Change my schedule?

[MSL]

Hello folks, I had a question for the smiths-o-th' lock.

As I've mentioned several times before, I'm taking my state licensing exam later this year and I hope to operate part-time. I'm near Chicago and there would seem to be plenty of work out there, so I imagine my small-time operation shouldn't interfere with the multitude of smiths in the area and cause them to start throwing bricks through my windows.

I have a full time job as a correctional officer. At the moment I work midnights. For those in the business what would you suggest I do about my schedule? I was thinking midnights would be good as I could have either early mornings or evenings to go out and do jobs. What time and days do you guys generally work. Do you go when its convenient for your schedule like the cable guy, or do you go around what the customer can do and show up when they get out of work. Do you do many weekend jobs, or is it a mostly weekday operation? Obviously lockouts aren't scheduled.

I was thinking about trying to get to the day shift or back to the 3-11 swing, but I don't want to make myself so unavailable that I may as well not be in business.

Any thoughts?

[billdeserthills]

I go to my shop in the mornings, 6 days a week at 10am but I am ready to leave 45 minutes later at 10:45am, so I can do my first lock call at 11am. A few of my customers want me out there at 8am or sooner, and that is just tooo baad. I offer to work late and I would prefer 8pm or later to 8am.

I think if you work 3rd shift, you should be plenty ready to start doing calls by 8am or so & through 2pm and still get some sleep before you get to the facility at night. The majority of folks around here prefer the morning to afternoon hours for their work anyhow.

Honestly I almost never spend more than 2-4 hours a day working, there just isn't that much business in my town and I don't require anymore money than that anyhow.

[cledry]

Shop hours are 8:30-5PM Mon-Fri, service is 24/7 7 days a week.

The majority of our business is 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM, if you work outside of these hours you will get lockouts etc. but none of the lucrative big jobs.

[MSL]

As a fairly inexperienced part-time one-man show I wasn't planning on getting too many big lucrative jobs. I was planning on hitting up real estate people, property management companies, etc, and cut a deal on repinning locks and cutting keys to start. That kind of thing I'm pretty sure I can do any time of day.

[cledry]

As a fairly inexperienced part-time one-man show I wasn't planning on getting too many big lucrative jobs. I was planning on hitting up real estate people, property management companies, etc, and cut a deal on repinning locks and cutting keys to start. That kind of thing I'm pretty sure I can do any time of day.

We do work for a lot of property management companies. The calls typically are, buyer closing today, please rekey before 5 PM. Buyer closing tomorrow please rekey. Pedestrian gate needs a new gate box welded on and lock installed. Please stop by the office I have 20 envelopes of keys and need the specified number of keys cut.

We do also do work for section 8 housing who will drop off a few cases of deadbolts at a time and want them masterkeyed.

So some of these jobs you could certainly do after normal business hours but some would not be possible.

A lot of these places expect to be able to get service when they want it, not when you want to do it.

I doubt you will get much if any commercial property management work unless you work a 9-5 sort of schedule.

I think you should perhaps target car openings and making auto keys which is commonplace work for after hours.

[MSL]

Fortunately I've got an "in" with my own building's management company which is run by a woman who is a realtor, and does a lot of business with a particular developer that I also know. Ideally if I can save them money I'll be making some myself.

[cledry]

Fortunately I've got an "in" with my own building's management company which is run by a woman who is a realtor, and does a lot of business with a particular developer that I also know. Ideally if I can save them money I'll be making some myself.

That's a plus. Just make sure you get a sufficient amount of liability coverage for the type of work you will be undertaking. The property manager should be able to tell you what their minimum requirement will be. Assuming you will not be doing work that will impact life safety or fire codes you shouldn't be required to carry too much. Each property will normally require a rider added that includes them. We have to renew these each year generally with the customer. Your insurer will send the appropriate papers to your customer.

[MSL]

Illinois requires a million dollar policy before I can even take the test.

[cledry]

Illinois requires a million dollar policy before I can even take the test.

That should be enough for many customers.

[billdeserthills]

Illinois requires a million dollar policy before I can even take the test.

I think State Farm charges me $450/year for my mil liability policy

[MSL]

I had gotten a quote from Allstate for a million dollar policy and they only want $225.

[2octops]

Allstate offers a very specific locksmith policy. I think ours was around $400 for $1m. We currently have $10m and it's about $800 a year.

As far as when to work, there are a couple of things to consider.

Most businesses open around 8am and close around 6pm. They will require your services during this time. Typically you can schedule these jobs out and they do not require immediate service.

Emergency calls require you to respond as soon as possible, sometimes even if it's just to stop by between jobs and take a look at the situation that the customer thinks is an emergency.

Property management companies and contractors normally don't care to much when it's done as long as it's done by a specific time and date.

Lockouts and lost keys (for the general public) normally require immediate service or the customer will call every locksmith they can find (and some twice) to see who can get there first and who is the cheapest, then average the two and pick the cheapest person that can get there the fastest.

We are on the road by 6am and start heading home around dark, Monday through Friday. We do offer emergency service and after hours service at double our normal rates or more. Most of our work is with commercial customers and we typically schedule work out 3-5 days in advance unless it's a security issue that needs immediate attention or we have some spare time on the day the customer calls.

Watch out with the business model of being cheaper than everybody else. Most people know the value of professional service and if you are to cheap, they might wonder what you are not doing for them that everyone else would. Also,this is a for profit business that needs to be able to pay for itself as well as pay you and put some money in the bank. You can't do that being the cheapest in town as there will always be someone cheaper. I know some very shrewd business people that would love for you to work in their area and try to beat their prices. They make enough off of their regular customers that they thrive on taking "the new guy's" customers by offering to work at a loss just to drive the new guy out.

Do a professional job for your customers, and charge a professional price. Factor all of your overhead (insurance, licensing, service vehicle operating cost, fuel, advertising, telephone, etc) and figure out how much you will have to work just to cover that each month. I know a lot of guys that couldn't make it happen because they did not know how much it actually cost them to sit at home each day.

Best of luck to you on your new venture. Chicago area can be a tough place, but it can also be very profitable.