Breaking $1M isn’t about working more. It’s about changing how you run the business.

In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down why security business owners often get stuck between $500K and $1M in revenue and what needs to change to push through that ceiling.

They cover why taking too much cash out of the business can kill growth, how wearing every hat eventually becomes a bottleneck, and why owners need to protect their time for sales and business development. They also share how they’ve used time blocking, subcontractors, and international team members to create leverage without building a massive payroll.

In this episode:
→ Why businesses get stuck below $1M
→ Reinvesting cash instead of increasing your lifestyle
→ Getting the owner out of low-value work
→ Prioritizing sales over service and installation
→ Using time blocking to protect growth activities
→ When to use subcontractors instead of hiring
→ Using international talent to handle back-office work
→ What the owner should still be doing personally
→ A simple blueprint for breaking through $1M

Connect:
Stephen Olmon — https://x.com/stephenolmon\
Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy

Owned and Operated

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Service might be one of the most undervalued revenue opportunities in the security industry.

In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down why they’re changing the way they think about service revenue inside Alarm Masters. After learning that 70% of another large security company’s revenue comes from service alone, they realized they may have been treating service as a path to bigger projects instead of a major growth opportunity on its own.

They explain how service calls can create revenue, strengthen customer relationships, and uncover larger project opportunities. They also lay out their plan to build a real sales process around service, proactively work their existing customer base, and pursue new customers through service first.

In this episode:
→ Why they’ve been undervaluing service revenue
→ How 80% of their recent leads came from the service department
→ Why service needs its own sales process
→ Turning small service calls into larger project opportunities
→ Finding more revenue inside your existing customer base
→ Using proactive service to stay in front of customers
→ Winning new customers through service first
→ Alarm Masters’ goal to 4X service revenue next year

Connect:
Stephen Olmon — https://x.com/stephenolmon\
Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy

Owned and Operated

New Episodes Every Wednesday!

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Going from $2 million to $12 million didn’t come from one big breakthrough.

In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble zoom out on the last three and a half years of growing Alarm Masters and break down the biggest drivers behind that growth.

They explain why they stopped trying to hire “okay” people cheaply and started investing heavily in great people, why you need to hire ahead of the growth you want, and how the right technology and infrastructure can determine whether your business is actually ready to scale.

Stephen and Collin also break down how they built a scalable sales team using data, specialized roles, international talent, and technology, plus why acquisitions have become a critical part of their strategy for reaching the next stage of growth.

In this episode:
→ How Alarm Masters grew from $2M to $12M
→ Why great people are worth paying more for
→ Hiring ahead of the growth you want
→ Building a tech stack that can scale with the business
→ Using data to build a scalable sales team
→ Why sales reps shouldn’t be doing everything themselves
→ Using international talent and technology to increase production
→ How acquisitions accelerated Alarm Masters’ growth

Connect:
Stephen Olmon — https://x.com/stephenolmon
Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy

Owned and Operated

New Episodes Every Wednesday!

Subscribe For More