management and marketing advice needed

[ptbeast]

A number of factors have conspired to bring me to the brink of opening my own security company. I previously owned a company that provided security training services, including a contract to teach Law Enforcement and Security courses at a vocational college. I did a great deal of contract work, where I would hire myself out as a mission commander for strikes and other short term security work. I did my time as a police officer, security officer, tactical officer, federal security, supervisor, etc. The bottom line is, I know the operations side of the business.

I was also a partner in a small law firm for a number of year, practicing business law. So I understand the, well, business side of the business.

The area in which I am most deficient, and it scares me to death, is sales, marketing, and bidding. I simply don't know much about finding clients, setting prices in this industry, and actually bidding the jobs.

I know this is a rather public forum in which to air such shortcomings, but I would really appreciate any advice that anyone would be willing to give me or any resources that they can point me to.

Thanks in advance,

Dave

[SecTrainer]

SALES/BIDDING: IMHO, the best tool for sales proposals/bidding is AutoRate by H R Dickinson - very reasonably priced, and has a lot of real-world experience behind it. AutoRate makes sure you take EVERYTHING into account when figuring a bid:

http://www.hrdickinson.com/products/products.html

MARKETING: Search the forum on the key word "marketing", Dave. I and others have posted on this subject.

For instance, see my post in this thread, which was aimed at a patrol service but has more general ideas as well:

http://forums.securityinfowatch.com/showthread.php?t=5618&highlight=marketing

...and this one, which is about B2B marketing:

http://forums.securityinfowatch.com/showthread.php?p=53330&highlight=marketing#post53330

...and this one, about general marketing ideas:

http://forums.securityinfowatch.com/showthread.php?t=4197&highlight=marketing

Bill Warnock, Curtis Baillie and others have also posted on this subject.

You can also do some reading on marketing for service businesses, the principles of which apply to security services like any other service. These are good books, all available through Amazon:

Smart Services: Competitive Information Strategies, Solutions and Success for Service Businesses by Deborah Sawyer

Service Success! by Daniel I. Kaplan

Marketing Your Service Business by Ian Ruskin-Brown

Market Leadership Strategies for Service Companies by Craig Terrill and Arthur Middlebrooks

Good luck! Contact me by PM if I can be of any assistance (don't email me from the forum as my email has been in the crapper for a number of days).

[Silva Consultants]

Congratulations for having the courage to get to this point! Taking the initial plunge is often the hardest part. One resource that you may want to take a look at if you haven't already is the Startupnation Forum (www.startupnation.com). While not specific to the security business, this forum has lots of good info on the steps it takes to start and grow a successful business, including sales and marketing advice.

SecTrainer provided lots of good links and info. I have never run a contract security agency, but as a consultant, have been on the other side of the table when assisting clients in selecting a contract security services provider. Most of the smaller security companies that seem to be the most successful are those that target a specific market niche (health care, high-rise office buildings, etc,) rather than those that try and be everything to everybody.

Here is one unfulfilled niche that I see: many small-to-medium-sized clients want is the ability to completely outsource their entire security program. This would include management of their access control and security systems, incident investigation and follow-up, development of security policies and procedures, conducting security awareness training for employees, etc. Many guard companies, including most of the large national providers, claim to provide this capability - but in reality, they are just in the business of "selling hours". While many guard companies will provide some of these services if specifically asked, few seem to take a proactive approach to managing the client's entire security program.

As a consultant, this is good for me, because clients bring me in to provide the services that their guard company cannot or will not provide. But in most cases, clients are amazed that they have to bring in a third-party to provide something that they expected their guard company to provide.

I too would be happy to answer any specific questions that you may have. Please let me know if I can help.