Locksmith profit margin benchmarks
The IRS reports what one-owner businesses filing Schedule C earn, by sector. Locksmith falls under Administrative and support services. For tax year 2023, 3,118,914 returns reported $114.4 billion in receipts, $17.9 billion in cost of sales and $24.2 billion in net income less deficit (the table gives thousands of dollars):
| Benchmark | Value |
|---|---|
| Gross margin | 84.3% |
| Net margin, owner pay included | 21.2% |
| Average receipts per return | $36,687 |
| Average net income per return | $7,769 |
The owner's own draw is not an expense on a Schedule C, so that net margin is mostly the owner's wage, not profit on top of it.
Where the money goes in locksmith
Locksmithing is labor, travel and hardware, with after-hours calls priced higher.
Where locksmith margin leaks, and how to win it back
- No service call fee
- Hardware at cost
- Night calls priced like day calls
- Key blanks wasted
- Drive time
Ways locksmiths raise margin: charge a service call fee; set after-hours rates; mark up hardware; sell rekeys to new homeowners.
Check your locksmith prices against the costs
We do not have sourced price ranges for locksmith services yet, so start from your own costs with the labor rate calculator and list your prices on the services list.
Work out the margin on each line of your menu, not just the big jobs. The usual locksmith menu: house lockout; car lockout; business lockout; rekey per cylinder; lock change; deadbolt install; smart lock install; key duplication; car key and fob programming; master key system.
Overhead comes out of the margin before profit. In locksmith it includes general liability insurance, which Insureon's customers who are locksmiths pay an average of $46 a month for; commercial auto at $250 a month on the same figures.
Work out your own margin
Put one recent locksmith job into the calculator above, or switch it to "My margin for the year" to set your year next to the IRS benchmark. A 50% markup is a 33% margin; the markup calculator shows the rest.
Sources
- IRS Statistics of Income: Nonfarm sole proprietorships, Table 2, income statements by industrial sector, tax year 2023, checked October 9, 2026
- IRS: SOI tax stats, nonfarm sole proprietorship statistics, checked October 9, 2026
- Insureon: Insurance cost for locksmiths, checked October 9, 2026
Last checked October 9, 2026. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and differ by state and city, so confirm with the agency named before you act.