Tuesday, February 17, 2015

February 17, 2015

Licensing a Locksmith
February 17, 2015




Most of you know that Ron and I are the owners of Landreth's Locksmith Service.  My grandparents started the business and that is where the name Landreth comes from - it is my maiden name.  Ron married the boss's daughter.  About 15 years ago I guess, the state decided Locksmiths needed to be licensed.  What a shame that a few "fly-by-night" guys put all these regulations and expenses on the rest of us.

Now, we must have 16 hours of continuing education every two years.  We pay for the classes, the travel, the hotels, the meals out of town, the license for the business and licenses for each of us. The past few times, there were no classes that had any relation to what I do at the office, but since I am a co-owner, I must be licensed and take classes.  Last time I took Safe Work for Dummies or some such course.  I have taken classes on Keyless Entry,  Storefront Doors, Rules and Regulations, Americans with Disabilities Act, (how to be sure a disabled person can open a door), Methods of Entry, Panic Bars, and a long list of other classes that do not apply to my work in our business.  I have been complaining for a while to those who select the classes to be offered, that there are others like me who run the office and would like some help in that area. 

This year, they are offering an 8 hour class on Quick Books.  I use Quick Books for our bookkeeping program at the office and know how to use it, but it has many sections I don't use and it could be helpful to find out whatelse it could do for me.  Ron doesn't know how to use it and found out while I was out so much this past fall, that it would help if he did know how to use it.  So we are taking that class together on Thursday. 

Friday we will be in separate classes.  With my hearing limitations, that makes it hard for me.  Last time I took all the classes he did.  Friday I will be taking Locksmith Marketing, which may turn out to be mostly webpages.  (Oh, I took an 8 hour class on Webpage Design.)  We do have a website that our sons set up for us.  Then they moved away.  I don't know how to maintain it so I have to call them to make changes.  This afternoon, our oldest grandson showed up at the office and I asked if he could get me into the programing portion of the website.  He was going to work on it a few months ago, but forgot the password.  I gave it to him this afternoon and he quickly did a lot of things on it for me.  I wish I was taking him with me to this class!  Now I know who can put into practice what I learn in the class.

The Marketing class is 4 hours.  The other 4 class hours on Friday for me will be a class on How to Grow Your Business.  That will be helpful (I hope).  I don't remember what Ron is taking on Friday.  I think it is one class for 8 hours.  On Saturday morning we will both take a one hour Ethics class.  So really, we have to have 17 hours each, since classes are 4 or 8 hours and you need one of your hours to be ethics, so for us the only way to do it is to go to 17 hours of classes each. We could spread them out, but it works out cheaper to get them all in one long weekend.  This will also be our state convention for locksmiths.

I am dreading the next few days.  The hearing is always very difficult in group settings.  The lunches are around large round tables and it is hard to hear anyone who is not right beside me.  Hearing in the classes is hard.  I have been in classes of 8 and classes of 40.  You never know.  Some teachers help; some don't.  Some talk fast; some speak softly.  A few speak up and speak clearly and that really helps.  There are rarely any classes offered south of San Antonio.  We have taken a few classes in Corpus, but those are rare and most are just a couple of hours on a week night which is not easy for us with a 3 hour drive each way.  We have taken classes in Houston, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and Corpus.

During the next few days, I am not sure how much I will be able to keep up on the blog, but I will try. 

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