question for any established locksmiths

by **Loc Doc** » 11 Nov 2005 1:43

what can one expect to make on a monthly basis from doing this full time?

by **triman247** » 11 Nov 2005 2:29

I'm not actually a locksmith, but I've heard it all depends on:

1) Where you are located
2) The population of your working area
3) How long you have been in businedd. (I think I've heard that you don't really get anything good for the first 10 years or something.)

Anyone else can correct me as I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to business. I'm purely a hobbiest.

triman

by **Loc Doc** » 11 Nov 2005 2:38

triman247 wrote:I'm not actually a locksmith, but I've heard it all depends on:

1) Where you are located
2) The population of your working area
3) How long you have been in businedd. (I think I've heard that you don't really get anything good for the first 10 years or something.)

Anyone else can correct me as I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to business. I'm purely a hobbiest.

triman

if anyone can help...

1) honolulu, hawaii
2) 750k
3) never :lol:

but i feel its all about the marketing and i have a few tricks up my sleeve.
my main concern is how to handle and schedule volume. i want to keep it a one man show for now. work comp just scares me...plus the liability.

what im gathering is that its a 50/shot deal. so its a matter of trying to hit 5-7 jobs a day. thats a lot to fit into one day.

by **Shrub** » 11 Nov 2005 7:36

5-7 jobs you will be lucky from the outset but i dont know your area,

A big issue is how many other lockies are in that area,

The promises of big money are all rubbish, if you make a profit in the first 3 years that you can lve on be proud of yourself.

by **acl** » 11 Nov 2005 14:42

Look back at previous posts, 5-7 jobs from advertising could be a big ask.I have been trading on my own for about 10 years now and some weeks i dont get that many private jobs a week.Sometimes a lot more but some less .A lot of our work is contract work or sub stuff off other lock/safe companies. I would be VERY wary about going it alone as it is today.
Andy

by **Loc Doc** » 12 Nov 2005 14:13

acl wrote:Look back at previous posts, 5-7 jobs from advertising could be a big ask.I have been trading on my own for about 10 years now and some weeks i dont get that many private jobs a week.Sometimes a lot more but some less .A lot of our work is contract work or sub stuff off other lock/safe companies. I would be VERY wary about going it alone as it is today.
Andy

what type of advertising do you do? 5-7 seems reasonable to me based on my strategies.

by **Loc Doc** » 12 Nov 2005 14:20

Shrub wrote:5-7 jobs you will be lucky from the outset but i dont know your area,

A big issue is how many other lockies are in that area,

The promises of big money are all rubbish, if you make a profit in the first 3 years that you can lve on be proud of yourself.

wow. i was hoping to get 6 figures out of this. seems like the problem with most is not how to handle volume....more like how to get business. am i right?

to clarify more about my area, oahu is where i live. its an island with close to a million residents situated where i can be anywhere on the island in 30-40 minutes max. most places i plan to service ill be at destination in 10-15.

by **Rockford** » 12 Nov 2005 15:04

You may get 6 figures - so long as there are a few leading zero's. As many point out - don't expect to make a profit (or much of one) in your first couple of years trading.

Good luck.

by **Shrub** » 12 Nov 2005 18:22

I would guess that with a million residents there are a few lockies already there so you can start dividing the million between them all and then now you, then you can think how many people actually want a locksmith from day to day, how many are renting and the landlord actually sorts the fitting of new locks out himself, then think how many people are going to use the lockie that has just started up as against the one who says hes been doing it for 20 years, then think how long is it gong to take for you to get back your minimum investment of lets say $60k given the above facts,

6 figures lol dont mean to put a downer on things but never.

by **Loc Doc** » 13 Nov 2005 1:58

thanks for the replies guys. i appreciate all of the input.

i didnt think 100k was unreasonable to expect. yes there are quite a few locksmith/lockout type businesses in hawaii. some of them run full page yellow book ads....those cost around 5,000$ a month to run. im guessing that if someone can spend 60k/yr in advertising, i'd venture to guess that they are doing rather well.

