LOCKSMITH CAREERS – WILD PLACES TO WORK

admin August 3, 2022 local locksmiths, locksmiths Comments Off on LOCKSMITH CAREERS – WILD PLACES TO WORK 553 Views

Table of Contents

5/5 - (1 vote)

What are the top locksmith careers jobs that locksmith Performs? Then what can I expect working at a lock shop? And what are you know my own personal experiences with you know the most common and popular locksmith careers jobs at my shop. Different things of that nature had questions on you know what should i specialize in? when you start out you want to definitely specialize? In something just you don’t want to go full like full service day one. Unless you have a lot of employees with a lot of experience. Because you will burn out very quickly, if you try and take you know minimal experience.

And say okay i know enough about residential, I know enough about commercial, i know enough about cars. You try to combine all these you’re going to get overwhelmed. You’re going to take too many locksmith careers jobs. It’s going to crush you. So to give you guys an idea of what to you know. Maybe specialize in first this list may help you know get some insight on that. You know what are the least popular calls that i get. As a lock shop what are the you know least popular overall at you know.

locksmith sw1

https://youtu.be/j40g–4oeDY

Locksmith Jobs

I’ve worked in lock shops in rural areas as well as very populated metro cities. You know I have worked all over. You know super packed cities super small I’ve even worked in tourist cities where you know there’s certain seasons, where you get a lot of tourism and then all of a sudden. They all take off because the temperatures here get into the 120 range. So they head back to the east coast in the summer and then they come back in the winter where you know it, never gets below 70 at night.

locksmith palmers green

So just to kind of give you guys an overall idea here. I’ve put together this list for all of those questions anyone that has these questions. These are the top seven locksmith careers jobs you’ll be performing and when i say locksmith careers jobs i don’t just mean going into the field. These could also be locksmith careers jobs brought to you in the shop. So with all of that said we’ll jump right into it. These are the top seven locksmith careers jobs you can expect to be performing.

Safes Locksmith Careers

Number seven we’re going to go seven to one on this from least to most popular number seven our least you know called about locksmith careers jobs is safes. Yesterday i had a call actually from a restaurant. They had a safe and it’s a really old safe as most you’re gonna learn this. If you jump into the safe world a lot of these companies. Even if it’s a brand new company that just built you know their building yesterday. The safes in these places are just ancient.

I don’t understand why like that. Should be like you know really high up on your list of priorities is, you know having a really solid safe. And some of these are just like falling apart and they’re breaking like all the time. Because they’re really cheap safes. But yesterday I received a call on one from a company a little fast food restaurant here. And it’s a chain store too. I was surprised their safe was just terrible. But basically what their problem was. They could you know use the handle and you know lock their safe.

locksmith finsbury park

So they could push the their keypad and unlock the safe and if they push the keypad to lock it. They could just use the handle and open it. So it wasn’t locking, it was unlocking it wasn’t locking. The safe handle was also about to fall off. Just to show you guys, just how used and abused the safe was at this restaurant.

locksmith holloway

So that was probably my first safe call, in about six days. So just to kind of give you an idea here. This whole list I kind of came up with I just started from the beginning of this year. Till now and I you know, I didn’t go you know one by one. Because there’s a lot but I kind of just got a an average. And this is the least called about locksmith careers jobs that I’ve received this year is safe. So if you’re going to jump in the safes know that a lot of safes are not going to be you know coming your way.

locksmith shepherds bush

Sometimes if you want, you can offer you know customers to bring their safes in. If you don’t want to travel to them. You can also what some shops do i worked at one shop, where the owner really just wanted to make as much money as he could, he didn’t really know a lot about locksmithing. He hired locksmiths like myself and Others. And he knew nothing about safes and he did not want to invest in any safe tools. You know he didn’t want to work on any of that.

locksmith baker street

But what he did was he set up an account. Where he would sell these safes out of a catalog. Order the saves through the you know Distributor. And have us load them up in our vans and go install them and that’s all we did. We just installed them the distributor gave us you know their number and all these tapes. You know they have a code that. We you know we would show them to call up to get their. You know combination whatever that’s all. They did, they just sold them and installed them at that shop. You could even think about doing something like that.

locksmith finchley

If you want to make extra money. Sometimes it’s more popular to sell safes than others. So it was a really wealthy area a lot of celebrities, a lot of business owners. When I say business owners, I mean like franchise owners. And a lot of really high profile Residents. So safes were kind of huge money for that city. So I see why he wanted to sell them. He didn’t want to pay us enough to become safe experts. Because he really that shop unfortunately, he didn’t like to pay.

