Becoming a bounty hunter shouldn’t be that difficult, right? I mean, I’ve narrowed it down to 9 easy steps …
1. Find a quality bounty hunter school or training.
2. Obtain a license, if necessary.
3. If you are not sure if a license is required, search for it.
4. Put essential equipment and support systems in place.
5. Market your services.
6. If successful, find and arrest the fugitive, then take him to jail.
7. If successful, invoice and charge for customer services.
8. Repeat steps 6 through 8 as many times as necessary.
9. Find more bounty hunter training and improve your skills. Again, repeat as many times as necessary.
Actually, I wish it were that easy, but it is not, although it is not impossible, as many would have imagined.
Since I don’t know anything about you or your experience, I’m going to assume you’re starting from scratch … with no experience with the bail bond industry, skipping tracing, putting people into custody, or finding a bounty hunter job.
With that in mind, I’ll give you the best advice you’ll get in our industry:
Commit right now to becoming a lifelong student of the bond recovery trade, which means finding a mentor, taking courses, reading books, doing research and networking! This is not just for the short term … but also as long as you intend to find runaways for business or pleasure. I commit to at least 5 hours a week to learn more about some aspect of this business; improving my marketing skills, keeping up with the changing climate of our industry, studying new jump tracking methods, etc; each are extremely valuable topics to follow.
Competition develops from the study and practice of these skills. Competition leads to success!
But like I said in my last bounty hunting blog post, finding the right school is of the utmost importance. No other decision made by someone who wants to learn to become a bounty hunter is so crucial!
And finding the correct field can be difficult! You have to consider many options and eliminate scam courses (and there are more than a few) to find a really great bail bond recovery course. Ask about the training director’s validity and / or background … if he gets offended or defensive, it would be a good sign to stay away. Choose their brain a bit: does what they have to say give you cause for concern or do you think something is not quite right? Walk away if something is wrong …
Ultimately, a variety of courses and / or books from a few reputable companies would be best for you. This is a complicated business and “pros” tend to approach the industry a little differently and none of us are able to cover it all. 100%; It wouldn’t hurt to expose yourself to whatever you feel comfortable with.
Lastly, I want to leave you with this: having dealt with thousands upon thousands of people who ask the most frequently asked questions about how to get started on bail enforcement, I find that the only cause of frustration and eventual failure is that new people are too busy trying of reinventing the wheel rather than enlisting the help of a researcher who has been in the field for a while or who uses their training programs.
Give yourself a fighting chance and start with Step # 1 instead of the middle of the list. You’ll be glad you did.