Locksmith Tips | How To Make Money!

How do you make money and stay competitive in the locksmith industry? PJ shares some locksmith tips on how to breakdown your cost and how to make enough money to be profitable. Overall, the point is to make sure you making enough money for your personal needs! We hope these locksmith tips are helpful to you! Let us know in the comments!
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CLK SUPPLIES provides Lock and Key supplies to the Locksmithing industry. Since 2004, providing Key Products for Key People has been our mission, it's what has allowed us to build trust and relationships with our customers (we call them friends) and only offer the best products and solutions available.
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[@derekbroestler7687]

Great video concept.... Something I'd like to add is being open to diversifying... I learned fairly quickly that I couldn't make it just on residential, and since I'm not set up for automotive, what does that leave me.... Well, industrial, commercial, and my specialty, antiques... Those are VASTLY different price scales... Very quickly, even without me planning too much for it the majority of my income started to come from industrial locksmithing... Yes, there are hoops to jump through with training, contractor pre qualification, and insurance, but once you've met them provided you do a good job, it's steady income... Also industrial customers tend not to complain too much about price provided that your labor costs are fair considering your area, and your parts costs have THEIR supplier (usually Grainger) beat... So while you'll have to deal with the PPE, driving distance, working in potentially hazardous conditions, and all the other stuff.... especially, they want what they want and they do NOT want to hear "you can't make me do that".... for example some of my industrial sites have "requested" that I take special precautions during our current situation... So I do.... On top of that the job, USUALLY is boring and usually uncomfortable because of the work conditions and PPE... You're going to do a LOT of masterkeying and hardware instalation and replacement... Boring on industrial sites is GOOD... TRUST me, you do not want an "interesting" day at a chemical plant... It's kind of like having a boss again, BUT at least it's like having a boss that appreciates you and pays you well.... Almost ALL industrial sites will require invoice billing, remember to add that into your total costs... So keep that in mind, it's not like you're doing a day's worth of work and they cut you a check same day... If it takes them 45 days to pay you, you're giving them a loan for a month and a half... charge for that... Commercial is another good source of revenue, for example in my area we have a LOT of vacation rentals... Those aren't exactly generating much revenue lately, but usually they do... Same with landlords of shopping centers, property management companies, etc... Service companies that subcontract for retail chains usually don't complain about price, but many will have net 30, 45, or even 60 day terms.... That's longer than even my industrial sites, which are typically capped at 30... Again, add that to your price because you're essentially giving them a loan... I tack on $5 to my base hourly for every 5 days after net 15... Note with service companies however... read the contract they send you VERY closely... have your lawyer read it, if you have one.... I had one try to take $20 off their bill as a "processing fee"... that they charged to.... pay their bill... ALSO be SURE to look them up before taking on a new service company customer... There's a lot of fly by night operations in that field, and you don't want to get stiffed with nothing but dead ends for recourse... Residential in my market is not a great moneymaker for me... 90% of the folks here have either Kwikset or Schlage, and you can only charge so much for a trip charge and rekey before it becomes cheaper for them to just go to Amazon and buy a bulk pack of locks and install them themselves... And that's becoming a LOT more common... If you're qualified to do things like door reinforcement, those can be good upsells... Specialties..... I specialize in antiques and live in an area where there are a LOT of historic buildings and antique shops... . I've been doing it for over 15 years, learned from a locksmith who'd been doing it almost 70, who learned from his father who'd been doing it about the same amount of time... Now that he's no longer with us.... I'm pretty much the only person doing here, and I'm widely recognized as the most knowledgeable, even among my competitors. .... It is NOT rare for me to quote a price, have the customer decline, then call back because they called EVERY locksmith here and were referred back to me 100% of the time... It's not unheard of for me to drive 150 miles to historic sites or museums because I'm the closest one who knows how to do the work... So I charge what I'm worth, and it's more expensive than even industrial for rare or hard to work on locks... You want a 1860's era Bramah five slider opened and a key made for it? You're gonna pay MY price, or you're going to pay someone from out of the area to drive or fly a few hundred miles to do it... because no one here can do it OTHER than me can.... and if your antique desk has THAT lock (or similar), you'll PROBABLY understand that it's just an investment in the piece... What I'm charging seems steep by conventional locksmithing standards, but it's a fraction of the price of the piece of furniture in 99% of cases... Same with any other specialty.... If you're the ONLY safe tech that can work on GSA rated containers or a particular TL15 or TL30, charge for it..... If you're the ONLY auto locksmith in the area that can program keys for BMW or Mercedes, charge for it... I'm not saying pillage, but remember YOU built up the skill set and tools to do that job, and it was a BIG commitment in learning and tooling.... get paid for it... That is DEFINITELY not the place to undersell yourself. Don't try specializing in a field you're not actually specialized in.... I've been called out on botched antique jobs where the "locksmith" they hired first completely destroyed the value of the piece, my advice to those customers "sue them because they didn't have a CLUE what they were working on, or how" and that's the advice any specialist will give in that situation... Same with safes.... My buddy, the area's leading safeman, has shown me hatchet jobs where someone took an angle grinder to open a safe that could have been opened with knowledge and a single 1/4in drill point.... You don't want to be THAT guy...

