lockout calls only?

[dinger]

I've recently started picking locks as a hobby, and now im wondering if I could start a bussiness doing lock out calls on home and autos only.

I have been in the process off opening my paintless dent repair bussiness for the past year, and now that im just starting out with that I could use some extra income. I thought that this might be a good (add-on) to my dent removal biz.This is a mobile bussiness and in a normal day I would drive around town making any were from 1-8 stops in a day taking dings and dents out off peoples cars. Thats usally about 4 hours off my day.

With that being said, I am looking for some opinions if this could be a way to make some extra cash in am daily travels. Of course I would need proper training and tools.

I would not want to adverttise like a normal locksmith because this would not be my main bussiness and most of my advertising is for my dent biz. So most of my advertising for lockouts would be a phone book ad and lots of word of mouth around mall parking lots and other big parking lots and some biz cards.

With this kind of advertising could I expect to get about 1-2 calls a day for lock outs, or would this be a waste of time and I should stick to my dents only? I would hope to Make $300-500 a week doing maybe 5-10 lock out calls?

Any, Any, Any opinions would be very greatfully appreciated.

Thanks, Dinger

[RodVT]

Dinger,

In my experience, lockouts are kind of "NOW, or the next guy" sort of business. I think that you would kind of piss off your dent customers by often being late to your appointments....

Secondly, you might be able to develop an automotive lockout business, but people are reluctant to call just anyone in to unlock their HOME. I am thinking that the marketing investment might be pretty high given the population (and advertising) density in southern Fla.

If you are only a year into your dent repair business, I think you should spend you energy on building that up for the time being. I think you will get the best return on your efforts there. After the business is more mature (2-3 years old) then you can start to consider "sidelines".

[lunchb0x]

I agree with RodVT, also if you are going to do openings you would need a good understanding of house and car locks, how they work, what some of the problems are with them and things that can go wrong.
so say i get locked out of my house and I call you, after you open my house it turns out that the lock if faulty/ broken, or if its a new car and you dont have the equipment to do it, I wouldent be paying you when i can get another locksmith out to let me in and change the locks, so really if you are going to be giving this service you have to be able to do other things like repair locks or fit new ones, and with cars you wil have to keep up to date with whats out their.

So unless you let your customers know upfrount that all you will be doing is lettingthem in to their house/car and cant do anything else it probably wount be worth it.

but if you do it be expected to repace and rekey locks now and then

[Biaxial Ranger]

Unlocking services are quite profitable if approached correctly. I averaged about 15-20 unlocks a day price ranged from $25-55 depending on time of day.

One thing to make note of is that some states will require bonding to unlock a house even if no work other than that is performed, but do not on Auto's making it a much cheaper venture. However, having your other business I'm sure you already know all about that fun stuff.

my .02

[dinger]

Thanks for the replys. I do agree it would probaly be better for me to stay focused on my regular biz. Maybe down the road when I am more established I can take the time to invest and learn this new trade.

I am still intrested to hear more from the lockout guys even though im not going to jump right into this biz. Then numbers sounded pretty good from biaxial ranger 15-20 calls a day, I thought the prices were kinda low but still good money for a day of work. how long does it take to get established to have that kind of call volume coming in? And what kind of advertising is most effective?

Thanks, Dinger