KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE
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No need for contracts because not looking for customers

May 22, 2020
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No need for contracts because not looking for customers   
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Ken
            I’ve been in this industry for over 40 years. The last 20 in my own business.  
            My plan was not to amass hundreds or thousands of accounts.  Most of my work is subcontract for a couple of dealers. I don’t have enough customers to make it worthwhile purchasing new contracts for the amount of monitored accounts that I have.
Name withheld
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Response
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            That's quite the business plan, though I am sorry you achieved your goal.  With few exceptions, if you're in the alarm business then your goal should be to amass thousands of accounts, all of whom are under written contract requiring RMR.  
            I'm not sure what I would say to a young lawyer who explained to me that his goal was to do work for other lawyers, not look for his own clients, not develop a practice and earn paycheck to paycheck.  I suppose everyone is entitled to have their own dreams and aspirations, and seek what is important to them.  But if you're not in the right business if you're not accumulating accounts and increasing RMR, which is the only way to build equity in your business; something to sell one day.
            Of course you can make a good living doing subcontracting work.  I encourage it.  Subcontracting is the largest category on The Alarm Exchange.  Consider the difficulty you will encounter when you try to sell your subcontracting business.  That business is most likely job to job, certainly cancelable any time, and worse, based on your personal relationship with the referring contractor.  That's going to be a hard sell to a potential buyer of your business.  Maybe you can get a cut of the revenue for a while, but usually subcontracting is not as lucrative as contracting the work directly from the subscriber.
            So what comes first, the cart or the horse?  You don't have your own customers, so you don't need your own contracts.  You don't have any contracts so you're not ready if you do get a customer; you end up doing the job without a contract.   You don't get your alarm license after you get your first customer.  You don't get your insurance after you complete a few jobs.  When you go into business there are certain start-up costs that simply can't be avoided.  In the alarm business [and I include all forms of security, cameras and fire in that term] your contracts are the most important asset you have, and without your contracts you will find it hard if not impossible to 
  *  ​1) find a reputable Monitoring Center to monitor your accounts [see The Alarm Exchange for reputable Monitoring Centers - and if you central station isn't on it, switch to one that is], 
  *  2) get E&O insurance coverage for an affordable rate from a reputable insurance company
  *  3) finance your accounts
  *  4) accumulate equity
  *  5) sell your business or accounts
            Before you decide it's not worthwhile to get contracts or update your current contracts, think again, it's not too late, until it is.
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Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum PC
Attorneys at Law
200 Garden City Plaza
Garden City, NY 11530
516 747 6700 x 301
ken@kirschenbaumesq.com
www.KirschenbaumEsq.com