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

    Hiring an AI Developer: The Next Step in Business Automation

    Is hiring a full-time AI developer the next step in scaling a business? In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble share why they hired a dedicated AI developer at Alarm Masters and how they're using AI agents to automate business operations, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. They break down the three priorities behind their AI strategy: building secure infrastructure, managing AI costs with local language models, and developing custom AI agents that solve real business problems. From automating billing and accounts receivable to improving customer service, lead generation, and technician support, this episode explores what it takes to move beyond basic AI tools and build automation that delivers measurable results. Discover how businesses can use AI to scale operations, free up employee time, and create more efficient systems without replacing their teams. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: Hiring an AI Developer: Why Alarm Masters invested in a full-time developer to accelerate its AI strategy.AI Infrastructure & Security: Building reliable automation systems while protecting business and customer data.Reducing AI Costs: Managing token expenses and using local AI models to reduce operating costs.AI Agents for Business: Automating billing, accounts receivable, customer communication, and sales workflows.The Future of Business Automation: Exploring voice AI agents, technician support, and human-in-the-loop systems.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CONNECT WITH ENTRY & EXIT: Website & Newsletter: https://entryandexit.co Stephen Olmon: https://x.com/stephenolmon Collin Trimble: https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy Owned and Operated New Episodes Every Wednesday! Subscribe For More

  2. Oct 28 ·  Video

    The Business Metrics We Wish We Tracked Sooner

    If you’re not tracking the right numbers, you’re leaving money on the table. In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down the key performance indicators (KPIs) every service business owner should be tracking to improve efficiency, increase revenue, and scale operations. Using real examples from Alarm Masters, they explain how technician utilization, sales pipeline conversion, and customer retention directly impact profitability. They also share the overlooked metrics that helped them identify problems, set better goals, and make smarter business decisions. In this episode: The most important KPIs for growing a service businessTracking technician utilization, service revenue, and return tripsMeasuring sales pipeline generation and conversion ratesSetting revenue goals and quotas across your teamWhy customer retention and first-call resolution matterUsing data to identify inefficiencies and missed revenueHow to start tracking KPIs without expensive softwareConnect: Stephen Olmon — https://x.com/stephenolmon Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy Owned and Operated New Episodes Every Wednesday! Subscribe For More

  3. Oct 21 ·  Video

    Scaling From $1M to $10M: Leadership, Technology, and the Systems That Drive Growth

    The difference between a $1 million business and a $10 million business isn't just revenue. It's how the entire company operates. In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down what actually changes as a security business scales from $1M to $10M in revenue. Drawing from their experience building Alarm Masters, they discuss why leadership, technology, and smarter investments become critical as a company grows. They also explain how to escape the owner bottleneck, automate manual workflows, and build a sales team capable of supporting the next stage of growth. In this episode: → The biggest differences between a $1M and $10M business → Building a leadership team that removes the owner bottleneck → Why your technology needs to evolve as you scale → Automating manual tasks to improve efficiency → Shifting from daily operations to strategic investments → Using financial models to make smarter growth decisions → Why over-hiring salespeople can protect revenue targets Connect: Stephen Olmon — https://x.com/stephenolmon Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy Owned and Operated New Episodes Every Wednesday! Subscribe For More

  4. Oct 14 ·  Video

    The New Playbook for Scaling a Security Business With AI

    Scaling a security business isn't just about hiring more people. It's about getting more out of the team you already have. In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble break down how they're using international employees and AI agents at Alarm Masters to automate estimating, prospecting, sales support, and daily operations. They share what's working, where human oversight still matters, and how to build systems that support growth without unnecessary overhead. In this episode: → Freeing up salespeople to focus on selling → Combining international employees with AI automation → Automating proposals, prospecting, and appointment setting → Building AI agents that communicate and work together → Streamlining service quotes, customer follow-ups, and operations → Why AI still needs human oversight → Building the systems and infrastructure to support growth Connect: Stephen Olmon — https://x.com/stephenolmon Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy Owned and Operated New Episodes Every Wednesday! Subscribe For More

  5. Oct 7 ·  Video

    The Blueprint to Break $1M in Your Security Business

    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 New Episodes Every Wednesday! Subscribe For More

  6. Sep 30 ·  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

  7. 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

  8. 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

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Ratings & Reviews

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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