Business Questions? Ask a Locksmith.

[ltdbjd]

Why are they sick of the existing shops? Have you asked around at some of the bigger businesses and realtors in the new town to get a feel for what the market will bear, or if they would be interested in changing locksmith's? Simoly put, you'd need to either provide better service, or provide more value for the money.

Have you put together a business plan? My biggest concern is whether a shop will bring in very much money. A lot of shop business is cutting keys and pinning walk in cylinders. Neither one brings in a lot of money. Do you have the staff to keep a shop open? How many vans do you run?

Sounds like you're starting your research; always a plus before you dive in head first.

[Locksmith22]

Thanks I appreciate the response. I am def doing my homework. Currently we have 4 trucks on the road and cover a pretty sizeable area. I am not sure if the other shops customers are tired of them, it was a comment from my grumpy uncle lol....I know the demand for auto Locksmiths is strong in this area and that other big shop doesn't do automotive so we have an in with that at least. I will be going in on the shop with a partner and we will take turns staffing it the typical lock shop hours. This shop is going to be a sub division of our existing company, almost its own entity but same name to take advantage of our established reputation (company name will be similar and openly advertise it is as sub division company of the parent company). It has to be a sub division or unique entity because my partner is not an owner of parent company but will be a owner with the shop only. The focus of this sub division is going to be commercial heavy.

[cledry]

Thanks I appreciate the response. I am def doing my homework. Currently we have 4 trucks on the road and cover a pretty sizeable area. I am not sure if the other shops customers are tired of them, it was a comment from my grumpy uncle lol....I know the demand for auto Locksmiths is strong in this area and that other big shop doesn't do automotive so we have an in with that at least. I will be going in on the shop with a partner and we will take turns staffing it the typical lock shop hours. This shop is going to be a sub division of our existing company, almost its own entity but same name to take advantage of our established reputation (company name will be similar and openly advertise it is as sub division company of the parent company). It has to be a sub division or unique entity because my partner is not an owner of parent company but will be a owner with the shop only. The focus of this sub division is going to be commercial heavy.

It is difficult to run a busy shop with one person. I start at 7:30 in the morning and finish about 5:30 or 6:00. The shop guy, me; is responsible for answering the phones (we get about 100 - 200 calls a day, a lot of junk), dispatching jobs (we run 20 calls a day average), checking e-mails (50-75 a day), ordering and sourcing parts, invoicing and associated paperwork like sign off sheets and before & after pics, Quickbooks, and running the shop's walk in trade which is about 5 or 6 customers an hour except at lunch time when it doubles.

Our shop pays for itself but isn't as profitable as the road calls, but we would still need an office and warehouse if we didn't have a shop. We probably gross $500 on a slow day in the shop and double or triple on a busy day. It does make customers feel better dealing with a brick & mortar shop IMO. They feel as though you are part of the community and not going to disappear if they have an issue later on.

Commercial accounts really don't need to be run from a shop. You do need to produce proper COIs, currently our bigger clients want $2 million in coverage.

[billdeserthills]

My shop used to make enough to support itself, back when it was next to the post office--Unfortunately that was 25+ years ago. Nowadays and for the last 20 years I have only opened the shop for 45 minutes a day and just 4 days per week. I am a one-man show and cannot sit around waiting in the shop for someone to come in to get a key that can't be made in the other 5+ hardware and home stores in the area. Of course when my shop is closed I can't make money rekeying a lock for a client who is too cheap to pay a service call either. I do think my business is enhanced due to my having a shop, but it is mostly used to store the excess inventory that I can't cram into my vehicles.

Recently a new locksmith has come into my town, and opened up a shop too--I never knew that the small town I'm in needed a second locksmith, but I keep working so he must be getting some service work from somewhere....

[cledry]

My shop used to make enough to support itself, back when it was next to the post office--Unfortunately that was 25+ years ago. Nowadays and for the last 20 years I have only opened the shop for 45 minutes a day and just 4 days per week. I am a one-man show and cannot sit around waiting in the shop for someone to come in to get a key that can't be made in the other 5+ hardware and home stores in the area. Of course when my shop is closed I can't make money rekeying a lock for a client who is too cheap to pay a service call either. I do think my business is enhanced due to my having a shop, but it is mostly used to store the excess inventory that I can't cram into my vehicles.

Recently a new locksmith has come into my town, and opened up a shop too--I never knew that the small town I'm in needed a second locksmith, but I keep working so he must be getting some service work from somewhere....

I always wondered do you own the shop or lease?

Do you use it to display bulky things for sale such as safes for your customers to see?

[billdeserthills]

I lease the shop Cledry, and I do have some safes in there, along with most of my inventory and some tools. Some days folks are waiting to see me but most of the time I will be restocking my van for the 45 minutes I hang around in the morning

[Locksmith22]

We are definitely looking to open the shop but are stuck picking a name lol. Our main companies name has "Name Mobile Locksmith Inc."....if we open the shop it will be weird to call it with mobile in company name. We were gonna call it "Name Lock & Key" but are concerned about confusion from customers. We want to play off the main companies strong reputation in the area but I feel having mobile attached to the shop will be weird.

