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Company vision?

Successful companies possess visionaries: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Phil Knight and the list is endless.  They continually surround themselves with other visionaries as well as people that specialize in areas that they [CEO] acknowledge they are deficient.  None of us know it all and can do it all, but vision starts from within.  I use the terms, “limitations and capabilities” over and over and that is for a reason.  As a company owner you have to fully come to grips with your own.  Once you are at peace with that put your pride in check and fill that void with someone that can fill it.

The progression from specialist to launching a protection company seems to be a trend for many in this industry.  Coming up with a catchy company name and saying you are a company is so far from reality that you are fooling yourself.  You then get an EIN number and register yourself with the IRS and your company is up and running.  Slow down tough guy.  Being recognized by the IRS as an LLC or corporation may have put you in more of an issue than you thought.  Why?  No vision.  Did you consider the agency licenses you need to operate legally in your state?  Before you get them, did you consider that expensive and CORRECT insurance that they will require upon submitting the application?  While I am here let me say this, there are less than a hand full of insurance companies in the country that insure Executive Protection, yet there are hundreds of brokers who you will go through.  Many if not most of the brokers are not savvy on what EP is and will insure you with uniform security insurance.  Guess what?  You’ve wasted thousands of dollars on the wrong insurance and you are NOT covered.

Do you have the capitol to operate until a client pays you?  In many instances a “Retainer” can dismiss you from engaging a contract.  Retainers are like triggers-you have to know when to pull it.  Be careful with that because it is not uncommon for them to deny it especially if they have never used you before.  I had my company licensed, insured, registered and ready to go for over a year before my first company detail.  Back then and even today I never sent out flyers, or listed in business registries because I personally felt that it diminished the professional edge that EP should maintain, but that is my own perspective.  I set boundaries on what I was willing to engage in and stuck with that model.  I felt that chasing a dream and chasing the dollar lead to two different outcomes. However, if a potential client called and I would decline performing the specific service I would refer them to someone that I knew would do it and do it well.  Even if I did not engage in providing the service, the client still knew I helped their cause.  My response was never “No” but rather “Not me”.

Established and middle of the road companies that have hit a stalemate are there for 2 reasons: 1- Lack of change and 2-lack of evolution.  The industry has changed.  New companies are popping up like weeds and the competition for work is ruthless at the lower levels.  Pricing below industry standards has become a virus in this deadliest catch scenario nowadays.  You have to have vision to extricate yourself from these bottom feeders.  I can easily look at your company, where you operate and the issues you are experiencing and tell you how to pull yourself from the muck and mire.  You just need to have vision to ask.

2 comments

  1. Chad Duke

    Boss you are reading my mind on this. All things equal proper insurance and ongoing capital I think are the biggest “oops” business owner’s run into. Payroll doesn’t stop, even if the client takes six months to pay. A very wise business man once told me it always takes twice as long and costs twice as much…iv found this to be true.

    Vision without action is a daydream, action without vision is a nightmare.

    1. Eric Konohia

      No my friend. Great minds think alike.

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