locksmith golders green

You know, you’re worth there. So long story short I you know left that shop, no real hard feelings. You know it’s nice to work in a lock shop. I just at the end of the day. You want to put food on your table and you know if you’re going to spend several hours a day working. You want to make as much as you can. I would say safe, so if you are thinking of just being a safe guy. There is a guy in my area, he’s about six towns over and all he really does is safes.

locksmith neasden

He’s like the safe guru of this area. And he travels you know, because even in you know within six towns. It’s not enough work to rely on safe work. He will travel hours to companies that need safe help. And you know safe repair so just know. If you’re going to try and specialize in safes. I would definitely recommend this as something you add on to your current list later on. I wouldn’t try and rely on this as a you know day trade. Because you will have a lot of dead weeks.

Home and Business Lockouts Locksmith Careers

Number six on this list home and business lockouts. So a lot of you are avid lock pickers. And you were wondering, you know some of you have even asked you know for hiring that. You guys are amazing lock pickers. Some of you guys are you know. Just to give you guys an idea in the world of locksmithing. This is number six on the list, you’re not going to be picking a lot of locks.

I get three or four calls in a rural area a week for lockouts. Home and business, it’s not, it’s not a big money maker in picking locks. It is it is a money maker, but it’s not going to make you like a full paycheck unless you’re going to charge a thousand dollars a lockout. You know you’re not going to make very much money relying as one viewer asked you know. If I just start a lockout business, if that’s all I do you’re gonna have trouble. Unless you’re willing to travel and expand to like the entire state.

locksmith southwark

Because you know depending, where you’re at even I worked in a metro area with over 200 000 people. And we covered most of these city and surrounding cities and I think I only picked. Four five locks a week and it’s just to give you guys an idea of how big of a market that was. I still wasn’t picking very many Locks. So just to give you guys an idea. There’s also a lot of competition in those areas. So you gotta you know think about that too.

locksmith hammersmith

You’re not the only locksmith being called maybe one guy has it locked down. There’s a lot of guys on craigslist doing the lockout business. So you know they just show up with a drill and then sell somebody another cheap lock. That they throw on the door. So this is number six you won’t be picking very many locks. The way you might think you will you’ll be picking locks.

But it’s not gonna be in you know a setting where you’re gonna show up to a home. Every day five times a day to pick their Lock. So that is number six on the list some of you may be surprised by this. But that’s just the facts of it lock picking in the locksmithing world is maybe five percent of the entire locksmith careers.

Automotive Lockout Locksmith Careers

So next up on the list number five I wrote down the automotive lockout. I get more calls on this type of lockout than the residential, commercial people are always locking themselves out of their car. They’re you know rushing into their locksmith careers jobs Late, they’re you know right now. It’s really hot during a heat wave and people are starting their cars while they’re loading their groceries.

And they you know start their car turn on their ac, close their doors and a lot of these new cars. I don’t know what it is about them, they’re locking themselves automatically. Some of them do it when you put them in drive, some of them just I don’t know. Why they just kind of glitch out and lock themselves. And then the client doesn’t even know this. And they’re you know loading their trunk. They close the trunk and they’re like oh no I just locked myself out.

locksmith nw3

This is double the residential, commercial call. You’re gonna do pretty much, you know whatever you think. You’re gonna be doing for residential, commercial just double that number like I said I do, about three or four a week. Maybe five lockouts for that side for automotive, I get calls daily. It’s not a huge call, but it is a daily call residential, commercial lockouts are not daily. It’s just kind of here and there so This also you know a lot of town companies are doing this.

locksmith clapham junction

Again a lot of craigslist guys, they buy a reach tool off. You know amazon and they’re like I could do this you know, I could do this all day. And you’ll show up to some cars, where you know one of the craigslist guys couldn’t get into the car. And I’ve seen them straight fold corners of doors over and just remove all of the paint on the corner of someone’s car. They can’t get into the car make sure you guys are calling a licensed locksmith. Don’t just call the guy that’s 20 bucks on craigslist. He’s gonna cost you a lot more than 20 bucks.

Installs Locksmith Careers

So next up on the list Installs, I wanted to write this a couple of different ways. But I left it like this. Because you know it’s not just commercial and residential installs. That you’re going to be doing sometimes customers are going to bring in old gumball machines. They’re going to bring in vending machines, they’re going to have you show up to these things. You’re going to show up to safes again. If your shop sells safes, even like I said at the shop like I had worked at.

