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[Mark A]

Paullockout,
you seem to be mis-understanding what Toomush is telling you, and you seem to be of the mindset that he is having ago at you.
re-read his replies to you and look for alternative meanings of what he is telling you as you seem to be reading something into it that I personally cant see.
To answer your question regarding how did we find what worked and what didn't before these forums existed where help is readily offered, it was simply by trial and error, which you can imagine was an expensive way of doing things.
Lighten up or the help will dry up!

Mark

[paullockout]

thanks mark
I apreciate all the advice ive been given and have acted on it in the process of sorting web site just didnt think the little comments weren't needed ie (yawn) (web site a joke)think things are getting missread im genuinly interested in all comments and more than interested to hear what people have to say from there own experiences.

Which as we all know is where you learn from, why learn from your own mistakes when you can learn from someone elses.

I have looked at loads of info and up till now have been a bit stumped, but after the replies on here, and i mean all i, have acted on them and they are interesing so thank you all that have replied.

[toomush2drink]

As for spending money, im like everyone else i set my budget and try to stick to it, but aside all that have acted on information ive received and appreciate all the positive points from the site, how else do you know when your making mistakes other than when someone tells you.

That is a basic mistake in marketing which many make, you set a budget and stick to it. As i mentioned before spending money to make money is what it is all about not budgets (almost tempted to yawn again at this point ).Im up to almost 15k and rising this year on marketing but it gets me what i want in return on investment (ROI).
Go onto some marketing forums and learn all you can as this site is based around lockpicking not marketing or advertising.You want a lock picked you ask a locksmith you want adverts to work and your asking a locksmith ? see what im getting at ?

Sure you can try and learn from others mistakes but how do you know for certain that they made mistakes or not ?What if they were advertising in a good medium but their ads were wrong ? Its easy to say do x,y & z and you will get the phone ringing but unfortunately that is not the case as every area is different.Its highly unlikely also anyone already trading in your area is going to tell you what works as that means they are helping the competition and thus risk losing work. So many locksmiths are out there all competing for the little work thats its cut throat.
I help people within the organisation i belong to just as they help me but then we paid for that privilege by joining.

It cost £££ me to learn what works and what doesnt and i also paid out on a marketing course which opened my eyes and more importantly trebled my turnover within a few months.I look around at all the new starts ups near me and most are all making the same mistakes, i wonder how many will be around next year and also who will learn from their mistakes.

The days of loads of lockouts a week are gone, without regular contracts you will just end up subbing for a national and thus strengthen the position of the very people that are taking your work.

[zeke79]

Geezzz... 15K Pounds??? I am surprised you are not in my local yellow pages for that amount of money . That is right around $30,000 US.

[lockey1963]

£15k to £20k in advertising is not unusual for an established one man band mobile locksmith in the UK these days.

12 years ago it was possible for a locksmith to make a nice living on £1k of advertising, as very few locksmiths around even that short time ago. The Impact of hundreds of new start ups every year has diluted the available work in an area, so the only answer is to increase your advertising to get a fair market share.

£20k of advertising is yielding me a turnover of over 10 times that , but its 20k of ads that have been tested over years to perfect my ads in my area for the services i provide.
It is extremely expensive perfecting your ads, and alot is often lost here until you get it right.
But this is a personal thing, which differs from business to business and from area to area, so what works for me , may well fail for you, very few short cuts, you must perfect this yourself.

I guarantee Paul that there will be more than 15 new locksmith start ups in your area this year alone, 20 to 30 next year as another 20 training firms will exist all believing that after a few days training they can milk the locksmith tree gold. Which is why i suggested you look at your other skills to perfect a unique service.

In an earlier post you said about there being a shortage of locksmiths, if this was the case then your phone would be ringing wouldnt it.

best advice i can give you is to learn the industry properly, join 1 or 2 organisations and take any start up course you can on business management and marketing, otherwise unless very lucky there is a high percentage of chance that you will become another locksmith start up caualty as so many are when starting out in what is a cut throat and overpopulated business.

[toomush2drink]

Zeke that is right (£15000) but im busy and have gained some very lucrative work because of it. Its a business i run in which i just happen to be a locksmith so my outlook is different to most of the new start ups competing for the work.
Sure you can try and scratch a living from it by sticking to budgets and placing the odd small ad in the local paper but really your kidding yourself when your up against people and companies, like myself, spending lots on various forms of advertising,branding,networking and overall image. At the end of the day its a business so it should be run as one.
I help guys near myself whom i know and belong to the organisation im in and we often pass work between ourselves or sub for each other. Im in london though where work can be very lucrative with the right contracts and contacts.
Also you have to put yourself out, i am prepared to drive fair distances to cover work for very little renumeration sometimes but it means i keep the clients happy which in turn leads to bigger things.My biggest client came about after a 2 hour drive to tighten up a door handle then 2 hours drive home and all for £60.

This is the reality of the trade unless you are longterm established, unfortunately its not what many new start ups want to hear or listen to.

[paullockout]

thanks guys this was the sort of advice i was after, dont expect to compete with all you established locksmiths out there, but willing to learn and take on good advice.

Which i have, i was misslead ie shortage of locksmiths, as i wasnt from the industry, but even after reading up on here ive learned quite a lot and apreciate what ive heard and hopefully ill keep me head up and look back in a few years from now and be able to pass the same info on to others.

Hope i havent offended anyone in the process and glad i came along, without the info you have past on i would prob be still banging my head but its given me a shove in the right direction, so hopefully i can start running my buisiness the way it should be.

cheers (lockey1963/ toomush2drink)