[@clksupplies]

Derek, Wow! Thanks for sharing, lots of gold nuggets. I completely agree with what your saying, thanks for taking the time to write that information to share with others! -PJ

[@steamgadget]

I loved reading this! I really want to get into working on and repairing antique locks. I have a particular backgroung that seems to come in handy for work like that. I am somewhat new to locksmithing but I have been a metalworker for 20 some years. Are there any books that YOU would recommend? Thanks in advance.

[@derekbroestler7687]

​@@steamgadget There really is unfortunately not a definitive guide, I'm been trying to put one together for about a decade, but between the overwhelming amount of knowledge that needs to be covered, that fact that MOST of it is outdated and hard to track down, and quite frankly "life" I haven't been able to make as much progress as I'd like to have... (So what started as "short advice" from me turned into a book unto it's own... lol.... but here goes... ) What I CAN tell you about learning about antique locks.... There are some books that give broad overviews, "Locks, Safes, and Security" is one of them, there are other's but that one gives a lot of broad spectrum explanations of the high points of design, time periods, etc... it's by NO means comprehensive (NONE of them are), BUT it's useful especially if you're just starting out and it's a lot cheaper than it used to be if you do a few searches. As far as any other books, I could recommend, that would be literally ANY locksmith guide from the time period as well as manufacturers' catalogs, which can be especially useful in identifying a model. Ebay is often a good source for these, as is any estate sale where an old locksmith known to be a manual hoarder has passed on is another... Most have not been transcribed to digital format, so invest in bookcases. (I wish I was kidding, I have 8 filled with nothing but old manuals) There are LITERALLY steamer trunk key manuals that are nothing more than silhouettes (in exact size) of the correct key for particular codes. Without those you're either making it from scratch or hoping someone has one for sale... Even if you can find it online, all you can do is hope they got the formatting correct. When it comes to identifying locks and understanding mechanisms, Google is actually good in some cases at least for identifying mechanical complications... Patent search is your friend... I can not emphasize this enough so I'll just write it again in all caps.... PATENT SEARCH IS YOUR FRIEND... Stay away from old safes unless you're a safeman specially trained in it... Back in the day they put a lot of NASTY stuff in the mechanisms of safes and strongboxes... and with age it's gotten nastier... (did you know that some forms of tear gas commonly used as "traps" in safes to prevent drilling, degrade into cyanide given enough time.... YEAH, that's the sort of thing I'm talking about here) Pass those jobs onto to our SAFTA brothers and sisters who have specific training for it... Coming from a metalworker background will probably help, depending on WHAT you were doing.... If you can identify wear points and tool marks, it most certainly will, because often there IS no manual so it's all from scratch... (as in literally, look at the scratches after 100+ years of wear to see how it should work and what broke) If you're not already, get more familiar with springs then you ever thought there was to know... From how to identify them, how to source them, and if necessary, how to make it by hand.... 90%+ of the time when a lock stops working after 100+ years of flawless service, it's a spring to blame... Heavy welding is usually not a necessary skill here (we're working on locks, not battleships) but fine brazing and soldering are. My portable kit is an OXY/Mapp-pro kit, with an additional propane backup.... my shop setup is an Oxy/ Acetylene jewelry brazing rig... Haven't touched anything larger than that in years. If you can cut, shape, and polish metal up to, say, about, 2"x1.5" down to the thousandths to meet spec, you're MORE than good. The good news here is that it USUALLY tolerances weren't THAT tight back then UNLESS you get something really nice back in the day... You don't need a full machine shop for this, a steady hand, standard shop tools, and a LOT of measuring, between operations will do the trick. Be prepared for practically zero support from companies that are even still in business, either they no longer have the records like Corbin Russwin, who's technical support argued with me that there was "no way" I had a Corbin Mo.50 because "we haven't made those in over 60 years" and I explained, "yeah I know, it's on a 120 year old building, and it's original hardware".... At which point they just admitted they had no documentation for it... Bramah informed me in what I've since consistently described as "the most British way I've ever heard it put" that "For our purposes, sir, you ARE the general public, and we can not give that information" (I was working for one of the oldest continuously run family locksmith shops in the US at the time, in business over 130 years).... I was trying to get information on a lock from 1860... (Maybe they're still brassed off about Hobbs, IDK?) So like I said, be prepared for zero support from companies that are even still in business. If you've ever had to call Kwikset tech support, consider that EXCELLENT support in this case... Get to know locksmiths in Europe.... ESPECIALLY with lever locks.... KZbin helps with this.... Same with the sportpicking community.... I know that the relationship between sport pickers and a lot of locksmiths is, er.... tense.... but genie's out of the bottle now that there's internet, there's no putting it back, so just benefit from it.... If you have to open or work on a Hobbs five lever from 1860, and "randompicker6969" LOVES them and has a whole channel dedicated to them, guess who's probably your best source of information... The good news is, hobbyists LOVE it when a professional asks them for advice on something... The minute you ask, you're gonna get every bit of information they know... I guess the main point with all of that is that being able to research something you've potentially never seen is a BIG skill... THANKFULLY we have loads of great forums, search engines, youtube, etc... It can be frustrating... and if you think you can't talk about work with "non locksmiths" because they "don't get it"... Just wait until you're with a group of locksmiths and start a story with, "So I go to open a Chubb postbox lock...." and watch eyes glaze over... I don't say any of this to discourage you.... just to prepare you.... In the words of Agent K, from "Men In Black"..... "Oh, it's worth it.... if you're strong enough"....

