First year in business?

[lockstar5000]

only light commercial/businesses. Today we started off rekeying a foreclosure, then another one, then made a non transponder saturn vue key, went to an apartment complex and pinned up 2 storage unit schlage knob locks to a change and master. I think that took us up to about 4 oclock, then we checked out a new pushbutton mechanical lock that he had shipped to him for a residential customer. It was similar to a simplex, but is made by Codelocks (codelocks.com)--This was new to both of us, we learned how to change the combination. Oh I forgot we went to an 8 unit apartment and took inventory of how many locks we need to rekey the whole building fom weiser to schlage, this was so he could order the levers, and that job is next week I think.

Typically there is a fair amount of foreclosures, Home and auto lockouts, auto key fitting (transponders and non). Also seems to be a decent amount of rtekeying due to firing of employees etc. He doesn't do heavy commercial, but we have installed schlage grade 1 levers and deadbolts in steel doors, new install, not just replacement. This was at a business that modifies vehicles, ie contractor shelving etc. in vans--they have big bays, that is as heavy as I have done. Quite a nice variety actually.

Also a couple weeks back we rekeyed a whole car dealerships 3 separate showrooms and service/parts departments. That took a couple days and was pretty cool

[lockstar5000]

we also stopped and checked out a mini shuttle bus, I am thinking of buying one and converting to my work vehicle. Lots of room for standing up and plenty of area for benches etc. Also the foreclosure #1 was 35 miles away, thats why it seems like not a lot of work up to 4 oclock

[cledry]

we also stopped and checked out a mini shuttle bus, I am thinking of buying one and converting to my work vehicle. Lots of room for standing up and plenty of area for benches etc. Also the foreclosure #1 was 35 miles away, thats why it seems like not a lot of work up to 4 oclock

Yeah, it looks like that is fine for a single operator. Nothing too heavy. How do you guys deal with the foreclosures, do you do a set fee no matter the distance or number of locks? That is how we do them, sometimes we have a close one but lately more are further away, still they gave us a little over $83,000 in business last year (this surprised me, I thought it would have been much less) and it was pretty unskilled labor, so pretty good. We have one employee that isn't very good with more complicated stuff, but the foreclosures and car openings keep him fairly busy, we also use him to run for parts for the other guys.

[dll932]

we also stopped and checked out a mini shuttle bus, I am thinking of buying one and converting to my work vehicle. Lots of room for standing up and plenty of area for benches etc. Also the foreclosure #1 was 35 miles away, thats why it seems like not a lot of work up to 4 oclock

Yeah, it looks like that is fine for a single operator. Nothing too heavy. How do you guys deal with the foreclosures, do you do a set fee no matter the distance or number of locks? That is how we do them, sometimes we have a close one but lately more are further away, still they gave us a little over $83,000 in business last year (this surprised me, I thought it would have been much less) and it was pretty unskilled labor, so pretty good. We have one employee that isn't very good with more complicated stuff, but the foreclosures and car openings keep him fairly busy, we also use him to run for parts for the other guys.

You might quote the same rate for an established account that throws you regular business, but otherwise, the cost of gas and vehicles being what they are, I support the idea of charging more outside of a set radius.

[lockstar5000]

We do regular pricing for a business customer (which basically means 10 dollars more for the service call than a residential customer would get). 10 bucks per lock rekey, 15 if picked/shimmed, etc. The realtors are very happy with this, because we are always very prompt, friendly, and priced fairly when compared to the other available guys in the area. It seems weird how the competition around here are crabby jerks LOL. We have heard more than once how they won't use the other guy because of attitude, pricing. Running a business, you would think you'd want to be friendly to your customers, but a lot of locksmiths seem to be a special breed of jerk around here

[cledry]

Interesting. We have the same rate for residential and commercial. We do charge more per hour for any work involving running wire such as installing Aiphones or running wires for various locking systems or annunciators. We have a couple of national accounts that charge us a $5 administration fee for any job over $100. Since every job we do is over $100 we do charge that $5 on top of our normal service call rate.

We do regular pricing for a business customer (which basically means 10 dollars more for the service call than a residential customer would get). 10 bucks per lock rekey, 15 if picked/shimmed, etc. The realtors are very happy with this, because we are always very prompt, friendly, and priced fairly when compared to the other available guys in the area. It seems weird how the competition around here are crabby jerks LOL. We have heard more than once how they won't use the other guy because of attitude, pricing. Running a business, you would think you'd want to be friendly to your customers, but a lot of locksmiths seem to be a special breed of jerk around here

[Tank42]

I'm the new guy. I've been studying hard for the past few years on Locksmith, Security, Gunsmith, and Small engines. Hoping to Open my shop in about a year. I'm am very grateful for the amount of information on this site.