We didn’t service them, but we did install them in people’s homes. This is huge, this is definitely a daily locksmith careers jobs that you’re going to be doing at any lock shop. Even the worst you know slowest lock shop in America is doing these daily. You definitely want to familiarize yourself with a tape measure. Definitely familiarize yourself with hole saws and chisels buy yourself levels and speed squares. Definitely familiarize yourself with all of these tools.

locksmith sw19

It’s you know, you’re gonna get to you know some really fancy doors I’ve done celebrities homes. Where their doors were worth more than some people’s cars like there was a celebrity’s home, I got to. And their front door was like three stories told. I could not believe this thing. It was like made out of like a redwood tree and I just couldn’t believe it. I was like what like how do you even move this thing. How do you like, how do you even have the strength to pull this and open you know.

locksmith clapham junction

But and he was like you know we need to install these locks and I was like I. Don’t want to touch this door man like I’ve been doing this for a long time. But I just, I don’t even want a chance scratching or scuffing this door, that was a heck of a locksmith careers jobs. But you know, if you know what you’re doing. It’s not that bad, but I mean on a door that costs you know upwards of thirty thousand dollars. You wanna be very cautious, I don’t care if you’ve had four years experience.

locksmith sw19

It’s intimidating so installs are huge you’re gonna get to you know a lot of businesses with panic devices. A lot of businesses are not going to have you install them fresh. You know, they’re going to have you replace them. It’s really installs are a daily locksmith careers job, you’re going to be doing that, you’re going to be installing mailbox locks. You’re going to be installing, you know auxiliary locks, you’re going to you know like chain locks, you’re going to put on like.

locksmith clapham junction

The door guardian you’re going to install those for parents with you know smaller children. Or you know they have a pool in their backyard, they don’t want anyone opening it up, and letting their pets run out. Whatever it is installs are huge. This is one of the most common calls that you’re going to be doing as a locksmith. So definitely really high up on the list there.

Residential Commercial Re-keys

So the third most popular call Residential, commercial re-keys, This could easily be our top call. So this one and the next one are pretty much tied in volume. You know just the calls we receive this one’s, huge this is my daily. This one is pretty much my bread and Butter, this is what I make my living doing is residential and commercial. This is what I live by and there’s another aspect of locksmithing. That I’ll get into next and the next one but residential, commercial is going to be every day.

Multiple times a day you will, sometimes find yourself re-keying five or six homes a day and then a couple of businesses especially nowadays with the airbnb trends going on. I find myself having to go out and fix smart locks a lot. And funny enough, the most common thing that I’ve been noticing is clients will you know. They’re trying to re-key, their smart lock and they just don’t insert the key all the way. And I’ll show up and you know they re-key. It to a key that wasn’t pushed in.

locksmith paddington

So if I take their key, if they still have it. I could just insert it to you know different. You know depths until, I find the you know the spot that they keyed it to. So that is kind of a pro tip for you guys, you don’t have to worry about trying to pick over a smart lock. If they have their key sometimes, you get away with it. Many times you know just in the last few months. I that’s what I’ve done, like they’ve showed up and they’re like my key doesn’t work.

locksmith nw3

I don’t know what happened and I’ll just barely put the key in or I’ll just have it you know. The shoulder barely not touching and I’ll be able to turn the lock over. So that is something to check before you guys start drilling. Trying to you know bypass these smart locks definitely huge amount of the locksmith careers jobs. This is like 90 percent of my job is residential and commercial re-keys.

locksmith catford

This is all day long, this is also I didn’t add this in the list. But master keying will fit into this mostly on the commercial side. If you’re in a town with a lot of country clubs, if you’re in a town with you know just a lot of sometimes like a lot of hotels, a lot of hotels are going to cards you know, card access and everything now. This is like I said easily, this could be at the top of the list. But that is number three on our list Today.

Automotive Key Programming

Number two, this is these and again. This could be tied with the last one with number three. They could go either way I wrote, it this way. Because just in the last week, we’ve had a really big spike in automotive calls and part of this. I want to just let you guys know, it’s probably skewed. Because one of our locksmiths in our area. Who’s been here for 30 years retired.

