area

cheers

[lockey1963]

If i was being honest id say stick to the joinery as it currently has far better prospects than uk locksmithing.

If its your dream then you will follow it, it is doubtfull you will find an employed position, though not impossible, it is more likely you will have to fund your own training and fund your living whilst learning.

Following the MLA route is by far the best, but lengthy and costly, but worth it in the end.

You have a distinct advantage over many with your joinery knowledge, so better for you than most thinking of this career.
you will find a guy called chip on here who is a joiner who has been trading as a locksmith for 12 months and may be of help to you.

but i do guarantee it will shock you at what it will cost you and it will shock you how little you will earn for quite some time if you make it at all.

there is plenty of info on this site, and you are right about online training , 90% are either novices themselves or teach you very little of importance.

[hopeful]

hi,

Thanks for the reply i wish id gone for it last year when i had some spare cash.

But now i haven't the funds for training,tools and stock thats why i was considering the employed route.

I did find one place that was taking on staff but i was put off by fact that there logo on the website was a guy drilling out a lock

maybe ill just try and save up and start going on some courses etc

cheers

[lockpicker69]

what you wana do is offer your services to an established locksmith for free.this is what i did , also start off with a basic lockpicking kit they are only cheap and there are loads of tips on here to get you started using it.then just keep on adding and adding and adding like most of us do to your kit

[chip]

Hello Hopeful,

As locke1963 said, I had been a joiner for 15 years before I desided on a career change.

I had always been into the fitting of locks and picked when I could, and I was in for a shock when I first started up.

I used to spend about £500 on advertising doing joinery work as most came through recommendation, in my first year as a trading locksmith, I have spent over 10 times this amount ad it's still growing.

As lockey1963 says, it takes a long time just to earn back the start up costs, whic for me will be about June next year, and I'm one of the lucky oones that has made a living at all out there as a start up.

Please don't get caught up thinking that you can earn £1000 a week from the off in this game,Although a lot will tell you that you will!!!, I'm a long way off this myself, but if you have a talent for it, there's no reason why you can't make a living out of it, like anything, you get out what you put in.

My advice to you would be to get yourself a cheap set of hand picks and have a play, there's no point spending thousands on training, then a shed load on tools if the passion for success isn't there.

One thing I will say, and this came from the guy that trained me, it's not all about picking, athough you'd be expected to, but you need to take time to learn about different aspects of locks, Upvc, fitting, repairs etc.

Have a look at the market in your area, a quick look in YP will give a rough estimate, and see how much compitition there is out there. Look on the net as well, this can give you a wealth of info on how many people are trading in your area. If you feel there is a gap in the market around you, then have a go, just be prepared to invest in marketing and time spent learning.

If you do have a go, and you do succeed, your'll never look back.

[toomush2drink]

Locks picked this week ? none, not a single lock out job.
Am i busy ? Yes.

Its a business so treat it as one. Chip is telling it how it is, you have to spend £££ to get any where, a £600 ad in the yellow pages wont earn you hardly anything. You need a lot more than lock picking skills. For instance i was working on a 14foot armour plate glass door earlier this week on a maglock L bracket, then the usual stuff plus some upvc strip problems. Next week im installing some briton king cobras and programming the codes in for the customer.The job is so varied and also has so many specialised areas and these days you need to be able to cope with most areas even if with only a little knowledge.

Personally i would stick to the joinery as the locksmith market is saturated and now its even harder for start ups to get anywhere. Every week training schools up and down the country are churning out "locksmiths" who are all competing for the scraps not taken by the nationals or those who are established with the contract work.

Which ever route you take its going to be hard but as you at least have a related traded that can be of use. I would advertise for the break in market as your in a position to replace doors and frames with your skill set.If you are prepared to keep a stock of doors and take the night work you could do well depending on your local area.

[NickBristol]

I can only really echo what Toomush is saying (he's given lots of excellent advice in previous threads too) - you have to be very dedicated, very determined and really have to love the work to make it these days. In the early months / years it's very hard going and it will make you question your sanity about why you ever took it up - as you have a career as a joiner already you're in a better position than many because the two can be run side-by-side in a lot of ways which will at least ease some money worries.

The outlays for the first few months and years are massive. It does improve over time but money never stops flowing out of the door! A set of picks, a drill and a handful of Bird cylinders really doesn't cut it. Customers expect you to know something about everything security related that pops into their head. What might start out as a quick rim cylinder replacement can suddenly turn into much bigger jobs, just by knowing related areas well. Sell your individual skills that make you stand out from other locksmiths. Just be prepared to work very hard. Don't restrict your geographical area too much, but then dont spread yourself too thin and start letting people down because you're in Norwich and your next customer is in back home in Manchester waiting for you!

