Evan wrote:Hollywoodpick wrote:We have been cleaning out the building we own now and even have someone that wants to rent it and we might rent it as that will cover all its cost plus some as the Locksmith business is all on location for now as least but we are licenced for working out of the building with the city but they told us we can have many business licences on the same location so that would not be a problem if we rented it out.
Check again on this issue, you can't rent out your entire building to a tenant and then use it only as a mailing address on the business license... That type of activity can be considered fraud/misrepresentation and would be grounds in most places for suspension or revocation of the There's a tool which is being prototyped (gonna be sold by Peterson) which is used to decode Smartkey locks... The whole idea behind the licensing is that there is a serviceable address where you operate a single/multiple businesses out of even if it is just a one room office where your records are kept so that authorized government officials can come during business hours to inspect/review your records or leave hand delivered official notices and allow for process servers to be able to locate your business without stalking you to your customer's locations... If you do not have a business office location in operation on proper commercial premises, then often you have to register the business to your residential address even though you do not normally transact business by serving customers at your home...
I have checked the building is under a LLC name and out business license is set to the building address with the building only being used as a mailing address as the business is a on location business. The city know this and knows that right now the building has no elc turned on or water and the fire dep passed my business license for using just the address it had to pass 4 departments to get approved and i did check i can rent it out and can still have many other business license of my own and others at that address it is normal for this in this area as many business have many license for many license with in the same location. If the building is owned by a LLC and the business in the building or working from that address is owned by another LLC authorized government officials can not come to your business and expect anything with out going to court to get a cort order and they is super had to do when it is a LLC in Delaware. They have to go to coart in Delaware and Delaware has the best laws protecting your LLC from court orders. If you own a business and it is not a LLC you will be scrued if you are sued or took to court as they can take everything from you but if it is under a LLC then you do not own it and can not be sued for anything you own that is why every big business is a LLC or Corp.
Hollywoodpick wrote:As for me not offering a good service we have been sending people that call to other locksmiths in the are so we sending business to others in the area here i do not see that as bad business it is no different if someone calls for a photo shoot and we are all ready booked we send them to another photographer in the area we know.
LOL... So your advertising is for naught then, those customers you "refer to others" will be customers of the other business, have a receipt/invoice from that other locksmith as well as usually a business card or even a small door sticker/embossed key with that other locksmith's contact info on it... They won't be googling your business again because you were very kind/cordial/listened to their issue before you handed them off to a competitor... You had your shot to do business with them and now they are gone...
Yes i am giving it all away but everyone who has called is a tourest from out of town so this would not bring in any more local business to me unless next time they come here once they get locked out agen but by they i do not think they would have the others card with them a year or two later.
Funny thing is i am getting the calls first from the internet in my area and i have many people call me back as the other locksmiths in the area never pickup the phone half the time i have been told over and over.
Hollywoodpick wrote:If you get a call and you are on another one and can not go do the new call that would be no different then.
Umm... That is why you would tell the customer that you are presently working on a call, give them an estimate of when you will be done and ask them if they are able to wait for you to finish before they can get their turn... It isn't like ordering a pizza or calling 911, you might not be able to get a response immediately or even within 30 minutes... Customers who expect such response times are a "red flag" and might get passed off to a competitor as a "hot potato"...
Will i was out of town so i had to do this but i am not doing it now as i am in town now.
Hollywoodpick wrote:For now i will send anyone that needs transponder work to someone else in the area till i start seeing tons of calls for this that would cover my cost to buy into it all.
And some of those people you will never have an opportunity to get back as customers for the reason I stated above and this can be especially damaging if it is a car dealership or auto mechanic that is one of those people you are deferring business off to a competitor because you were not ready to make the initial investment in equipment to be able to service all the types of calls that might come in...
I can only think of two used car dealers in this town it is a small area with all tourest attractions everyone drives over a hour away to but cars and other large items also not many auto repair shops around here. I was just read even more on this and a lot of people are not making the money back on the large investment on all the transponder systems whe people are offering it for including many dealers now for $75 not much profet left. The only ones still making a good amount on this are the ones that got into it year back and have a lot of accounts all set up with out the accounts they would be dyeing to.Was reading about one guy in a large market area that can not even get jobs that has all the high end equipment as the people in his area are all under cutting him so bad he as about to sell it all off and go back more into home and business lock work. Ever some of the older guy that have been doing this from the start have all had to lowers prices way do to keep getting business and it is getting worst and a lot of lowes and home depot and getting key system for making the HS auto keys for a super low price to a price point that a local guy would not even be able to sell them that low and make anything. Just reading what others are saying
Hollywoodpick wrote:From reading what others are using in another auto chat site i am in and talking with a guy who dose transponders every day i should be able to get into it with most things i need to for the most common HS key cars for around $15k this would include a Key Pro cutter, readers, remote programer, key programer and key clone system and a good amount of supply's to get it going.
