Tips and Tricks
Management: Many Flavors
To state the obvious: effectively managing your small business is difficult! It’s easy to get derailed. Whether that’s getting hit by a big surprise problem, losing a large customer you thought was happy, losing a key person, battling inflation-driven cost increases, and so on. Management is a very broad term, and it may be better…
Read MoreRecurring Credit Card Transactions: Painful to Comply
Over the last few years, the credit card industry has adopted new rules that make it tough for small companies to stay in compliance. Including for recurring payments charged by security alarm companies. IF your company accepts Visa and Master Card for recurring subscription invoices, please review your processes versus the list below. Does your…
Read MoreCustomer Acquisition Cost: Do you Know Yours?
How much does it cost you to acquire a new customer? Most security companies don’t really know – but they should. If you’ve ever seen an episode of “Shark Tank”, one of the most common questions from the Sharks is: what’s your customer acquisition cost? It’s a key metric for any business, and one you…
Read More6 tips for Improving Interoffice Communication in your Small Alarm Business
Good Quoting: Fast, Flexible & Classy
Winning a new customer starts with a good conversation, then a good quote. The conversation should uncover the prospect’s needs and priorities in making a decision. The quoting process should then address those needs and priorities, in a professional and compelling way. A good quote can be the difference between winning and losing the business.…
Read MoreElectronic Billing & Payment: “Nice to Have” No Longer
“Must Have”: Electronic Billing & Payments According to a 2020 study by National Automated Clearing House Association —the trade organization for the ACH payments industry—respondents cited COVID-19 as a “trigger event for moving customers to a more digital experience.” In other words, having paper-free and touch-free billing and electronic billing options is now a must…
Read MoreMaking Sense of Your Numbers: Part 1
I’m a recovering numbers guy. In my banking and venture investing days over 20 years ago, I could build spreadsheet projections that were elegant, logical, perfect—and always wrong. Excel can lull you into feeling like a master of the universe. Spreadsheets with assumed growth rates spit out wonderful numbers that make you feel that “this…
Read MoreAlarm Industry Service Software is like a Supermarket
When was the last time you visited a butcher shop to get your meat and poultry? Then a bakery to get your bread and rolls? Followed by a farm stand visit to stock up on vegetables? If you’re like most people, not recently. Instead, people get nearly all their food at a supermarket. Why? Because…
Read MoreVacation? Stay-cation? No-cation?
We hope you enjoyed July 4th, especially in a year when most fireworks, parades, and celebrations were canceled. For most people, July and August are vacation season. This year, most of us will need to settle for some version of a stay-cation. Wikipedia defines a stay-cation as “a period in which an individual or family…
Read MoreQuickBooks vs. Alarm Company Software: What’s Best for You?
If your security company mainly uses QuickBooks to manage your subscriber accounts and jobs, you’ve probably asked this question: “Would we be better off with more industry-specialized software?” The answer depends on your company’s situation, and how much friction you are encountering while trying to use QuickBooks to manage things. It’s possible, maybe likely, that…
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