By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching
Is a business coach worth it for a locksmith business?
A business coach is worth it for a locksmith business if, and only if, the coaching starts from the locksmith's own job and finance data rather than general pep talks. A locksmith's day is built from short jobs quoted in minutes, a lockout here, a rekey there, a master key reset at a strata block. The real question is not whether coaching feels useful. It is whether it can show the owner where the time and the margin inside that day are actually going.
Why do most locksmiths feel too busy to look at the numbers?
Most locksmiths feel too busy to check their numbers because the day never stops moving, and a full diary feels the same as a profitable one. That feeling is usually wrong, and the owner's own data is the only thing that proves it either way.
A locksmith's week is rarely one long job. It is a stack of emergency lockouts, scheduled rekeys, a digital lock install for a property manager, a restricted key system quote for a commercial client, a safe opening, van runs between all of it, and key cutting back at the shop that often never makes it onto an invoice. Being constantly on the move feels like being busy, but busy and billed are not the same thing. The owner who says there is no time to look at pricing is usually the one whose pricing has quietly drifted.
What is actually happening to profit between callouts?
What is happening is that a small gap between hours paid and hours billed is eating far more profit than most locksmiths expect, because that gap repeats several times across one day rather than once.
Operational efficiency, the share of the day actually billed against the hours the crew or the owner are paid for, is one of the biggest levers on profit in any trade business. For a locksmith it matters more than most, because the day is stacked with short jobs rather than one big renovation. Travel between an emergency lockout and a scheduled rekey, waiting on a strata manager to approve a quote, key cutting that gets absorbed rather than charged, after hours work priced the same as a daytime callout: each of these shaves a little off a short job, and a short job has less room to absorb a shave than a long one. A small gain in that efficiency, on top of the margin already there, can change the profit on the whole day far more than most owners would guess.
What does a good coach actually check first?
A good coach checks your own numbers first, not your explanation of the business. If the first session is spent describing how your jobs run rather than looking at the data behind them, the coaching is starting from a feeling, not from fact.
This is what data first means in practice. Your own job and pricing data shows which work carries the real margin, often restricted key systems and commercial access control jobs, and which is thinnest, often quick lockouts quoted low to win the call. It shows where after hours premiums are being applied consistently and where they are not. A coach working this way is not handing you a worksheet to fill in once. They are finding where the problem actually starts, so the fix goes in there instead of being treated again next month.
What should you ask before you pay for a coach?
Before paying for a coach, ask whether they have run a trade business, whether they start from your own numbers or from you explaining yours, and whether they fix root causes with systems rather than telling you to hire your way out of every problem.
A coach who has never run a trade themselves, however good they sound, has never had to quote a rekey on a doorstep or decide whether an after hours callout is worth taking. Be wary of a coach who is a salesperson first, whose advice would read the same for a locksmith, a plumber or a sparkie, or whose answer to every gap in the day is simply to hire someone. Greg Allan built his own trade business before building Data First Coaching, which is the kind of background worth asking about before anyone signs up.
What changes when AI agents take on the office work?
AI agents can take the non-billable office work that sits around every locksmith job, quoting, invoicing, chasing payment, following up with property managers and strata managers, and do it the way you already do it, with your own prices, wording and rules.
An AI agent is simply software that does a job the way you would, consistently, without needing to be reminded. For a locksmith, that might mean a quote for a routine rekey going out with the right pricing attached the moment the job is booked, or an after hours callout being confirmed with the premium already applied instead of forgotten in the rush. AI agents do not replace the relationship with the property manager or the real estate agent who calls you for every lockout. They take the admin that sits around that relationship, so the time goes back onto customers and the crew.
How does Data First Coaching approach this?
Data First Coaching starts from the locksmith's own numbers through the Trade Business Intelligence, not from a conversation about how the business feels. It looks first at operational efficiency across a day of lockouts, rekeys and master key work, because that is where the real profit gap usually starts, and it looks at where AI agents can take the office work off the owner so that gap stops reopening every week.
Greg Allan, who built the method after running his own trade business, puts it plainly about the work this coaching covers: “Those two Masterclasses will ensure that you're gonna be profitable. Like it's worth every minute.” The how is worked through inside the Academy, among members who are open minded, innovative and willing to share, because the Trade Business Intelligence is powered by every member for every member.
