What makes a good locksmith?

I have had the opportunity to train and work with hundreds of locksmiths on a day to day basis for several years. Many of them have remained in the profession and many have moved on to other things after discovering that locksmithing wasn't for them.

1. Curiosity: If you have a natural curiosity to know how things work, particularly small fairly complex mechanical things, then you meet the first and most important requirement to be a locksmith.

2. Three Hands: Most locksmithing requires three hands. The lack of a third hand handicaps you but can be overcome by the use of mechanical aptitude to find ways to get around needing the third hand. Vices, balancing acts, using other parts of your body and cleverness are the usual methods of overcoming the 3 hand handicap.

3. Patient to a fault: Locks are composed of small very specific parts and pieces, they have to be disassembled and reassembled in specific order for things to work properly. Unlike a motor or other mechanical devices locks are often made 'infernal' by design to prevent people from tampering with the insides, which could compromise the security of the device. Solving lock problems often requires a great deal of patience in working with the 'parts and pieces', springs are particularly good at complicating an otherwise simple task.

4. Honest to a fault: If you are a locksmith for a few years most physical security measures are little more than a nuisance. If you have a criminal bone in your body...stay out of locksmithing. The phrase "Put you under the jail", was developed for the case of a locksmith going bad. If a judge finds out that you are a locksmith and you broke the special trust that community affords you...yep, that's right...Under the jail you go!

5. Common Sense: Locksmiths often work in the field with a limited set of tools and inventory and have to use common sense to solve a lot of problems. A vehicle that is stranded on a dark street and the keys are lost may require the locksmith to modify a key blank to fit the vehicle if the EXACT keyblank is not available that night.

6. Reliable: There are only a few professions that you really HAVE to be reliable. If a librarian doesn't show up to work...some research may get behind but no one is left 'blowing in the breeze' from the lapse. Police, Fire, Ambulance, Locksmiths...when people call for your help, it is often a RIGHT NOW situation.

7. Tireless: You see those ads that say 24 hour service? Often that is a one man show, if they had calls all day and return home at 11PM and get a call at 2am...yep, that's right Mr. Locksmith gets his self out of bed to come help you. Many people call locksmiths in the middle of the night just to see if they can ask questions...newsflash...they are human beings just like anyone else, after hours service is for real EMERGENCIES not for asking how much to duplicate a moped key.

8. Organized: The back of a locksmith truck has literally thousands of tiny parts and tools. If you are not organized and good at 'putting stuff where it belongs', locksmithing will be a hard job because it will take you so long to get things done because your stuff is out of place and you have to dig, dig, dig to find it. This slows you down, causes aggravation and is also bad for customer service.

9. Good with money: Locksmiths have to handle money in a field condition. There is rarely a cash register to count money etc. You have to make sure you keep your invoices and money, checks, credit card approvals etc in order. You also have to pay taxes on money collected and pay distributors.

10. Driving: You have to be an excellent driver to be a locksmith. I don't mean race car excellent, I mean Safe Driver of the Year award good driver. It is not unusual for a locksmith to put 60K to 100K miles on a vehicle in years time, often in unfamiliar areas in all sorts of weather conditions at all times a day! If you are a careless driver, save yourself the trouble don't jump in a locksmith truck, it will only be a matter of time before you start playing bumper cars!

If you have all of these attributes to one degree or another you may want to consider being a locksmith. It is a very rewarding profession because your main job is helping to keep people safe and secure. There is very distinct sense of pride that comes from being a locksmith when you step in to save someone's day.

For more information on being a locksmith please visit our website at http://www.popalock.com/ It doesn't matter if you are interested in a job or a franchise we can help point you in the right direction.