This plus all the home and older auto key supply's 20k should do it for everything then more can be added as things are going. This is not a lot to invest into a business if the business is produsing a good income but right now it is not producing a good income but when it gets to that point i will make the extra investment as it can then cover the investment. Then i should be able to read,cut and program dealer keys and remotes 24/7 with no help from any dealer if i get to that point.
That sounds like you are not in fact as committed to the business as you have said you are... By not investing in the right set of tools from the beginning you are kneecapping yourself and limiting what you will be able to do in serving your customer's needs... You are coming from the outside of an industry and making choices without any experience in this area of work that you might not be able to overcome down the road...
I can only buy what the business supports it would be crazy for any business to buy things that do not make money on or not even a amount to cover the cost of the equipment in a year or two. If i spent 20K on a full HS setup and only got 10 calls for this a year it would be a loss and never pay for itself.
As of right now i am not getting calls that would support this if that changes then i would make the extra investment at that time
You make this out to be a chicken vs. egg issue with circular logic -- if the business was producing an income, you would make the $20k investment in it, but it isn't so you have major qualms against spending that kind of money on it... Well right now your business is in the "virtual" phase of existence, you have a website and a business on paper but you haven't really and truly made it real yet... It will take more than a vehicle with vinyl graphics on it to do that... I think you know this but just vastly underestimated the real "buy-in cost" to get into the locksmithing industry...
I am becoming more and more aware of the full cost every day that is four sure and not even for the HS auto systems. I will not offer services i can not do. By the way two other locksmiths that have been in the area for a long time do not own any of the HS equipment and do not work on any HS key cars i do not think this area supports it with the amount of work to cover the cost to get into it all the way and mantain it each month. Just the cost of the monthly fees and code fees can be more they you make in a slow area.
Hollywoodpick wrote:One thing i see people talking about is that the charge to customers to make transponder keys has dropped a lot and i see a lot of talk about it not being worth the investment into all the equipment unless you do a lot of late night calls for this or it may never pay for it self with all the month to month fees and upgrades you end up paying to get all the codes to make the keys. In my area it may never support the cost i will just have to see over the year or so.
Or work something out with someone who dose have the equipment to work with me on this.
LOL... It would be nice if someone who does have the equipment would work something out with you but the reality of the situation is that your competitor isn't going to make you keys so that that you can take food off his (families') table because he chose to invest in the equipment and you didn't -- at the very best you might be able to negotiate a referral fee where you get a couple of bucks for a successfully completed referral that results in a service call for whomever you sent the business to...
That sounds good a referral fee would work for me to. One thing i am good at is marketing and when i get everything in place i could get just about all the calls in the area first for everything. I all ready am doing good on the website ( i can help anyone with website SEO i have been doing it for years and have a lot of seo tools in my bag ) in a very short amount of time. I will have my website ported out to I phone and other cell phone size so my site will be the first choice for anyone using a cell phone to look up a locksmith in the area and it is amazing how many people hire people from facebook and how few locksmiths even have a facebook page let alone a fan page I will have that started to much better then angies list any day. Even with my photography business all summer we give away jobs 5 to 10 times a day we can not do becouse my marketing is that much better then others in that area and we get 20 calls to one that others get. it is off season right now and we are still getting 3 to 5 calls a day for photo sessions we are giving away to other photographers that is like giving away 3 to 4 thousand $$$ a day of jobs but we could not do they all our self so we give they away. Now we are not on the coast so we are giving them all away. I will be the only one in my area doing special adds in the books all the tourest have in their hands and take around with them this should be even better then the phone book. All i can say is i will try to get all this going and i will buy what ever equipment that is needed as long as we are getting calls for it tha will cover the cost.
When you provide a transponder key to a customer:
You are originating a key by code, providing a transponder blank and then programming the vehicles computer/the transponder or both...
If you can not find a way to charge enough money for those three services you have provided to the customer which will when combined with your service charge (trip out the the customer's location) fee then you will have real issues making any money at all out of this business...
This seems to be the problem others are having that have all the equipment not making enough money to cover its cost.
Lets say i has on a good week i did two a week and i could only get $100 for each one but i has a good amount of coast in that and for my area we only have a good 8 months of busy times of the year then i would be making $6400 and halfof that would be cost so i would be lucky if i made $3000 a year from it or less as some months would be slower then others. If i got up to say 20 lockouts a week some auto some home and some later at night for a higher fee that could be around $1200 Plus add on say two new keys made for older cars for $75 each then one home re-key job for $100 i would be up to a good $1375 a week with out needing any HS equipment and not working much at all. I would be happy with that if i could get to that point and make that for the best 8 months here. I could still shoot photos and make more then that working 6 hours of the week. That to me would be a good income over 100k a year working from home and low hours.
~~ Evan
