We caught up with Robert Carney of Arc Locksmiths in Manchester, whom has been a locksmith since 1988 and is in his 35th year of business. Bob (for short) has worked in the industry his entire career since leaving school, he’s seen it all (the good, the bad and the ugly) and even had a gun put to his head!
How did you get into locksmithing?
I got into locksmithing from leaving school, securing my first job with a local locksmith in Manchester. I worked for him for six years before setting up my own business at the end of 22. It was a mad year when I got married, had my first child and set up a business in the same year.
My first premises I rented in an industrial unit and when I outgrew this, I then found a shop, I later bought my own premises so I own both the building and the business. And so, Arc Locksmiths was born – RC represents by initials and A in front to get to the top of the listing in the Yellow Pages (it was important back in 1988).
I started off doing warrant work, but then got regular customers working for councils etc. Nowadays, I mainly I do a mix of all sorts – public, letting agents, council and legal work. We’ve upsized and downsized over the years, with a maximum of four employees, but now there’s just the two of us – John Christian and myself who work in the shop.
Where did you train?
I did some training with a Manchester locksmith, then I did the MLA course and exams. I’m still a member of the MLA now, it’s been a fair few years now, I might be there’s longest member! The most recent course I did was on car keys, however I decided it was too expensive to invest in at my time of life.
My future plans
I’m planning to retire in the next couple of years, I own the shop and the business so need to look into my options. One of my son’s used to work with us, but now he lives in America, so no-one in the family to take over the reins. When I retire, I plan to visit all the other baseball stadiums in the USA I haven’t got to yet; I’ve been to exactly half of them so far!
Likes and dislikes of locksmithing?
What I love the most if every day being different, there’s just never a dull moment in locksmithing. You just don’t know who is going to walk through my door next with a different challenge. I used to love going out and about, but now I’m happy to do less of this.
I had a gun pulled out on me when I was accompanied by bailiffs on a repossessions job. I was on my knees working doing the lock and a guy pulled a gun on me (to my head, from behind) and the bailiff ran off! The man with the gun came out of the Bookies next door, he knew the previous owner of the shop I was accessing and was only defending his friend (albeit with a gun). The site manager (a lady) saved me!
My advice to other locksmiths
I would advise other locksmiths starting in the trade to consider doing growth areas such as learning access control (electronic devices) and auto locksmithing. If I was starting from scratch now, I would learn these things because of the way the market is heading, general locksmithing is just too competitive nowadays. There’s good money to be made on the diagnostic side (cars).
Make sure you subscribe to the Locksmith Journal, it’s a good magazine to keep you in-touch with what’s happening in the sector. Also, Keyways the MLA magazine.
Stick to a product you know to be reliable. For example, I stock a lot of different brands of cylinders, such as Ultion, but I use Mul-T-Lock for masterkeying – I’ve used it for 30 years and it’s never let me down, not even once.
Market trends
There is a different trend in how criminals break into domestic properties, it used to be snapping the handle or cylinder. Now, I’m seeing holes burnt in the doors to get the cylinders out.
Marketing advice
When I first started out it everything was about the Yellow Pages! Now it’s all Google, SEO and social media marketing. I would recommend learning how to do these things yourself, get a few books and learn about to do the basics, save yourself some money. If you pay someone to do it, you get used to them doing it, but if you learn to do it yourself, then it becomes easier over time and just part of what you do. Becoming as self-sufficient as possible is the way to be!
Tel: 0161 2562551