Does Your Security Business Have A Plan B

Awe shucks it was pretty  hard to watch playoff football this past week when your team is not in the playoff picture, and my team being the New England Patriots, it’s tough that we had a 11-5 record, but that still wasn’t good enuff for a playoff berth, close but no cigar…

I wrote a “Tuesday Smack Down” about 17 weeks ago titled “What’s Your Plan B”, and this pearl of wisdom was written after our boy wonder Q.B. Tom Brady went down with a massive knee injury. I questioned what Head Coach Bill Belichick would do, now that one of the major components to the Patriots Dynasty was gone for the rest of the season, and I might ad, they lost 14 cogs (starters) which are integral parts to the machine during the season as well.

In retrospect is looks like Coach Belichick had a rock solid back up “Plan B” all long, stashed in his back pocket, in case there was a disaster with one player or several players going down for the season. How many times have we seen a football team lose one of the key players at the beginning of the season and that football team went in to the tank for the rest of the season. All the Big Wigs (coaches and general managers) around the NFL said this was Belichick’s most defining moment as a head coach, losing your star Q.B., and having to insert a backup Q.B. into the Patriots offense who hadn’t started a game since high school, plus losing 14 starters during the course of the season and ending the year 11-5 when everyone thought they should end the season 5-11. It was nothing short of an amazing display of leadership and having a “Plan B” ready to go, and implementing  his “Plan B” instead of just winging it.

What the heck does the New England Patriots and Coach Belichick have to do with running your security business??? they have everything you want to model your business after.

For one the thing Belichick believes in the “Power of One”   philosophy, not relying on one (1) Q.B. or one (1) safety, or one (1) assistant coach to do the job. The Patriots  always train and cross-train there football players to play and learn multiple positions, so Coach Belichick isn’t reliant on any one player or assistant coach to do the job. His success is based on the continuity of his system that he developed for training and developing football players and assistant coaches. No one person or persons can hold Belichick over the barrel, his business which is football is not inextricably dependent one any one person. Coach Belichick has Plan A, B, C, D, E, F, ready to pull out of his desk to meet whatever disaster he needs to deal with.

If you own your Security Business/Low Voltage Installation Company YOU ARE the Head Coach, no one else…. The bucks STOP’S with you…. Don’t be co-dependent on a technician or a sales rep, or office staff person, (There are 12 Steps programs out there for Codependency if you have those issues.) make damn sure you have back-up plans in place to avert coup d’ etate in your regime, make sure everyone has been cross trained  in every ones job description, never let ONE person have all the knowledge, spread the knowledge base out  across multiple players. Remember it’s your business run it with an iron fist, but also a caring and fair hand, and people will respect you more then ever…

How about this…..If you were to lose a couple of your key people in your organization would your peers say it was your defining moment how quickly you were able to replace your key people and that your company went on have your best year ever…. Or would people be commenting on how much Maalox you’ve been drinking lately, and how old & tired you look?  Always have a “Plan B” in place .

Have a great and Prosperous 2009… Now kick butt and go make some money!!!

P.S. -  I included “What’s Your Plan B”, cuz we received a boatload of  positive comments on that “Smack Down”, so I’m sharing it again cuz we have many more new subscribers to “Tuesday Smack Down” so I want to make sure that the newbies embed my philosophy in there  hard drives.

P.S.S. – Be on the look for some very important WEB 2.0 strategies that the “Security Marketing Guru” will be implementing in our website that you should be aware of in 2009. You’ll hear & see a new form of Rock & Roll for web site marketing that you were not even aware existed… So pay close attention and listen up!!!

(from 9-8-08)
What’s Your Plan B…?

I had a couple of my bud’s (Rich Donohgue & Jim Convery) over my house to have do a little grilling on the Barbie and watch the start of the New England Patriots 2008 football season on Sunday. We were all sitting laughing and joking before the game talking about how the Pat’s would be kicking butt this year, and going to another Super Bowl. A little over 7 minutes in to that game the Kansas City Chiefs put an end to our dreams of another Super Bowl trip, by taking down Tom Brady on a freak play.

I immediately jumped up and said what’s Coach’s Belichick Plan “B” now that Tom Brady is gone for the season, of course the answer is backup quarterback Matt Cassel who they have been grooming for the last 4yrs in case anything happen to Tom Brady. We’ll see what Matt Cassel can do this year for New England,  but at least Belichick has a back up plan.

Does your security company have a “PLAN B” on file in case you lose your #1 technician either to a long term  injury or to another job offering, how about if you #1 sales rep jump ships and goes to a competitors of yours, how quickly can you act to get yourself back in the ballgame…? Every security company should have a Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C just for that worst case scenario to happen case. So in the event something does goes  wrong in your business you’ll be one of the lucky ones who’s not caught with your pants down (and thats really not a pretty sight).

If you have your Plan B in place you won’t have to worry if your Tom Brady goes down because you have all ready planned for it.

So here to another great NFL season!