Entry & Exit - Inside the Security & Fire Industry

If you’re thinking about selling your security or life safety business, the biggest mistake isn’t timing—it’s misunderstanding your options. In this episode of Entry & Exit , Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down the real-world exit paths available to business owners—and the tradeoffs that come with each one. From all-cash walkaways to structured deals, earnouts, and rolled equity, they...

If you’re trying to grow a security or life safety business, working harder isn’t always the answer. More often, the real bottleneck is structure. In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down the roadmap for scaling a security business the right way. They cover how to think about growth vs. earnings, when to invest in people, why your tech stack matters, and how...

If you’re trying to scale a security, alarm, or fire business… the biggest unlock might not be more techs or more sales. It might be how you structure your team. In this episode of Entry & Exit , Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble sit down with Jack Carr (Rapid Response, JackQuisitions, Quick Staffers) to break down how international talent and AI are changing the way home service businesses ope...

If Your Sales Team Is Busy but Still Missing Quota, This Is Why  Most sales reps don’t have an activity problem. They have a process problem. In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble of Alarm Masters break down the sales systems, habits, and questions that help security, alarm, fire, and life safety companies close more deals without competing on price alone. They unpa...

If You Had $50K to Grow Your Business, Where Would You Spend It? If someone handed you $50,000 to grow your company today… where would you put it? Paid ads? SEO? Cold outbound? Sponsorships? In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble (Alarm Masters, Texas) break down exactly how they’d deploy a fresh $50K in a security, alarm, fire, or life safety business — and why they...

Waiting for things to break is not a growth strategy. Most security and life safety companies rely on inbound service calls and hope the phone rings. But the operators who win treat service like a measurable, trackable, and proactive revenue channel. In this episode of Entry & Exit , Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble (Alarm Masters, Houston) break down the exact systems they use to turn service...

Getting that sweet, sweet RMR under contract is only good… if you can keep it. Most security and life safety companies obsess over selling monitoring and stacking new accounts. But the best operators know the real game is retention — because attrition kills cash flow, collections, and enterprise value. In this episode of Entry & Exit , Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble (Alarm Masters, Houston)...

In this episode of Entry & Exit , hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble (Alarm Masters, Houston) break down how security, alarm, fire, and life safety companies can shift from a project-first mindset to an RMR-first operating model —without slowing sales, damaging culture, or killing momentum. They explain why installs should be treated as the onboarding experience to recurring monthly revenu...

How do you improve your sales reps without turning them into product-pitch robots? In this episode of Entry & Exit , hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble (Alarm Masters, Houston) break down the core philosophy behind consultative selling: better discovery, better questions, and better qualification. Fresh off their sales kickoff (SKO), they share the frameworks and drills they use to help re...

Most service businesses don’t fail because they lack growth—they fail because their financial systems break under scale . In this episode of Entry & Exit , Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down the real-world lessons they’re learning while cleaning up their financials during rapid growth. From cash vs. accrual accounting to inventory control, job costing, and RMR reporting, this episode...

Most security & life-safety companies don’t get stuck because they lack hustle—they get stuck because they lack measurement . In this episode of Entry & Exit , Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble (Alarm Masters, Houston) walk through their 2026 planning process: how they set revenue/RMR/EBITDA goals, translate them into departmental KPIs, and use actuals vs. budget to decide when to invest, w...

How do you scale a sales team inside a security or life-safety business—without hiring too fast, burning cash, or building a “hope-based” sales org? In this episode of Entry & Exit , hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down the exact framework they’ve used at Alarm Masters to grow from founder-led selling to a six-person sales team—and the systems that make it repeatable. They cover q...

Avoid expensive post-close mistakes by running a calm, disciplined first 90 days after acquiring a security or life-safety business. In this episode of Entry & Exit , hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down what actually happens after you close—and why most buyers hurt themselves by moving too fast. Drawing from real acquisitions (and real scars), they lay out a practical “stabilize...

Avoid expensive post-close surprises by mastering the first seven days after signing an LOI. In this episode of Entry & Exit , hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble deliver a brutally practical due diligence playbook for buying a security or life-safety business. Drawing from real acquisitions, they break down exactly how to run diligence without chaos—and why skipping steps almost always sho...

Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble sit down with Lee Odess for a wide-ranging, no-nonsense conversation about the forces reshaping the security and life-safety industry—and why operators who keep treating cloud, mobile, and AI like “features” are already falling behind. Lee, one of the most connected voices in access control and physical security, makes the case that our industry is no longer...

Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble go deep on recurring monthly revenue (RMR) in the security and fire-alarm industry—why it’s the heartbeat of the business, the biggest driver of valuation confidence, and the single most stabilizing force for operators trying to scale without cash-flow whiplash. They unpack how RMR smooths payroll, fuels growth investments, and answers the only question buyer...

Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble tackle one of the most misunderstood parts of a security & fire-alarm business: the service department. Too many owners treat service like a cost of doing business—something you begrudgingly do to keep customers from canceling. That mindset is killing growth and lowering valuations. In this episode, the Alarm Masters partners break down why service is act...

Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble get tactical on the question they hear nonstop: “How do you actually find deals worth buying?” After seven acquisitions in three years, the Alarm Masters partners break down why quality lead flow is hard in fire & life-safety, what “deal size” really means in this industry, and how to build a sourcing engine that doesn’t rely on luck. They walk through th...

Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble lay the groundwork for M&A in security & life-safety, how to buy your first (or next) company without blowing up your P&L or culture. They unpack how they’ve bought 6 (soon to be 7) alarm businesses in under two years, why they’ve stayed in their lane with RMR-heavy alarm companies, and how to think about platforms, add-ons, and tuck-ins before yo...

Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down how to fix the bottleneck that strangles growing security & life-safety companies: design and quoting. They share the people/process/tech playbook to get proposals out in 24–72 hours, tighten scopes, and hand ops clean jobs. From building a repeatable estimation playbook to leveraging international talent and AI for door hardware and camera sel...

Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble unpack how technology builds sellable, scalable security & life-safety companies. They reveal how connected systems—CRM, billing, and field service—create a “Customer 360” that boosts customer experience, drives predictable revenue, and reduces key-person risk.  If you want to exit someday (or just stop living in spreadsheet hell), this is your roadmap. F...

Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble get practical and tactical on winning new logos in security & life-safety. They break down how to niche your ICP, keep your message consistent, split lead vs. sales process, and get multithreaded so you close more deals—without wasting budget on broad, unfocused marketing. From anchor pricing and social proof snapshots to CRM must-haves, this is the field...

Welcome to Entry & Exit — the Owned and Operated series for builders in security & life-safety. Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down how to make your company sale-ready long before you sell: architecting a team that’s bigger than the owner, shifting from one-time installs to recurring revenue, and building a repeatable sales + service engine that PE buyers love. From SDR/AE/SE...

Welcome to Entry & Exit — the Owned and Operated series for builders in security & life-safety. Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble lay out exactly how they’re scaling Alarm Masters past eight figures after buying it at ~$2M revenue — growing to $6M+ in ~24 months through 4 tuck-ins and a 50/50 mix of organic and inorganic growth, with 50%+ RMR growth in Year 1.  From face-to-face selli...

Welcome to Entry & Exit — the new Owned and Operated series for builders in the security & life-safety world. Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble share how they grew Alarm Masters from under $2M to ~3× revenue, including +50% RMR growth in Year 1. From recurring revenue (RMR) to acquisitions and organic growth, this episode breaks down what it really takes to scale a security business —...