So it kind of just left me up here by myself which is cool for me. You know, but we used to kind of split these calls now. I’m getting like 100 of them and it’s a lot like, i did not realize how much of the automotive you know side. He was he was taking up here. But every day I have received six to eight calls a day on just automotive key programming.

locksmith e1

And this is people calling me that have broke their key off in their ignition, they’ve locked their key in their car, their you know insurance sent a town truck to unlock it. And they were like I want a spare key Mate. So this never happens again. This is huge, so if your shop offers automotive services. This is definitely going to be right up there with the last one.

locksmith muswell hill

You’re going to be doing this just as much sometimes more, sometimes less. Locksmiths will tell you depending on who you’re talking to that automotive is. The bread and butter other locksmiths will tell you commercial and residential. I’ve seen shops, I’ve worked at shops that only focus on automotive and only have focused on residential, commercial at the end of the day. We always made the same amount. So don’t think like, don’t believe the hype on one or the other.

locksmith welling

It’s pretty much the same some people see cars as just being easier. Some people see homes and businesses as being easier than you know sitting in someone’s car. You know dealing with steering columns sometimes popping up door panels. Some people love that and they’re like I don’t want to go into someone’s home or deal with a panic device. It’s the same like your paycheck is going to end up the same in either one anyone.

locksmith southwark

Who tells you that one or the other makes you know light years more than one. It’s not true like I said I’ve worked at a handful of shops, where the owners have their philosophy was. You know the only way to make money in locksmithing is automotive. And you know I was like that’s, I don’t think that’s true. And then I went to work at it, you know for a guy who hated automotive. He’s like we do not touch cars at all and he was making tens of thousands of dollars just off. you know commercial and residential accounts.

locksmith neasden

So it’s possible it really depends on the market you’re in and both of these shops that i’m explaining. You know in these examples were metro areas, so the money’s there whichever one you want to choose. But just to give you guys the idea because some of the questions in there were. You know which one makes the most money. Really either one, if you want to do them. All you’re gonna really be doing nice. You’re gonna do well for yourself. If you wanna do automotive residential and commercial. But if you just want to do one or the Other.

locksmith putney

You’re also going to be doing very Well. I do very well just doing residential, Commercial. We are adding someone to the team pretty soon to be doing automotive that’s kind of his specialty. So we’re going to kind of let him, just handle that side. But my bread and butter is residential, commercial. So that’s really my forte. So and like I said again just to reiterate it. This could easily have been number three. And the commercial, residential side could have been number one. Just because, that guy happened to leave and he was mainly the car t guy I’ve been getting these calls.

Key Copy

So just get ready for these and number one key copies, i know it sounds funny right you’re gonna think. You know those are your bread and butter locksmith careers jobs-wise. There have been days where, we didn’t get a call for a re-key. There are days where we didn’t get a car. You know, but every single day at a lock shop, you will cut hundreds of keys. So this is by volume and I know this is pretty funny that I made this number one. But if you think about it.

It is a job you’re going to be performing and you’re going to perform this hundreds of times a day. Where you’re gonna do a re-key. Maybe you know what four to eight locks on average per home. Four or five times a day maybe six times a day. You are going to cut I’ve had commercial.

locksmith chiswick

You know accounts come in and they’re like hey I need 40 of this key and 50 of this key and 20 of this key and that’s just one customer we’ve had days. Where there has been lines down the street and around the block. Just waiting for key copies, we have sold you know every day like you walk out of there with hundreds of dollars in even on a slow day. You’re making hundreds off of key copies.

This is what you’re gonna be doing, so you know. If you’re new at your lock shop. And you know everybody’s told you know, you’re going to be cutting a lot of keys. You just get ready, because it’s not as easy as just throwing it in a duplicator and duplicating it sometimes. There’s certain keys that can only be cut on a code machine. So you don’t want to just duplicate every key, that comes in there’s certain keys.

locksmith tottenham

That can only be cut on certain types of key machines. Medicos for instance will have a certain type of key machine. You’ll learn about flat keys bit keys. Those are cut on specific machines. This is huge this is you’re gonna be doing this a lot. I also wrote stamping, because I’ve had days, where I’ll have four or five re-keys. You know a couple cars whatever I’m doing a couple of lockouts. You come back by the end of the day, you’ll have people that are like I need, like I said like that commercial account. That came in he was like I need all those keys.

emergency locksmith north london

And all of them stamped with specific numbers like this one is a1. This one is a2 this one and it’s like. Okay here we go you know sometimes, they just have weird codes that only they know about. You’re going to be doing this all day long. Every single day, so there’s never a day even at the slowest shop that I ever worked at that. We didn’t sell 300 worth of key copies like it, but like I said I’m in California, I’ve worked in very large metro areas.