So, odd topic here with a lot of background I'll breeze over but how does one monetize a personal locksmith business?
My father in-law has a successful "my name here locksmith" business that he ran out of his house until recently. Ended up in an accident roughly 6 months ago for which he will soon be declared completely disabled, mental and physical. His work van was totaled in the incident and most of his equipment, working key inventory, and shop tools were dispersed all over; some damaged, some not. He had some items stored off site but we're not sure the best way evaluating value. Literally thousands of blank keys from cars, boats, houses, anything else you could lock and the programing tools and licenses for them. He could cut a modern BMW key and program from just a vin I recall. Think he had some safe cracking stuff too or at least claimed he could pop open most commercial ones.
Several of his locksmith friends were incredibly helpful with cleaning up and identifying things but not exactly in a position to purchase and selling might honestly go to their competition. He had no other employees and my wife's an only child. We're trying to deal with a bunch of it ourselves along with my mother in law who is fairly overwhelmed with becoming a caregiver now.
Some of his contacts/contracts were crazy good (navy base barracks, apartment complexes, AAA, etc.). His work number continues to ring 30+ times a day for business and have been told just the number is valuable on it's own.
We've got tax and profitably info but no idea how that'd be demonstrated as transferrable. I think to own/operate some items you need to be licensed of sorts also. It's in an area of roughly 1.8 million with more in the surrounding cities.
Small businesses like that can be valued all over the place. Frequently it is based on what the annual net income is. The problem with giving it a value like that is that the owner is the operator and without him, the value drops rapidly. Then you are down to what the equipment is worth.
Good luck.
Ideally finding a young guy and have him make monthly payments to the family. I doubt there are schools teaching this any more so you may never find him. I hope all goes well for your family.
It is not uncommon for a viable business to get 3x annual earnings plus assets for a purchase amount. What he has is a "lifestyle business" which basically means that the business provided a lifestyle to the owner and did not return anything to an outside owner/stockholder etc. He essentially bought himself a job. These small businesses are hard to sell because the customer base knew him and he held all of the knowledge of how to be a locksmith in his head.
I would try hard to sell what you can as fast as you can to another existing locksmith. The phone number/customer files should be first as they will lose value very quickly.
My FIL had a convenience store in the little town in MS. He provided great service and opened up extra early to catch the early shift at the shipyards. He sold it once to an acquaintance and it didn't last a year. FIL had financed it himself so he had to re-open the store to get the business back up to where it was to make it marketable for a decent price. He sold it a second time to a guy who knew how to run a retail business for his wife to run. They really didn't understand the 80 hour weeks my FIL put in and it closed less than a year later but FIL got his $$ out and was just sad to see his store close up.
There are companies who specialize in making valuations of small businesses, as well as brokers who specialize in facilitating their sale. If you have an attorney (especially if they have small business experience) see if they can give you referrals.
What city is the business located?
Sorry to hear about your FIL, as above sell the number and files to a competitor and your going to end up parceling the rest out. There was exactly this same business on CL here most of last year and I don't know if it ever sold.
It will be tough no matter what, but maybe call some local business brokers and/or commercial real estate brokers...the latter because they normally have a network for these type of things. Calling 10 of them might get you some free insight and even shake loose an interested party.
Another option might be a consignment auction situation. You might get 1/2 of the take, but you'll get rid of everything.
Thanks all for the thoughtful wishes and insight. The business is in Virginia Beach for reference. He's doing well and still himself but memory and walking without assistance are the issues post TBI. Retired military which thankfully covers a lot of stuff to make this easier.
is he well enough to teach a new guy a few of his tricks ?
It would be hard for someone without prior locksmith knowledge to take over this business ,
but it would be great for someone already working in the trade to jumpstart a career !
Good Luck
First off, I'm so sorry for the tough situation.
I don't know anything about locksmithing, but I'd agree with the suggestion to sell whatever you can to the other locksmiths (and quickly). Without a van or a person to drive it, there sadly isn't that much of a business to sell.
One point of reference that is maybe slightly useful: My neighbor owns a one-man lawn care business. No website, no signs on the truck, etc. But has a list of happy weekly customers. We were chatting about the business at one point and IIRC he told me a lawn care business was worth the market value of the equipment plus $100/customer.
