Every night, 27-year-old Sahar Yona sleeps next to two phones and a laptop with the volume turned up, so she can hear her customers calling whenever, she said.
Yona is a New York City-based residential and commercial locksmith who is available 24 hours a day because as a self-employed business owner, “every job counts,” she said. He wants to earn more money and build a clientele for his Locksmith Girl of NYC, which he launched under its current name in July 2025, as quickly as possible, he says.
He has momentum on his side. In January, when business was slow, a video she posted on TikTok — where she told New York women to call her if they felt unsafe and ask male locksmiths to pick their locks at night — garnered 600,000 views. Since then, he has found more jobs than ever, from men and women, up to 60 a week, he says. On his busiest day so far this summer, he worked from 4 a.m. to 1 a.m. the next morning, he said.
Yona is not an internet person. His account only has nine videos, as of Friday afternoon. But his message was clear: Yona declined to share his personal income, noting that he charges different rates based on the complexity of each job, but says he now makes more money as a business owner than he did as a contractor working for major locksmith companies. The median annual salary for a locksmith in New York is $76,745, according to job site Indeed.
Jonah, as a female locksmith, is not alone. Women make up less than 1% of the nation’s more than 5 million installation, repair and maintenance workers, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, more women than ever are becoming locksmiths, according to undisclosed data provided by a spokesperson for the locksmith trade association ALOA Security Professionals Association.
Locksmithing can feel like a career for “mechanically inclined” women who want to own their own business, says Jennifer Richards, a fourth-generation locksmith who has run her family’s business in Hickory, North Carolina, for the past 31 years. His six employees, including his sister and niece, are all related to him.
“Locksmiths know how to think about problems and be affected well,” said Richards, an ALOA member and instructor who notes that there are many women who have taken his courses in the past three years. “Having a light hand is actually an advantage … you can feel the movement [of the pins within the lock] it’s very easy.”
$7,000 and a ‘go-getter’ personality
Most locksmiths work alone, Richards estimates. Although the equipment – such as locks, drilling machines and key cutting machines – is expensive, it’s an affordable blue-chip business to start, considering you usually need a van, rather than a storefront and a team of workers, he says.
Yona spent $7,000 to buy his own starter tool set, he says. He entered the industry by chance: In 2021, he auditioned for a receptionist position in the key office. The interviewer suggested that he had a passion for working in the field, and that he should get his locksmith license, Jonah said.
“I had never held a screwdriver in my life. But she has a strong “go-to” personality, and she decided that becoming a locksmith would give her a leg up in a male-dominated industry, she says. She spent two years training, applying for a license and buying tools, she says. Then she worked for contractors in the suburbs to gain experience.
It’s in New York.
Sahar Yona
As a subcontractor, his work hours and income were consistent and predictable throughout the year, he says. But all her co-workers were men, and she faced disrespect from customers, peers and managers, she says.
He decided to become his CEO in November 2024. People who find Yona on TikTok know that he works alone and are usually very patient, he says. In general, he follows the same strict restrictions that clients learned as a subcontractor, he says: He needs to see a picture or video of the lock and talk to someone on the phone before he accepts the job.
Still, he feels guilty when he takes an hour to relax in the bathroom, play pool at a local bar or walk his dog, a German Shepherd-Rottweiler mix, in Central Park, he says. “The fear is that I can’t go very far with my car. My car is my legs,” he said, adding: “I have to be found.”
If Yona gets a call while going out to eat with a friend, her friend often gets in Yona’s car to go to work with her, she said. Those moments are becoming rarer and rarer, he says. She’s always thinking, and feeling confused, about work, and has started checking out the NYC Locksmith Girl storefront in her spare time, she adds.
In some of his free time, Yona practices lockpicking. “I like the defiance” of the job, he says, the legal entry into places that are meant to keep people out.
Correction: This story has been updated to clarify the incorrect name of Sahar Yona’s job status when she interviewed for a position at a locksmith’s office in 2021. He was not working at the time.
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