It would be great if lockouts were a big part of the job - it's a very satisfying part of the job and a real challenge sometimes too. If you dont get that same pleasure from fresh fitting a mortice neatly or from repinning half a dozen Euro profile cylinders to pass or even cutting 23 identical keys on a manual machine in one go (like I did this morning) then consider if the job is right for you.

There are limited ways around a huge advertising budget if you are prepared to work at it and are innovative. So dont just restrict your training to locksmith courses: learn how to sell, how to market yourself, how to earn recommendations and importantly how to maximise your earnings via managing your business correctly.

[plumber carl]

something i would add to the other posts don't waste your money advertising in the three big phone books. Although i'm not a locksmith i have advertised in all the phone books non are better or worse than the others average i would get one or two jobs from them, IF LUCKY, my trade you could say is loosely related. if you do decide to go with one sound unsure or say you've gone with one of the others . at this point they will offer you a massive discount if there books going to press do your home work on their deadlines. You will save big time. The average appears to be around 500 pound for a small colour add. Another down side is the calls you get will be from mobile phone sales ,JUST AS YOU GET IN A TRICKY SITUATION or in my case underfloor good luck

[chip]

Plumbercarl, how are locks and waterworks related, even loosely?

With regards to the phone books, how big were your adds, and how many?

To get anything out of them you have to compete with size and density of add with the nationals. The percentage of return is far greater for a bigger add than the small ones, put a couple of small ones to and you're in business.

If all the nationals are putting in big, multiple adds and you place a small 2"x2" add, how do you expect to compete?

This is what we are saying in this thread, you need to go for it in a big way from the beginning otherwise it won't bring the returns you expect. Look at it this way, if it didn't work for the nationals, why would they keep placing the ads year after year!

[plumber carl]

chip, by related i was referring to the sector in general IE call out work or the service sector general. Regards add size i don't believe everything the sales person tells me ,although i do know how many enquiries i received which was one or two per week . i have used other methods for six years and get a minimum of fifty calls per week this costs 42 pound per week but if it were to be doubled i would still be happy well not to happy My view on big adds from what most customer tell me is the bigger the add the the bigger the bill at the end.This may or may not be the case .IT may be related to an old tradition that people bought from market stalls thinking it to be cheaper when its possible to buy from a shop and get the same. who knows ?. I for one would be wary of a large add

[raimundo]

clamp one of those pipe wrenchs on a euro cylinder with its nose out and you will soon see the connection between locks and plumbing
Actually I have known locksmiths who went into carpentry for the higher income. But personally I believe that all the building trades could use some cross specialization, if you work with hand tools what you do will sooner or later be useful in another discipline. If security experts were builders, more entrance foyers would have a little bit of mantrap in them (an entrance where you are buzzed in, and have to open two doors to get in, with the possibility of being trapped between them on entrance or exit.
think of how better off you are if you hear someone breaking in the front door, and you know that he will have to break two doors to get in.

[toomush2drink]

Plumber carl how do you know it wasnt that you placed the wrong type of ad in the first place ? Everyone always says something doesnt work but never stop to think it may have been the actual advert in the first place. Ive placed multiple ads so i can monitor which ones get the best response, each ad is producing different results from different types of customers.

By your reckoning on small ads do you honestly think that a large company requiring a lot of work done is going to go for a small advert ? Most would go for the large ad as they want to make sure they are dealing with a firm that can cope with the amount of work in a professional manner.Just placing a small ad means you have just alienated a very large and lucrative part of your potential customer base.

I spend over 8k on the books and get results from it so a £600 ad isnt going to even compete.

[maintenanceguy]

Plumbercarl, how are locks and waterworks related, even loosely? ....

As a maintenance mechanic that works in all the trades; electrical, plumbing, hvac, carpentry, locksmithing, etc. I am convinced that the skills that make a good plumber also make a good locksmith. And that goes for all the trades.

A drill is a drill, a wrench is a wrench; even if they're used in different trades. The guy that can troubleshoot the electronic controls on a chiller plant can probably figure out a burgler alarm. A guy that can frame and hang a door can also figure out installing the lockset. Being mechanically inclined, good with tools, and able to build and repair anything sucessfully in one trade probably means you've got what it takes to master any of the trades.

Robert A. Heinlein, the science fictiion writer said "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Hey, I think I just found my new sig.

[raimundo]

when it comes to pitching manure, I delegate. a good leader is comfortable with delegating responsibility. NOTE. responsibility no longer means what it used to. ya tell some guy " I want that huge pile of manure pitched over there by 5 oclock", and when the time comes and its only half done, you just say "heckuvajob brownie." Responsibility is the leaders when you succeed, praise the leader, as it was he who ordered it. when you fail, responsibility and culpablity and consequences are for the hapless pawn you ordered to get the job done. its the leaders job to blame and fire him. there is no requirement that you provide tools or authority or ability to the pawn.