I have been in the Fire Extinguisher & “Life Safety” Industries for 35 years, I do not talk too much about my “AGE” a very young 69 plus. I can run circles around 50 year olds any day of the week. I only talk about my age and the 35 plus years of education and experiences, because in that time I have collected a wealth of information I will be providing to you in my News Letters. I have owned, bought, built and sold 32 “Life Safety” Businesses in 17 Cities from “Coast to Coast”. Today I still own a Fire Extinguisher Business (Midway Fire Protection), I Bought a25 year old Fire Sprinkler Business 20 months ago, and its sales and net profits have improved by 182%, (Kensington Fire Protection). I also own an Alarm-Security Business that is 29 years old and services over 4,000 Residential & Commercials for 5 “Third Party” owners; this is Midway Alarms out of Fredrick, Md... I used to own Beltway Fire Equipment, which had 17 GETZ trucks on the road servicing 23,000 customers. I will want to tell you how I & my staff grew that Fire Extinguisher Business from 1 truck to 17 trucks in 23 years and then sold it for Millions of Dollars. ITS NOW 3 YEARS LATER 2-10-18 AND I HAVE SOLD ALL THESE COMPANIES TO FOCUS ON “THE LIFE SAFETY ASSOCIATION” WHICH WE WANT YOU TO JOIN.
DID YOU KNOW? THAT EACH “ROUTE SALES” TRUCK YOU HAVE ON THE ROAD IS WORTH ABOUT $100,000. When A Broker or a knowledgeable buyer is looking at a basic Fire Extinguisher Business, they always want to know how many “Route Sales” trucks you have on the road servicing your customers. On the average they expect each truck to produce $160,000 to $200,000 of sales per vehicle. If you have a 3 truck Business you can sell for about $300,000 if you have 6 Trucks on the road, your business is worth about $600,000. Yes there are many other factors we look at to set a value on any Business. I will be happy to give you a “FREE” “CONFIDENTIAL” valuation once each year, and make many suggestions on how to improve those sales & “Profits” each year. That is what improves your selling value and improves your retirement program.
YOUR “ROUTE SALES” PEOPLE are the key to your Growth. Every “Route Sales” person we hire must have 2 or 3 basic skills, if all they can do is service Fire Extinguishers, then we want them working for our competitor. We want to find NICET certified people whenever possible, we want 2 or 3 of our “Route Sales Fire Extinguisher” People to also be certified on Kitchen Fire Suppression Systems. We want 2 or more of our Fire Extinguisher People to be able to do the Required Inspections of Fire Sprinkler Systems.(most Fire Extinguisher Companies do not inspect Fire Sprinkler System, PLEASE, you need to rethink this. ASK ME FOR my 4 page Document # F-120 “What You Need to Know about Adding Fire Sprinkler Inspections” to your “Life Safety” Business. When you have a Fire Sprinkler Inspector Driving Your Fire Extinguisher Truck that is a key Factor that get them over that $200,000 annual sales level. It is the same situation if you have a Kitchen Fire Suppression specialists, his daily sales production is much higher than a person who just services Fire Extinguishers. As I work with you to help you build a larger more profitable business, I will suggest about 10 other specialists that can also service and inspect Fire Extinguishers.
LET’S TALK MORE ABOUT YOUR FIRE EXTINGUISHER TECHS BEING SALES PEOPLE. More than half of all Fire Extinguisher Businesses have hundreds or thousands of Customers they service & Inspect each year, and they do not require their “Route Driver” to do much in new sales. That is why we call our “drivers” “ROUTE SALES” people, because we do not want to hire a person who does not have good sales abilities. We like to give our “Route Sales” people 4 or 5 Service tickets for the day that can keep them busy for about 2/3rd of the day, the rest of the time is doing new sales with those Businesses that are next door to the businesses we already do the work for. We want all our “Route Sales” people to make about 1/3rd of their income from new sales. All of our “Route Sales” People are trained to get sales leads for our other “Specialists” that can go in and close the sales leads. An Example, every time one of our Fire Extinguisher People goes into any business, he or she looks up at the ceiling, to see if the building has a Fire Sprinkler System. They then give their 30 second “Elevator Speech” on the fact that we have a NICET certified Tech, that can do their Annual Inspection as required by The State, County & Insurance Company, who can we call to talk about us doing that inspection. You may wish to ask me to e-mail you my 4 page “Document” “What You Need to Know about Adding Fire Sprinkler Inspections to your Business”. This can be a Great new “Profit Center” for you. We had a Fire Extinguisher Inspector who’s other specialty was “Smart Video Camera Systems”. He sold & Installed many of these systems, anywhere from a simple 1 Camera security Camera for $1,200 or a LARGER System for $34,000. All our route sales people were trained to find him sales leads, which they receive a nice “Finder’s Fee”. We had a good motivator “$50 Gas Certificate” for a lead that produced a sale. About 4% of the sale went to the “Route Sales Person” who produced the lead. We are always happy to get you a “4 Page Document” as to the details of how we make these new sales happen or how we hire these “Specialists” that help us build new “Profit Centers” Today as I am writing this “News Letter” I am working with a new Owner of a 28 year old Fire Alarm Business, he wants to add 6 new Fire Sprinkler Inspectors in the next 18 months, these People will add another Million Dollars plus to his Business. This activity will make him one of the most active Businesses taking care of the Inspections and Monitoring of the Sprinkler Systems. OPPS what did he say about “MONITORING”, yes by regulations, Insurance requirements and just commons since says all Fire Sprinkler Systems must be Monitored by a UL Central Station, so he will make sure that 2 of those 6 new People he hires will have the ability to Install that monitoring Equipment and connect it to the UL Central station. This is 2 new “Profit Centers” The sale of the Equipment Install costs, then the “FANTASTIC” R.M.R. (Reoccurring Monthly Revenue). Each of these new Monitoring Customers adds about $1,500 to the Equity value of your Business, that is not on your Balance Sheet or you’re “Profit & Loss” Statements. My future News Letters to you will keep giving you interesting ways to make your Business Grow and be more profitable.
LET’S WORK ON YOUR “EXIT STRATEGY” AND “COACHING” HELP. Yes you probably are not ready to sell today or next year, but you should always be working on your “Exit Strategy”, you need to be ready for the “Unexpected” event that will require you to sell. If you think you will never sell, you are going to have a family member take over the business, make sure you look at all your options, we will suggest that you sell the Business to the Family instead of giving it to them or them just sending you a check each month for your retirement. We can help you grow and protect your investment. Please send me an e-mail today; let’s have that telephone meeting, then another meeting in person. I am looking forward to your comments and questions.
Dennis V. Riley “COACH” to the Fire Extinguisher & “LIFE SAFETY” Industries
E-mail dennis@beltwaybrokerage.com
Cell # 240-462-8220