Following on from the excellent article provided by Ravi Kotecha from Autowave last week, I felt inspired to write in and share my thoughts on the Auto locksmith industry right now. The points Ravi made about the strength of this service prevailing through tough times – I can only confirm through my own first-hand experience.
As both a Domestic and Auto locksmith myself, I can say that it’s the Auto side of the business that has more than “kept me afloat” during these crazy times.
Alex Welsh – The City Locksmith Brighton
I also agree that it’s due to the fact that more people are avoiding public transport, company cars are no longer a company benefit and of course, the second hand car market has seen a huge spike recently. From a profit perspective, you need much fewer jobs to make a living as an Auto locksmith so even if you’re getting less phone calls, you’re still turning over a healthy profit margin per job.
I was a domestic locksmith for 10 years before I took the plunge and invested into the Auto side, and like many locksmiths, I also felt very unsure at the start. Most of my fellow locksmiths put me off the idea in the beginning by saying it was “too expensive”, “too risky” or “too complicated” but once you get started, I found it’s actually very simple.
If you break it down into 3 steps, it really simplifies things as I’ll explain here;
STEP 1: Picking & Decoding
STEP 2: Cutting Keys
STEP 3: Programming Keys
As an auto locksmith, you’ll always be doing either one or all of the steps above.
Here’s The 3 Main Scenarios You Will Face As An Auto Locksmith:
1: The key is locked in the car – you will only need to do (part of) step 1.
2: A customer just wants a spare key cut – you will only need to do step 2 and 3.
3: The customer has lost all the keys to the vehicle – you will do all 3 steps.
It’s easy to get caught up in confusion when you start out as you think there’s so much to learn but if you approach each job thinking about which steps you need to take, it really takes the pressure off. Most of the learning curve comes down to picking and decoding (step 1). Once you master that, you’re 80% of the way there, the rest is just pushing buttons as in steps 2 and 3!
Another battle that start-ups seem to face is selecting the right equipment. Just in the last 5 years I’ve seen so many key programmers and cutters hit the market that I can see why it can be difficult to know what you really need to start this business from scratch or add it to your existing business. But again, this can be simplified by going back to our 3 main scenarios.
The things I love about Auto locksmithing is the fact that it’s a lot less taxing on the body! I’m 35 years old and although I love the domestic side, I’ve already had enough of fitting deadlocks on my hands and knees and sweeping up sawdust, the day of an Auto locksmith is usually sat in the customers car pushing buttons.
I also find that picking vehicle locks is much more satisfying compared with picking household locks as the process is kind of guaranteed to open the lock. You follow the procedure and the lock opens – 99% of the time anyway! There’s always the one lock where some clever cloggs has forced it with a screwdriver or glued it! (luckily there’s often the passenger door or the boot left to open).
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