Business Questions? Ask a Locksmith.

[vector40]

Pull my cell off my hip, dial information, and ask them to ring me a locksmith in Berkeley. But I haven't a clue where THEY would get it.

[plot]

Pull my cell off my hip, dial information, and ask them to ring me a locksmith in Berkeley. But I haven't a clue where THEY would get it.

cell phone information, neighbor, any bussiness you lock yourself out at will have a phone book if you ask the receptionist or whoever's at the front desk, even if it's a gas station etc.. payphones have phone books normally, etc.

and i'm sure people calling information looking for a locksmith is common, so they probably just have a list of locksmiths they go ahead and throw out.

[vector40]

Then I suppose the question is how you get your name on THAT list. Or is it just drawn from the directory?

[vector40]

Oh, and here's a serious question.

Next year, I'll be trundling off to college, and I was thinking of starting to do some lightweight lockout work, assuming I'm comfortable enough with the material by then. The thing is that I probably won't have a car, and there's zilch parking for UCSC freshmen anyhow, so I'm not sure I'd get around. You can't make lockout calls by long-range telekinesis.

I noticed lockmistress's idea of the bike, which is pretty cool, but (1) I haven't ridden a bike in many, many years, and (2) Santa Cruz is more hilly than a Salvador Dali interpretation of Einstein's brain. I don't think it would work.

Anyone have any suggestions? One thought I had was to get a motor scooter, or maybe even a motorcycle, though that may be a little more hardcore than necessary. That would avoid the parking situation, since I could just chain it somewhere. Or I could inflate a balloon and float around the city... or I could rig up a network of ziplines... then all I'd have to do is trek to the highest point and I could get anywhere I wanted.

[Welcome to my slightly inebriated, very exhausted mind, guys... hope this is making some sense.)

[Varjeal]

This is a bit of a silly question, but how do you handle power?

For example, if you have to use a Dremel or an angle grinder or something along those lines, where do you plug the thing in? I can't imagine there's a lot of power outlets located conveniently outside next to the front door.

Or for those of you cutting keys on-site, what's your situation? Do you plug into the cigarette lighter in your van?

I've been away for the past few days (more on that later in General Chat) so I apologize for the lateness of the reply.


I handle power through the use of a power inverter as mentioned by others already. They can be had in ranges up to 3000 watts and beyond, with plenty of juice to run any key machine or power tools. I normally use a 300 watt for most things at present, but since I received a 1000W for a belated b-day gift I'll be looking at hooking that one up. My drills, etc. are all cordless, but the key machines are not and it is far handier to have a power supply source in vehicle than to chase around trying to find a plug in or packing 100ft+ extension cords.

One other thing, just a kind of "hmm..." question.

If someone's locked out of his home, how the heck does he get your number out of the phone book? That's locked inside. For that matter, how about his car? If he gets locked out of it in front of his house, fine, but not if he's locked out at the gas station or something. And if someone's locked out of a commercial building, there's probably no phone book available anyway.

I'm confused

Cell phones have made things much easier, and in most industrial nations there is a number you can call for directory service. In Canada it's 411 and I believe it might be the same in the U.S. as well. This will get you an automated service which will ask what city your in and what business you want. You then simply say "locksmith" or whatever and it searches an electronic database (Usually connected to the database dealing with Yellow Page advertising) and brings up the first number. Some services offer the option to dial the number for you, and then it does so. At a gas station (if you don't know a number) people will simply go inside and ask for a telephone book or recommendation. Most are willing to offer such.


Since most commercial buildings have business' next to them people will simply go to the next building down the way and ask for a phone book and borrow a phone if necessary. If, during your travels you've deposited some cards, then so much the better for you.

In other words...it's not hard to fine one.

As for transportation, if you are doing strictly lock-out type work I'd suggest a motorcycle. Just remember to keep your tools in something as secure as possible and never leave 'em out overnight.

[vector40]

Thanks, Varj and all.

[vector40]

Oh, another power tool point. Do you guys think it's important to have an angle grinder, bolt cutters, something like that for severing annoying padlocks, if you also have a drill? Seems like you could just drill the core on a padlock, though it'd be somewhat more of a PITA than chomping off the shackle. I'd like to avoid buying/carrying more stuff than I need to.

[Varjeal]

A drill is plenty fine. In 6 years I have never used an angle grinder or bolt cutters...Neither tool has a place in a professional locksmiths van unless you are doing repossession or safe work in my opinion.