[@steamgadget]

@@derekbroestler7687 This is probably the greatest response I have ever received on KZbin. I cannot thank you enough for this! I do have a rather odd background in metal working that, with what you said here, I am totally convinced to go for this! My background is mostly in goldsmithing and hand engraving, as well as being a trained machinist. I have studied many old world techniques over the years and I am fascinated by technology and industry from times long ago, as well as current. I do frequent google patent search and it is one of the greatest things about living in this place and time, with the interests that I have. I actually made a small padlock prototype slightly larger than a dime that I desperately need to finish, but it works and the key opens the mechanism. I did this just to get a better understanding of tolerances of padlocks and older mechanisms. I love what I do and locksmithing seems to be a logical extension to my skills and interests. I will be hunting down that book very soon and looking in the places you have recommended. If you ever get a free minute you should send me an email some day. My username at gmail.com, I would love to pick your brain a bit and I may be able to help you some day. Thanks again for taking time to provide a little guidance to a complete stranger. Perhaps one day I can repay your kindness.. 💍⚙🔩🎨

[@ricardovasquez7619]

Thanks for the advice PJ I’m a new locksmith of 2 years and I already own my business .! This is invaluable information! Keep up the good work👍🏼

[@clksupplies]

Ricardo, 2 years locksmithing and you own your own business! That's great! Congrats. -PJ

[@johnneal9142]

Very good basic information PJ. My advice in addition to your info as far as what a person is charging would be to listen and see how your customers react to your costs. My experience has been more often than not people are paying me more than what I am charging. Having said that I know that the people that are paying me more are not locals and are probably used to higher prices in their city or area. I have tried to price with a happy medium in mind and it seems to be working. Keep up the great work PJ. #Lockboss

[@breached7288]

I already knew all of this that you said in this video, however not everyone does. They way you said it and really broke it down for people was very helpful. I love how you all are so helpful and educational. The time you all put into just making sure to educate people and make sure their business thrives is amazing. You all keep up the good work and I will keep watching all your content because I absolutely love it. Thank you CLK Supplies for everything you do. #lockboss

[@hartmanlockkey2592]

One thing I have learned over the years is that, if your prices are too low, the customer thinks something is wrong. You don't provide good service, your products are poor quality, something is not right. So they go elsewhere.

[@clksupplies]

Great point, thabks for sharing!- PJ

[@andymena3862]

Thanks for advice, I always google what my local locksmith are charging. Great information thank you PJ,

[@honeylovelace503]

Thank you for your hard work in making these videos.

[@stevengantt1242]

You gave me some clues, but knowing what to charge for my services is still uncertain. I guess I'll need to sit down and crunch the numbers and do some more research. Thanks "

[@cobralocksmith]

Great talk, right in the point. But most people just thinking how to grow and hire people, instead of learning new skills and offer more or unique services that noone in their area does.

[@clksupplies]

Very true!-PJ

[@kylecorey88]

One thing definitely is that some locksmiths go at others quite fiercely regarding there price , and if they charge to little or too much they are immediately considered a "scammer" if There price is not subject to there own... but it definitely does matter on your area and dynamics of what needs are more common opposed to others... example being I'm in Canada , Saskatchewan to be exact and we are in truck country and we have tow truck services everywere, so auto lockouts have alot of competition and keeps them at the 50 dollar range and cant go much higher because there are so many options. ..but residential lockouts specifically smart key lockouts myself and maybe one other can do here ...I can charge a very good price and have no problems doing so. ..by the way most of my equipment is from you guys ! Thanks for video

[@clksupplies]

Hi Kyle, So true. Thanks for the business! -PJ

[@kylecorey88]

@@clksupplies I literally get people that get upset if I open a door to fast and think it's then super easy,..what I do is then offer them the chance to do what i did with same tools and more time... that usually ends that discussion when I get a customer like that

[@societyofprofessionallocks2308]

@@kylecorey88 You get paid for what you know, not what you do. These are the opportunities for you to make recommendations to your customer on how to improve or upgrade their security. Educating your customer on the weaknesses and demonstrating your knowledge on providing a solution will increase your bottom line. If you are reasonable with your offers, most informed consumers will take your recommendation and be grateful. Good luck!

