Having a Security Business is Like Being a New Father

I am proud to say that I recently became a first time father to a beautiful baby girl. In between cat naps and changing diapers I started to recognize a certain level of fatigue and lack of control that somehow felt familiar.  It suddenly occurred to me, that I was feeling a lot like I did when I first started my security business.  All of a sudden I could see all the parallels between these two major events in my life. If you don’t get the comparison, try these on for size:

  1. Just when you think you’ve got the baby figured out, you learn otherwise.  I remember when I first thought I’d figured out exactly what customers wanted, or what made security officers tick.  But then reality punched me in the mouth and I found out that I was actually pretty clueless.
  2. You think that you’re in control at first, but it’s the baby that’s REALLY in control.  At some point I thought that I was in control of our company’s destiny.  Then I realized that it was the officers and customers who were really in control.
  3. You will never cease being amazed at what your baby does. That was same reaction that I had to some of the things customers wanted “So Mr. Customer you want all officers to have 80 hours of training per year, be ex-militay or police, and have a bachelors degree…all for a $12/hour billing rate…amazing”
  4. There’s no such thing as taking time off when you’re a new father.  If you have a security business then you know that it takes a LONG time before you can really have any time off. I remember being on the beach after my wedding and checking voicemails hoping that the office hadn’t burned down.
  5. It’s A LOT of hard work in the beginning. When you’re just getting going you put in a lot of work for very little reward, other than the satisfaction of knowing/hoping that it will pay off in the end.
  6. You never know what it’s like being a new father until you are one.  No matter how much you read and talk to people who have owned a security business, you will never know what it’s like until you’ve hired security officers and have posts to fill.
  7. It will get better. At least that’s what people keep telling me…and what you have to tell yourself everyday about your security business.
  8. You will take all the help you can get. In the beginning you will take all the help you can and your family and friends are eager to offer.  But in the long run you know that once everyone is gone you have to be able to manage on your own.
  9. No one ever told you how hard it would be. In addition to never really being ready for the experience, no one ever adequately tells you just how hard it is.
  10. No one ever told you how rewarding it would be.  Although it is one of the hardest things that you will ever do, you just don’t realize how much joy you will get out of it.

If you found this post entertaining, which I hope you did, check out our blog Having A Security Guard Company Is Just Like Dating.  Thanks for taking the time to read this blog and please feel free to share your analogies between being a new father and owning a security business in the comments section below.

 

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By Courtney Sparkman

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