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What’s important to your business

When I started BPI I did everything with the company. I did the contracts, worked the details, did the invoicing, payroll and wrote all the checks. It was a very humbling undertaking that, in retrospect, was a trial by fire experience.

Handling all aspects of the business gave me an appreciation of how this thing really works. Putting air in your car tires doesn’t tell you crap about how your car starts after you turn the key in the ignition. Nor does changing the oil every 6000 miles.

I personally had an issue releasing some of the responsibilities off onto others. Minister’s experience running the Vance and GardaWorld EP and training business unit gave me a much better understanding on how to run BPI as a business unit. I had to humble myself and realize that I needed help in very important areas.

When it came to contracts I had to do the same thing. I reached out for help. My brother, who is an attorney, reviewed other security and EP contracts and extrapolated the nuts and bolts to make a standard and evergreen BPI contract. All we do now is adjust the scope of work per detail to tailor fit each client’s needs.

I eventually turned payroll over to Paychex which freed up time. What I did not turn over is invoicing. I do all of my invoicing to clients. I feel that all of them have to go through me in order to validate correctness. If a client calls and asks a question on billing I can give them a precise and cogent answer.

I have a system with paperwork that has bled over from the Vance days. My billable week is from Sunday to Saturday. All of my specialists know that I need time sheets, expense vouchers etc no later than Saturday. No exceptions, although Rhino pushes the envelope of my patience, I realize that his full time protectee has him doing alot of work.

Even on my recent trip to Europe I still did my paperwork on Sunday mornings and submitted them promptly to the respective clients we serviced.

Today’s blog is about the totality of the business we are in and surrounding yourself with tried and true personnel that know how to help you navigate to the stars through perseverance. We had at least 4 proposals and contracts that had to be submitted while I was away. Mark handled them all in my absence without a hitch. Copies were sent to me for review, but I never even looked at any of them. In fact there was one regular client that requested armed protection in DC. After I spoke to Mark and he intimated to her that it didn’t need to be armed coupled with the DC laws, he adjusted the price point accordingly and the contract was executed. On another situation we had the office of our full time protectee ask us to submit a proposal to do protective driving for all of their executives coming into the US. They were experiencing issues with their current car service. Once again Minister stepped into the gap and made it happen.

Everyone needs a Minister at their side. Unfortunately, the real deal – Minister belongs to the Boanerges Group and is not available for you. You need a doppelgänger to do your work. He’s taken.

Surround yourself with like minded people that will test your resolve, challenge your motives and question your decisions. Having yes men will only be a blind leading the blind scenario which will lead everyone in the ditch of failure.

Who’s in your corner?

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