[MrB]

I noticed lockmistress's idea of the bike, which is pretty cool, but (1) I haven't ridden a bike in many, many years, and (2) Santa Cruz is more hilly than a Salvador Dali interpretation of Einstein's brain. I don't think it would work.

Don't write off owning a bike so readily. Go to www.bikeforums.net and read around a bit, you'll find lots of info for first time bike riders. Hills are not such a big problem if you are young and get appropriate gearing on the bike. I rode a bike quite happily when I was at university in Bath, England, and that's not exactly a flat place either. What's more, you will get very fit, feel wonderful and your heart will love you for it.

[vector40]

The issue is more that I want to be on-site pronto, rather than tooling around the city at bicycle speeds, even if I were a decent rider.

[Elijah]

About how many types of locks do you stock? Do you only work with a few brands, or do you go all out and stock hundreds just so you can replace a customers lock with what they had on there originally. Here at UConn, we basically only work with Sargent, so they're all over the shop. I know this wouldn't be the case with a regular locksmith business, though.

I also would like to have that question answered with regards to key blanks, please. Just throw out a number - how many unique keyblanks do you stock in your shop? Thanks again, guys!

-Elijah

[Varjeal]

Covering all the general types of locks, I probably carry about two dozen varieties. For residential locks I carry 6 or so, but keep some unique ones in inventory and of course can get hundreds of others from the supplier. Regarding brands, I generally stick to about 5 brands of locks in order to cut down on parts being carried. Of those, only two can be purchased at the local hardware store, the other two are "locksmith-only" types of hardware.

In regards to keyblanks, I currently have an inventory of approximately 350+different types. Some cross over, but most do not.

[sportsguy]

First off, thanks for all the great info and the knowledge sharing.

It's hard to get the local guys here in Eastern Canada to give you the time of day, so this place and info is god-send. Called the President of the local association, he grunted when I asked about the membership process, said he was busy and offered to call me back - never heard from him again...

Anyway... onto my question:

Part way through this post there was a note on relative population needed to support a locksmiting business. The number was 40,000 (quoted from a trade magazine, IIRC).

I think I know the answer here, but I want the clarity, so:

Is that 40,000 PER locksmith in an area?

I assume it is, because no one would do well if the population remained static and the # of competing businesses kept rising.

Bad news for locals if I'm right. We have a local population of around 350,000 (maybe 400,000 now)...and when I look up the "category" locksmith, I see 24 businesses listed. When I look up the "Name" locksmith, I see 12 listings. Either way, is it getting too crowded here?

{I do have a specific business plan in mind, after I gain the level of skill needed to actually perform reliable, professional work, so I'm not overly concered about the local # of businesses - quality work is always in demand. Call it more of a 'curiosity'... and the starting of my own business is many moons away regardless...}

In the larger list of results, many are wrecking companies, some are hardware stores, etc. The list of 12 results is more telling, I think.

Anyway, enough of my rambling - I'm off to learn something.

[Varjeal]

The quoted # is generally per locksmith.

It sounds like you've been doing some research, which is a very good idea. Here's a way to further clarify that #, which of course you probably realize is not a hard and fast rule.

#1. Automatically discount wrecking yards, and any company that doesn't offer real locksmith service besides selling locks and key cutting. These places aren't anywhere near competition.

Of the places that do claim to offer "locksmith services" do a little more digging and find out if they specialize, and how many people they actually employ. Some of those companies may only be 1 or 2 man operations while others may run a half dozen or more service vans. Doing a bit more digging will give you a clearer picture. You may want to actually visit any of these shops that have a store-front, to get an idea of what kind of pricing and product your going to need to carry as well.

Assuming the lower population you quoted and 12 "locksmith" listings, your looking at approximately 33,000 people /company, which doesn't sound crowded at all considering the population density. Also remember that in large centers, many locksmith companies will focus primarily on a certain sized territory, and may not be overly interested in driving to the furthest outskirts of the city and outlying areas.

Best of luck.

P.S. One thing I just remembered was that the # generally only includes actual residents, not visitors, so keep that in mind as well. A town with 40,000 people may reach almost double at "special event" times in the year such as holidays, weekend concerts, big sporting events, etc.

[sportsguy]

Thanks for the info Varjeal. I appreciate it.

I've been doing some research, but this is pretty light stuff so far - the real meat is still in front of me - can't wait to dig in.

It may be sick to say so, but I enjoy this kind of research and business planning...hehe, must be the marketer in me and all the freakin' ROI calculations I do all day...LOL

Great tip on the wrecking yards, etc. There were a bunch in my original list of 24. Good stuff to know.