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 you ever sign an LOI.

From choosing the right type of security company (integrator vs alarm, commercial vs residential), to navigating RMR vs EBITDA valuations, to financing and due diligence, this episode is your primer on doing deals that actually make you richer, not just busier.

If you’re daydreaming about “buying a book of accounts” or a shop in the next city but haven’t nailed your strategy, financing, or integration plan, this one’s for you.

✨ What You’ll Learn

• M&A Fit > M&A FOMO
• Types of Security Companies to Buy (or Avoid)
• Platforms vs Add-Ons vs Tuck-Ins

💼 Extra Special Thanks to Service Scalers!

We’ve been partnering with Service Scalers to maximize our Local Service Ads (LSAs) and optimize our Google My Business profiles, and the results have been incredible. With hundreds of thousands in sales and 900+ calls in a single week, GMBs are now our top-performing organic lead channel.
Want to learn how Service Scalers can do the same for you?

🔗Check Them Out Here

🔗 Connect

Stephen Olmon

Collin Trimble

Owned and Operated

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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 selection, this episode is your roadmap to faster quotes, higher win rates, and better margins.

If you’re still cranking proposals at 10pm—or relying on sales reps to “figure it out” in spreadsheets—this one’s for you.

✨ What You’ll Learn

• Speed Wins Deals: Why time-to-quote beats price—and how to hit 24–72 hour turnarounds.
• The 3 Pillars: People, process, tech—how to staff solution engineering, document heuristics, and keep quoting inside the CRM.
• Stop Owner-Quoted Chaos: Why owners and sales reps shouldn’t be building estimates—and what to do instead.
• The Estimation Playbook: What photos, notes & drawings sales must capture, plus the heuristics (labor, cable, markup) your team needs.

🔗 Connect

• Stephen Olmon
  
  
  
• Collin Trimble
  
  
• More Entry & Exit

Owned and Operated

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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. From tech stacks to tactical CRM setup, you’ll learn how to modernize your ops and build a business that runs on systems—not you.

✨ What You’ll Learn

Build to Sell: Why every business should be built to be sold—even if you never plan to exit.

Customer 360: How integrated CRMs and connected tech personalize service at scale and increase retention.

CRM as Backbone: Why your CRM—not your inbox or spreadsheet—should be the center of your customer experience.

Avoid Key-Man Risk: How systemized processes make your company more valuable and acquirable.

Homework: Step-by-step setup—pick your CRM, load your top accounts, connect your website, and start tracking customer data today.

💼 Extra Special Thanks to Service Scalers!

We’ve been partnering with Service Scalers to maximize our Local Service Ads (LSAs) and optimize our Google My Business profiles, and the results have been incredible. With hundreds of thousands in sales and 900+ calls in a single week, GMBs are now our top-performing organic lead channel.

Want to learn how Service Scalers can do the same for you?

🔗Check Them Out Here

🔗 Connect
Stephen Olmon
Collin Trimble

More Entry & Exit — https://www.entryandexit.co/

Owned and Operated

New Episodes Every Wednesday!

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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 guide to predictable pipeline and higher close rates.

✨ What You’ll Learn

• Niche to win: How vertical focus (e.g., K-12 & universities) sharpens messaging, improves ops, and raises credibility.
• ICP, not guesswork: Turn real customer interviews into a usable Ideal Customer Profile that drives copy, offers, and outreach.
• Lead vs. Sales process: Why separating them boosts qualification, reduces time vampires, and increases conversions.
• Multithreading that matters: Get beyond one facility manager to influencers and power—so you don’t lose single-threaded deals.

💼Shoutout to Avoca AI!

Looking to train your call center and improve technician performance? Avoca AI helps teams identify issues, improve call quality, and drive results from start to finish.

🔗 Schedule a demo

💼 Extra Special Thanks to Service Scalers!

We’ve been partnering with Service Scalers to maximize our Local Service Ads (LSAs) and optimize our Google My Business profiles, and the results have been incredible. With hundreds of thousands in sales and 900+ calls in a single week, GMBs are now our top-performing organic lead channel.

Want to learn how Service Scalers can do the same for you?

🔗Check Them Out Here

🔗 Connect

• Stephen Olmon
  
  
• Collin Trimble
• MORE Entry & Exit
  
  
• Owned and Operated — https://www.ownedandoperated.com/

Owned and Operated

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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 role design to skills-based routing and an estimation playbook, this is a practical blueprint for predictable growth and a stronger exit.

✨ What You’ll Learn

• Design for exit early: reduce key-man risk, diversify revenue, and make the business run without you.
• RMR as the growth engine: why we sell cloud/subscription solutions by default—and when to walk from non-subscription deals.
• Cash vs. contracts (hybrid): trading some upfront GP for higher enterprise value via contracted recurring revenue.
• Sales org that scales: split roles (SDR → AE → Solutions Engineer) so AEs spend time in front of customers.

🔗 Connect
Stephen Olmon
Collin Trimble


Owned and Operated

Owned and Operated

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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 selling to buying RMR accounts and mining your install base, this episode is a step-by-step operating manual you can copy.

✨ What You’ll Learn

• The 3 revenue pillars (Install, Service, RMR) — and how to think about target margins
• Why fire-alarm monitoring is the best land → expand wedge (opens doors to 5 scopes: cameras, access, fire, intercom, PA)
• The coffee/taco drop: a $5 in-person touch that creates pipeline and stickiness
• The metric that matters: 7–10 face-to-face meetings = ~90% win rate (vs. <7 = steep drop)
• Buying RMR the right way (typical RMR multiples and how to turn one contract into projects, service & managed services)
• Building a B2B sales process around relationship & information: BANT, anchor pricing, and sequencing meetings

🔗 Connect

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

John Wilson — https://x.com/WilsonCompanies
Owned and Operated — https://www.ownedandoperated.com/

Owned and Operated

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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 — and eventually position it for a successful exit.

✨ What You’ll Learn
-The 3 revenue pillars (Install, Service, RMR) and target margins
- Why buying monitoring accounts opens doors to 5 scopes (cameras, access, fire, intercom, PA)
- The coffee/taco drop strategy that keeps customers sticky & cross-sold
- How Alarm Masters went from 1st deal → 4 acquisitions → $6M+ in just 2 years
- Lessons on hiring, ops leadership, and competing with the national giants
- What buyers look for when evaluating your business (RMR %, retention, service cadence)

🔗 Connect
Stephen Olmon

Collin Trimble

Owned and Operated

New Episodes Every Wednesday!

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