the way i see it is:

50$/job avg
x6 jobs/day
300/day
X365
109k

so im thinking of how to get 6 jobs a day

obviously there is a lot of work to go around in my area when companies are spending more in advertising that most of you are claiming to make.

i dont want to blatantly display my marketing strategy on a public board but am willing to share ideas with anyone interested via pm.

by **triman247** » 13 Nov 2005 2:27

It's unrealistic to plan on 6 jobs a day. You need to factor out Sundays, and Holidays where people either stay at home or go away. You also need to plan on peoples alertness to remembering what their doing. I would say that the beginning of the week would be less busy because people are refreshed from their weekend. They will remember their keys. Later in the week when people are tired from working too mch, people will be more forgetful.

This brings up another major problem in your calculations... You havnt included corperate tax. Capital gains are taxed at 4.4% to 6.4% in Hawaii. And also considering that this is your source of income, You would also be assesed Personal Income Tax, Estate tax... You never truely have the amount of money you think you have.

I also think that the companies who place full page ads in the phone book are most likely nation wide companies. I would highly doubt that any personal one-man businesses will be able to fund a $60,000 per year base price for one lousy ad in the paper. No one is dumb enough to spend 60% of their anual profit minus taxes on ads.

What I'm trying to say is that you can never plan on everything. You never know what the general public are thinking on a perticular day. Its just like the weather. You cant really ever say what will happen, you can only estimate, and plan from there.

triman

by **Loc Doc** » 13 Nov 2005 4:05

triman247 wrote:It's unrealistic to plan on 6 jobs a day. You need to factor out Sundays, and Holidays where people either stay at home or go away. You also need to plan on peoples alertness to remembering what their doing. I would say that the beginning of the week would be less busy because people are refreshed from their weekend. They will remember their keys. Later in the week when people are tired from working too mch, people will be more forgetful.

This brings up another major problem in your calculations... You havnt included corperate tax. Capital gains are taxed at 4.4% to 6.4% in Hawaii. And also considering that this is your source of income, You would also be assesed Personal Income Tax, Estate tax... You never truely have the amount of money you think you have.

I also think that the companies who place full page ads in the phone book are most likely nation wide companies. I would highly doubt that any personal one-man businesses will be able to fund a $60,000 per year base price for one lousy ad in the paper. No one is dumb enough to spend 60% of their anual profit minus taxes on ads.

What I'm trying to say is that you can never plan on everything. You never know what the general public are thinking on a perticular day. Its just like the weather. You cant really ever say what will happen, you can only estimate, and plan from there.

triman

Thanks. Yes I totally understand this. I already have two existing companies and know the ins and outs of taxing, revenue projecting and related issues. Actually I don't have a problem with getting 6 a day. my problem is trying to gain info on others who get more than 6/day in the way of how they schedule the volume into their schedule. i appreciate your input but non of it was what i was looking for. as ive said before, i already have a plan for marketing that has worked super with my other ventures.

if you dont mind me asking, how do you advertise and how is it working for you?

by **dxlocks** » 13 Nov 2005 4:20

In Australia you would be lucky to make $50000 a year in your first 2 years. Generally anyone entering the field would start as an apprentice earning minimal ammounts for their 4 year apprenticeship.

Advertising is generally made by the yellow pages and word of mouth.

The van will also do some advertising for you, so sometimes the graphics will be an important issue if you where to start a shop from scratch.

by **Chrispy** » 13 Nov 2005 4:22

It also depends on how big your skill base is. If you can incorporate door furniture sales & installation, key cutting, lockouts, safe sales/installation/service, general lock services, restricted key systems and land some contracts to boot, you should be easily on your way to 75k per year after tax.

by **dxlocks** » 13 Nov 2005 4:37

Contracts are very usefull, especially with larger facilities such as government and education facilities.

They all want BiLock!

And when they lose their keys [or rather when someone steals them] you will be called forth to rekey them.

question for any established locksmiths

question for any established locksmiths

Who is online