Entry & Exit - Inside the Security & Fire Industry

Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Entrepreneurship

Entry & Exit is a podcast about building, scaling, and exiting security and fire businesses. Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble share their journey growing Alarm Masters through acquisitions and organic growth, along with the lessons they’ve learned along the way. From recurring revenue strategies to sales, operations, and M&A, Entry & Exit gives business owners and entrepreneurs an inside look at what it takes to succeed in the security industry. Whether you’re starting your first company, growing past the owner-operator stage, or thinking about an eventual exit, you’ll find practical insights and real stories to guide your path.

  1. 1d ago ·  Video

    80% of Our Leads Come From Service: What We’ve Been Missing

    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! Subscribe For More

  2. Sep 23 ·  Video

    How We Grew a Security Company From $2M to $12M

    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

  3. Sep 16 ·  Video

    We Made 11 Acquisitions. Here’s the Playbook That Finally Worked

    Alarm Masters is expanding across Texas. In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down two strategic acquisitions, their partnership with Platinum Technologies, and how they’re taking the growth playbook they built in Houston into North Texas. After three and a half years and 11 Houston-area acquisitions, they finally have a repeatable strategy for scaling through M&A, sales, service, and RMR growth. In this episode: → Expanding Alarm Masters across Texas → Lessons from 11 acquisitions → Building a repeatable M&A and growth playbook → Scaling sales into North Texas → Growing service and recurring revenue → Why business gets easier at scale Connect: Stephen Olmon — https://x.com/stephenolmon Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy Owned and Operated New Episodes Every Wednesday! Subscribe For More

  4. Sep 9 ·  Video

    The BEST Lead Source for Security Companies

    The best lead source for your security business might be simpler than you think: get face-to-face with your customers. In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down why in-person prospecting has become one of Alarm Masters’ most effective ways to generate project revenue. Service calls, coffee drops, and prospecting drop-ins account for 90% of their project revenue, outperforming the digital and outbound channels most companies focus on. They explain how to make in-person prospecting scalable by using customer data, public information, and AI to identify buying signals before a salesperson ever walks through the door. They also share how to choose the right prospects, improve your pitch through repetition, and turn a simple drop-in strategy into a repeatable sales engine. In this episode: → Why face-to-face prospecting is their best lead channel → How service calls, coffee drops, and prospecting generate opportunities → Why salespeople should run 20–25 face-to-face appointments per week → Using AI and public data to identify buying signals → Finding the events that actually cause customers to buy → Improving your script, target contact, and offer through repetition → Turning in-person prospecting into a scalable sales system Connect: Stephen Olmon — https://x.com/stephenolmon Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy Owned and Operated New Episodes Every Wednesday! Subscribe For More

  5. Sep 2 ·  Video

    Why Every Growing Security Business Needs a Finance Leader

    Growing a security business gets harder when the financial side of the company can’t keep up. In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down why Alarm Masters hired a Director of Finance and the lessons they learned as the business grew. They share their journey from handling the books themselves, to outsourced bookkeeping, to building the financial leadership needed to support acquisitions, debt, budgeting, and long-term growth. In this episode: → When a business needs financial leadership → The difference between accounting and finance → Moving from cash to accrual accounting → Financial mistakes they made while scaling → Why acquisitions require stronger financials → Budgeting, forecasting, and managing cash flow → Managing for growth vs. managing for earnings → What to look for when hiring a finance leader Connect: Stephen Olmon — https://x.com/stephenolmon Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy Owned and Operated New Episodes Every Wednesday! Subscribe For More

  6. Aug 26 ·  Video

    How AI Agents Are Changing the Way We Run Our Business

    AI employees aren’t the future; they’re already doing real work inside Alarm Masters. In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down the digital employees they’ve built to handle estimating, prospecting, sales opportunities, operations, collections, and customer service. They explain how these AI agents work alongside their team, communicate with each other, and automate tasks that used to require multiple handoffs. They also share where AI still needs human oversight and why voice-based agents could be the next major step for service businesses. In this episode: → Building AI employees that do real work → Automating estimates and prospecting with Eddie and Stu → Using Kevin to uncover missed customer demand → How AI agents communicate and complete workflows together → Automating operations, case management, and collections → Where humans still need to stay in the loop → The future of voice-based AI employees Connect: Stephen Olmon — https://x.com/stephenolmon Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy Owned and Operated New Episodes Every Wednesday! Subscribe For More

  7. Aug 19 ·  Video

    How We Make Our Sales Team More Productive (And How You Can Too)

    Your salespeople should be selling, not spending half their week building proposals, updating the CRM, and scheduling appointments. In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down how Alarm Masters is simplifying the sales role so reps can spend more time face-to-face with customers. They share how they're using international employees and AI to handle proposals, prospecting, appointment setting, and follow-up; and why removing these tasks can create a more consistent pipeline. In this episode: → Why salespeople are wasting up to half their day → The tasks Alarm Masters removes from its sales reps → Using AI and international employees to support sales → Why they target 25–30 meetings per rep each week → The first two sales tasks they'd delegate Connect: Stephen Olmon — https://x.com/stephenolmon Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy Owned and Operated New Episodes Every Wednesday! Subscribe For More

  8. Aug 12 ·  Video

    Should You Buy or Build Your First Security Company?

    Security companies can look incredible on paper; but not all recurring revenue is created equal. In this special collaborative episode of Entry & Exit, Jack from JackQuisitions breaks down the security industry and the 10 things he would evaluate before buying a security company or building one from scratch. From RMR quality and customer churn to contracts, licensing, service, and customer concentration, Jack explains what actually makes a security business valuable and sellable. If you're considering entering the security industry through acquisition or starting from zero, this episode lays out what to look for—and the biggest mistakes to avoid. In this episode: → What makes security RMR valuable → Commercial vs. residential security → Contracts, churn, and customer concentration → Licensing and service department risks → What to evaluate before buying → Why you should buy the system, not just the revenue Connect: Stephen Olmon — https://x.com/stephenolmon Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy Jack Carr — https://www.youtube.com/@Jackquisitionsco Owned and Operated New Episodes Every Wednesday! Subscribe For More

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5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

Entry & Exit is a podcast about building, scaling, and exiting security and fire businesses. Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble share their journey growing Alarm Masters through acquisitions and organic growth, along with the lessons they’ve learned along the way. From recurring revenue strategies to sales, operations, and M&A, Entry & Exit gives business owners and entrepreneurs an inside look at what it takes to succeed in the security industry. Whether you’re starting your first company, growing past the owner-operator stage, or thinking about an eventual exit, you’ll find practical insights and real stories to guide your path.

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