It seems everywhere you turn, another DIY alarm product or smart home offering is entering the market. At some point, you may be considering offering a similar service so that you can compete with that segment as well. One school of thought is if you can build a relationship with the entry-level DIY customer now,…
Read more
Some business owners spend the end of the year planning, and some prefer to start the year off making plans. But no matter when you take a look at the upcoming 12 months (and we think you can benefit from doing it more than once a year) – it’s important to ask some strategic questions.
Over the last few months we’ve been discussing how to build value in your alarm business, whether or not you have plans to sell. Among other things, we talked about Contracts, Reporting Habits, Client Communication, Employee Training and Documentation. Here we’ll be talking about an overlooked area that can crumble a deal if you are…
Read more
Documentation is a fact of life when running an alarm business. Customer agreements, central station contracts – they come with the territory and we wouldn’t consider running a business without them. There are, however, other types of documentation that don’t get as much attention but are just as critical to maintaining a growing, successful company.…
Read more
Who likes paperwork? Nobody we know, but when it comes to buying or selling your business, the value you get is closely tied to your sales/monitoring contracts. We are often surprised at how frequently we begin negotiations and due diligence with a company only to find out that the contracts which the owner was planning…
Read more
Previously, we talked about the importance of succession planning and uncovered some missteps many business owners make that you can avoid. Now let’s take a look at what you can do to be successful. One of the biggest causes of failure in succession planning is unmet expectations. At best, when a plan has a different…
Read more
In a recent blog about succession planning, we asked that you share your stories with us.
There comes a point in every business when you need to start succession planning.
Last time, we discussed some of the major pitfalls to avoid when preparing to sell some of your accounts or your entire business.
In a previous article, we discussed three key strategies to help you once your business has passed through both the “start-up” and “growth” phases and you now seek sustainability. It bears repeating that each phase in a business life-cycle requires a different kind of mindset. Employing that new mindset, one that is more forward-looking, is as essential as implementing specific strategies.
