Feature

Talking Business

by Emily Landes

Jimmy Goh always imagined himself working for a big corporation and spending 9 to 5 in a financial district high-rise cubicle. Instead, as the owner of Metro Locksmiths, the only time Goh works in a traditional corporate setting is when he’s installing card systems, cameras and other security devices in downtown San Francisco office buildings.

Most often, Goh can be found in his retail store on Divisadero Street or out in the field helping his numerous residential and commercial customers. Working with clients on their security needs has been Goh’s job since he was 18 years old, when he first took a position at Metro to pay the bills while studying business at San Francisco State University. It was a busy but exciting life for the then-teenager. “I used to sleep with the pager next to me,” he says. “When it rang I would feel like I was a firefighter. It was time to go to work! I was proud of it.” After several years as an employee, Goh bought the business from the retiring owners, and since 1998 he has owned and managed the ten-employee company.

In 2000, Metro Lock became a family affair when Goh’s wife, Sharon Jen, came on board as a “temporary” office and human resources manager. “When you have a bunch of boys running things, you need some organization,” jokes Jen, who was pursuing a career in fashion design when she first began working with her husband. “It was only supposed to be a few months, but here it is years later and I’m still here. The fact is that we work together really well. If we didn’t, we’d probably kill each other.” In fact, Jen and Goh work together so well that business is often the topic of conversation at home. The couple has a one-year-old daughter and is trying to cut back on all the out-of-the-office work talk, yet somehow Metro Lock comes up again and again.

Perhaps that’s the nature of owning a 24-hour business, where about half the work is scheduled and half comes in on an “emergency” basis. People call the company at all times of the day and night—everyone from property owners concerned that tenants left with the water still running to tenants who accidentally locked themselves out of their apartments. “Metro is like 9-1-1,” observes Jen. “It’s not like they’re calling in to get a massage or something wonderful. It’s, �How soon can you do it? I have an emergency. Can it be done today?’ We’ll have it done today if it needs to be done today, no matter how busy we are.” In some very urgent situations, like when a client calls in hysterics because he has accidentally locked his baby inside his house, Metro employees will drop everything and rush to the scene. Once, a hotel guest called at 3:30 in the morning because he needed to get into his safe-deposit box and still make a 5 a.m. flight. Thanks to Metro, he boarded the plane on time.

Clearly, prompt customer service is one of Metro’s primary selling points. The company advertises sparingly and yet always has a full roster of clients—many of whom are SFAA members—thanks primarily to word-of-mouth recommendations. A lot of business also comes their way because of Metro’s equitable pricing. While Jen admits that Metro Lock isn’t the cheapest locksmith in the city, she notes that the costs are very reasonable given the high quality of service. Plus, rates for common services like rekeying are the same for the lowest- and highest-end clients. “We’ve done evictions in places with cockroaches flying around or needles everywhere. But along with that, we do $20-million houses,” says Jen. One job involved a client who lost his house key and needed 60 locks rekeyed because his multimillion-dollar home in Marin had 60 doors.

Metro’s owners treat their employees just as well as they treat their clients. Since Goh started as a Metro employee himself, he makes sure his staff—most of whom have been with the company between two and five years—has a competitive salary, health insurance and a profit-sharing plan. He also prefers to train employees in-house so that they grow with the company. “We really care about our staff. We treat them like family. We make sure they’re happy, so they stay with us,” he explains. Sometimes keeping employees happy means Metro turns down business. While the company always answers calls from current clients no matter what the hour, it no longer services nonclients in the late night and early morning hours because it is more important to Goh and Jen to keep their employees well-rested.

If the couple gets slightly less shut-eye than their employees, it is mostly by design. The self-described “workaholics” say they are the ideal small-business owners because they enjoy working long hours, especially since their own business will reap the benefits. Goh talks about retiring to Hawaii one day; but he knows that when it comes down to it, he gets bored on his second day of vacation. Less likely than retirement for the couple is the unlikely possibility they would ever work for someone else. That office job that Goh once dreamed of has no appeal for him now. And Jen says she gets much more satisfaction out of her work at Metro Lock than she ever did in fashion design. “Being your own boss is rewarding,” notes Jen, “and with those rewards come a lot of headaches. But the American Dream is to own your own business and be successful, which we feel like we are. And we’re really appreciative.”

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. Emily Landes is the assistant editor of San Francisco Apartment Magazine. Copyright � 2006 by San Francisco Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.