[@kylecorey88]

Yes , I try to do this , but honestly the majority either don't understand anything you try to suggest, I try to make things as simply explained as possible, And when you spend that time thry appreciate it and ussualy get on board and make the extra suggestions . A lot of the time people just want the job done and over with as fast as possible to get back on with there day because they are frustrated already. One thing in locksmith work that needs to be more emphasised and even maybe taught is psychology. We deal with everyone from police to the crazy cat lady to a religious leader to an armchair locksmith that will challenge your every step.. that is the area that there's no right answer to with so many customers that have such broad ideas and are very misinformed on what it takes sometimes. ..thats the largest dynamic of all especially if you are a mobile locksmith doing emergency work 24 hours...a commercial locksmith doing alot of institute work would not need to go through this as much but for myself it's a huge consideration I apply for every job

[@kylecorey88]

The problem alot is many are informed solely by movies and KZbin. ..that I know makes convincing people tough when they think they know more than us. I hate that

[@polarbear7334]

Thanks for the share and advice pj,#Lockboss

[@kennethg.stutmann8107]

I'm getting ready to retire some soon. I'm getting ready to reinvent myself so to speak. I'm mostly a handyman and I do locksmith work for the apartments I work at. After retirement I'm thinking about trying to get more locksmith work. #lockboss.

[@carllewis2207]

I’ve reviewed this video again, good advice.

[@jimgrathoff9944]

Being the only locksmith in my small town. I. Check with electrical companies and plumbers

[@EllisWright]

Hi PJ thanks for the advice

[@andy4907]

$100?!?! I don't do jobs for less than $140...Ive done a key programing job for $990. Go out and get these customers!!, if you ever wanna make money in your craft set a precedent!

[@alancorson5778]

I'm going to start up a new business down the road so this was good information to have. #lockboss

[@deanstreet1221]

Some good advice. Would like to hear more business advice in general. #Lockboss

[@clksupplies]

Thanks, checkout our podcast "the #Lockboss show" I have some business content on it including the one we put out this week-PJ

[@dacoldest3896]

I love getting as much as i can i playing jedi tricks with the customers haha. Get on site charge alot and if they push back tell them you can take off the service fee and alot of time people say yea go head. But make sure you charge alot! If you are charging 140 and up for a car or house lockout you are doing good. But at the end of the day give great service and make customers feel like they got a deal by giving them something but in reality you didnt haha.

[@John-kb9im]

Thinking about to move to other country. Some country pay really well 😅

[@juliomoraes5220]

I will go USA, from Brazil, i'm a locksmith here.

[@John-kb9im]

@@juliomoraes5220 some country got really strict rules to become a locksmith 😅

[@jeromymorehead2812]

@@juliomoraes5220 no Stay out the scamming middle eastern guys come here and ruin everything

[@BronxLockPicker60Rodriguez]

I like your advice PJ, I think you hit some key points on the head. Please say hi to Dad for me. #Lockboss God bless.

[@clksupplies]

Thank you! - PJ

[@LockpickingsGal]

Awesome video!! What about dealing with a few realtors? Maybe if they recommend you or give out your card when they close? Maybe credit unions that do home loans? #lockboss

[@clksupplies]

For sure!-PJ

[@sparkydon99]

Learning a lot. #lockboss

[@buz375]

At the same time we have taxes to deal with rent on building insurance plus supplies and trying to keep up with technology. Can't afford to take days off and it isn't Walmart where you can call in sick. This is 24-7 business or go broke. So we can't afford to give things away. We need every penny we can get. #lockboss

[@cesarrodriguez5180]

I believe that in these times of pandemic we as locksmith should be charging more. Cause we are getting exposed by getting in peoples vehicles.. idk give me a feedback

[@clksupplies]

I think standard pricing you charge should have that considered-PJ

[@ScottBrown-zz4sk]

🤔 $ 350 service call after 6pmm on weekends 🤨🤣

[@kipbateman3714]

#lockboss

[@RossHndrsn]

The best barber in a town filled with bald men will not make money. Find a need and fill it if you want to succeed. #lockboss

[@Hslk-Locksmith]

Write down how much time you spend on a service/job and how much you profited from it. Make a list sorted by profit/time. If any services you provide consistently land at the bottom of the list consider discontinuing them.

[@clksupplies]

I like the way you think! Thanks for sharing -PJ