Was hopeing I could maybe get some questions answered here.
I'm in search of a new career, been sitting behind a desk to long and I hate it. Locksmithing is somehting that I've had an interest in. So I checked salary.com and I see that working for someone else, the salary falls shy of what I need to pay the bills. Without getting to nosey, I was hoping some of you self employeed folks could tell me how a beginner, doing mostly lockouts, could hope to do in this industry.
G'day Gary. Lockouts provide about 5% to 10% of a locksmiths income, so if you only do lockouts then No1, you sure can't call yourself a locksmith, No2, ..... you'll starve !. If your 'fair dinkum' about becoming a 'Locksmith' then you obviously have to go through a lengthy period of training. The best way to learn the trade is to get an apprenticeship with a good Locksmithing firm, and of coarse you will be paid accordingly. The other way to get a foot into the trade is to do a recognized basic training coarse by correspondence or by attending a trade school. This will set you back $$$$$ and many hours of study. No pain - no gain. I guess it's like someone saying "I'm gonna be a electrician, BUT, I only want to replace blown fuses" (because it's easy and requires no real skill to do). As with any business, if you put the time, training and effort into it you can make your fortune, in time. It depends on how badly you want to succeed.
if you are going to 'unlock mostly' then the investment isnt too bad.. key generation, you need a REAL DEEP pocket for tools.. you can sink 10 grand in electronic plug in things, alone, and still need keys and kay machines..
I took a Home Study Coarse, Locksmith Institute, the Coarse that I took is
not available any longer. This was back in 1982.
I then got a Lockshop to continue my training.
I told them that I had taken a Coarse and that I didn't know much and that I
would work for Free to show them I was serious. What did he have to lose?
He liked my attitude and hired me and told me that he would pay me anyway. I
think that it got my foot in the door. The first thing that he told me was
to forget that Coarse and let him train me. I was lucky enough to have
learned from 4 Locksmiths at the same time. I learned a lot of different
ways to do the same job.
To answer your Question, The best way is to find a Locksmith that will be
willing to train you.
You will see that the trade is a lot different than those Courses will teach
you. The Courses will give you Basics and that's all. Every Locksmith
develops his own way of doing Lock & Key work. You will learn a lot of
shortcuts that are not tought in the Courses. That will come with
Experience.
The Trade is Changing so much, Mechanical Locks and Keys as we know them are going to be history in the future, you must diversify into Electronic Access to be
able to stay in Business. One day it will be common that Cars will no longer have Keys, they will use Scanners to identify the operator. Some cars over seas already use this
Technology.
Commercial Business offers more Profit than the Auto Business.
You can make Hundreds of $$$ per call instead of, what I call
"There's no problem in making a million dollars -- if all you want out of life is to make a million dollars." And that was true even when a million was real money.
for interesting.. last week in 4 days, had FIVE GM cars that would not start.. ALL had 'electronic stuff' in the ignition lock..the anti theft stuff.. NONE of the cars had a defective ignition lock or electronic problems WITH the ignition lock, EVEN THO its the most likely FIRST candidate.
Absolutely not. I never recommend any schools. When I hire someone, I would rather high someone straight off the street and train them, than someone fresh out of a school. Inquire about becoming an apprentise with another locksmith shop. You will learn more in 1 week then any school can teach you in 6 months. Especially if you work for a commercial locksmith shop.
IF, I was looking for an apprentice..I would ask some real funny questions..the basic theme would be are you of a mechanical frame of mind.. and if the answers came back as NOT- sorry, I am not going to get frustrated at you, nor waste my time..
my SIL, grew up, with VERY limited exposure to automotive fixing, but, his serious hobby is RC cars, building and painting.. he can call up, got a car problem, and i can tell him what to go check, and so on, and he usually will call back, yeah, this was bad, because of.... he has the 'talent' as such, but not the knowledge, but he does show he CAN BE taught.. that is what I would want in an apprentice.
the guy that I apprenticed from told me that he took the person to lunch. if he seasoned his food before tasting it ? he would wouldn't waste his time on them..
It is very sad that you don't view education as important... You take a really big risk when you hire someone cold off the street, as at least someone who was a student at a real trade school would come with a bit of prior experience in the shopwork aspect of locksmithing and the critique of a trained locksmith/teacher...
It is beyond arrogant to think that you are able to determine with 100% accuracy that someone walking in off the street asking to apprentice with you will work out if they have never done the work before... Some people are just not cut out for the repetitious nature of the shopwork side of locksmithing and may not last through that part of the training before you feel comfortable enough with them to take them out into the field on a job...
All of your rhetoric aside, I don't think that you could possibly even begin to make a dent in the amount of knowledge a real student could learn in six months in any one week anywhere... I know that not all students are serious about their studies, but your "automatic" rejection of anyone coming to you out of a trade school will not allow yourself the opportunity to find that rare gem of a student who has read everything they can get their hands on about locks and built themselves a large semantical knowledge base about various lock manufacturers and is thoroughly interested in learning everything that can be learned...
Key:
If ever working with someone who tells you to forget everything you were taught in school then I would'nt personally work for them for very long... It is clear from that type of comment that they don't feel that schools can teach you anything useful and that the only "right" way to do something is "that person's way"... It is rather arrogant for someone who has never received any formal eduication in teaching to think that they alone know the best way for another person to learn how to do something... Yes practice helps you refine a skill, but how does a person learn the skill that they are to be practicing ???
Evan, ~~ formerly a maintenance man, now a college student...
Ha ha, Well, to be honest, my idea of a fortune is being 'content with life' having enough money to own your own nice home with pool etc, own a nice car and boat, go on a family holiday once a year, and not having to worry about finding money to pay your bills. Over the years I've known some real 'hypo' business fanatics, who work 15 hours a day constantly building up and expanding their businesses. By the time their 60 they drop dead with a heart attack or get cancer or keel over with a stress induced stroke. I follow the "KISS" principal, (Keep It Simple Stupid) no worries mate !.
There is definitely a huge difference between corespondence courses and hands-on ones like Lockmasters-for instance.
I took the ICS Course in 1995.I didn't expect to come out of it a locksmith either. Even today I still hear that little voice in my head when I say I am one. But I do more than auto lockouts.And it seems I am adding more every year that I do. My second year of business made more-but still all going into it. And the books I got from the course are collecting dust-have'nt opened them in years. Plus I still work my other job which I have 20 years at-But I love the job I created. You can laugh at me or whatever, call me "One of those guys who took a mail-order course" I still love doing it.
There is another locksmith who lives 20+ miles away who has helped me some-even talked about "incorporating" me once. He basically started the same way I did.Back then it was only Belsaw-Not Foley-Belsaw. He has a very established business and does primarily commercial work.He admits that that was the hard way, but he still likes what he does.
My opinion of "forget this" is if you train someone right, they will forget most of the non-important things. I would know better than to try to tell a locksmith of 20+ years how to do something-or anything for that matter-unless he asked-then I would tell him how I did it-Not how he should.
hard an old story about a carpenter wanting a helper.. guy applied.. and the old man handed him a hand full of nails, and then proceeded to talk for 5 minutes on EVERYTHING but carpentry.. at the end of the time, told the guy he was hired..
the guy said HOW do you know i know anything about carpentry..
the old man said look in your hand.. all the nails had been turned so the head was on the same end, and the guy didnt even realize he was doing it.
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