[billdeserthills]

If you look in the phonebook you can get some ideas, many shops pick a name that will put them at the top of the page,
my shop is named after the town we work out of--The scammers certainly seem to like the name, they have changed it around to fit their lying businesses too

[cledry]

We are definitely looking to open the shop but are stuck picking a name lol. Our main companies name has "Name Mobile Locksmith Inc."....if we open the shop it will be weird to call it with mobile in company name. We were gonna call it "Name Lock & Key" but are concerned about confusion from customers. We want to play off the main companies strong reputation in the area but I feel having mobile attached to the shop will be weird.

Why have mobile in the name now that you are opening a shop? We have service vehicles and a shop and nobody seems confused that we offer a mobile service. Some trades, electricians, locksmiths plumbers people expect to come to them, so having mobile in the name seems pointless. Mechanics, oil change places etc. aren't expected to come to you, so adding mobile if that is a service you offer seems to make sense.

[Locksmith22]

Well here's the thing. This mobile operation is opening a shop outside of its original market. You could call it expansion. It would be a pain to change the names of the other 2 office/dispatch locations to conform with this shop name. If we did rename it we would have to change everything online, change the state paperwork etc, not a fun idea. This is why I simply want to change the from "mobile locksmith" to "lock & key" . I guess you could call it a sub division within a company. So for example our operation started in 1 then 2 office locations as "name mobile locksmith inc." and now that we are expanding into a new market we want to open a shop this time so are thinking "name lock & key" might be better. So confusing lol.

[cledry]

Well here's the thing. This mobile operation is opening a shop outside of its original market. You could call it expansion. It would be a pain to change the names of the other 2 office/dispatch locations to conform with this shop name. If we did rename it we would have to change everything online, change the state paperwork etc, not a fun idea. This is why I simply want to change the from "mobile locksmith" to "lock & key" . I guess you could call it a sub division within a company. So for example our operation started in 1 then 2 office locations as "name mobile locksmith inc." and now that we are expanding into a new market we want to open a shop this time so are thinking "name lock & key" might be better. So confusing lol.

So instead of combining so you have just one name (more trouble at first but perhaps better long term) you will have an entirely separate business, so two of everything. Two online presences etc..

We once started a sub company and it increased business greatly. We chose an entirely different name, so to the public we would actually be an entirely different company. We actually bid against each other. In the end it was a pain. Then we bought out a competitor, we actually hired him, bought the company and got most of his customers. Unfortunately the guy was a young techy, and had virtual branches all over the state, lots of websites and lots of phone numbers. He wasn't a scammer but he used some of their methods. We also found out he was working super cheap, so some of his customers we didn't retain by mutual consent.

[Locksmith22]

We decided to call the shop "Name Locksmith" and just took out the "mobile" to help correlate them and avoid confusion. Also any one have any advice as to what kind of prices we are looking at to get some starter stock in the store? We have key blanks of almost every kind already from residential, ic, motorcycle etc. We have lock stock as well but in limited amounts in trucks. Also is it possible to contact distributors and get them to come set up displays of their product for us to sell? Any advice on important thinks to not overlook while opening a shop would be greatly appreciated.

[cledry]

We decided to call the shop "Name Locksmith" and just took out the "mobile" to help correlate them and avoid confusion. Also any one have any advice as to what kind of prices we are looking at to get some starter stock in the store? We have key blanks of almost every kind already from residential, ic, motorcycle etc. We have lock stock as well but in limited amounts in trucks. Also is it possible to contact distributors and get them to come set up displays of their product for us to sell? Any advice on important thinks to not overlook while opening a shop would be greatly appreciated.

I would get a lot of impulse items, novelty keys, padlocks to display in the showroom, latch protectors, window locks. As for displays, most distributors will let reps know about your shop and they will supply displays. Lastly perhaps a few safes.

[Locks22]

Quick question on other smiths opinions. We own a pretty decent sized outfit that covers multiple markets. We are teaming up with a small electrical outfit in an attempt to get into security systems, cctv etc. The state we lived in requires atleast a small voltage license with clearances to do this work. Unfortunately we were all just mechanical locksmiths so we are forced to partner up with a licensed electrician, this States laws dictate that you can't so much as advertise security systems or anything electrical related without a license. Some smiths ignore this but I run a clean operation so..it is what it is.

With this being said we are going to start advertising for security systems work, access control, cctv etc.

Does any one have tips on how a locksmith would generate more electrical type security work?, I keep hearing about other smiths getting security work but we don't seem to get those calls. Any suggestions ?

Mail ads ?

Name change to include "security"?

Targeted paid online adds? (Rip off imo)

Any ideas or suggestions would be great

[Ralph_Goodman]

[quote="Locks22"]Does any one have tips on how a locksmith would generate more electrical type security work?, I keep hearing about other smiths getting security work but we don't seem to get those calls. Any suggestions ?/quote]

Different approaches work better depending on the way you can sustain running your business. I don't think there is one universal way to go about it.

What I would suggest is looking back on how you started out.

What type of work are you getting now? How did you cultivate that type of work?

Where are most of your jobs coming from? How are people finding you currently?

Are you looking to change your strategy to something you have never done, or are you just trying to apply the skills and knowledge you already have to get into a new part of the industry?

I would say it is very risky to invest in something that you have no background in when it is only based on the anecdotal professed experience of a few people.

It is not always possible to look back at a personal history of past success, but it seems like you have the track record for that. Rather than doing what worked for someone else, I would encourage you to re-examine what has worked for you.

Hope that helps.