Hello security and alarm professionals,
If you want a business that grows predictably and is valuable to a future buyer, your systems have to be bigger than you.
Which brings us to two mission-critical questions: what does that actually mean, and how do you start building toward it?
I give you the answers below.
In today’s issue:
How Recurring Revenue Can Change Your Security Business
In this podcast episode, we break down how to make your company sale-ready long before you ever plan to sell. You’ll learn how to design a business that runs without you, shift from one-time installs to recurring revenue, and build a repeatable sales and service engine that private equity buyers love.
Recurring Revenue Is the New Growth Play for This Company
NAPCO Security Technologies is showing how recurring revenue can power steady, scalable growth. In Q1 2026, the company hit record revenue of $49.2 million, with $23.4 million coming from recurring service revenue at a 90% gross margin. CEO Richard Soloway credited the subscription-based model for keeping margins strong despite economic headwinds.
Key takeaways from the quarter:
Recurring revenue rose 1.1% year-over-year and remains NAPCO’s highest-margin segment.
Innovation-driven growth through its MVP cloud-based access control platform, which generates subscription income for both NAPCO and its dealers.
Sector expansion in school security, where integrated systems for locks, access, and alarms create long-term service relationships.
By pairing dependable service revenue with cloud-based innovation, NAPCO continues to turn recurring revenue into its primary engine for predictable, high-margin growth.
Build Systems That Scale Beyond You
The overiew: Most owners think growth comes from hiring more people or selling harder. In reality, it comes from building systems that scale beyond the owner. A connected CRM, billing, and service stack turns chaos into predictable growth and makes your company more valuable to a future buyer.
The details: Many owners still run their companies from memory. Prices, customer notes, and job histories live in their heads or on spreadsheets. That approach works for a small shop, but it caps growth and drives burnout. The fix is building systems that are bigger than you.
Your CRM should be the backbone of that system. Every call, invoice, and customer interaction should live there. When your billing, field service, and communication tools connect, you finally get a complete customer view. Every team member knows the status of the account before picking up the phone. That eliminates blind spots, prevents repeated mistakes, and gives the customer a consistent experience.
Before connecting systems, our sales reps often walked into meetings without knowing a customer had a billing issue. After integration, they could open a record, see the issue, and start the meeting with an update. That one change built trust and improved retention.
Connected technology also creates visibility inside the business. When CRM and billing are linked, you can see your top 100 customers, your highest-margin jobs, and which accounts are ready for cross-sell or follow-up. It stops your team from guessing and lets you lead with data instead of gut feel.
Buyers notice this too. A business with integrated systems and reliable data is worth more because it runs without key-person risk. When you can prove that your revenue and operations flow through repeatable processes, not personal relationships, your company becomes a true asset.
How to start:
Pick a CRM that integrates with your billing and field service tools. Do not chase perfect. Just start.
Load your top customers and connect your email, phone, and web forms so leads and communication flow automatically.
Train your team to live inside the system and review the data weekly to spot gaps and opportunities.
Keep improving. Replace tools when needed and refine automations as you grow.
Why it matters: Systems that outgrow you unlock predictable growth. They give your team structure, your customers a better experience, and your business real enterprise value. Once your systems scale beyond you, your company finally can too.
That’s all for today, but before you leave…
Disclosure: Some of the content and links in this newsletter are sponsored or affiliate links, which means we may receive payment or earn a commission if you click through or purchase. However, all opinions expressed are entirely my own.
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