What do I need for a one-man-van?

[AngryHatter]

Anyone have suggestions on getting new customers?

Ads seem like a waste of money.

A shop would help a lot, but not immediately possible.

I wouldn't expect a lot of residential work such as that. It's cheaper to go to HomeDepot and buy a new lock than call you. At best you get a broken key or a duplicating sale.

I would look at commercial accounts - construction firms, commercial leasing firms, school systems (my gig), hotels, motels, self storage, apartment complexes etc.
(Self storage is good if they want to recover the locks rather than cut them. A shim and your done)

Things that surprised me were churches. They can have many locks of different age & sophistication.

I'd get some really good business cards and then bomb the neighborhood.

School board can overwhelm a single locksmith, especially one with not too much experience. Not that the work is difficult but our school district is the 9th largest in the USA, 191 schools! They also stipulate that we must use Von Duprin, LCN, Schlage etc. no substitutions allowed. That must maintain sufficient stock to service the schools, that we are available 24/7 with a 2 hour window to service, and that if the manufacturer offers a 25 year warranty that we must warranty the labor for the same period! I really wish we didn't win the contract to be honest.

I am technically an employee of the school system. They supply everything but the labor and the tools.
All I do is open, repair and repin.
I order what I need through them and then repair at my leisure.

The downside is I am on call 5 days a week for 8 months of the year.

[jeffmoss26]

I would strongly recommend not cheaping out on your key machine.

[billdeserthills]

Yeah my Liability insurance costs about $500 a year--the insurance on my van is 3 times that amount.

Wow! Lucky you, our liability insurance is more than that just for a single customer! The school board requires 3 million! Most other customers require 2 million. Vehicle insurance a year, I wish it was just $1500. I guess it depends on the work you do and where you live.

Since you are a single van and your market primarily is residential based on your posts you are probably better positioned to offer advice to someone just starting out. For example if I start talking what stock we need to carry versus what a single truck just starting out it just wouldn't make sense.

I most seriously doubt getting a lower price on insurance has much to do with luck
anyway I have a 1 mil liability policy and a 100K/300K in full coverage on my shop van
that is, as you say, not enough for everyone--however I'm not interested in doing work for
everyone, so it suits me fine. In fact the single largest cost in my business is rent, followed
by auto/liability insurance, followed by advertising/SEO services (to maintain my website)
and actual inventory/supplies & tools, shipping +gas/oil & office supplies

[cledry]

Yeah my Liability insurance costs about $500 a year--the insurance on my van is 3 times that amount.

Wow! Lucky you, our liability insurance is more than that just for a single customer! The school board requires 3 million! Most other customers require 2 million. Vehicle insurance a year, I wish it was just $1500. I guess it depends on the work you do and where you live.

Since you are a single van and your market primarily is residential based on your posts you are probably better positioned to offer advice to someone just starting out. For example if I start talking what stock we need to carry versus what a single truck just starting out it just wouldn't make sense.

I most seriously doubt getting a lower price on insurance has much to do with luck
anyway I have a 1 mil liability policy and a 100K/300K in full coverage on my shop van
that is, as you say, not enough for everyone--however I'm not interested in doing work for
everyone, so it suits me fine. In fact the single largest cost in my business is rent, followed
by auto/liability insurance, followed by advertising/SEO services (to maintain my website)
and actual inventory/supplies & tools, shipping +gas/oil & office supplies

I am sure $1 million will be enough for many customers. I think the demand for $2 or $3 million is excessive. All the malls we do work for require $2 as do the hotels and service providers. Property management companies are mostly $2 million as well but a few will still take $1 million. Our area is primarily a tourist area, so retail and hotels are a huge part of our business. Does the 1 or 2 hours a day you are actually open each day pay the rent or is it primarily used as your office and warehouse? Most shops even those open all day are not great moneymakers.

[billdeserthills]

Most of the time the 45 minutes I am open doesn't pay the rent, however my rent has been very affordable for the past 20 years
so I cannot complain--I could close the shop anytime now and put all my inventory into my very large garage, and I likely will just as soon as the rent makes a serious jump...

I only ever had one company that wasn't satisfied with my insurance--they were fine with my liability insurance at 1 mil,
but they wanted my auto policy set at the $500K level--Since I only ever did one or two small jobs a year with them it
wasn't cost effective for my company. I called and let them know that in order to keep hat level of insurance they would
have to provide me with more work & I quickly discovered they were only keeping me around as a backup for the company
they really liked...