I have put together a small article for those of you that want to become a trained locksmith, everything that I have written is from my own personal experience, and I would like to share my thoughts with you in the hope that you do not make any mistakes or regret anything by investing into this venture.
So, you are thinking about becoming a locksmith? The first thing I will ask to you is why? Why are you thinking you want to become a locksmith? You really need to know the answer to this question before you go out and spend any of your already hard-earned money. The answer that I gave when I was asked myself this same question was, that I wanted to be able to help people that need it, without the fear of them being ripped off, can you say the same or something similar? Or was your first thought the money? Now that I have your attention, I just want to point out how hard it is working for yourself, especially if you have never been self-employed before. Being self employed means that you are no longer a small cog in a big machine, you are the machine and this means you have to do everything yourself to keep your company afloat, from vehicle maintenance to accounts, web site design, pension, wages, tax, stock control, advertising the complete shebang, as well as answering the phone, taking bookings and actually doing the work to name but a few jobs. So, ask your self can you do all the above and more? As the saying goes the buck stops here, you will have no one to fall back on to help you, it will be you and you alone out there.
Like you, every man and his dog now want to become a locksmith because they have heard that it is easy money for little work and loads of free time. Well, I have just gone over that.
I will let you into a trade secret, and that is yes, the money can be good, however to earn a good wage as a locksmith you must be the best in your field and stand out from all the other locksmiths in your area, this will take time and a lot of training, effort and dedication to become skilled, customer trustworthy and experienced.
Over the years I have seen so many people fail in this industry as they simply haven’t put in the time, research or haven’t realised how hard it really is to become a trained locksmith nor did they know the amount of money you have to put in to buy the tools and get the correct training.
That said, you also need to know what type of locksmith you plan to be? Are you going to be auto locksmith that works on cars and vans? Or a residential & commercial locksmith that works on people’s homes or their place of work. It could be a combination of both if you have the funds.
An auto locksmith is a field all to its own and is by far the most expensive to get into, as I am not an auto locksmith, I can say little more about the subject. Most however go into residential and commercial locksmithing, this can also be broken down into 3 classes (others may disagree).
1) Emergency 24-hour locksmith.
2) General locksmith.
3) Warrant locksmith. Or again a combination of all 3.
I myself am an emergency 24-hour locksmith, this means that I am on call 24/7 365 days and specialise in gaining entry non-destructively around 95% of the time. The down side to being 24-hour is that you are always on call, so your social life will take a big hit and needless to say you cant drink any alcohol and it does effect your sleep too, on the plus side this is where you make your money as you are out of hours and you really need to be on site within 30 minutes of taking your call, you also have to know how to open just about every type of lock on the market and when you are not working you will be training or modifying tools.
As a general locksmith you normally work your 9 to 5 or there abouts, most of your time will be fitting new locks to wooden doors so you will need to be really good at carpentry, you will also get asked to gain entry in an emergency, get to re-pin locks, change locks, change handles fix double glazed doors etc, but when you go home your time is your own.
Warrant locksmiths these are the ones that work with bailiffs, courts or local councils etc as seen on TV. I personally do not do this type of work as I believe in not kicking a person when their down, however if you have a don’t care attitude then this is for you, a warrant locksmith does a lot of evictions and changing locks on properties, yes the money might be very good but expect your van to get vandalised now and then and like it or not you receive both verbal and physical abuse, but it come with the territory! If you are serious about becoming a locksmith you will need to decide which way you want to go and train as necessary.
I hope that my small article has been of some help to you, or at the very least has made you think a little bit more before you leap into anything. Whatever decision you make, I wish you all the best and remember train hard.